Latest Update (20Mar 2026) on Nvidia Spark FE caps GPU performance

Accelerated Computing DGX Spark / GB10 User Forum DGX Spark / GB10
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1

Dear Spark Community and Nvidia Team,

The latest update for the Nvidia dgx spark Founders Edition which brings Linux to
6.17.0-1014 (ubuntu 24.04.4)
and the GPU driver to
580.142
lowers the performance drastically. Running a training workflow, which I ran before, I see a performance drop over roughly 50%.
From usually around 2400MHz at 96% GPU utilisation, performance went down to 750MHz at 96% GPU utilisation.
No other updates being done, I only installed the usual system update via the dashboard.
I would like to ask if anyone else can confirm this or has similar experience.

Thanks for having a look :)

2

Unplug the USB-C from the Spark, wait a bit, and replug it and try again. If that doesn’t resolve it, do the same, but also unplug the power brick from the wall as well. You’re hitting what we think is a PD issue.

I have a super simple utility you can plug into a script if you need to automate detection of this bad state: GitHub - hoesing/spark-gpu-throttle-check: Test to see if a DGX Spark (or similar GB10 device) is throttling due to possible Power Delivery issues · GitHub

3

Thanks! I never would have thought that his would be the reason. But it worked. Also thanks for the script - I’ll keep that close :)

GPU Frequencies are now slightly higher than before the update - noticing a slight performance increase in my test setup of roughly 2-5%

4

Does anyone understand the cause of this, and whether nvidia are working on a fix? How often are people having to do this?

5

As far as I know, this should be a one-time thing due to a firmware update relating to USB PD.

Of course, if they update this particular firmware again, it might be needed again. Since USB PD involves charger and device communication to negotiate optimal settings, disconnecting the charger from the power also resets the controller in the charger. It seems that was needed in this case.

6

I would try unplugging the power-supply from the wall for minimum of 5 minutes, not only from your spark. And to be safe, do both… That helped me get back to normal GPU speeds. I’d curious if it would help you too.

7

That’s what I did. Unplugged the charger from the socket, waited half a minute, plugged it in again. Reboot took a bit longer than it usually would. No idea if that’s coincidence or if it is related to the above mentioned device communication. After that GPU speed was back to normal.

8

It’s not a one time thing in my experience. I can leave a Spark idling in a good state and still have this pop up as an issue. I really wish there was a consistent repro for this one, but I personally haven’t hit one yet.

9

If this keeps coming back, then to me it seems this is a ‘defective’ unit and a (warranty?) issue Nvidia needs to resolve.

Anyway, I have two Asus GX10 units and I haven’t seen this issue (hope it stays like that). Perhaps they do have the same PSUs as the Nvidia units though. Mine are Delta PSUs with model number ‘ADP-240BK BA’.