Undervolting

In short: With undervolting you lower the voltage of a processor or graphics card so it needs less power at the same clock and stays cooler.

In more detail: Manufacturers choose a voltage with a safety margin so that even poor chips run stably. Good chips can run with less voltage. Because power draw rises roughly with the square of the voltage, even small reductions help a lot.

In Depth

• Benefit: less heat, quieter system, less throttling, lower electricity costs.
• Risk: Too low a voltage leads to crashes or calculation errors. Secure it with tests.
• Graphics card: A “curve” with a fixed clock at less voltage often saves 10 to 20 % power at the same speed.
• Consumption: With the energy calculator you can calculate the yearly saving.

See also: Overclocking, TDP and thermal throttling