--- title: I finally fixed my GPU's ridiculous 40W idle power draw... description: An RTX 4070 Ti was idling at 38-40W with memory clock stuck at 1337MHz due to a dual 240Hz/144Hz monitor setup. Matching refresh rates lowered power to 33W but... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-finally-fixed-my-gpu-s-ridiculous-40w-idle-power-draw-with-this-one-setting-nobody-talks-about-6krlqtc6b twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I finally fixed my GPU's ridiculous 40W idle power draw with this one setting nobody talks about | daily.dev og:description: An RTX 4070 Ti was idling at 38-40W with memory clock stuck at 1337MHz due to a dual 240Hz/144Hz monitor setup. Matching refresh rates lowered power to 33W but... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-finally-fixed-my-gpu-s-ridiculous-40w-idle-power-draw-with-this-one-setting-nobody-talks-about-6krlqtc6b og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6KrLqtC6b.png og:image:alt: I finally fixed my GPU's ridiculous 40W idle power draw with this one setting nobody talks about og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I finally fixed my GPU's ridiculous 40W idle power draw with this one setting nobody talks about **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An RTX 4070 Ti was idling at 38-40W with memory clock stuck at 1337MHz due to a dual 240Hz/144Hz monitor setup. Matching refresh rates lowered power to 33W but didn't fully solve the issue. The real fix was enabling Reduced Blanking (CVT-RB) at 239Hz and 143Hz in Nvidia Control Panel, which dropped memory clock to 101MHz and idle power to 21.5W while keeping both displays near their full refresh rates. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does my Nvidia GPU pull 40W at idle when I have two monitors connected? Running two monitors at high, non-matching refresh rates (like 240Hz and 144Hz) can prevent the GPU memory clock from dropping to its idle state, keeping it pinned near maximum speed (around 1337MHz) and increasing idle power draw to roughly 38-40W instead of a normal low-power idle. _Track hardware tuning fixes like this on daily.dev before your GPU wastes power at idle._ ### How do I fix high idle memory clock speed on an RTX 4070 Ti with dual monitors? Enable Reduced Blanking (CVT-RB) custom resolutions in Nvidia Control Panel for each display, setting refresh rates slightly below their native max (e.g., 239Hz instead of 240Hz, 143Hz instead of 144Hz). This allowed memory clock to drop from 1337MHz to about 101MHz and cut idle power draw from around 40W down to 21.5W. _Developers tuning their own rigs can follow practical hardware fixes like this via daily.dev._ ### Does matching monitor refresh rates fix Nvidia GPU idle power issues? Matching refresh rates helps but is not a complete fix. Setting both monitors to 144Hz dropped memory clock from 1337MHz to 635MHz and idle power from 38-40W to about 33W, but the GPU still failed to reach a proper low-power idle state until Reduced Blanking timings were applied. _daily.dev surfaces real-world benchmarks like this for anyone deciding between GPU power tweaks._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I found out my GPU wasn't hitting its boost clock, and the fix was easier than I thought](https://daily.dev/posts/i-found-out-my-gpu-wasn-t-hitting-its-boost-clock-and-the-fix-was-easier-than-i-thought-wgmmlaawi) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [One GPU setting made my entire PC quieter, and it has nothing to do with the fan curve](https://daily.dev/posts/one-gpu-setting-made-my-entire-pc-quieter-and-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-fan-curve-zfplkgj7b) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I capped my GPU at 70% power, and lost almost nothing I would actually notice in a game](https://daily.dev/posts/i-capped-my-gpu-at-70-power-and-lost-almost-nothing-i-would-actually-notice-in-a-game-t2fov9fbk) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux 7.0 AMDGPU Fixing Idle Power Issue For RDNA4 GPUs After Compute Workloads](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-0-amdgpu-fixing-idle-power-issue-for-rdna4-gpus-after-compute-workloads-yuxmsqsmh) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Nvidia's RTX 50-series launch shows why the 'always wait for the next generation' rule is dead](https://daily.dev/posts/nvidia-s-rtx-50-series-launch-shows-why-the-always-wait-for-the-next-generation-rule-is-dead-jvd0tkrg4) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-finally-fixed-my-gpu-s-ridiculous-40w-idle-power-draw-with-this-one-setting-nobody-talks-about-6krlqtc6b) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I finally fixed my GPU's ridiculous 40W idle power draw with this one setting nobody talks about","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-finally-fixed-my-gpu-s-ridiculous-40w-idle-power-draw-with-this-one-setting-nobody-talks-about-6krlqtc6b","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-finally-fixed-my-gpu-s-ridiculous-40w-idle-power-draw-with-this-one-setting-nobody-talks-about-6krlqtc6b"},"datePublished":"2026-08-14T11:01:08.619Z","dateModified":"2026-08-14T11:01:43.836Z","description":"An RTX 4070 Ti was idling at 38-40W with memory clock stuck at 1337MHz due to a dual 240Hz/144Hz monitor setup. 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