I'm using two 1440p monitors with an RX 7900 XT. The primary 27-inch display runs at 165 Hz, while the secondary 32-inch display runs at 60 Hz, with 75 Hz being its maximum. Most of the videos I watch are 1080p.
When I play video on the main monitor—even two videos at once—the GPU temperature stays around 40°C. However, playing a video on the secondary monitor raises the temperature to roughly 60–70°C, even when nothing else is happening on the main display. Is that temperature normal, and is there anything I can change to reduce it?
3 Answers
60–70°C is a perfectly normal temperature for an RX 7900 XT, especially if the card is increasing its clocks or power use to handle video playback, display composition, HDR, or other processing. Check GPU utilization, clock speeds, and power draw in AMD Adrenalin while the video is playing. If video decoding is active, that can explain the extra activity without indicating a problem.
The different refresh rates may be preventing the GPU from entering a low-power state. Try testing a simpler combination, such as 120 Hz on the primary monitor and 60 Hz on the secondary, then compare the temperature and idle clocks. Also check whether hardware acceleration, HDR, or enhanced video features are enabled in the browser or media player.
Variable refresh rate can also affect behavior with multiple displays. Since FreeSync is enabled only on the main monitor and VRR is disabled on the secondary, test both monitors with adaptive sync disabled first. If that lowers the clocks and temperature, you can re-enable the settings one at a time to find which option causes the increase.
The main display has FreeSync, but the secondary only offers VRR and it’s currently off. I’ll test with adaptive sync disabled on both, then compare the results.
I’m using an RX 7900 XT rather than an Nvidia card. Is there a specific video-upscaling setting in AMD Adrenalin that I should check?