Does overclocking hurt the CPU?

[baloonis]

Greetings and excuse my newbie question, it's my first time overclocking my i5 6600K on an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard with Cryorig R1 Universal as cooler  (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9X4pjX)

 

I don't really need to overclock since I don't play very demanding games (for now at least), but I want to for the fun of it.

 

I know people advise to overclock in baby steps, however Is there any real chance I might damage the CPU in the process? Some guides say I shouldn't change the voltage settings, and some say I can provided it is stable.

 

How about long-term damage? Is it safe to work the CPU at max overclock for the next 5 years for example? Is it "better" to overclock to something less than max, eg. 4,2 GHz?

 

Thanks!

[hex4]

3 minutes ago, baloonis said:

Greetings and excuse my newbie question, it's my first time overclocking my i5 6600K on an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard with Cryorig R1 Universal as cooler  (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9X4pjX)

 

I don't really need to overclock since I don't play very demanding games (for now at least), but I want to for the fun of it.

 

I know people advise to overclock in baby steps, however Is there any real chance I might damage the CPU in the process? Some guides say I shouldn't change the voltage settings, and some say I can provided it is stable.

 

How about long-term damage? Is it safe to work the CPU at max overclock for the next 5 years for example? Is it "better" to overclock to something less than max, eg. 4,2 GHz?

 

Thanks!

Yes it can if you allow it to run at obscene temperatures or don't know much in regards to voltage limits.

You will find even a heavily OC'd CPU with good cooling and decent voltages will last way passed being useful.

[baloonis]

5 minutes ago, hex4 said:

Yes it can if you allow it to run at obscene temperatures or don't know much in regards to voltage limits.

You will find even a heavily OC'd CPU with good cooling and decent voltages will last way passed being useful.

Thanks.

 

How can I find those values that you mention? What would be an obscene temperature and a voltage limit?

[Naeaes]

Overclocking an i5 gives you exactly zero benefits in gaming. It's already overpowered for most games in existence and just right for the rest.

Technically only two things can damage the CPU, overvoltage and overheat. Keep those two things in check and you're golden. Your best bet is to never ramp up the voltage at all, that'll also serve to keep temps down. But you really can't achieve anything that way. The CPU already has the automatic function called Intel Turbo Boost Technology, to overclock it pretty much as high as it can go with the stock voltage. 

[hex4]

2 minutes ago, baloonis said:

Thanks.

 

How can I find those values that you mention? What would be an obscene temperature and a voltage limit?

For intel, 24/7 use try not to exceed 75c, though you can go higher i don't recommend it.

Stay under 1.4V

[hex4]

7 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Overclocking an i5 gives you exactly zero benefits in gaming. It's already overpowered for most games in existence and just right for the rest.

Technically only two things can damage the CPU, overvoltage and overheat. Keep those two things in check and you're golden. Your best bet is to never ramp up the voltage at all, that'll also serve to keep temps down. But you really can't achieve anything that way. The CPU already has the automatic function called Intel Turbo Boost Technology, to overclock it pretty much as high as it can go with the stock voltage. 

This is the lamest answer i have ever seen, of course you will gain performance from an i5, it's not magic pixie dust just because it is Skylake and an i5 lol.

[baloonis]

29 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Overclocking an i5 gives you exactly zero benefits in gaming. It's already overpowered for most games in existence and just right for the rest.

Technically only two things can damage the CPU, overvoltage and overheat. Keep those two things in check and you're golden. Your best bet is to never ramp up the voltage at all, that'll also serve to keep temps down. But you really can't achieve anything that way. The CPU already has the automatic function called Intel Turbo Boost Technology, to overclock it pretty much as high as it can go with the stock voltage. 

 

Doesn't seem like zero benefits in gaming to me

[Kapono]

Yes, but it all depends on how much, either way, if you overclock a little, it will shorten the life span of it, if you overclock it a lot, with out you caring then your CPU will just burn up. If i was you, my main priority will be to get a CPU fan to help it to live the overclock and not get BSOD every second ...Your CPU cooler is all good for overclocking. 

Again, don't abuse the feature of overclocking for it will damage your CPU a lot.  

[Naeaes]

17 minutes ago, hex4 said:

This is the lamest answer i have ever seen, of course you will gain performance from an i5, it's not magic pixie dust just because it is Skylake and an i5 lol.

Did you misread or misunderstand? I did not say or mean to imply that you wouldn't gain performance from an i5 by overclocking it.

I meant actual benefits such as significantly higher AVG FPS without stuttering or gaining ability to turn on new/better graphic settings. 

I also meant to narrow it down to gaming. There are lots of other, more CPU-intensive and singlethreaded workloads that do benefit from overcloking an i5.

I also meant to narrow it down to i5. There are lots of other processors that give actual benefits in gaming per se.

[Naeaes]

18 minutes ago, baloonis said:

 

Doesn't seem like zero benefits in gaming to me

This video is comparing the 4,5GHz overclock to the 3,5GHz base frequency. But the 6600K has a max turbo of 3,9GHz. So yeah, that difference in this video is significant even statistically regardless of your personal beliefs. It's just that it's comparing OC'd vs turbo boost off where as I meant OC'd vs turbo on. Now, seriously, you actually believe the additional 600MHz would be visible to the naked eye? Like really honestly? I mean, I don't want to go into a flamewar about matters of opinion and perception, but I personally need around twice the FPS to spot it while gaming. Even a third or 25% would be awesome but I cannot fathom how such a thing would ever be possible. Maybe comparing underclocks to overclocks? Regardless, my stance remains, if it's solely for gaming, your time is better spent tinkering with the game/GPU settings and overclocking your GPU than overclocking an i5.

[DXMember]

2 hours ago, baloonis said:

Thanks.

 

How can I find those values that you mention? What would be an obscene temperature and a voltage limit?

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

[Belps96]

Overclocking will reduce the life of your CPU, yes. However, as long as you still keep it relatively cool, it should last until you're due for an upgrade

[Mrhappyjolly]

As you are a newbie to this, my advice is this... go for the best overclock you can WITHOUT modifying the voltage. This is also of course assuming you are not running a stock cooler. Here's some steps to follow.

 

1) Make sure you have temperature monitoring software up and running correctly in Windows before you start anything (or linux, whatever) make a note of what temperature your running at when Idle and after benchmarking for 10 mins or so... basically wait for the max temp under load to level out and record that number. 

 

2) Determine if the temps you recorded in step 1) are normal. Idle is in the 30c range and 100% load high 60c range (check this! I don't know specifically for your cpu) This tells you that your current cooling is working ok and as a baseline, everything is setup properly. 

 

3) All being well, start overclocking, again DO NOT

a) Start of with a high overclock - try in .2 increments 2.5 to 2.7ghz, 2.7 to 2.9ghz, 2.9 to 3.1ghz - you get the idea.

b) Do NOT touch the voltage. 

 

4) Get a stable overclock first using the .2 increment method, then post an update here, this needs to be stable, each time you should test the machine by benchmarking and also try your games (I've found benchmarking doesn't always cause a crash - but on games it does if it's overclocked too much)

 

5) Once your stable and happy to start thinking about upping the voltage, come back for advice. I've never felt the need to start messing with voltages myself, I don't take Overclocking too seriously, I managed to get my 3770k to 4.3ghz without voltage changes, that's enough for me. oh and

 

6) Have realistic expectations please! Loads of people post telling the world "oh I got 5.5ghz on a core i5 or i7" you don't hear from people too often about modest overclocks. 

 

Follow these tips, and you should be just fine. 

[JamGorby]

I've been overclocking CPU's since overclocking was a thing. For as much as anecdotes are worth, it's been a really long time since I've seen a destroyed CPU from reasonable overclocking. And I was overclocking back when it consisted of setting the multiplier and FSB with jumper blocks and crossing your fingers. A lot of the overclocking fears come from dated information. Modern CPU's are robust as hell and you would almost have to be deliberately trying to kill them to do any damage. 

[baloonis]

2 hours ago, Mrhappyjolly said:

As you are a newbie to this, my advice is this... go for the best overclock you can WITHOUT modifying the voltage. This is also of course assuming you are not running a stock cooler. Here's some steps to follow.

 

1) Make sure you have temperature monitoring software up and running correctly in Windows before you start anything (or linux, whatever) make a note of what temperature your running at when Idle and after benchmarking for 10 mins or so... basically wait for the max temp under load to level out and record that number. 

 

2) Determine if the temps you recorded in step 1) are normal. Idle is in the 30c range and 100% load high 60c range (check this! I don't know specifically for your cpu) This tells you that your current cooling is working ok and as a baseline, everything is setup properly. 

 

3) All being well, start overclocking, again DO NOT

a) Start of with a high overclock - try in .2 increments 2.5 to 2.7ghz, 2.7 to 2.9ghz, 2.9 to 3.1ghz - you get the idea.

b) Do NOT touch the voltage. 

 

4) Get a stable overclock first using the .2 increment method, then post an update here, this needs to be stable, each time you should test the machine by benchmarking and also try your games (I've found benchmarking doesn't always cause a crash - but on games it does if it's overclocked too much)

 

5) Once your stable and happy to start thinking about upping the voltage, come back for advice. I've never felt the need to start messing with voltages myself, I don't take Overclocking too seriously, I managed to get my 3770k to 4.3ghz without voltage changes, that's enough for me. oh and

 

6) Have realistic expectations please! Loads of people post telling the world "oh I got 5.5ghz on a core i5 or i7" you don't hear from people too often about modest overclocks. 

 

Follow these tips, and you should be just fine. 

Thank you for the detailed info! I will post an update when I am done.

[Mrhappyjolly]

2 minutes ago, baloonis said:

Thank you for the detailed info! I will post an update when I am done.

post up your idle and load temps before overclocking so we can tell you if everything is ok to start

 

[Quaker]

Overclocking can shorten the life of your CPU (or GPU), especially if it's "extreme". In most cases though the chip will still last longer than you need it too.

Keep in mind though, that as the chip degrades, you may find that it becomes unstable down the road, and you may need to knock the OC back a bit.

I've often seen someone complaining about how some piece of software keeps crashing on their machine, only to find out that it was OC'd about 6 months ago, but the users sort of "forgot" it was overclocked. This particularly happens when someone who is not really interested in overclocking just does it because it's easy or some friend or on-line site convinces them to try it.

[baloonis]

20 hours ago, Mrhappyjolly said:

post up your idle and load temps before overclocking so we can tell you if everything is ok to start

 

Good morning! I have some results, cpu temps when idle and after 10 mins of cinebench

[BrightCandle]

Voltage kills CPUs faster than clockspeed mainly because it takes a lot of voltage change to produce relatively small increases in clock speed. Temperature increases the rate at which the voltage does damage. All CPUs are being damaged by use, they are designed to last less than 20 years but you can absolutely reduce that to either an instant death with too much voltage or a matter of a year or two before significant and obvious degradation in peak clock speed occurs and actual electron migration death of the CPU occurs.