penguin-burner 0.1.2

Linux NVIDIA undervolting tool with Auto-UV and MSI Afterburner import support

🐧 PenguinBurner 🔥

PenguinBurner is a Linux NVIDIA undervolting tool. The main mode is Auto-UV: PenguinBurner tests your GPU under load, finds a stable undervolt, and saves it for normal foreground or daemon runtime. MSI Afterburner import is still available as an optional fallback path.

Quick Start From PyPI

Install the published package:

python -m pip install --user --upgrade penguin-burner

Start PenguinBurner. On a clean first run, it automatically starts the foreground Auto-UV scan:

sudo penguin-burner

After Auto-UV finishes and saves a final curve, start normal daemon runtime:

sudo penguin-burner --daemonize

To include PenguinBurner's saved fan curve in daemon mode:

sudo penguin-burner --daemonize --silent-fan-curve

The package also installs pburn as a short alias:

sudo pburn --daemonize --silent-fan-curve

Auto-UV Quick Start

You do not need an MSI Afterburner profile. From a local checkout, start PenguinBurner with no arguments:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh

If no saved Auto-UV curve exists, PenguinBurner automatically starts the foreground Auto-UV scan. Keep it in the foreground while it searches; this is intentional because it is testing voltage stability.

To clear old Auto-UV results and start fresh:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --fresh-auto-uv-scan

Example Auto-UV result summary: before/after power draw, core clock, and efficiency shown after the final verification.

What Auto-UV does:

1. Reset previous GPU tuning so the scan starts from the driver/default curve.
2. Install the managed Q2RTX test workload automatically if it is missing. Q2RTX uses the freely available Quake II shareware timedemo with NVIDIA's Vulkan ray tracing renderer.
3. Measure the stock loaded behavior: clock, voltage, power, temperature, fan speed, and FPS/W.
4. Pick a safe target core clock and start lowering voltage one real V/F bin at a time.
5. Test each candidate with Q2RTX plus CUDA load.
6. If a candidate only misses the loaded-clock floor, retry that same voltage with a bounded overclock. The total overclock budget defaults to 40% of --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct; each retry spends only the measured clock shortfall plus one small clock step.
7. Accept a candidate only if it stays stable, keeps enough loaded core clock, keeps FPS within a 10% floor of the previous stable probe, and does not collapse into idle or low-load telemetry.
8. Keep scanning lower while power/efficiency still makes sense; stop when lower voltage no longer helps, a guardrail fails, or an unsafe point is reached.
9. Run a final long verification, 600s by default. If that long check fails, Auto-UV backs off to a safer voltage/curve and reruns the long verification; the final result is published only after the long verification completes.
10. Return the GPU to the driver/default curve before the foreground scan exits. The saved curve is applied later by runtime or daemon mode.

By default Auto-UV allows up to a 10% loaded GPU core clock drop while searching. To use a looser 12% clock-drop allowance:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct 12

Undervolting can hang the GPU, crash the driver, freeze the display, or force a reboot. If the system crashes during an Auto-UV probe, PenguinBurner records the in-progress voltage as unsafe on the next run and will not test that voltage or lower voltages again unless you deliberately clear Auto-UV state.

After the scan, daemonize normal runtime:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize

By default runtime applies the saved V/F curve and leaves fan control to the GPU driver. To opt into the saved Auto-UV fan curve too:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize --silent-fan-curve

Saved Auto-UV files are written under PenguinBurner's user config directory:

• final V/F curve
• suggested fan curve
• debug logs

More details: Auto-UV quick guide.

To export the saved Auto-UV V/F and fan curves as a complete Nvidia-only LACT config:

lact cli list-gpus
sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --export-lact-config lact-config.yaml \
  --lact-gpu-id "YOUR-LACT-GPU-ID"

--lact-gpu-id must be the exact GPU id shown by lact cli list-gpus on your machine. It is the key LACT uses under gpus: in /etc/lact/config.yaml, and it is not a reusable example value.

To export a validated Afterburner profile instead:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --export-lact-config lact-config.yaml \
  --lact-source afterburner \
  --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT" \
  --section Profile1 \
  --lact-gpu-id "YOUR-LACT-GPU-ID"

By default the LACT export writes only the V/F curve. Add --silent-fan-curve when you also want PenguinBurner's fan curve in the LACT config. To export only fan settings and leave LACT's V/F curve untouched:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --export-lact-config lact-fan-config.yaml \
  --fan-curve-export \
  --lact-gpu-id "YOUR-LACT-GPU-ID"

Review the file, then install it deliberately if it matches your LACT GPU id:

sudo install -m 0644 lact-config.yaml /etc/lact/config.yaml
sudo systemctl restart lactd

Example LACT result after importing PenguinBurner's saved Auto-UV curve. The active curve is the exported undervolt: lower voltage bins ramp normally, then the tuned load range flattens at the verified target clock while LACT keeps the driver's original base curve visible underneath for comparison.

If you already have a known-good MSI Afterburner profile, you can still preview/import it with:

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT"

Example dry-run preview: imported V/F target and fan curve rendered directly in the terminal before any GPU changes are applied.

PenguinBurner is experimental NVIDIA tuning software. It is intended for modern Linux NVIDIA drivers, but GPU generation and driver behavior can differ. Requires nvidia-smi in PATH for the default runtime path, including persistence mode, power-limit setup, and some Afterburner profile auto-selection. Reverse engineering, profile parsing, and import support were developed against MSI Afterburner 4.6.6.16757. Other MSI Afterburner versions are not guaranteed to work.

Runtime Requirements

• python3 must be available in PATH, 3.11+ is required
• no third-party Python packages are required; PenguinBurner uses only the Python standard library
• NVIDIA driver libraries such as libnvidia-ml.so.1 and libnvidia-api.so.1 are required at runtime, but they come from the NVIDIA driver
• nvidia-smi must be available in PATH

Python Package

PenguinBurner can also be installed as a Python package once a release is published to PyPI:

python -m pip install penguin-burner

That installs the penguin-burner and penguin_burner console commands. The PyPI package name uses the correct spelling: penguin-burner.

Quality Checks

Current local release checks:

• pytest: 38 mocked tests for Auto-UV logic, Afterburner parsing, and Q2RTX helpers
• ruff check . and ruff format --check .
• pyright .
• Python syntax compile for all project .py files
• shellcheck for shell scripts
• local sdist and wheel build with python -m build --no-isolation

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the LACT project and to Ilya Zlobintsev for pushing Linux NVIDIA tuning forward.

While PenguinBurner was still reverse engineering proprietary NVIDIA binaries and had only working voltage getters, LACT landed a working custom voltage/frequency point setter first. In particular, LACT pull request #957, feat: add Nvidia VF curve editor, was merged on April 18, 2026.

If any part of PenguinBurner's MSI Afterburner profile parsing or import logic is useful to LACT, feel free to borrow it.

Proprietary inputs are not bundled

This repository does not ship MSI Afterburner binaries or copied profile exports.

If you want to import Afterburner data, point PenguinBurner at the real MSI Afterburner directory from Windows. By default that directory is:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner

On Linux, --afterburner-dir should point at that same directory through a mounted Windows drive or a copied directory tree. PenguinBurner expects this layout under that root:

• MSIAfterburner.cfg
• Profiles/*.cfg

or set PENGUIN_BURNER_AFTERBURNER_ROOT to another directory with that layout.

CLI Options

Auto-UV does not require an MSI Afterburner profile. If no final Auto-UV curve exists yet and no usable Afterburner import exists, running with no arguments starts the foreground scan:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh

The explicit scan command is also available:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan

Auto-UV Options

• --auto-uv-voltage-scan: start the foreground Auto-UV voltage scan explicitly.
• --fresh-auto-uv-scan: clear previous Auto-UV scan state and immediately start a new foreground scan.
• --clear-auto-uv-state: clear previous Auto-UV scan state and exit.
• --install-q2rtx: download the managed Q2RTX workload without starting a scan.
• --export-lact-config PATH: write a complete Nvidia-only LACT config.yaml from the saved Auto-UV V/F curve; add --silent-fan-curve to include fan settings.
• --lact-source auto-uv|afterburner: choose the LACT export source; default auto-uv. The afterburner source uses the same Afterburner selection flags as --dry-run.
• --fan-curve-export: with --export-lact-config, export only fan settings and omit LACT's gpu_vf_curve.
• --lact-gpu-id ID: LACT GPU id for --export-lact-config; get it from lact cli list-gpus.
• --auto-uv-final-seconds N: final verification duration after the best curve is selected; default 600.
• --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct N: maximum loaded core-clock drop allowed during scan; default 10.0.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio N: fraction of --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct available as total overclock budget; default 0.4, clamped to 0.0..1.0.
• --auto-uv-clock-bump-budget-ratio N: compatibility alias for --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio.
• --auto-uv-max-drop-pct N: maximum voltage drop below the first discovered start voltage; default 16.0.
• --auto-uv-efficiency-stop-streak N: extra lower-voltage confirmation probes after FPS/W stops improving; default 1, use 0 to disable.
• --auto-uv-min-efficiency-stop-drop-pct N: minimum voltage drop below scan start before FPS/W no-gain can stop the scan; default 10.0.
• --stability-test: run the Q2RTX plus CUDA stability workload directly and exit.
• --stability-seconds N: duration for --stability-test; default 600.
• --stability-width N and --stability-height N: Q2RTX render size; defaults 2560x1440.
• --show-q2rtx-window: show the Q2RTX window instead of using hidden/headless mode.
• --stability-log-dir PATH: write --stability-test logs to a specific directory.
• --stability-q2rtx-dir PATH: use an existing Q2RTX install/source directory instead of the managed install.
• --stability-q2rtx-binary PATH: use an explicit Q2RTX executable path instead of the managed install.

Auto-UV Aggressiveness Tuning

The three most important Auto-UV aggressiveness knobs are voltage search depth, loaded-clock drop allowance, and overclock budget.

• --auto-uv-max-drop-pct N controls how far below the starting voltage Auto-UV may search. The default 16.0 means Auto-UV may test down to 16% below the first discovered start voltage. Higher values search deeper and can find lower power points, but they also spend more time near crash-prone voltage bins.
• --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct N controls how much loaded core clock Auto-UV may sacrifice while lowering voltage. The default 10.0 means the scan may accept loaded clocks down to about 90% of the initial measured loaded clock. Lower values preserve more performance; higher values search deeper.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio N controls how much of that clock-drop allowance Auto-UV may spend trying to recover clock with overclocks. The default 0.4 means 40% of the clock-drop allowance is available as total overclock budget. With the default 10% clock-drop allowance, this gives a 4% overclock budget. 0 disables overclock recovery; values above 1.0 are clamped.

Other useful knobs:

• --auto-uv-efficiency-stop-streak N controls how many extra lower-voltage no-gain confirmations are required after temperature-normalized FPS/W stops improving. Higher values probe longer before accepting the FPS/W wall.
• --auto-uv-min-efficiency-stop-drop-pct N prevents FPS/W no-gain from ending the scan until the requested voltage has dropped far enough from the start voltage.
• --auto-uv-final-seconds N controls final verification confidence. Shorter runs finish faster; longer runs are more trustworthy.

With the default 10% clock-drop allowance:

• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.25 gives up to +2.5% total overclock budget.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.4 gives up to +4% total overclock budget.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.5 gives up to +5% total overclock budget.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.75 gives up to +7.5% total overclock budget.
• --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 1.0 gives up to +10% total overclock budget.

Conservative profile:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan \
  --auto-uv-max-drop-pct 14 \
  --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct 8 \
  --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.25

Balanced profile:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan \
  --auto-uv-max-drop-pct 16 \
  --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct 10 \
  --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.4

Aggressive profile:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan \
  --auto-uv-max-drop-pct 18 \
  --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct 10 \
  --auto-uv-overclock-budget-ratio 0.75

Example: use a looser 12% core-clock drop allowance during Auto-UV:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan --auto-uv-max-clock-drop-pct 12

Afterburner Import Options

• --dry-run: preview imported Afterburner V/F and fan curves without applying them.
• --afterburner-dir PATH: path to the MSI Afterburner directory.
• --section NAME: choose a saved Afterburner profile section, such as Profile1.
• --afterburner-device-profile PATH: choose the exact Afterburner Profiles/*.cfg device file.
• --power-limit-override-w N: cap the translated Afterburner power target in watts.
• --preserve-vf-below-mv N: keep the stock Linux V/F curve at this voltage and below while importing the tuned curve above it.
• --dangerously-skip-validation: bypass normal Afterburner profile validation; advanced use only.
• --restore-defaults-from-config: apply the imported Afterburner Defaults V/F curve and GPU policy, then exit.

Example dry run:

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT"

Runtime And Daemon Options

• --daemonize: start PenguinBurner as a transient systemd service.
• --foreground: run the normal runtime in the foreground.
• --install-systemd-service: install the boot-time systemd service.
• --uninstall-systemd-service: remove the boot-time systemd service.
• --silent-fan-curve: opt into PenguinBurner manual fan-curve control during runtime/daemon mode.
• --prefer-afterburner-curve: prefer the imported Afterburner V/F curve over the saved Auto-UV curve during runtime/daemon mode.
• --config PATH: use a specific runtime config path.
• --gpu-index N: select a specific NVIDIA GPU.
• --debug-log: write a verbose diagnostic log for the current operation.
• --journal-hours N: change the suggested journalctl --since window shown after daemonizing.

Default Afterburner profile validation:

• PenguinBurner only auto-selects saved non-default manual V/F presets.
• By default, the selected preset must contain a flattened tail that can be turned into a lock point.
• That flattened lock point must be a real undervolt versus Defaults or Startup at the same clock, with at least 5mV of margin.
• If no saved preset passes those checks, PenguinBurner stops instead of guessing.
• --dangerously-skip-validation bypasses the flat-tail and undervolt-margin checks and widens selection back to any saved manual preset.
• This override is for advanced cases where you intentionally want a non-undervolt or otherwise unusual curve. It does not make the imported curve safe.

Runtime launch

• Use penguin_burner.sh as the single user entrypoint. It resolves the repo path itself, so you do not need to cd into the repository first.
• Running penguin_burner.sh directly stays in the foreground by default.
• On a clean first run, sudo ./penguin_burner.sh starts Auto-UV automatically. After a final Auto-UV curve exists, the same command runs normal foreground runtime using that saved curve.
• The checked-in PenguinBurner.service file is only an example. The preferred path is sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --install-systemd-service, which writes a unit with the real absolute script path for the current checkout.
• On the first interactive run with a newly configured Afterburner root, PenguinBurner automatically imports that root into its managed config, runs a dry-run preview, then prompts you to continue in foreground mode or daemonize later.
• --dry-run is the recommended first step. It parses the selected Afterburner root directory, prints concise summaries, and draws console charts for the V/F curve and fan curve without attempting GPU writes. It does not require sudo.
• --dangerously-skip-validation can be combined with --dry-run when you want to inspect an unusual saved curve before allowing any GPU writes.
• --debug-log can be combined with --dry-run, a first-time import, or foreground runtime testing when you need the full profile-discovery and parsing trail for an incompatible or otherwise unexpected MSI Afterburner export.
• the extra debug payload is written to the debug log file only; it does not spam stdout in foreground mode and it does not add extra noise to the systemd journal
• Actual runtime control and any real V/F, power-limit, persistence-mode, or optional fan changes should be treated as privileged operations and run with sudo.
• Normal runtime and daemon mode do not control fans unless --silent-fan-curve is present.
• Use --daemonize only when you explicitly want PenguinBurner to launch as a transient systemd service.
• Use --install-systemd-service only when you explicitly want a persistent boot-time systemd service.
• Use --uninstall-systemd-service to remove that persistent service again.
• If systemd is unavailable, --daemonize exits with a clear error instead of pretending to background itself.
• In foreground mode, logs go to stdout.
• In daemonized mode, logs go to the systemd journal, not to a hardcoded file in the repository.
• --journal-hours N changes the suggested journalctl --since window shown after daemonizing. The default view window is 4 hours.
• Use --foreground only to force the current process path if you are already wrapping PenguinBurner in another launcher.

Examples:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize --silent-fan-curve

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --install-systemd-service

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT"

./penguin_burner.sh --install-q2rtx
./penguin_burner.sh --stability-test --stability-seconds 600

sudo journalctl -u PenguinBurner.service --since "-4 hours" -f

Q2RTX Stability Test

--stability-test runs a non-interactive Q2RTX timedemo workload and then exits. It is intentionally isolated from the normal fan-control runtime path.

What it does:

• uses fixed 2560x1440 render settings by default to keep the workload GPU-bound
• uses gamescope --backend headless by default when available, which gives Q2RTX a real nested Vulkan target without a visible desktop window
• falls back to moving the real Vulkan window off-screen when gamescope is unavailable; pass --show-q2rtx-window if you want to see it
• disables V-Sync and dynamic resolution scaling, pins the dynamic-resolution min/max scale to 100%, disables FSR upscaling, leaves the render loop uncapped, and keeps sound off
• forces heavy real-time RTX features on, including pt_num_bounce_rays=2, pt_reflect_refract=8, pt_thick_glass=2, pt_caustics=1, bloom, volumetric lighting, and the particle/beam/sprite paths
• runs one short timedemo calibration pass, then repeats the built-in timedemo workload for the requested wall-clock duration
• prefers a ready-made q2demo1 timedemo from pak0.pak when shareware data is installed
• parses each timedemo pass for exact frames / seconds / fps metrics
• compares frame counts and FPS run-to-run so obvious regressions or unstable performance show up quickly
• polls lightweight NVIDIA telemetry with nvidia-smi
• records the Q2RTX stdout/stderr log to a file
• marks the run as failed if a pass exits early, if timedemo metrics are missing, if frame counts drift, if FPS drops too far run-to-run, if fatal output patterns appear, or if NVIDIA Xid messages are detected after launch

Headless Q2RTX

By default, Auto-UV and --stability-test try to run Q2RTX without showing a desktop window. PenguinBurner does this by launching Q2RTX inside:

gamescope --backend headless

This is not a fake low-resolution render. Q2RTX still creates a real Vulkan render target at the configured size, so the GPU workload remains useful for undervolt testing. The difference is that the window belongs to gamescope's private headless compositor, not to KDE, GNOME, X11, or Wayland on your desktop.

If gamescope is not installed or cannot start, PenguinBurner falls back to a best-effort off-screen X11 window. That fallback may still be visible on some Wayland desktops because the compositor can clamp windows to the visible desktop.

To force a normal visible Q2RTX window for debugging:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan --show-q2rtx-window

What it does not do yet:

• it does not verify rendered pixels or detect subtle visual corruption
• it does not score image quality or compare frame hashes
• it is currently a practical "did repeated heavy timedemo passes complete with sane FPS behavior and without obvious driver faults" check

If Q2RTX is not installed yet, run ./penguin_burner.sh --install-q2rtx. That downloads the latest official Linux tar.gz from the NVIDIA GitHub releases into PenguinBurner's managed user cache/data directories, which PenguinBurner auto-detects first. The Auto-UV path also performs this install automatically when the managed Q2RTX install is missing, printing the lookup, download, extraction, and runtime-library progress to stdout. The current official Linux tarball already includes the freely available Quake II shareware data, NVIDIA's Vulkan ray tracing renderer, and the ready-made q2demo1 timedemo.

To use your own Q2RTX install instead:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan --stability-q2rtx-dir /path/to/q2rtx

or point directly at the executable:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --auto-uv-voltage-scan --stability-q2rtx-binary /path/to/q2rtx

By default PenguinBurner auto-selects a ready-made timedemo, first looking for demos on disk and then inside pak0.pak, preferring demos like q2demo1.

Auto-UV Voltage Scan

Auto-UV is foreground-only while scanning. Start it, let it finish, then daemonize normal runtime.

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh

The scan resets old clock offsets, measures real loaded behavior, tests lower voltages one by one, and writes a final curve only after verification. It also remembers unsafe voltages so a later run does not repeat a bad point.

After the scan, run normal runtime:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize

If you also want PenguinBurner to apply the saved fan curve during runtime:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --daemonize --silent-fan-curve

Detailed user guide: Auto-UV quick guide.

To clear previous Auto-UV run history and start from scratch:

sudo ./penguin_burner.sh --fresh-auto-uv-scan

Dry Run First

--dry-run is intended for experimentation. It is the safest way to verify that PenguinBurner is parsing the right MSI Afterburner directory before you let it touch live GPU state.

What dry-run shows:

• the selected Afterburner root, device profile, and section
• a compact V/F summary in MHz and mV
• an ASCII V/F chart with mV on the x-axis and MHz on the y-axis, overlaying target # against stock/base ., with lock point @
• an ASCII fan chart with temperature on the x-axis and fan percent on the y-axis
• translated power-limit and memory-offset previews

What dry-run does not do:

• it does not enable persistence mode
• it does not set power limits
• it does not write V/F offsets
• it does not take over fan control

Suggested workflow:

1. Run --dry-run until the preview matches what you expect.
2. Try different saved sections, device profiles, or a different preserve threshold if needed.
3. Only then run the real foreground or systemd path with sudo.

If parsing fails, import behaves unexpectedly, or the wrong Afterburner profile is being selected, re-run with --debug-log. That writes a timestamped file under debug-logs/ next to the selected config file; with the default config that is the selected config file under debug-logs/. The log includes the discovered device profiles, per-section validation results, raw section key dumps, V/F blob and fan-curve blob metadata, per-point Linux V/F translation details, chosen fan profile, foreground runtime diagnostics, and traceback details for parsing errors.

If something does not work with your MSI Afterburner export, please open an issue at:

• https://github.com/jpietek/PenguinBurner/issues

Attach the full debug log file or files, not just a pasted excerpt. That makes it much easier to improve PenguinBurner for new profile variants and parsing failures.

If you have a useful bug fix, parser improvement, documentation cleanup, or any other improvement that makes PenguinBurner work better, pull requests are welcome too.

Examples:

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT"

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT" --section <saved-section>

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT" --preserve-vf-below-mv 800

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT" --section <saved-section> --dangerously-skip-validation

./penguin_burner.sh --dry-run --afterburner-dir "$AFTERBURNER_ROOT" --debug-log

Log fields

Example status line:

temp=...C fan=...%/...% power=...W gpu_clock=...MHz mem_clock=...MHz voltage=...mV clk_ceiling=...->...MHz@...mV mem_vf_offset=...MHz vf_point=...MHz@...mV vf_offset=...MHz vf_vanilla=...MHz@...mV uv=...mV fan_curve_state=hardware-auto next_fan_step=...C->...% fan_mode=auto

This example is the hardware-auto case. Without --silent-fan-curve, normal runtime lines include fan_control=disabled and PenguinBurner does not write fan speeds. Once PenguinBurner takes over the fans with --silent-fan-curve, steady-state lines switch to fan_mode=manual and also include target, curve, and hyst.

Some fields are conditional and only appear when the related policy or telemetry path is active.

• temp: current GPU temperature.
• fan: current reported fan speed for each fan, in percent.
• power: current board power draw in watts.
• gpu_clock: current graphics clock.
• mem_clock: current memory clock.
• voltage: current GPU voltage telemetry.
• clk_ceiling: the intended flattened V/F curve point, shown as requested->applied, with @voltage when present.
• mem_vf_offset: applied global memory V/F offset in MHz. This is an offset control, not the live memory clock reading.
• vf_point: current matched core V/F point from the live V/F table, shown as clock@voltage.
• vf_offset: current offset applied at that matched core V/F point. This is a curve-local MHz offset, not a direct undervolt value in mV.
• vf_vanilla: stock/base core V/F point used as the comparison reference.
• uv: voltage delta versus vf_vanilla; a negative value means the current matched point is below the stock reference voltage.
• fan_curve_state: current fan-control state. hardware-auto means the GPU's own automatic fan control still owns the fans; other lines can show the active manual curve segment or emergency-auto.
• next_fan_step: next fan-curve transition PenguinBurner is waiting for, shown as temp->speed, or resume-custom/none when that is the next action.
• fan_control: appears as disabled when PenguinBurner is intentionally leaving fans to the hardware/driver.
• fan_mode: overall fan-control mode for the current line when --silent-fan-curve is active. auto means the GPU's own automatic fan control still owns the fans. manual means PenguinBurner is actively setting fan speed. Transition/event lines such as entering or restoring manual mode may log an event= field instead of fan_mode.

Run At Your Own Risk

Dry-run is encouraged. Real hardware changes are not.

Once you leave --dry-run, PenguinBurner can perform operations such as:

• enabling persistence mode
• setting board power limits
• writing core V/F offsets
• writing memory V/F offsets
• taking over fan control, but only when --silent-fan-curve is used

Those paths can hang the GPU, crash the driver, freeze the display, or require a reboot. Treat them as experimental tuning operations.

Auto-UV intentionally runs in the foreground while scanning because it is testing crash-prone voltage points. During each risky voltage probe it writes an active-probe marker and removes it during normal cleanup, including Ctrl-C and SIGTERM. If the machine hangs, reboots, loses power, or the process is forcibly killed during a probe, restart PenguinBurner normally. The stale marker is treated as an abrupt previous probe end, that voltage is marked unsafe, and future scans avoid that voltage and lower voltages unless Auto-UV state is cleared.

For actual fan or V/F curve changes, use sudo. If the preview is not exactly what you want, go back to --dry-run and keep iterating there.

--dangerously-skip-validation only removes the saved-profile validation gate. It does not make an unusual or aggressive curve safe to apply.