If you’re overclocking CPUs, you might have wondered why some CPUs burn out at 1.8v, while others are perfectly fine. In this short but comprehensive guide I’ll be providing an explanation for this, but most importantly, I have a list of all CPU voltage tolerances for you, so you know what voltage to set your CPU to not burn it out, but still have it work with higher clocks, or if you want to get the best CPU, what is the voltage that it should tolerate.
 
 
Quick note: 1.7v is safe for all base game CPUs, no matter the model or quality.
 
 
Disclaimer: everything in this guide is related to the game PC Building Simulator ONLY. Any damage caused to a PC in real life due to following this game guide is completely YOUR own fault, I take NO responsibility for any thoughts or actions upon real life PCs based on this guide, and I’m saddened by the fact that this even has to be said.
 
 

Da list

List of all CPU minimum and maximum safe voltages – [google.com] 

 
 
Da list is fairly simple: the first column has all the CPUs that are in the base game (sorry HEM users, but I’ll give you some help too in the later sections). Second column has the minimum safe voltages for these CPUs, meaning that any of that CPU will not burn out at this voltage, whatever its quality (silicon lottery value, I’ll explain this later). As mentioned in the quick note in the description above, 1.7v is safe for all current base game CPUs. Third column is the maximum safe voltage, meaning that all CPUs, if you put them above this value, will burn out, regardless of their quality. A small percentage of parts, that have a higher quality, will be able to survive at this voltage, consequently being able to reach higher clocks too.
 
 
 

Da way it works – warning, maths! (spooky, I know)

All CPUs have a hidden stat (at least it’s not shown in the game), called “OC Base Voltage” (I’ll call this OCbv from now on). You can check this value in PUC_Snakeman’s Parts & Unlocks Guide – [steamcommunity.com] , on the CPUs sheet it’s in column AD. This value is specified individually for each CPU, and it governs the maximum overclocking voltage of that CPU. If it were this simple, there wouldn’t be a need for my previous table, though, so I’m going to introduce you to 2 more hidden mechanics, that you might or might not know.
 
 
The first one is a game constant called s_brickVoltagePercentage (bVP from now on), set at 10. This tells the game that if you put in a voltage that is higher than (100% + bVP %) * OCbv , then the CPU will be bricked (=broken, hence the name of the constant). With a simple substitution we can see that this means 110% * OCbv , meaning a 10% higher value, breaks the CPU. Of course, you can’t set any arbitrary value as voltage, they are changed in steps of 0.05, so we take OCbv, raise it by 10%, and round it down to the nearest multiple of 0.05. These are the values in the first column: the values that are smaller than and closest to 110% of the OCbv, so the CPU absolutely can’t break at this value.
 
The second mechanic might be more well-known, it is the Silicon Lottery. This is a value that gets added to most parts (if I’m not mistaken), but used only by CPUs, RAM and GPUs, and it determines their quality: higher quality parts don’t heat up that much, can function at higher clocks, and most importantly for this guide, don’t break even with higher voltages. Silicon Lottery values range from 0 to 5, and this upper limit is also stored as a constant, called s_siliconLotteryPercentage (I’ll call this SLP from now on), and I’ll call a part’s individual Silicon Lottery value SLV. I won’t go into details for other parts, just know that this is also the reason why EVERY SINGLE RAM in the base game has a min to max voltage tolerance of 1.8 to 1.9. Regarding CPU voltage tolerances, the math is simple: the actual, full formula for tolerance of a part is (100% + bVP%) * (100% + SLV%) * OCbv. SLV is basically an additional percentage multiplier to the value we previously calculated. If we just want to find the highest possible voltage that the best quality CPU can tolerate, then we use this formula, but with SLP (highest SLV limit) instead of SLV: (100% + bVP%) * (100% + SLP%) * OCbv. We do the substitutions, sice bVP and SLP are unchangeable constants (without cheats, hax, mods, etc): (100%+10%) * (100% * 5%) * OCbv = 110% * 105% * OCbv = 115.5% * OCbv. We get a similar result as previously, but this time we know that the maximum tolerated voltage of any CPU, even if it’s of the highest quality, is 15.5% higher than the OCbv. If we round this value down again to nearest multiple of 0.05, we get values that are valid to be set in the BIOS, and these are the values in my third column. These are the values that the highest quality (and below it a bit) CPUs can tolerate. If you set the voltage above this value, it will break, no matter what.
 
 
 

Okay, so what do I do with this?

First of all, some definitions:
 
overclocking, also known as OC = the process of raising operating values of some parts to get a higher performance, for a better 3DMark score, or for a customer’s request (or both, or other whatever reasons)
 
binning = the process of testing multiple parts of the same type, make and model, between which the only difference is their Silicon Lottery value, and trying to find those with the highest values, for better performance
 
 
The reason I give you these definitions is so that it’s easy to explain: whenever you’re not doing either of these, this guide has no valuable information to you. If you’re in this situation, go play some more, and come back when you first have to ask the question “I wonder what to set the voltage value of the CPU in the BIOS?”
 
– if you’re overclocking, but don’t know and don’t care about the quality of the CPU, you find your CPU in the first column and set the voltage in BIOS to the corresponding value in the second column. I guarantee that it won’t break, if you’ve done this right (pinkie promise).
 
– if you’re overclocking, want better performance, but don’t want to bin, then set it to the value in the second column, make a manual save, then raise it by a step. Boot up the PC (not BIOS, normal startup!), if it says “No CPU found”, then it ded, it can’t handle that voltage, so reload the save you previously made and keep it on the lower value. But if it didn’t die (so you get no BSOD/no error/different error, basically anything but “No CPU”), then you can make another save and retry with an even higher voltage step. Only do this, of course, if this value isn’t higher than the corresponding value in the third column, since such a value will always fry it 🙂 If you reboot and it doesn’t die, then you’re good to go with this value (which at this point should be the third column’s value), if it died, reload the save and keep on going with the OC with the previous voltage value.
 
– if you’re binning, you’ll be using the third column’s value, you put in the CPU, load bios, set the voltage, save and reboot, wait for error, then next CPU. Some will brake, some will not, you sell the broken ones, and try the OC you want on the ones that can handle the max voltage value. This is a fast and handy way to filter out subpar CPUs that can’t even handle the third column voltage values, and you can also use this method for RAM binning (you always set RAM to 1.9v with this method).
 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Guide we share about PC Building Simulator – How to Overclock CPU + Maximum Safe Voltages Required; if you think we forget to add or we should add more information, please let us know via commenting below! See you soon!