Hey everyone! I recently watched a video discussing GPU overclocking and undervolting, and it got me thinking about CPUs. Are there safe ways to undervolt or overclock a CPU on both desktops and laptops? I'm curious about the following: In what situations is it beneficial to do this? How do Intel and AMD CPUs compare in this aspect? Also, how feasible is it to apply these methods on a laptop? My laptop's CPU tends to overheat despite having been cleaned and repasted not long ago. I have an ASUS ROG Strix with a Ryzen 9 5900HX and an RTX 3060. In Armoury Crate, I can adjust the SPL and SPPT values from 80W down to 15W, and with Ryzen Controller, I can set the CPU TDP to 15W as well. My goal is to reduce heat output without compromising performance. Can these adjustments lower the temperature while maintaining frame rates? Are there any long-term risks involved in limiting SPL/SPPT or TDP? Is this a safe fix for a gaming laptop, or if not, why are those options available? Thanks in advance for your insights!
3 Answers
Undervolting shouldn't harm your CPU as long as you do it correctly. Just remember, if you set it too low, it could become unstable, similar to running a car on bad fuel, which might lead to system crashes or data loss.
You can definitely try it out! Many users notice a performance boost when tweaking settings.
Honestly, it's probably not worth it anymore. Modern CPUs are so well binned that significant performance improvements are rare. If you want to experiment, go for it, but don't base your CPU choice on this. Nowadays, I'd recommend going with an AMD CPU for a build.
I had similar overheating issues and undervolted my CPU. It significantly improved my thermals and boosted my Cinebench scores. After that, I added a bit of overclocking, and my CPU now runs faster and cooler than ever. And just to clarify, it's not an old model; it's a Ryzen 7600X.