Will I lose a lot of performance by capping my i7 14700K to 160W and undervolting it?
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TechWhiz42
Hey folks, I'm facing a bit of a dilemma with my i7 14700K. My motherboard's VRMs are too weak to handle more than 180 watts, so I'm considering locking the power limit to 160 watts for stability. I'm also thinking about undervolting it. How much performance loss could I expect from this? Also, any tips on lowering the VRM temperatures while maintaining decent performance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help!
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I had a 14900K that I ran at 220W max and 150W sustained, and it was great! But you can definitely get away with lower limits without much heat, so tuning it to not exceed 95C worked for me. Did you try undervolting too?
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Based on my tests, if you undervolt well and keep your CPU capped at 160W, you could hit over 32k points in multicore Cinebench R23, which is around 90% of the performance you'd expect! Just curious, what motherboard are you using?
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Check out this testing with a 14900K at various power limits—while they likely didn't undervolt, if you do, the performance gap could narrow even more. Here’s the link to the tests: [TechPowerUp Review](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-14900k-raptor-lake-tested-at-power-limits-down-to-35-w/5.html). Also, there's a video with a 14700K that's worth watching, even if it's in German: [YouTube Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=514mX8Onxqc).
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