I underclocked and undervolted my CPU but have some questions

[Tech Reprise]

I underclocked and undervolted my CPU by following Tech Yes City's guide of setting fixed CPU Core ratio @40.00 and Offset voltage -0.096 (I set CPU Vcore to Normal and Dynamic VCore to -0.096) and now my CPU temps are much lower by around 16C on a Deepcool AK620. Previously it used to hit 78-80C while gaming on a ambient temperature of 37C but now it hits only 62C while gaming. Cinebench scores decreased by only 104 points.

Now I have a few questions:

 

1. Is the above method safe?
2. My CPU maximum voltage as per Hwinfo64 was 1.006V which seems a bit low. Is this normal?
3. After setting Core Ratio to 40.00 the CPU doesn't seem to downclock at idle and monitoring softwares always show 3998Mhz. Is this normal  or does it downclock and the software doesn't catch it? Where should I look to check if it downclocks in idle mode?

[YoungBlade]

1. As far as your hardware is concerned, undervolting is always safe. It actually puts less strain on the CPU to give it less voltage. The only downside is that it can cause instability - worse case is that, in theory, this instability could cause data corruption, but the odds of that are astronomically small. 999 times out of 1000, the worst thing that will happen is that your computer will hard reset.

2. That is a low maximum voltage, but your goal is to lower the voltage. As long as you aren't getting instability, it should be fine.

3. You said you gave it a fixed core ratio. That means that the core ratio is now fixed, so it won't change. If you want the ratio to be able to change, you'll need to look at other methods of undervolting.

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, Tech Reprise said:

I underclocked and undervolted my CPU by following Tech Yes City's guide of setting fixed CPU Core ratio @40.00 and Offset voltage -0.096 (I set CPU Vcore to Normal and Dynamic VCore to -0.096) and now my CPU temps are much lower by around 16C on a Deepcool AK620. Previously it used to hit 78-80C while gaming on a ambient temperature of 37C but now it hits only 62C while gaming. Cinebench scores decreased by only 104 points.

Now I have a few questions:

 

1. Is the above method safe?
2. My CPU maximum voltage as per Hwinfo64 was 1.006V which seems a bit low. Is this normal?
3. After setting Core Ratio to 40.00 the CPU doesn't seem to downclock at idle and monitoring softwares always show 3998Mhz. Is this normal  or does it downclock and the software doesn't catch it? Where should I look to check if it downclocks in idle mode?

This looks like Intel tweaking  

Why don't you use PBO ? 

[Alex Atkin UK]

39 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

This looks like Intel tweaking  

Why don't you use PBO ? 

Indeed, setting a locked clock is just forcing it to use more power when idle than necessary.

 

Idle voltages are likely to be a LOT lower on average with a curve offset and letting the CPU downclock/sleep cores when idle.

[Tech Reprise]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

This looks like Intel tweaking  

Why don't you use PBO ? 

I am actually trying out multiple methods to see which one feels best. Only had limited time to try this method out, might try researching PBO optimisation later as it needs more tweaking and there are no definite 5700x guides out there and most are for 5800x which should also work as they are essentially similar.

[Tech Reprise]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Indeed, setting a locked clock is just forcing it to use more power when idle than necessary.

 

Idle voltages are likely to be a LOT lower on average with a curve offset and letting the CPU downclock/sleep cores when idle.

My main goal is to get a lower temperature as it's peak summer here with outside temperatures reaching 42-45C.

A slight hit in performance is fine for me as long as the difference is not too much. 

[Tech Reprise]

5 hours ago, PDifolco said:

This looks like Intel tweaking  

Why don't you use PBO ? 

 

4 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Indeed, setting a locked clock is just forcing it to use more power when idle than necessary.

 

Idle voltages are likely to be a LOT lower on average with a curve offset and letting the CPU downclock/sleep cores when idle.

Update: I turned off the manual underclocking I did previously and turned on Eco Mode in bios and now temps are now lower and performance only took a minor hit by 687 points in Cinebench R23.

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, Tech Reprise said:

 

Update: I turned off the manual underclocking I did previously and turned on Eco Mode in bios and now temps are now lower and performance only took a minor hit by 687 points in Cinebench R23.

Seems a bit overkill, but if you're happy with the performance.

 

Remember these CPUs are SUPPOSED to boost into the ~80C range, its not something you need to avoid.

[MadAnt250]

10 hours ago, Tech Reprise said:

I underclocked and undervolted my CPU by following Tech Yes City's guide of setting fixed CPU Core ratio @40.00 and Offset voltage -0.096 (I set CPU Vcore to Normal and Dynamic VCore to -0.096) and now my CPU temps are much lower by around 16C on a Deepcool AK620. Previously it used to hit 78-80C while gaming on a ambient temperature of 37C but now it hits only 62C while gaming. Cinebench scores decreased by only 104 points.

Now I have a few questions:

 

1. Is the above method safe?
2. My CPU maximum voltage as per Hwinfo64 was 1.006V which seems a bit low. Is this normal?
3. After setting Core Ratio to 40.00 the CPU doesn't seem to downclock at idle and monitoring softwares always show 3998Mhz. Is this normal  or does it downclock and the software doesn't catch it? Where should I look to check if it downclocks in idle mode?

Mess with the curve optimizer in the PBO settings, you may need to mess with the power limits (PPT, EDC and TDC). Then undervolt the core voltage. You can tune it so the temps are no higher than the mid 70's if you want. With some tweaks you can get 4.65 all core with good temps on a decent cooler.

 

I don't know what you followed from Tech Yes is the correct guide for you, but you should be able to get better performance than a stock 5800X while keeping the temps under control with a decent cooler.

[Tech Reprise]

Another update. 

I removed the TechYesCity manual UC+UV as it was making the PPT and EDC too high and I removed eco mode too as the difference in temps while gaming was not too much and moreover it was showing clock stretching in some cases. 

For the time being I am letting it stay on factory settings and not fiddling as I will play at night time when it's a bit cooler plus it's too much of a headache for me.