Let me try to explain it again. I am going to make up a bunch of values for this example because I can't be bothered to take the time to find real numbers. But the example is still completely applicable to your situation.
'PerfCap' means Performance Cap. 'PerfCap Reason' means the reason why the MHz are where they are and not going higher.
Let's say that you own a GTSRX 990 Sti Uber edition card and have Windows 11 installed on your computer. Let's say that your GTSRX runs at 500 MHz 2D (low load) clock anr 1500 MHz 3D (nominal high load) clock. Let's say that Windows 11 uses 50% load on the desktop and that the game you play uses 99% load. Let's say that the video card normally uses 1.0v at 1500 MHz (nominal high load in game).
Ok, so, when not playing a game (or when playing a different game which has very low load), the video card will run at 500 MHz and the PerfCap reason will be GPU Utilization (not enough load so no point in going faster).
Let's say that NVIDIA determined that the card should stay under 80c to last longer. So, on a hot day, the PerfCap reason would be Temperature Limit (don't boost higher because we want to keep from overheating the card).
Let's say that NVIDIA determined that the card should stay below 1.1v in order to last longer. When the card reaches 1.1v before hittint any other PerfCap, the reason will be Reliability Voltage (can't go higher without exceeding comfortable voltage).
Let's say that you decide to push the card to the limit and don't care about reliability voltage. You adjust the voltage up in Precision. Let's say that NVIDIA set a hardware limitation at 1.15v so that it was not possible to go higher than 1.15v using software. When you push up to 1.15v before hitting any other PerfCap reason (reliability voltage perfcap reason ignored by you choosing to override it) the PerfCap reason will be Max Voltage when it hits 1.15v.
Let's say that the card is only rated for 300w due to th3 card's electrical connections. When the card hits 300W without hitting any other PerfCap reason, the PerfCap reason will be Power Limit.
Do you understand now? There are a variety of parameters which the card is programmed to operate within. The first parameter it reaches will be the PerfCap reason displayed. Depending on the temperature and application, the first PerfCap reason parameter to be reached, will be different from day to day and application to application.
The PerfCap Reason is not an error message. It is not a warning message. It is for information only. One PerfCap reason is not better or worse than another reason. The only reason it is there is so you can figure out why one game runs at 1000 MHz and another game runs at 1200 MHz. Or why a game runs at 1200 MHz one day but runs at 1100 MHz on another hotter day. Don't be alarmed and don't worry about it.
post edited by ty_ger07 - 2014/08/16 13:00:27