vcore....is there a 'too low' like there is a 'too high'?

[smackguy]

Someone said this in another forum....

"but be careful about lowering your Vcore too much. Thats a good power and heat saving standpoint just as increasing your voltages makes the cpu hotter, however lowered voltages might not destroy the cpu like a higher voltage will, but you might not have enough power to "turn on" all the transistors inside and it might cause errors/be sluggish."


Is that true? Would appreciate your thoughts on this. I'm trying to learn all I can about overclocking, since I'm so new at it, I'm pretty much confused about everything.

for reference, I'm running at stock 3.0GHz speed on the e8400 running Vcore of 1.1v (1.06v in CPU_z)

Thanks,

Shark

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: smackguy
Someone said this in another forum....

"but be careful about lowering your Vcore too much. Thats a good power and heat saving standpoint just as increasing your voltages makes the cpu hotter, however lowered voltages might not destroy the cpu like a higher voltage will, but you might not have enough power to "turn on" all the transistors inside and it might cause errors/be sluggish."


Is that true? Would appreciate your thoughts on this. I'm trying to learn all I can about overclocking, since I'm so new at it, I'm pretty much confused about everything.

for reference, I'm running at stock 3.0GHz speed on the e8400 running Vcore of 1.1v (1.06v in CPU_z)

Thanks,

Shark

what i learned about downvolting.

you need to disable eist and speedstep. Those things can crash your computer.

But if you prime test on the lowest setting, and it passes, there is nothing wrong with downvolting if you do a proper stress test afterwards for stability.

 

[smackguy]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

you need to disable eist and speedstep. Those things can crash your computer.

Someone on another forum said not to disable these, since if the fan goes out it can fry your cpu. is that just paranoid thinking?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: smackguy

Originally posted by: aigomorla

you need to disable eist and speedstep. Those things can crash your computer.

Someone on another forum said not to disable these, since if the fan goes out it can fry your cpu. is that just paranoid thinking?

when downvolting?

LOL...

the point in downvolting is to limit power draw.

eist will downvolt your computer. when its already downvolted, and it downvolts more, you will lack voltage and your comp will crash.

eist and speedstep dont make sense when you downvolt. Your looking for that minimum voltage requirement to begin with.

 

[nevbie]

well the modern intel CPUs are supposed to throttle their speed if they get too hot, so i'd say it is paranoid thinking. IIRC the two settings reduce power usage when idle by lowering voltage and multiplier.. i don't see how it is related to the CPU fan. the temperature triggered speed throttling setting should be a third setting, not related to these.

edit to aigo: multiplier dropping makes sense even when manually undervolting.. does it not? also, i wonder which is the computer crasher when manually undervolting, vdroop under load or power saving voltage dropping under idle?

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: smackguy

Originally posted by: aigomorla

you need to disable eist and speedstep. Those things can crash your computer.

Someone on another forum said not to disable these, since if the fan goes out it can fry your cpu. is that just paranoid thinking?

They're just power management features, they have nothing to do with throttling your cpu due to heat.

Your Intel CPU will still shut down if it overheats, that's not a setting you can alter or mess with.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: nevbie

edit to aigo: multiplier dropping makes sense even when manually undervolting.. does it not? also, i wonder which is the computer crasher when manually undervolting, vdroop under load or power saving voltage dropping under idle?

absolutely correct.

Hence when speedstep or eist kicks in, it lowers the multi and also lowers the voltage.

Now problem is at stock voltage, thats fine, the board will downvolt to a preset voltage. But if your already downvolted, and the board downvolts even more.

Well, you just added a problem to a solution you were working at.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: smackguy

Originally posted by: aigomorla

you need to disable eist and speedstep. Those things can crash your computer.

Someone on another forum said not to disable these, since if the fan goes out it can fry your cpu. is that just paranoid thinking?

They must have been talking about TM2 (thermal monitor 2). Don't disable that unless you want the possibility of a cooked CPU.

 

[Zap]

I think with AMD CPUs you can burn out the memory controller if the CPU is undervolted a lot and the memory is overvolted a lot. I recall people experiencing these issues back in the early socket 939/DFI LANPARTY days.

 

[smackguy]

So is 1.1vcore too low for a non-overclocked e8400 with eist and speedstep disabled?

 

[smackguy]

So is 1.1vcore too low for a non-overclocked e8400 with eist and speedstep disabled?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: smackguy

So is 1.1vcore too low for a non-overclocked e8400 with eist and speedstep disabled?

there is no such thing as too low in downvolting.

Theres only working and not working.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
[ YODA ] there is no such thing as too low in downvolting.

Theres only working and not working. [/ YODA ]

Fixed!

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: aigomorla
[ YODA ] there is no such thing as too low in downvolting.

Theres only working and not working. [/ YODA ]

Fixed!

rofl...

you know im correct tho.

its not like overclocking.

 

[BadRobot]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
its not like overclocking.

This is the most important thing to take from this thread.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: smackguy
Someone said this in another forum....

"but be careful about lowering your Vcore too much. Thats a good power and heat saving standpoint just as increasing your voltages makes the cpu hotter, however lowered voltages might not destroy the cpu like a higher voltage will, but you might not have enough power to "turn on" all the transistors inside and it might cause errors/be sluggish."


Is that true? Would appreciate your thoughts on this. I'm trying to learn all I can about overclocking, since I'm so new at it, I'm pretty much confused about everything.

for reference, I'm running at stock 3.0GHz speed on the e8400 running Vcore of 1.1v (1.06v in CPU_z)

Thanks,

Shark

Undervolting shouldn't damage the CPU in any way, the worst it would do is cause errors by not letting some of the transistors reach the active region, and therefor never "switch" like you stated. That may cause data corruption, but it shouldn't actually damage anything.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Undervolting shouldn't damage the CPU in any way, the worst it would do is cause errors by not letting some of the transistors reach the active region, and therefor never "switch" like you stated. That may cause data corruption, but it shouldn't actually damage anything.

read zap's post again.

Originally posted by: Zap
I think with AMD CPUs you can burn out the memory controller if the CPU is undervolted a lot and the memory is overvolted a lot. I recall people experiencing these issues back in the early socket 939/DFI LANPARTY days.

If that applies to you then yea it could damage hardware. But i dont see many people using that kind of hardware anymore.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: Martimus

Undervolting shouldn't damage the CPU in any way, the worst it would do is cause errors by not letting some of the transistors reach the active region, and therefor never "switch" like you stated. That may cause data corruption, but it shouldn't actually damage anything.

read zap's post again.

Originally posted by: Zap
I think with AMD CPUs you can burn out the memory controller if the CPU is undervolted a lot and the memory is overvolted a lot. I recall people experiencing these issues back in the early socket 939/DFI LANPARTY days.

If that applies to you then yea it could damage hardware. But i dont see many people using that kind of hardware anymore.

You are right. Especially on the Phenoms. Northbridge and Memory voltages had to be within about .1V or the chip would die with the B2 stepping (I only know this after reading pages upon pages of testing over at extreme systems forums.) This makes sense if the filters between these points aren't that good (Or even if the voltages are shorted at points - they are close to the same voltage, so it may not get noticed in testing unless they specifically run them at different voltages.) This just gets me to think back to the microcontrollers I used to work with and test, and I remember similar problems. Of course those were simple compared to these massive CPU's, so I can understnad how problems like that can slip through. I have a feeling that the B3 stepping chips have fixed this problem, since I haven't heard of the issue in a while now.

edit: I have a feeling that I got the voltage issue wrong, but I don't have time to go back through the original XS forum posts to straigten it out because I have to finish a report before tomorrows meeting. I'll link the forum thread though if anyone would like to read through it. http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=167447