Quick clocks question.

[Spankbot-5000]

After being a longtime ATI user, I just switched to Nvidia partly to get a top of the line card, and partly because I'm getting fed up with ATI's habit of screwing things up on a regular basis.

Anyway, after getting my GTX 580 installed, I'm curious about the stock clock speeds. With ATI, outside of games, the card downclocked itself to reduce heat output and energy consumption. So far with the GTX, it seems like the clocks stay at full power all the time, with only the fan ramping up or down depending on need. Is this normal behaviour for Nvidia cards, or should it similarly be underclocking itself outside of 3D applications? I know I can set up custom clocks speeds and all that, I'm just curious what the cards standard behaviour should be.

 

[Spankbot-5000]

Someone mentioned on another site that throttling should be in fact working. I went into Device Manager, and for whatever reason there was a standard VGA Adapter installed alongside the 580 GTX, as well as some hidden older Monitor profiles. Uninstalled those, rebooted, and now things are throttling properly.

Still, even when the clocks were at full speed, and the fan was only running at 30%, the idle temps never crept above 40C. This Twin Frozr III cooler on the MSI is the bomb. Most cards running at full clock speed with the fan only at 30% would be getting mighty toasty.