Opinions on max *safe* Vcore for 9900K?

[Noel 4,484]

Curious what you've gotten away with and for how long if you will.  I've babied mine and it runs cool but might be able to squirt out a few more gigahertz as there will be a point for me maybe in the next 2y where I will want to replace it anyway.  Been at 4.9ghz@1.185v for 2.3 years now.  Actually started at 1.180 then maybe 6 months ago felt I needed to go to 1.185 as I got a couple of hard freezes and overclock failures.

[Gordon Hutchison 76]

If you're on air or AIO water cooling then I would advise going above 1.30vcore.

[ryanbatc 12,772]

Intel says 1.52 hehe

I'm not sure what a day to day safe voltage would be.

[TurboKen 221]

4.9 @ 1.185v that's great. It's been awhile since I built my computer now but I believe these chips are good up to 1.45v per Intel. However you will probably go over temp even on H20 at that clock speed and voltage combo. Luckily you don't have to worry about that. Just bump up your voltage to around 1.21v and you should not have any more issues with the random crashes.

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

I ran my i9 10850K cooled by a 240mm AIO at 5.2GHz, HT off and 1.35V for well over a year without major issues. Despite it not causing issues running MSFS, I have found it won't pass some stress tests now that it used to pass at those settings, so I have backed it down to 5.1GHz and 1.325V and it is once again solid, with CPU temp under load running MSFS around 50-60C.

I also use Throttlestop to hotkey switch between two profiles, one at full speed (5.1GHz) and the other with turbo disabled (3.6GHz). Interestingly, in MSFS VR where I am mostly GPU limited, I get similar performance running my CPU at either speed. It is only when I load up a complex aircraft like the PMDG 737 at a major airport that the extra CPU speed makes a difference in performance, so for the most part I just run my CPU in non-turbo mode and just turn it on when I notice it needs it, just like the good ole days with the turbo switch on my 286-12!