Question about cpu voltage. Could it be too low, but not causing BSOD/crashes.

[tarbal]

Basically, if Windows do not crash during multiple CPU stress test (Prime95, OCCT, AIDA) does it means the voltage is OK?

I understand a too high voltage would result in overheating.
Too low voltage will cause BSOD, or POST, or Windows loading issue.

But, is there a state where the voltage is too low to supply enough power to the cpu, therefore, causing cpu to under-perform or causing performance issue. But without causing OS to crash ?
Is that kind of gray zone exist ? Or is it white or black ? Either it crash (have to ajust voltage) or not crash (= settings are fine).


Thanks !

 

[Mandrake4565]

In general if overclocking, if you can pass at least 2 hours of any of the stress tests you mention above, for daily usage your voltage shouldn't be too low. I have seen instances where if one is doing some sort of "real work" where the Cpu is running at 100% on all cores for extended periods of time it may need additional voltage to be stable. I have only seen instances in benchmarking where the Cpu was getting enough voltage to be stable to run the bench, but not enough to perform the task at peak performance. That said when one is benchmarking, the Cpu is usually only stable enough to pass the benchmark. Again, if you were to pass at least two hours of a stress test, you shouldn't have any issues with too little voltage. Hope this helps.

 

[EarthDog]

Like The Great Mandrake, I have also only seen that during benchmarking. times/scores are just 'off' for a given clockspeed.. bump more voltage and viola! Normal scores.

If you are having some trouble, add a bit of voltage and see if it goes away...

... are you having trouble or is this just a random question?

 

[tarbal]

Like The Great Mandrake, I have also only seen that during benchmarking. times/scores are just 'off' for a given clockspeed.. bump more voltage and viola! Normal scores.

If you are having some trouble, add a bit of voltage and see if it goes away...

... are you having trouble or is this just a random question?

Thank you both for the reply.

Basically I ran stress test for a few hours, everthing looked good. But got BSOD while gaming the same night. I added 0.005v since. Never had issue again...
I ran benchmark an noticed I've gained a few points compared to when I had lower voltage. Might not be related, be found it interesting.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Sometimes with benchmarks depending on which one the score will fluctuate (basically a margin of error). If adding voltage gave you higher scores consistently then it was probably the issue. Though, for myself when I'm running benchmarks I'm usually at the edge of stability, ie just stable enough to run the bench. On those occasions I can see sometimes adding voltage will consistently give me higher scores. If on the rare occasions I am benching on my 24/7 overclocks that have been stress tested and passed, usually it's just a margin of error on the test.

 

[caddi daddi]

I have also seen issues with low vcore at idle causing a freeze or bsod, when the rig will run the stress tests for hours on end, gave it a little boost in base vcore and it was all fine. most of my rigs can adjust vcore by pressing the "+" key, so after finding the base vcore that it will pass all my stress tests on I add 2 clicks and no more issues.

 

[EarthDog]

That typically happens on adaptive of if you use high llc.