I’ve installed an old Maxwell Quadro M2000M (MXM) and to my surprise the GPU clock never goes above 405 MHz.
$ nvidia-smi -q
==============NVSMI LOG==============
Timestamp : Tue Jun 11 20:53:12 2024
Driver Version : 550.78
CUDA Version : 12.4
Attached GPUs : 1
GPU 00000000:01:00.0
Product Name : Quadro M2000M
Product Brand : Quadro
Product Architecture : Maxwell
Display Mode : Enabled
Display Active : Enabled
Persistence Mode : Enabled
Addressing Mode : N/A
MIG Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
Accounting Mode : Disabled
Accounting Mode Buffer Size : 4000
Driver Model
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
Serial Number : N/A
GPU UUID : GPU-d8740058-fdf5-d397-047c-9fcef27c658c
Minor Number : 0
VBIOS Version : 82.07.9E.00.0B
MultiGPU Board : No
Board ID : 0x100
Board Part Number : N/A
GPU Part Number : 13B0-975-A2
FRU Part Number : N/A
Module ID : 1
Inforom Version
Image Version : N/A
OEM Object : N/A
ECC Object : N/A
Power Management Object : N/A
Inforom BBX Object Flush
Latest Timestamp : N/A
Latest Duration : N/A
GPU Operation Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
GPU C2C Mode : N/A
GPU Virtualization Mode
Virtualization Mode : None
Host VGPU Mode : N/A
vGPU Heterogeneous Mode : N/A
GPU Reset Status
Reset Required : N/A
Drain and Reset Recommended : N/A
GSP Firmware Version : N/A
IBMNPU
Relaxed Ordering Mode : N/A
PCI
Bus : 0x01
Device : 0x00
Domain : 0x0000
Base Classcode : 0x3
Sub Classcode : 0x0
Device Id : 0x13B010DE
Bus Id : 00000000:01:00.0
Sub System Id : 0x06D91028
GPU Link Info
PCIe Generation
Max : 2
Current : 2
Device Current : 2
Device Max : 3
Host Max : 2
Link Width
Max : 16x
Current : 16x
Bridge Chip
Type : N/A
Firmware : N/A
Replays Since Reset : 0
Replay Number Rollovers : 0
Tx Throughput : 0 KB/s
Rx Throughput : 5 KB/s
Atomic Caps Inbound : N/A
Atomic Caps Outbound : N/A
Fan Speed : N/A
Performance State : P5
Clocks Event Reasons
Idle : Not Active
Applications Clocks Setting : Not Active
SW Power Cap : Not Active
HW Slowdown : Not Active
HW Thermal Slowdown : N/A
HW Power Brake Slowdown : N/A
Sync Boost : Not Active
SW Thermal Slowdown : Not Active
Display Clock Setting : Not Active
Sparse Operation Mode : N/A
FB Memory Usage
Total : 4096 MiB
Reserved : 84 MiB
Used : 492 MiB
Free : 3522 MiB
BAR1 Memory Usage
Total : 256 MiB
Used : 41 MiB
Free : 215 MiB
Conf Compute Protected Memory Usage
Total : 0 MiB
Used : 0 MiB
Free : 0 MiB
Compute Mode : Default
Utilization
Gpu : 1 %
Memory : 4 %
Encoder : 0 %
Decoder : 0 %
JPEG : N/A
OFA : N/A
Encoder Stats
Active Sessions : 0
Average FPS : 0
Average Latency : 0
FBC Stats
Active Sessions : 0
Average FPS : 0
Average Latency : 0
ECC Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
ECC Errors
Volatile
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Aggregate
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Retired Pages
Single Bit ECC : N/A
Double Bit ECC : N/A
Pending Page Blacklist : N/A
Remapped Rows : N/A
Temperature
GPU Current Temp : 45 C
GPU T.Limit Temp : N/A
GPU Shutdown Temp : 101 C
GPU Slowdown Temp : 96 C
GPU Max Operating Temp : N/A
GPU Target Temperature : 92 C
Memory Current Temp : N/A
Memory Max Operating Temp : N/A
GPU Power Readings
Power Draw : N/A
Current Power Limit : 200.00 W
Requested Power Limit : 200.00 W
Default Power Limit : 200.00 W
Min Power Limit : 0.00 W
Max Power Limit : 200.00 W
GPU Memory Power Readings
Power Draw : N/A
Module Power Readings
Power Draw : N/A
Current Power Limit : N/A
Requested Power Limit : N/A
Default Power Limit : N/A
Min Power Limit : N/A
Max Power Limit : N/A
Clocks
Graphics : 405 MHz
SM : 405 MHz
Memory : 800 MHz
Video : 405 MHz
Applications Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Memory : N/A
Default Applications Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Memory : N/A
Deferred Clocks
Memory : N/A
Max Clocks
Graphics : 1346 MHz
SM : 1346 MHz
Memory : 2505 MHz
Video : 1211 MHz
Max Customer Boost Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Clock Policy
Auto Boost : N/A
Auto Boost Default : N/A
Voltage
Graphics : N/A
Fabric
State : N/A
Status : N/A
CliqueId : N/A
ClusterUUID : N/A
Health
Bandwidth : N/A
Processes
GPU instance ID : N/A
Compute instance ID : N/A
Process ID : 2008
Type : G
Name : /usr/libexec/Xorg
Used GPU Memory : 90 MiB
GPU instance ID : N/A
Compute instance ID : N/A
Process ID : 2274
Type : G
Name : /usr/bin/gnome-shell
Used GPU Memory : 135 MiB
GPU instance ID : N/A
Compute instance ID : N/A
Process ID : 3760
Type : G
Name : /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox
Used GPU Memory : 195 MiB
GPU instance ID : N/A
Compute instance ID : N/A
Process ID : 4607
Type : G
Name : /usr/bin/nvidia-settings
Used GPU Memory : 0 MiB
To try our I’ve run the Unigine Valley-1.0 benchmark, and scored a mere 680 (with standard/medium setting). On the bright side, the GPU temperature was a chilling 45C the all time.
I’ve tried older drivers as low as 390 drivers, with similar issue. the card never goes above P5
$ nvidia-smi -q -d PERFORMANCE
==============NVSMI LOG==============
Timestamp : Tue Jun 11 20:44:45 2024
Driver Version : 550.78
CUDA Version : 12.4
Attached GPUs : 1
GPU 00000000:01:00.0
Performance State : P5
Clocks Event Reasons
Idle : Not Active
Applications Clocks Setting : Not Active
SW Power Cap : Not Active
HW Slowdown : Not Active
HW Thermal Slowdown : N/A
HW Power Brake Slowdown : N/A
Sync Boost : Not Active
SW Thermal Slowdown : Not Active
Display Clock Setting : Not Active
Sparse Operation Mode : N/A
Just for curiosity, I’ve removed the nvidia binary and tested the same benchmark with the opensource driver, where I can manually change the performance profile.
Well I got a staggering score of 1500 (with reasonable temperatures around 65C), however the detected GPU RAM was only 1 out of 4Gb, and overall is lacking vulkan support.
So I’d still prefer to run the nvidia 550, given the broken state of the nouveau right now, but I really would like to boost the performance of the card (it’s for light gaming and CAD processing).
I’ve also tried the benchmark on windows (dual boot), where the GPU clock is actually able to reach1346 MHz, but the overall score was around 1200, still a tiny less than the one from the opensource driver. To be fail, the computer is much more sluggish in windows (i5-2500S CPU), so that could be the reason of the poor performance
What can I change to try to make it better?