I have 3090 FTW3 Ultra and find my GPU is stuck at 1800 and mem stuck at 9752 all the time when at the desktop idle.  I did find that once it dropped and I don't know what let it do that (went down to somewhere in area of 200 to 400 mhz for both).   but after reboots, reinstall drivers, killing all apps.. it still seems to be stuck on max speed.
 
any suggestions?  anyone else with similar issues?  I'm guessing it's just a driver issue.

stefanhondasi
Why would be a driver problem? 3090 and 3080 FE have 0 problems. It’s more cheap parts to charge more problem.....

May I suggest you read through https://forums.evga.com/Nvidia-GeForce-45638-Released-m3081850.aspx - you might find out for yourself.

arestavoYou could try the Studio version of the drivers. There was a guy who had all sorts of issues with the game ready drivers on his 3090 FTW3, and no issue with the Studio version.

 
well now, that did it!  after install it nows runs 210mhz GPU and 405mhz MEM.
 
I'll do some reboots, bring back my disabled stuff and test these out to see if it sticks!
 
great suggestion, thanks... more that it points to the Game Ready drivers are not actually ready.

MDG73 What windows power profile are you using? The balanced will allow the card to clock down the high performance will keep it locked. 

 
I run a balanced, but I do force on in Nvidia Control Panel 3D settings to "Prefer Maximum Performance"  otherwise there's all hell of issues with Nvidia cards. (unstable performance, windows WMI maxing out a CPU core, etc...   
 
After my clean install of the Studio drivers I went into control panel & set to max again and the gpu is staying low at idle.
 

the_Scarlet_one If you are running max performance, the clocks will stay at max.

they actually don't, "prefer maximum performance" has no effect on clock speeds. it's just the power profile.  now that it's working it's set to Max and it clocks drop.   It's the Game Ready drivers that are the issue... I'm finding almost nothing works right at the moment... but I'm OK knowing it's first driver version and new technology so I'll give it time.

Sharing some updates - it's still an issue and I don't know why.. randomly gets stuck at max even with zero workload.  tried flipping drivers again between studio and game ready, killed everything, even powered down system and disconnected power for 30 minutes... when I come back, still locked on 100%.
 
I've been trying to trouble shoot it and It has to be a firmware issue because I see it happening even when I'm not in the OS, just sitting at bios menu.  heat builds and builds too and it doesn't cause the fans to kick in.  the fact it's persistent through power cycles and without OS points to it being firmware issue.

I noticed this issue immediately when upgrading from my 2080 to 3080 XC3 Ultra. The extra power draw at idle is pretty sub-optimal!
 
As stated by others, the windows power profile and nvidia cpl power mode, or boost lock settings have no bearing on the issue. Hopefully this is fixed in a future driver or firmware release. IIRC this happened way back with the first few 1080 drivers so hopefully it will be addressed soon. fwiw setting a fan curve with a min of 60% brought the idle below 50c. Shouldn't have to do that though.

Double check that you're not set to max performance as a global setting in Nvidia control panel. Set it for specific profiles

Thx, I'll run one for now, but pretty certain that's not it.  it's also not actually using any GPU, 0% activity.. it's just stuck max clocking.
 
The best way I've found to get it unstuck is by doing a clean install of alternating drivers.. swap studio for Game Ready... installing the same driver does not unstick the clocks.

kring
Providing an update.  I am still regularly having this issue.  it's definitely hardware/firmware related as removing the device, hard power down does not unstick the clocks and it's not an app driving it either.  I created a support ticket a few days ago but haven't had a response from EVGA yet.  So at this point my card is stuck at factory max clocks, while it's not hitting the card hard it is increasing my temps by 12c and it's pulling 125w at what should be idle.

Hey there! I may have a solution for you, but it may not be the one you would like to use.
 
I use Nvidia Inspector and enable "Multi Display Power Saver". You can set a threshold if the GPU usage falls below a certain amount, the clocks and memory will downclock.

for clarity - nvidia control panel power setting and windows power settings have no bearing on this issue. it's also specific to the 3000 series cards.

I had this issue yesterday, mine went away with a pc restart. It was idling at 1755 on the core clock, mem clock was 9502, drawing 100w idle. Not sure what caused it

Throwing in some of my anecdotal evidence. I too saw the same locked clock at 1755MHz and 100W power on my 3080 XC3 Ultra. I was able to resolve the issues by changing Nvidia's Power management mode to "Optimal power" instead of "Prefer maximum performance". My Windows power setting is still set to "High Performance."  I also run dual monitors (one ultra wide) at 1440p and 144Hz and 100Hz respectively. The monitor tweaks (refresh rate, resolution, turning one off, etc.) did not resolve the issue.
 
After changing to "Optimal power" in Nvidia Control Panel, I'm idling around 210MHz. A restart was necessary for me in order for the change to take affect.