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No, AMD Ryzen “Board Power Cheats” Won’t Shorten Your CPU Lifespan

A post appeared on TomsHardware today claiming that some motherboard partners are exceeding the stock power limits of your Ryzen CPUs. While this isn’t false, what it implies is rather misleading. Increasing your CPU power draw by around 10-20% or heck even 50% won’t have a notable impact on your CPU’s lifespan. Most OEMs who override stock power limits equip their motherboards with cutting edge VRMs, which are more than capable of handling these higher parameters.

Now, let’s talk about voltage. Yes, increasing this does have an adverse impact on your chip, but unless you set it too high and at a fixed limit, you don’t have anything to worry about. Modern CPUs and motherboards come with multiple fail-safes to counter these little tricks used by board partners and enthusiasts, and the chances of you frying your beloved processor are marginal at best.

This article shared after HWiNFO included a feature that tells you how much the reported power (by your mobo) varies from the actual value drawn by the CPU. This is represented by a percentage where, a higher value indicates a more precise power draw reporting. You can read more about it here.

Areej Syed

Processors, PC gaming, and the past. I have been writing about computer hardware for over seven years with more than 5000 published articles. Started off during engineering college and haven't stopped since. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Divinity, Torment, Baldur's Gate and so much more... Contact: areejs12@hardwaretimes.com.
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