Question Undervolting i7 8700 / b365m Pro4-F

[AirBobOne]

Okay, lets make this quick

i7 8700 /w Pure Rock Slim
ASRock B365m Pro4-F
2x16 Vengeance 2666 CL16
Kingston NV1 1TB
ROG STRIX 3060 Ti
H510i
EVGA 750 GA Gold
Windows 10 64 Bit

Was hitting boost clock limit and games and benchmarks, so wanted to remove the voltage limiter. B365 needs A-Tuning to change voltage in BIOS, only avaliable in Windows 11. Installed ThrottleStop instead. Undervolted CPU and Cache down -0.135v, and set alloweded TDP to 95W. Seems stable in both idle and heavy load (R23 Cinebench), with CPU holding 4.3Ghz and never exceeding 67C, idling at 32C. Set Task Scheduler to start AutoStart ThrottleStop when I log in. New values are loaded on bothrestart, and after shutdown.
My question is, am I missing something, or is this just as good as doing it in BIOS?

 

[uWebb429]

@AirBobOne

Undervolting while in the BIOS or undervolting while you are sitting in Windows accomplishes the same thing. I find it is safer to undervolt after you have booted up into Windows. If you undervolt in the BIOS and your settings are not stable, you might corrupt your Windows install and you could end up in a blue screen boot loop. Not sure why most enthusiasts prefer doing their undervolting in the BIOS. Having to pull the CMOS battery when something goes wrong can be a pain.

Your temperatures are great. Run a TS Bench 960M test and make sure it does not report any errors. You have lots of temperature headroom so you can safely increase the PL1 and PL2 power limits. You can also increase the CPU voltage. There is no need to run your CPU on the edge of stability.

 

[AirBobOne]

@uWebb429

The 8700 can only run 4.3 Ghz an all cores (Regretting not getting a K), and with the undervolting, and I've taken 20w of the usage from 105w to 85w, with it holding 4.3Ghz on all cores at 100 % utility through prime95 and cinebench. Is TS Bench 960M a specfic test for stability that I should work into my testing programs?
Since im running high performance power plan, the clocks rarely goes below 3.7 Ghz, so no stability ussue with clocks getting to little power yet, but is this bad for my CPU long term?
And thanks for quick answer, nice to know third party program can make sense, since I really don't wanna update to Win 11.

 

[uWebb429]

TS Bench 960M

Unlike many stress tests, the TS Bench test does not use any AVX instructions. It works a part of the CPU that many other stress tests ignore. I have found that the TS Bench will start reporting errors sooner compared to some other stress tests when the voltage is set too low. It is a good first test when testing out a new under volt setting.

is this bad for my CPU long term?

The opposite is true. Less power consumption and less heat is great for your CPU. As long as your computer is 100% stable, only giving your CPU the amount of voltage that it needs to be stable is a good thing to be doing.

 

[AirBobOne]

@uWebb429

Thank you so much, -0.135 turned out to have many errors, -0.075 is stable on all test, however its averaging 95w instead of 85w, temps max 73 C.

 

[uWebb429]

73°C

That temperature is very low. You can increase the turbo power limits if you need to.

A -135 mV undervolt is too much for your CPU. The TS Bench should never report any errors. Some users think it is OK to ignore these errors. This can slowly corrupt files on your computer, including Windows. You might have to re-install Windows in a week or a month or you might lose some important files when you undervolt too much.

The TS Bench does millions of simple calculations twice and compares the answers.

2 + 5 = 7
5 + 2 = 6

Two different answers so that is what the TS Bench will report as an error. A computer that cannot provide consistent and accurate results cannot be trusted. It was a good idea to reduce your undervolt.

Now do you know why I like the TS Bench test? It can very quickly show you when an undervolt is not 100% stable. Some other stability tests you have to run for hours and hours before your computer will crash. The TS Bench gives an early warning when the voltages are not stable before a computer crashes with a blue screen.

 

[AirBobOne]

@uWebb429

You can increase the turbo power limits if you need to.

I don't think it's possible to get the 8700 (non K) to go more than 4.3 Ghz on all cores, or is there something i don't know?