DLSS 5 + Undervolting: Keep Your GPU’s Power Consumption Under Control

I'm mainly posting this for people who don't have much experience with undervolting. I assume most people here already have their GPUs undervolted, but I thought this might be useful in case someone comes across this thread in the future.

For context, I'm using an RTX 4090.

I've seen a lot of people saying that DLSS 5 uses a lot of power and can potentially cause the 12VHPWR cable on our GPUs to melt (which is true), but undervolting can actually allow you to use DLSS 5 while keeping power consumption roughly the same as running without DLSS 5 and without an undervolt.

In these two screenshots (both using MFG x4, one without DLSS 5 and the other with DLSS 5), we're at around 390 W in both cases.

I also took a few screenshots if anyone is interested:

DLSS 5 OFF / ON
MFG OFF / ON (x4)
RTX 4090 with and without undervolting

# 1. DLSS 5 OFF (MFG x4)

Without undervolting:

With undervolting:

# 2. DLSS 5 ON (MFG x4)

Without undervolting:

With undervolting:

# 3. DLSS 5 ON (MFG OFF)

Without undervolting:

With undervolting:

So, in terms of performance, the results are very similar, while undervolting gives you an average power reduction of around 50 W. You can see the power consumption in the top-right corner under the GPU section.

This means that even with DLSS 5 enabled, you can stay below the 400 W mark. Without undervolting, DLSS 5 pushes power consumption to around 435 W.

Here are my MSI Afterburner settings if anyone is interested. I've been running these settings since 2022, and they've been extremely stable. I've never had any issues with them. Hopefully this isn't too messy. I did my best to make it as clear as possible