Hardware acceleration causes GPU to downclock while mining with NiceHash QuickMiner

Steps to reproduce

  1. Launch NiceHash QuickMiner
  2. Open Obsidian with hardware acceleration turned on
  3. Start using Obsidian, click tabs, open some notes, etc.

Expected result

I expect the GPU to continue running on its boost frequency.

Actual result

The graphics card downclocks to the lowest clock state.

Environment

  • Operating system:
    Windows 10 Home 21H1
    Build 19043.1348
  • Obsidian version:
    v0.12.19
  • QuickMiner version:
    v0.5.2.0 Stable
    Excavator v1.7.3b (but also were happening with the previous version)
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, driver version:
    496.49 (the issue persists from an older version as well)

Additional information

The clocks don’t drop instantly, but usually after some interaction with Obsidian. GPU-Z PerfCap Reason shows - Idle.
To me it looks like at some point in the rendering pipeline Obsidian is being considered a GPU demanding or game-like app, and for some reason the graphics card decides its clocks based on Obsidian’s GPU utilization. Turning off hardware acceleration immediately solves the problem and allows the card to boost again.
I’ve tried running games alongside both Obsidian and QucikMiner and they seem to have a “higher priority” for the GPU over Obsidian, so even if I manually limit the framerate the left-out resources are being “consumed” by QuickMiner without dropping clocks, which is not the case when there’s only Obsidian and QuickMiner running.

I am sorry but I don’t think we are going to do anything about this.