What's the Point of UNDERVOLTING Your CPU? 

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Not mentioned in the video: Intel XTU allows you to adjust a whole lot of these values in real-time while you're booted in Windows, completely bypassing the need to go into the bios every time. If the computer shuts down due to instability, the cached settings are wiped for easy recovery, allowing you to try again. Highly recommended!

Wish you could have talked more about the physics of how changing cpu voltage affects the speed of the transistors and propagation delays. That is something that I think many people would be curious about when trying to understand why these things work.

What they dont tell you is that the 'expected' lifepan of a CPU at the recommended voltage is like 30 years at 24/7 uptime. I have a 2700k that has been running a 5.2ghz OC at 1.45v nearly 24/7 since 2013. Which is WELL above what Intel recommends. Basically, unless you're pumping ungodly amounts of voltage into the CPU, its going to last far longer than you'll ever realistically need it to.

Nvidia left the room in hope that there won't be a follow up about undervolting GPUs.

Honestly guys thats a lot of info that is organized to be easily digested WITH ads, all in like 5 min? Excellent work 🤝

There is one more really useful and Fairly common use of UV. Some of the more high performance, small body laptops, May be able to run your cpu at boost for only limited time. Undervolting can increase that time for longer workloads, or even make it boost indefinetly. I made my laptop perform almost 20% better in cinebench r23 by undervolting. To be fair i did get quite lucky in the silicon lotery, Most laptops wont get duch high gains, but almost all laptops can benefit greatly. Edit: Cinebench is by no means a perfect performance measurring tool, getting 20% more score wont result in 20% more overall performace but i have seen a really nice improvement in more cpu intensive games and a great improvement in video rendering times.

On an i9-12900K I only managed a -0.110 V offset before it became too unstable but it still reduced temps by about 10-15 degrees while using 50 W less. Really glad this is being covered so more people can save a little bit of power

Thanks Anthony.. always good to see you putting some easy to understand videos.

Just be careful to note you don't also lose performance as with my 5900x I recall undervolting too far would no longer give a harmless bluescreen, but instead reduce your actual CPU performance instead. This is preferrable to crashing but it's something to note that you can be invisibly reducing your cpu's performance in certain applications. Also some apps will drop performance more than others by undervolting too far without you noticing it. For example, in flight simulator I only dropped a couple of frames when undervolting however some other program dropped almost 10% performance without me realising until a few days later. Also funny clip at the end

Undervolting was an absolute must for my Ryzen 5800x. The Chips temps ran way out of my comfort zone (Even throttling occasionally on Dark Rock Pro 4) but setting at least an offset helped a ton!

When we used to test components in manufacturing it was MTBF (mean time before failure) that determented life. We could test a number of products within a statisical sample and develop expectations with an accepted confidence (ie 90%). First, Kudos that you have addressed this issue. All I heard for years was overclocking , but with experience I have found that my pc's have lasted longer and performed better with out pushing that envelope. Thank you! Subbed.

Undervolting on my gaming laptop was a life saver. I'm not able to use a desktop in my situation and undervolting helped a lot with thermal throttling

I messed around with undervolting recently. I have a 5700x with a max boost of 4.6 GHz. Now, with a 200 mHz boost override, my cpu hits 4.85 GHz while gaming without affecting temperature at all (stays below 60 degrees) and voltage never goes over 1.35V. Ran Prime95 for 4 hours and had no issues. Pretty nice.

It'd be really cool if there were an auto undervolting software for chips like there is for overclocking. That way the power savings would be available for everyone.

you just answered all my questions, huge thanks!

Thanks mate, your vids are just great. Well played.

I'm surprised it wasn't said - try researching whether people have already found a stable undervolt for your CPU. That's what I did (I just used Throttle Stop to make adjustments), and it's been great since.

Could Anthony make a little bit more comprehensive OC guide? I really like how he is able to explain complicated stuff in simple terms and analogies. TY For consideration.

Cool, glad i found this, going through issues with an i9-12900k, and even have a aorus waterforce x 360, so i'm dealing with undervolting. Thx for the pointers.

Works great on GPUs also. I found even a small reduction leads to a noticeable improvement in fan noise with no noticeable hit to performance

My 5950x was constantly running at 90c on stock voltage (1.4v). I undervolted it to 1.2v and the temps dropped by 30c. It's staggering how much of a difference undervolting can make

You still didn't explain how undervolting can increase performance. I thought it was done because you can generally get away with lower power consumption, and about the same performance, but *increasing* it? How does that work?

My old PC with AMD Phenom II came out of factory with 1.4V VCore setting... It's been running stable on 1.225V over a decade now, but it's 10 degrees C cooler than what it was with stock voltage. Combined with an aftermarket cooler and Phenom MSRTweaker (where I set all P1 multipliers to 4x and voltage to 0.8v), I am running this PC in passive cooling mode for the most of the time.

I did this on my laptop for better thermals, slight core ratio OC, working great so far.

Using manual mode without overclocking can also prevent the core voltage from going too high. It can even result in lower cpu temps. Because most motherboards, if you don't change any setting, can make some voltages go crazy high when it's not necessary.

I didn't use offset, when I undervolted my CPU recently. I reduced the maximum core voltage until it would barely run the allcore boost frequency, then added 6.25mV and pushed the allcore boost 100MHz higher. Saves power, runs faster and stable for 2 weeks now!

I remember with my old i7-4790k I used the motherboard's preset for 4.8GHz and wondered why the performance was worse than stock, then I saw it was hitting 100°c, the voltage was set at 1.5v. I eventually got it running @ 4.8GHZ on as little as 1.13v, but stability set it at 1.16v and it never went over 70°c

I undervolted my i7-4700MQ laptop mobile chip and managed to match a desktop i7-3770 on Cinebench R23 multicore and 77 degrees. Only uses around 36 watts for the same perfomance and desktop i7s from that era have twice the power consumption. Sillicon lottery? Around -90mv, there's someone that managed -100mv and overclocked the chip to 3.6GHz (i think). i7-4700MQ is partially unlocked, that means you have a maximum overclock of 200MHz or 2 bins.

Anthony looks like he is having less stress in his life and looking better by the video, with more confidence. He is one of my favorite hosts with his tech knowledge.

I always wanted to know about this!

Love the Gul Dukat cameo. Props to the writer or editor who added that in. 🖖🏻

The way I always understood it was: - Intel and AMD always want to sell you a product that will work OOTB - more voltage helps a given frequency stabilise - therefore Intel and AMD will ship a voltage that is “safe” for every CPU they sell in a class, regardless of silicon lottery, leaving headroom beneath at stock clocks for undervolting without affecting stability that is dependent on the chip itself - boost clocks depend on temperature, and throttle when temp gets too high - undervolting releases less waste heat (P=IV) so allows normal boost algorithms to stay boosted for longer - both Intel and AMD already target very aggressive frequencies for their CPUs, leaving typically very little room for the traditional “more clock more volts” method of improving performance - therefore you’d either have to either not care or be silly to *not* undervolt

I have a really strong undervolt on my 5800X i lowered the clock speed by about 3% and have cut the power consumption by 50%

Thank you for the video!

Mahjong mania in Symbian was originally designed for the 25 mhz DX 387 coprocessor for the Compaq LTE Lite/Elite laptops. It was a Win 3.1 game. Arm processors have a coprocessor of this category, responsible for gaming Physx too. While gaming with Nokia, after lvl 25 it calibrated my phone’s power parameters, it became more hot during gameplay, and the LCD became brighter. Probably, same with other devices. For PC, Opera with RU-vid high res videos calibrate cpu, I needed 10 restarts for my laptop, it became stronger and cooler.

Wow, never been so on-time for a video. My chance to say ily Anthony

I've underclocked (including undervolting) every computer I've had since Windows ME. You can vastly improve the *lifespan* of parts by reducing run rates, vibration and heat production. Even with adequate cooling - the fans on your gpu will eventually stop working because the lube in the fan's bearings will dry out, running at lower speeds increases their life span. There's also the issue of how much vibration your various fans transfer onto the mobo. Or just in terms of pure voltage - yes, even if you keep it cool - electricity is still electricity and if you can expect X = runtime hours at Y voltage: you can expect C = runtime hours at U voltage and that means C > X if Y > U. If you're the type of person who replaces your entire computer every few years - then it doesn't really matter much. if, however, like me - you're the type of likes to siphon every last ounce of runtime (and capability) out of your rig and keep it for 6+ years before replacing it: it matters. You can also hit sweet spots whereby reducing heat produced by doing things like undervolting, leads to increased performance because you're avoiding thermal throttling you would otherwise encounter during heavy tasks like gaming.

Interesting video but why at 2:15 did you tell us to take note on the Core Voltage ?

for the first time ever I clicked a video without reading the title because the thumbnail was so good

This is a must do for ALL gaming laptops, trust me you WILL get at least 15% more performance by undervolting, and the Temps will also go down a bit.

Just wish to point out that CPU-Z has it's own benchmark test built in so not sure why you need cinebench?

Yeah I'm not under or over volting anything because I would probably mess it up and fry something.... I just wanted to know what undervolting does and this explained it. Thanks! 👍

Is keeping an Alienware aurora r16 with anni9 14900kf on preformance mode instead of balanced ok? Or will it shorten the lifespan of the cpu?

Very nice work Anthony. I appreciate your language and choice of words. Professional and encouraging.

Anthony is palpatine

I just finally OC my i5 2500k (yea, a bit late lol) and then this video pops up lol. Nice timing!

Didn't expect there's DeSinc vids at the end 😂

With AMD, doesn't one want to use the Curve Optimizer at PBO2, instead? Also, some cores of a CPU might not like some negative voltage offset, if you just drop the same negative offset on All cores, one of more cores might cause instability and you may be holding yourself back from optimizing the other cores that could have been able to take further negative offset. Can try to set a negative offset voltage on all cores first, just to the very point things seem to get unstable, then increase the voltage per individual core to find out which one was the one that can't handle that offset negative voltage. That way, you might be able to push the other cores even further and leave the stable negative offset in the worse core, without that worse core holding you back from optimizing(eg, set a even lower offset negative offset) the others. However, even if things may seem stable at first, who knows if your CPU may still be unstable, but in edge cases at the worst moments. Something like OCCT, or even Prime95 with a project called 'corecycler' by sp00n might be useful, it will warn if a core is not stable, then test for a good while, hours or even days, until a some error is spit out. I imagine this being better than just using Cinebench and hope it might crash to give you a visual indication if it's very obviously unstable, but then once it does not crash, your undervolt may still be unstable, but you don't know as you fiddle around for weeks finding out why some oddities happen... Edit: Thinking about something, even if CPU might have been tested stable with all sorts of tests at max clock speed, what if the cores idle at some point and a low clock speed is set and thus some low voltage, but then become unstable with the additional undervolt applied on top?

I'm missing a disclaimer that this technique is not suitable for every CPU. I'm running a Xeon Westmere-EP, stock voltage is 1.1 or so. No fancy boosting, no flawless transitions between boost states and when undervolted it wouldn't even reach stock speeds. In this case looking up the max safe voltages for every rail in the datasheet is crucial to achieve maximum performance. In my case that is 1.4V and it needs to be set to override because of stutters during transitions from c6 to c1, or even shutdowns because of the voltage regulation not acting fast enough.

i did for the battery save on my laptop with ryzen 5 it is pretty fast CPU anyway so it is ok for my workflow I don't game at all on my laptop. battery life gone 3 hour to 6-7 hour.

If some of you aren't comfortable tweaking voltages or worried about stability. Just run some power limits. Yes you lose a tiny bit of performance, but the voltages and temp will be naturally lower under load. Hence longer lifespan and no worry of stability.

A pretty good explanation of the basics. I approve.

Genuinely useful info for the overclocking luddites like myself.

Great video, have your thought about making a video about the new Intel Celeron (they got an alderlake Upgrade). Or about the Pentium processors today.

I have an undervolted i5 8250u, (running at -100.6mV) and the performance difference is instantly noticeable, i get about an extra 30 fps in cpu demanding games and GPU throttle happens much less now, the temperatures are also a lot better than they used to be.

I'm confused. I read that Intel disabled undervolting (via a microcode download from the OS) a while back, due to related vulnerabilities. I pulled out of upgrading my server, which I wanted to be super power efficient, at the time. Is this not true?

I have a MSI MECH Radeon 5700 XT and undervolting is a must.. anytime it runs anything that makes it work, safety shutdowns are bound to happen on the GPU due to high temps..

He fails to explain why undervolting can help you gain some performance. That is, it can prevent your CPU from reaching throttling temperatures....

Using Ryzen Master, I managed to undervolt my 5900x so much that it uses around 50W at full throttle :D

It took over of the video before instability was mentioned on lowering the transistor bias voltage was mentioned!!!! Hahaha

I had used undervolting for a long time (over 2 years on the GPU and 1 year on the CPU) It helped me a lot on my GPU from 90 degrees thermal throttle to max 83 degrees {usually 75} (850 mV) [Asus TUF Gaming GTX 1660 6GB] On the CPU I didn't knew I could undervolt it when I had the stock cooler and I have slightly less degrees normally, but in sustained workloads there is a difference because it gets hot a lot slower On my CPU I need to use and older version of the XTU (i5 9400F) and I can do -0.180 V On GPUs is a lot easier to find the undervolt than on CPUs since no BSOD or the PC shutting down

I love seeing my fellow man speaking on CPU temps. Keep up the good work Brother!!!!

Anthony is a legend!!!

4:10 On am4, boost behavior negates voltage offsets so I'm running static voltage to undervolt, slightly less efficient idle, but worth it to drop from 1.45v+ to 1.25v.

I wish I could do this for my phone. I have 2 apps that are very useful to me but used, they make the phone heat up in a way that actually bricked my old phone, even on "battery saver" mode.

whoa those shirts are thin

The thing I always found strange about under-volting is that it works. Generally speaking, reducing the voltage results in slower signal propagation, meaning that it takes longer for a processor to stabilize on an output value. If we're able to maintain stability while lowering the voltage and increasing the clock-speed, then that sounds a lot like the CPU was over-volted to begin with. Over-volting a CPU by default doesn't make sense either because the energy use (and heat generation) is proportional to the voltage-squared. A CPU shouldn't be overvolted unless you are trying to overclock it, so why are CPUs being overvolted by default?

Every week Anthony has a new band aid on his fingers. Does he fight bears during his free time?

lmfao that flight sim clip/joke outta nowhere made me crack up. 🤣

I think HWiNFO64 is a better utility. The sensors are clearly labelled, and a couple other bells. Seems like the best method for undervolting is run at the default power rating and just turn your CPU up a little. Logic would suggest that is the best balance for longevity and performance.

I have a passivly cooled "typewriter" PC (the one I am typing this). The 6 Ryzen cores run with 3Ghz (I BOINC) and the screen output too are done with a 41W whole system socket power. (22W diff to idle). There is not even any undervolting. Goes to show that the last 20% are always done with brute force.

so undervolt mean that i will have the same amount of power com from cpu when it in stock but with lower voltages so ít will have betters thermals right ?

Kinda disappointing that there was not a word about laptops, as it is, I think, where UnderVolting is the most useful

This video left out a few critical points. Since the Plundervolt exploit came out, Intel implemented bios changes that remove the ability to undervolt on all new CPUs. This limitation is a limitation intel themselves placed on CPUs. So if you have updated your bios for an intel motherboard, you may need help to undervolt your intel CPU even if you could do it in the past. Secondly, undervolting can result in system instability resulting in crashing. The usual fix for this is removing your CMOS battery from your computer. On some laptops, it is difficult/impossible to remove the CMOS battery

Pleasant surprise to see DeSinc's video here

ya i turned the IGPU off in the bios on my msi gf63 thin 11-UC even though i have a 3050 max Q no graphics output CMoS reset button didn't work i had to disassemble to fix it thank glad i know clearing the bios fix's all that crap

undervolting is blocked in most bios by manufacturers these days due to undervolt protection to solve plundervolt issues.

"Is it possible to learn this power?"

Hi, Is this the same as setting the “curve optimiser” in Precision Boost in Bios to “negative 30” ? For a Strix B550-E with a R7 5800X3D? OR the undervolting applies only from setting the CPU on “offset” then negative then like in this video?

Informative video thanku

LinusTroonTips

Undervolting a Ryzen CPU trough the offset setting will actually decrease it's performance and clock speed instead of losing stability.

im undervolting my i7 4790 using xtu's offset, -0.124mV core , -0.200mV cache and -0.150mV in gpu, curious what others managed to get cuz these don't seem normal to me especially the cache i can further undervolt but didn't , overall the performance is basically the same around 1% slower but the temps went down from 77c full load to 66c ish , while 32c to 40c on idle since the average temps are 27c to 42c where i live , all temps in Celsius.

1:37 There are people who have their i7-2600K overclocked to 5GHz for so many years that they have problems even with stock clockspeeds.

Oh look its emily lmao

I used to uv my old Vega 56, that vega chip give more performance with low voltage curves

this is way more usefull for gpu's, but the hard thing is to find that sweet spot(test occt + furmark for example on gpu's), 3090 850mv 1800mhz here rocking solid with aio!

Great video Emily 👍

this dude thinks he is a lady lol

Pity, I was looking forward to Anthony doing the Unlimited Power thing himself again.

1:47 palpatine was probably the best part in this video ! unlimited… poweeer !

unsubbed mate. been watching for years but as soon as you put your own politics into it have to say goodbye

Emily

I've undervolted my GPU lately and it's done wonders for temps, even still let me give it a little bump to stock frequencies. Long as you don't reach for a mile when you've got an inch, good way to conserve component lifetime.

5:05 @Desinc just testing if new youtube handles work :^)

I won't be doing any of this, but very interesting video!

1:30 looking at a gaming rig with a i5-2500k still kicking it at 4.4 1.3 volts for the last 15 years. WOW.

They say that less is more, but it is true that more is also more, so I like to lower settings, satisfying the “less is more” saying, but then add even more to that so I can follow the “more is more” saying, while actually still just running stock settings.

Hmm i did get my i7-4790k up 4.2ghz on all cores on a msi h81m-p33.. can't change the V but it allows to change the speed.