GK104 Dynamic Clock Adjustment Detailed

With its GeForce Kepler family, at least the higher-end parts, NVIDIA will introduce what it calls Dynamic Clock Adjustment, which adjusts the clock speeds of the GPU below, and above the base-line clock speeds, depending on the load. The approach to this would be similar to how CPU vendors do it (Intel Turbo Boost and AMD Turbo Core). Turning down clock speeds under low loads is not new to discrete GPUs, however, going above the base-line dynamically, is.

There is quite some confusion regarding NVIDIA continuing to use "hot clocks" with GK104, the theory for and against the notion have been enforced by conflicting reports, however we now know that punters with both views were looking at it from a binary viewpoint. The new Dynamic Clock Adjustment is similar and complementary to "hot clocks", but differs in that Kepler GPUs come with a large number of power plans (dozens), and operate taking into account load, temperature, and power consumption.