- Apr 27, 2000
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This is kind of a silly question, but I've been wondering about the relationship between cpu temps, vcore, and stability. As we all know, when overclocking, raising clock speed requires increased vcore which can drastically increase temperatures. The increased temps can require even further increases to vcore to assure stability. This is why we all try so hard to keep our processors cool, since it allows us to achieve stability at any given clock speed with less vcore than would be required with inferior cooling.
But, how does this work in the opposite direction? If I have a processor at stock clock speeds and I attempt to undervolt it, eventually, stability will be negatively affected if I reduce vcore too far. But if I begin cooling my processor to sub-ambient temperatures, will I get more headroom (or should I say tailroom?) with undervolting? The interesting thing to consider here is that, when overclocking, typically the net amount of power dissipated by the processor and consumed by the cooling solution(s) increases as we increase clock speed. However, if we undervolt while using aggressive sub-ambient cooling methods, then the amount of power required to operate the processor and the cooling system will both decline as the processor is further undervolted. Considering how power-hungry sub-ambient cooling solutions can be, though, I doubt you'd be able to run a heavily undervolted processor at lower net power usage with phase change cooling or TECs than you could run it at stock vcore with the stock HSF.
Anyway, are there any folks out there with phase units that can chime in on this? Can you undervolt your CPU more at stock speeds with the chip running at -40C or lower than you can with the chip running at or near room temperature?
But, how does this work in the opposite direction? If I have a processor at stock clock speeds and I attempt to undervolt it, eventually, stability will be negatively affected if I reduce vcore too far. But if I begin cooling my processor to sub-ambient temperatures, will I get more headroom (or should I say tailroom?) with undervolting? The interesting thing to consider here is that, when overclocking, typically the net amount of power dissipated by the processor and consumed by the cooling solution(s) increases as we increase clock speed. However, if we undervolt while using aggressive sub-ambient cooling methods, then the amount of power required to operate the processor and the cooling system will both decline as the processor is further undervolted. Considering how power-hungry sub-ambient cooling solutions can be, though, I doubt you'd be able to run a heavily undervolted processor at lower net power usage with phase change cooling or TECs than you could run it at stock vcore with the stock HSF.
Anyway, are there any folks out there with phase units that can chime in on this? Can you undervolt your CPU more at stock speeds with the chip running at -40C or lower than you can with the chip running at or near room temperature?