CPUs and their voltages

[DrakkyChan]

I know that two CPUs of the same type wouldn't be exactly the same when it comes to overclocking, but wanted to know how much of a difference there would be with voltages and would the mobos effect the voltage required to have a stable setup. Or what would have the biggest impact on the voltages required on an Intel i7 CPU.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

That doesnt make much sense...I think you had better rephrase what you are asking ???

All the best Brett

 

[suteck]

I know that two CPUs of the same type wouldn't be exactly the same when it comes to overclocking, but wanted to know how much of a difference there would be with voltages and would the mobos effect the voltage required to have a stable setup. Or what would have the biggest impact on the voltages required on an Intel i7 CPU.

There could be a little or a lot of differences in the voltages required for overclocking a cpu. The motherboards will definitely make a difference with overclocking. Some have higher capacity or better mosfets/semiconductors and capacitors. Usually the biggest impact, (my opinion), is the cpu. Sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you can tell by the co stepping. But you have to do a lot of research to find out which one(s) overclock better, and it's still usually a matter of luck.

 

[HEXiT]

it depends on lots of factors. as above said. motherboard plays a role as does ram and most important the quality of the actual sample(cpu) for instance the i7 920 D0 stepping which i have, will oc to 3.6 on stock voltage. a good sample will do 3.7 while a bad 1 may not be stable at 3.5. mine seems to be an average 1 that will do 3.6 @1.18125v. i have had it in another board (msi) and it gave the same results, but the owner of that board cant get his stable at 3.4. but thats due to the amount of ram his board has (6x2gig). but if he takes 3 sticks out he can get stable at 3.6 as well. so in essence i would say its mostly down to the cpu then the motherboard and ram config on how good it will oc. and if your not within .0500v within the average for that cpu you likely have a bad sample. personally i prefer to stay inside the stock volts as the oc is likely to stay stable for longer and suffer less leakage as a result of running it faster.


mind saying that i did a short run at 4.2 on mine and i was surprised that i didnt need to go over 1.3v to get it there and finish a 3dmark06 run. end result was 24500 which is 2 k higher than the 3.6 score. from what i understand that speed and voltage will cause most samples to not post, so it was a pleasant surprise. not to mention the max temp of 71'c on my zalman cnps 10 flex again lower than i expected by about 4'c but that can be explained by good paste and fans.