Can undervolting be a good indicator of CPU overclocking potential?

[xValyriaNx]

About a week ago I started a thread asking if it would be possible to use the stock cooler to get an idea of how well your chip overclocks. Apparently it's not. However, the thought just occurred to me that if your chip can undervolt quite a ways without needing to underclock, maybe that means that on the flip side, you could overclock quite a ways without needing to overvolt. Thus undervolting could be an indicator of how much overclocking headroom you have and how good an overclocker your chip might be.

Essentially I'm just curious if there's any way to gauge your chip's potential (roughly) without actually buying a high end cooler and testing it out.

 

[iBeInspire]

I always thought it was the CPU that decided how far it would go, and then the motherboard that decided how many volts it needed to get there.

I would think that the same CPU in 3 different motherboards would need very different volts in all of them as a minimum at stock clocks.
In the same way, the same CPU in the same 3 Motherboards would need very different volts at it's maximum (Say, 4.5Ghz).

The undervolting technique could be a good way to work out how good a board is, but I doubt it'll tell you much about the CPU

 

[jamesriley94]

This isn't exactly true.
Maybe in a very general sense you'd be able to find out if your chip is one of the better ones, but specifically I don't really think it means much.

On my 3770k, I can manage 4.5ghz at 1.21v which is considered pretty good for that clock speed. However, at the high end of things, I can only manage 4.7ghz whilst needed 1.375v which is a lot.

Undervolting won't tell you anything but how good your chip is at undervolting. It may make you able to make a more accurate guess at how good your chip will be at overclocking, but it won't really tell you anything specific.

 

[xValyriaNx]

Undervolting won't tell you anything but how good your chip is at undervolting. It may make you able to make a more accurate guess at how good your chip will be at overclocking, but it won't really tell you anything specific.

Did you by any chance mean to say that undervolting won't really give you any idea how good your OVERvolting will be?

 

[jamesriley94]

Did you by any chance mean to say that undervolting won't really give you any idea how good your OVERvolting will be?

No... I'm meaning the same thing though.

Just meant the only thing undervolting can tell you is how good your chip actually is at undervolting - nothing else specifically.

 

[xValyriaNx]

Well then, yet another idea shot down. I guess I will just get the best AIO cooler I can and see how lucky I am. I'm still debating though whether I should get a Swiftech H220 now, or wait for the H320 or H240 to come out. I know the H100i is pretty good too but too loud, and most reviews have the quiet mode scoring 5 or more degrees higher, which is way below the noise/performance ratio of the H220.

 

[jamesriley94]

What are your specs?

 

[xValyriaNx]

Fractal design arc midi r2
Corsair ax850
MSI Z87 GD65 gaming
Core i5 4670k
8GB Kingston hyperX 1600
MSI GTX 770 2GB gaming Ed.
Samsung 840 250GB
Seagate 2TB 7200 RPM
Asus xonar essence STX

I'm pretty sure the H320 wouldn't fit unless I mod the case, but the H240 should be fine for front mount.

 

[jamesriley94]

I'd just go for a 240mm one really.
The 320 won't get you better temps as you'll reach the thermal capacities of the chip before the cooler is actually maxing itself out.

 

[xValyriaNx]

What about the 280mm H240? Corsairs and NZXTs 280mm models outperform the H220 by several degrees in most reviews because of the loud fans but even on silent mode they are on par with the H220 despite the lower quality materials because of the surface area. So I was pretty much assuming Swiftech's 280mm should outperform or at least match the others but with much less noise.