Discord is slowing down some Nvidia graphics cards

Discord is slowing down graphics card memory clocks on some Nvidia GPUs. A recent Discord update has introduced a bug that slows down memory clocks by up to 200Hz on some Nvidia models, including the RTX 3080 and RTX 3060 Ti. Nvidia says it’s working on a fix.

Reddit users and Linus Tech Tips forum posters spotted the bug, and Nvidia was quick to acknowledge the problem and offer a temporary workaround. If you notice your memory clocks are dropping by up to 200Hz, you can download a GeForce 3D profile manager and apply a fix early. The full details are available in an Nvidia support article, but if you’re willing to wait, Nvidia says a fix will be sent to users’ PCs “via an over the air update at a later date.”

Discord recently started rolling out an update that enables AV1 streaming with GeForce RTX 40-series cards. This update appears to have introduced the memory clock issues on some RTX 30-series cards, but Reddit users with RTX 40-series cards haven’t experienced the same slowdowns.

The Discord update started rolling out last week, allowing RTX 40-series owners to stream with AV1 at up to 4K and 60fps with Discord Nitro at 8Mbps. Discord users that don’t have a GPU capable of decoding AV1 will see an H.264 stream, as Discord uses P2P streaming and will automatically switch over to H.264 so everyone watching your stream can see it.