Glossary
Undervolting
Lowering a CPU or GPU's operating voltage below the factory default. Reduces heat and power draw, often allowing higher sustained clocks — the rare "free lunch" tweak.
Factory voltage curves include guardband — extra margin to ensure every chip in a SKU runs stably across temperature and process variation. Most individual chips will run stably well below factory voltage.
What it gets you
- 5–15 °C cooler at the same clock.
- Higher sustained boost (less thermal throttling).
- Quieter fans.
- A few percent more battery life on laptops.
Risks
- Crashes or freezes if voltage drops too far. Always stress test (OCCT, Prime95, FurMark) before trusting the setting.
- Voids some OEM warranties.
- BIOS resets can undo settings silently.
How to do it
- Intel: Throttlestop or XTU (older platforms — newer ones lock voltage in firmware).
- AMD: Curve Optimizer in BIOS (Ryzen 5000 and newer).
- NVIDIA: MSI Afterburner curve editor.
For laptops where the OEM has locked voltage controls, undervolting is not an option — chassis design matters more.
Where this matters
Categories that use undervolting
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