Core i7-980X: Dialing In Efficiency With The Right Overclock

Overclocking With Minimum Voltage Increase

Multiplier 30x, 4.0 GHz (Turbo Boost 31x, 32x at: 4.13, 4.26 GHz)

At 4.00 GHz and up, we had to increase the processor voltage to maintain system stability. In the case of 4.13 (4.26 GHz with Turbo Boost), a 30mV offset is already sufficient. However, power consumption increases much more than performance, resulting in decreased efficiency.

Multiplier 31x (Turbo Boost 32x, 33x at 4.26, 4.4 GHz)

The same happens to the fastest reliable setting we obtained with just a moderate voltage increase. We started off with a 250mV offset, but were able to reduce to just 73mV. Even then, power efficiency decreased significantly because of power consumption growing much faster than performance.