(04-22-2018, 05:31 PM)Kurausukun Wrote: I'm kind of new to being able to overclock my CPU. My previous laptops all had chips that couldn't be overclocked, but the one I have now, an i7-7820HK, can be overclocked to 3.9GHz. However, I very rarely need that extra power, so I keep it at its base clock most of the time. In fact, the only application that really requires overclocking is Dolphin when OCing the emulated GC/Wii CPU or using certain 60FPS codes. But it's kind of a pain to go into the BIOS every time I want to do this. So here's the question:
If I overclock my CPU, is it always running at that overclocked rate? I'd like to have it overclocked at all times just so it's not a pain when I want to use it, but I'm worried that I'll reduce the lifespan of my CPU that way. Are CPUs somehow able to know how intense the current workload is and dynamically adjust the clock rate, or are they always running at the same speed and just doing nops when there's nothing to do? My basic knowledge of CPU hardware suggests the second, but I don't know for sure since I haven't studied modern CPUs. So is it safe or should I avoid it?
It's kind of hard to explain, but in my experience the cpu will drop down when it's not doing much - I've seen my 4.4Ghz Athlon drop itself down to below 3.7, which was its stock speed. Exactly how often and for how long it drops itself down to this level would need some further testing that I'll look into doing now.
Also, it's more the increased voltage than the clock rate that makes cpu's eventually fail if I recall correctly, so doing the overclock using the minimum stable voltage can help with longevity, if you can control that manually.