Discord for Windows is affecting the performance of your graphics card
Currently, Discord is widely used by users for being an extremely powerful chat tool. The application of Discord for Windows affects the performance of the NVIDIA graphics cards. As a few users have discovered, when the application is running the frequency of work of the VRAM is reduced by 200 MHz.
The Discord social network is very important for video game fans and also in other areas. It is quite common among streamers and content creators to generate a community within this social network. But, it seems that there is a conflict between the Windows application and the NVIDIA graphics.
This is the issue affecting NVIDIA and Discord
Discord can be accessed through a browser and also has a native application for Windows. But, it seems that using the Windows tool causes a performance loss on NVIDA graphics cards. Apparently, there is a conflict between the two elements that reduces the VRAM frequency by 200 MHz.
NVIDIA adjusts the frequency of the VRAM (and the GPU) according to the demand at that moment. If we are browsing, the work frequencies will be lower than when we play, since the demand for resources is very different.
When we run a game, it is normal for the frequencies of the VRAM and GPU, as well as the processor, to be close to the established maximum. If, on the contrary, we are browsing or viewing content, it is normal for them to work at low frequencies.
Several users have run monitoring software and have seen that discord in background affects VRAM frequency. Apparently, it reduces by 200 MHz the NVIDIA graphics memory frequency.
The curious thing is that this event occurs also in furmark, a software designed to push the limits of the graphics card. This software is thought-out to get to maximum frequencies of the GPU and VRAM. But, even running the Furmark software, the VRAM frequency is still at this 200 MHz cutoff.
Do you have any solution to this problem?
From NVIDIA they have taken note of this problem and have announced that they are working on a solution. They have highlighted that a future update of the GeForce drivers will correct this bug.
As at the moment there is no solution, at NVIDIA they have given an alternative that could correct the problem. It is recommended to download the GeForce 3D Profile Manager utility. Within the tool we can “Export SLI profiles” even if we only have a graphics card.
We can edit the SLI profiles file by exporting the document as plain text and re-importing it. This process modifies the way the controller behaves with Discord when running in the background.
It is curious, to say the least, that this small problem can be corrected in such an exotic way, to put it in some way. But actually, we’re talking about 200 MHz of graphics card VRAM, which isn’t something that ends up affecting performance excessively. In addition, as NVIDIA has commented, this will be corrected in future updates.
