Dynamic gain for DAC illumination control

A transmitting device may control digital-to-analog converter (DAC) illumination to optimize signal to noise ratio of a transmission signal. DAC illumination may be adjusted based, at least in part, on analog gain and estimated total transmit power of a particular transmission signal. For each destination, total transmit power may be estimated based on tone map, amplitude map, back-off settings, or other characteristics. The estimated total transmit power is used to determine an appropriate analog gain. Once analog gain and total transmit power are known, fine control of SNR may be achieved by adjusting power level in the digital domain. A digital power control setting is used to scale the amplitude of the digital baseband signal prior to DAC operation. The DAC illumination of the digital baseband signal allows the DAC to operate at an optimized power level within the digital range of the DAC.