Worried about my new i7 8700K An Intel expert's opinion would be much appreciated...

[MRobe10]

Hi. I bought an i7 8700K with an ASUS ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming Wifi AC motherboard and 16 GBs G.Skill DDR4 3000 RAM just a month ago. Thing is that my motherboard has been messing with my CPU voltage and frequency quite a bit, putting it at 1,344v with default clocks (and that for what I've seen. In a previous BIOS I could have perfectly had it at 1,4-1,45, but it didn't occur to me to keep an eye on my voltages back then, so I can't be sure), thanks to a faulty MCE (MultiCore "Enhancement") BIOS option that I had enabled by default. I've now turned that option off, and now my voltages are always between 1,15 and 1,2 under load, sometimes with very rare and brief jumps to 1,25-1,27 at most.

My questions are:

1) Are my new voltages the right ones for a stock i7 8700K? (voltages taken with Prime95 running with the "Max energy usage" option (100% CPU usage on all cores), and running games and emulators (usually 50% CPU usage).

2) I like to take great care for the stuff I buy, especially if it hasn't been cheap for me precisely. So, has the lifespan of my CPU been affected in any way or measure for that period of time (almost 1 month) running at those voltages? Which is the max voltage that this CPU supports before it starts to noticeably affect it's lifespan?

Note: I currently have NOT my CPU overclocked in any kind of way, and I've never had, not at least voluntarely. I've it at stock frequencies.

Thanks for the replies.

[MRobe10]

No replies yet? Wow.

[idata · Accepted solution]

Hello Dovakhan,

Thank you for joining the Processors Community. I can sure help with your inquiry..

I will answer in the same order you posted the questions, see below.

1) The voltage range for this model in operating modes goes from 0 to a maximum of 1.52V. This means that any parameter in this range is completely fine, the voltage behavior you mentioned is fine based on that.

2) The maximum is 1.52V, the lifespan of your processor was not affected since it was running under the specification.

Regards,

Amy C.

[MRobe10]

Thanks.

[idata]

Dovakhan, sure.

If you have more questions, please let us know.

Regards,

Amy C.