Does Overclocking cause full power draw for a system full time?

[420inPortland]

This may seem to be a stupid question, but money is tight and I'm wondering if i run my CPU overclocked does the system stay at the full power draw needed to run at those clocks, or does it drop off voltage when not under load, like in normal power scaling of windows profiles?

 

Thanks.

[Kilrah]

Whether clock scales depend on how you canfigure it, but even at constant full clocks power draw is still dependent on load. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Normallly even when overclocked, the CPU will use more power when under load than at idle, and many powersaving features can be used.

 

With modern cpus, you can turn up the power and thermal limits and raise the max clock for about the same idle performance while having a oc.

[420inPortland]

So if i crank up my 1800X to say 4Ghz 1.5V, it does not use that full power draw it says is available , except when under load correct? When not under load it will drop voltage to save on energy , yes? The power scaling based on usage is only a thing in the last 10yrs or so correct, like back in the day it just sucked back the full voltage all the time, or am i remembering that incorrectly?

[Kilrah]

Even at full voltage all the time the CPU will draw less power when idle/low load. 

 

Again it depends on how you configure your OC/BIOS. If you want to lock everything you can, if not you can too. 

[420inPortland]

3 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Even at full voltage all the time the CPU will draw less power when idle/low load. 

 

Again it depends on how you configure your OC/BIOS. If you want to lock everything you can, if not you can too. 

Am i just remembering incorrectly that during like to early 2000s that an overclocked chip would suck back the max voltage at all times?

[Kilrah]

No. What I'm saying is:

- Constant full voltage doesn't mean constant full power draw

- You can still set today's gear to constant full voltage if you want. Typically done that way for the highest possible overclocks since varying voltages means figuring out the proper curves and the changes can introduce instabilities.

[420inPortland]

@kilrah

 Hey I see there is a message from user "freeagent" in my notifications, but I dont see it here in the thread? 

[NF-A12x25]

23 minutes ago, 420inPortland said:

@kilrah

 Hey I see there is a message from user "freeagent" in my notifications, but I dont see it here in the thread? 

it’s just a post reaction, it’s there.

[420inPortland]

1 hour ago, NF-A12x25 said:

it’s just a post reaction, it’s there.

Ahhh, ty.