WEBVTT 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? 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 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:17.600 most performance out of their system, including while overclocking. But how the heck is that possible, 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, 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:27.520 and to get a better understanding of how CPU voltages work in general, 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, 00:00:34.480 --> 00:00:38.640 and we'd like to thank him and Ben Benson for their contributions to this video. 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 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 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, 00:00:53.360 --> 00:01:00.000 not decrease it. But increasing the voltage carries some risks. Like you probably already know 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:05.280 that it can increase your processor's temperature and shorten its lifespan. But excessive voltages 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 00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:16.560 popsicle. You see, both Intel and AMD processors have a reliability curve for their chips, meaning 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 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:27.360 raising that voltage, you can start to expect a decrease in the lifespan exponentially. 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 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 00:01:40.160 --> 00:01:45.520 curves themselves are trade secrets, so they're generally not available to the public. But given 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, 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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 00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:27.280 offset. Try moving that downwards. Make sure that you're using a negative offset, 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 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. 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 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 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, 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? 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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. 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, 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 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:46.960 folks who are into competitive overclocking or chasing some kind of record. So yeah, probably 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 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 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. 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, 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 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 00:04:17.440 --> 00:04:21.680 features optimize these voltages for you automatically. And I know that you're watching 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. 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, 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:35.520 dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with video suggestions down below, 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:37.600 and don't forget to subscribe and follow.