# manually change performance level

**URL:** <https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623>\
**Category:** Linux\
**Created:** [May 30, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623 "2019-05-30T06:26:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alexxx.magni](https://developer.download.nvidia.com/images/forums/profile-default-devtalk-84.png) [@alexxx.magni](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/alexxx.magni)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623/1 "2019-05-30T06:26:41Z")

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I know it’s perhaps an unusual problem…  
I have a GeForce GTX 1070 on a PC running Linux (Fedora).  
We use it primarily for computations, and sometimes I’d like to degrade the performance a bit, not to hear the continuous whirring of the fan (the PC sits at centimeters from me in my office)…  
I tried nvidia-smi and there is nothing there. Under Nvidia X Server Settings, in Powermizer, I find 4 performance levels with different clocks, but there is no way to manually switch them.  
Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![birdie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/nvidia/user_avatar/forums.developer.nvidia.com/birdie/32/10073_2.png) [@birdie](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/birdie)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 9:23am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623/2 "2019-05-30T09:23:37Z")

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AFAIK it’s not possible.

You can at least try to downclock your card.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexxx.magni](https://developer.download.nvidia.com/images/forums/profile-default-devtalk-84.png) [@alexxx.magni](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/alexxx.magni)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 10:05am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623/3 "2019-05-30T10:05:20Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> AFAIK it’s not possible.
> 
> You can at least try to downclock your card.

I could try it, if you can send me in the right direction: how do I do it?

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**Author:** ![generix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/nvidia/user_avatar/forums.developer.nvidia.com/generix/32/16024_2.png) [@generix](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/generix)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623/4 "2019-05-30T21:00:39Z")

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Downclocking doesn’t yield much. You could limit the max perf level using a module parameter like

```auto
options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="OverrideMaxPerf=0x3"

```

but this would require a reboot to take effect.  
On-demand clock setting / perf limiting is a feature mostly reserved for Quadro type gpus. You could check nvidia-smi -q -d SUPPORTED\_CLOCKS if your GeForce type card supports setting different application clocks. But this is very unlikely.

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**Author:** ![nadeemm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/nvidia/user_avatar/forums.developer.nvidia.com/nadeemm/32/367020_2.png) [@nadeemm](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/nadeemm)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/manually-change-performance-level/75623/5 "2021-10-12T18:58:39Z")

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Closed on October 12, 2021, 6:58pm UTC