If you overclock your CPU, does the CPU draw more power than its TDP (Thermal Design Power) number?

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SeriousGaming101

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Mar 17, 2016
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For example, if your CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) is 125 watts. And you overclock it by 20% more, does the CPU draw more power than the 125 watts? (Say, 150 watts)

Or is the Thermal Design Power the maximum power draw the CPU can take, no matter how high you overclock? (Say, a 50% overclock but still draw only 125 watts of power)
 
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It depends. A Q9650 is 95W TDP, if you overclock it then yes. The same silicon is also used in the QX9650 with 130W TDP and unlocked multiplier. So up to a point no. Basically if you just raise speed by FSB, or multiplier then +20%=120%. But if you raise volatage 20% to get 20% more speed then 1.2x1.2=1.44 times more heat. What cooling you can provide, and what power the MB can supply are the 2 main limits. Some motherboards use the TDP rating to determine if a CPU will be allowed to boot. Dell Optiplex almost all have a 95W CPU limit. So the Q9650 will run, and the QX9650 won't. So sometimes it's used as a hard limit. But on aftermarket overclocking motherboards it's not.
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mdd1963

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TDP is merely a heat dissipation figure, and, although roughly approximate as to average levels of power being drawn as well, there can be quite a disparity under a peak load, such as running Prime 95 and Cinebench, for example.

Many a Ryzen R7-1700 (a fine processor, btw!) loved to tout the 60 watt TDP figure, and, then ignore the 170-200 watts drawn at the wall figures when OC'd to 3.9 GHz...

BUt a CPUs TDP rating is merely an average heat dissipation....' overclock it by 25%, and the figure can double...and in the case of the 7900X...it can triple...
 
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william p

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Sep 22, 2010
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It depends. A Q9650 is 95W TDP, if you overclock it then yes. The same silicon is also used in the QX9650 with 130W TDP and unlocked multiplier. So up to a point no. Basically if you just raise speed by FSB, or multiplier then +20%=120%. But if you raise volatage 20% to get 20% more speed then 1.2x1.2=1.44 times more heat. What cooling you can provide, and what power the MB can supply are the 2 main limits. Some motherboards use the TDP rating to determine if a CPU will be allowed to boot. Dell Optiplex almost all have a 95W CPU limit. So the Q9650 will run, and the QX9650 won't. So sometimes it's used as a hard limit. But on aftermarket overclocking motherboards it's not.
 
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