1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,840 Did you know that you can increase your CPU's speed while also decreasing the energy it uses? 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:11,760 This is a common tactic called undervolting that's used by people who want to squeeze the 3 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:17,600 most performance out of their system, including while overclocking. But how the heck is that possible, 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:23,760 and is it even a good idea to give your expensive CPU less power? To find out, 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,520 and to get a better understanding of how CPU voltages work in general, 6 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:34,480 we spoke with Dan Ragland, who's been the PC overclocking lead over at Intel for over five years, 7 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:38,640 and we'd like to thank him and Ben Benson for their contributions to this video. 8 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:42,560 And don't worry, what we discuss in this video is relevant regardless of whether you have a 9 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,840 Team Blue CPU or if you're more of an AMD person. So let's get right to it. The common wisdom is 10 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:53,360 that if you really start pushing your CPU's clock speeds, you'll probably need to increase voltages, 11 00:00:53,360 --> 00:01:00,000 not decrease it. But increasing the voltage carries some risks. Like you probably already know 12 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,280 that it can increase your processor's temperature and shorten its lifespan. But excessive voltages 13 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:10,880 can also do this on their own, even if you could somehow magically keep your CPU cooler than a 14 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:16,560 popsicle. You see, both Intel and AMD processors have a reliability curve for their chips, meaning 15 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:21,040 there's a certain lifespan that they're expected to have at stock voltages. And once you start 16 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:27,360 raising that voltage, you can start to expect a decrease in the lifespan exponentially. 17 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:32,960 A few tenths of a volt can cut years off of your CPU's life if you're constantly running at that 18 00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:40,160 higher voltage. And another few tenths can reduce it down to mere weeks or even days. The exact 19 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:45,520 curves themselves are trade secrets, so they're generally not available to the public. But given 20 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:51,120 what we just said, it's clearly better not to run your CPU at high voltages for too long, 21 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:56,400 hence the interest in undervolting, which will save power and as put you as far on the safe 22 00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:02,560 side of the curve as you can be. But how do you even do this properly? Well, first, you should 23 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:08,640 figure out how much voltage your CPU is actually using right now under load at stock voltage settings. 24 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:13,680 Download the free CPU Z utility, open it up and run a program like Cinebench or Blender. 25 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:17,920 Find the highest voltage value next to your cores on CPU Z and make a note of it. 26 00:02:17,920 --> 00:02:23,040 Afterwards, head into your BIOS and find your CPU's core voltage and look for a setting labeled 27 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:27,280 offset. Try moving that downwards. Make sure that you're using a negative offset, 28 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:32,560 increments of 5 or 10 millivolts at a time. Save, restart your PC and run your stress 29 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:36,160 test for a while to make sure your undervolt is stable at the frequency you're using. 30 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,640 If it is, you can try to go lower and lower until you find that sweet spot where it's just 31 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:45,680 basically about to get down to that crash point, but you know, maybe a notch or two above for maximum 32 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:53,520 performance with minimal power and heat. Oh, it's cool. But if you can get away with undervolting, 33 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:58,080 why do people set their voltages higher in the first place? And how do they do it safely? 34 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:02,800 If you're really trying to push your clock speeds high, you still might have to overvolt 35 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:08,560 instead of undervolt. And some users pushing for max clocks also give their CPUs a little more 36 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:13,360 voltage still just in case they hit a heavier workload than they expected. As a general rule, 37 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:18,400 staying safe means you probably won't want to push your offset up by more than one tenth of a 38 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:23,120 volt over what your stock value was from CPUZ. And even then, you might still be shortening your 39 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:27,920 processor's lifespan if you're putting a load on it frequently. Of course, using an offset or 40 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:32,960 using adaptive mode will only push your CPU up to that maximum voltage any time you enter a load. 41 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,240 However, make sure you stay away from the override setting unless you know what you're doing, 42 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:41,760 because that will run your CPU at whatever voltage you set all the time. That's there for 43 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,960 folks who are into competitive overclocking or chasing some kind of record. So yeah, probably 44 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,800 don't use that for daily driving unless you really don't care what happens to your processor 45 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,520 or the rest of your system. Oh, and if you're curious, adaptive mode is just an alternative 46 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,600 to offset that allows you to define a new maximum boost frequency to go with your voltage target. 47 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,960 But speaking of the rest of your system, what about all those other voltage settings you see, 48 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:11,840 like VCCSA or PMIC? Those actually affect your memory. And if you have an auto memory overclocking 49 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:17,440 scheme like XMP or Expo turned on, you really don't need to touch these. This XMP and similar 50 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:21,680 features optimize these voltages for you automatically. And I know that you're watching 51 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:27,680 this video because you love fiddling with the dials, but sometimes that can be a really bad idea. 52 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:32,160 Just try it in Flight Simulator if you don't believe me. Thanks for watching, guys. Like, 53 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,520 dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with video suggestions down below, 54 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:37,600 and don't forget to subscribe and follow.