High voltage combined with low temperature could cause system damage.
High voltage combined with low temperature could cause system damage.
Hi there
I started experimenting with overclocking my CPU recently. I have an A10 7890K running at 4.6 GHz, and the voltage is fluctuating between 1.58 and 1.64. Under load, the temperature reaches around 65°C (during a stress test with Pirme95 and AIDA64), while it drops to 33-45°C during normal operation—probably not more than 50°C. I’m using a Master Vortex Plus cooler, which is really effective.
My GPU runs at 1140 GHz, and the RAM is 2133 MHz with a 11-11-11-27 2 configuration at 1.7V. The northbridge operates at 2000 MHz at 1.3V, but it fails to stabilize above 2100 MHz, causing system crashes. With these settings, the system runs smoothly and temperatures stay relatively low on the motherboard (around 34-27°C).
Before beginning the overclocking process, I read that the CPU voltage shouldn’t exceed 1.54V, but my motherboard (ASUS X88M Plus) was set to 1.53V by default. The BIOS specifies a minimum and maximum voltage range of 1.5 to 1.7V, using an offset adjustment method. My concern is whether running at such high voltages could harm the APU, even though the temperatures remain manageable.
It exceeds the safe upper limit of 1.5v for that chip, which means using such high voltage could harm it or the memory even if the temperature is low.
I'm gradually reducing the voltage. It's now at 1.55625. This process is slow, testing in small steps of 0.00625v for 30 on prime95. I want to find out how much more I can lower it. I think it's strange because increasing the frequency on the igpu gives a more stable clock speed with a lower voltage.