A high frequency ballast for a metal halide lamp comprises a controller, a switch, and an oscillator. The controller selectively enables and disables the oscillator via the switch to ignite the lamp. The switch selectively alters an inductance of the inductor to switch between a first frequency of the oscillator and a second frequency of the oscillator different than the first. The controller monitors a current of a power supply loop of the oscillator and a voltage of the oscillator and determines a duty cycle as a function of the monitored voltage and current. The duty cycle is indicative of the percentage of time that the oscillator is to operate at the first frequency versus the second frequency.