CPU supplied with not enough voltage

[StormEye]

I would like to know whether

 

A. the system would crash outright if not enough voltage is supplied to the CPU; or

B. the system would start to lose performance (ie drop in fps during game) until it reaches critical point where crash occurs

[SpaceGhostC2C]

2 minutes ago, StormEye said:

I would like to know whether

 

A. the system would crash outright if not enough voltage is supplied to the CPU; or

Maybe

2 minutes ago, StormEye said:

B. the system would start to lose performance (ie drop in fps during game) until it reaches critical point where crash occurs

No, the alternative is for it not to crash immediately/refuse to start, but to be "unstable", meaning it crashes after working for a while.

It won't "half-work" on its way to the crash.

[StormEye]

So basically, as long as the system seems to be working then thats enough voltage for CPU, right? @SpaceGhostC2C

[Tauwer]

Just now, StormEye said:

So basically, as long as the system seems to be working then thats enough voltage for CPU, right? @SpaceGhostC2C

if under a stress test and it`s not crashing. Than it`s fairly save to say it works just fine

[steffeeh]

You'd see a similar stability scenario as when increasing the clock speed without touching the voltage. If the CPU receives way too little voltage then sure it probably won't even boot, or at least crash pretty quickly when launching any heavy application. But no you won't see any performance loss unless you haver to downclock the CPU.

There are people who are feeding their CPUs too little voltage on purpose to cut down the heat and therefore fan speeds, and therefore noise levels (for instance on some laptops) - this is called undervolting.

[StormEye]

Just now, Tauwer said:

if under a stress test and it`s not crashing. Than it`s fairly save to say it works just fine

Thanks for confirmation.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Just now, StormEye said:

So basically, as long as the system seems to be working then thats enough voltage for CPU, right? @SpaceGhostC2C

Yes. Test it under load, and if it passes fine, it should be good.

 

I should say that I'm not 100% correct, as unstable overclocks can deliver corrupt results without crashing (test software such as OCCT would tell you and stop the test when that happens). But that would translate into weird behavior or the equivalent of GPU artifacts, not to slower, correct performance.

[Tauwer]

Just now, StormEye said:

Thanks for confirmation.

run something like cinebench? i`m not sure but i think that`l stress the pc enough

[Jurrunio]

a. Yes

 

b. Possible, especially when you are on the line of 'enough volts' and 'not enough volts'

[Enderman]

You can get errors or program crashes without the entire computer crashing if the CPU doesn't have enough voltage.