Any chip has a minimum voltage at which it normally operates at a given frequency. Most modern processors have significant headroom in this regard. Lower operating voltages also mean lower power consumption or additional options for higher overclocking, so manufacturers use various methods to force the processor cores to operate at the lowest voltage possible. Despite this, there is always the possibility of more aggressive voltage management: manufacturers have to rely on their algorithms for millions of processors with a margin. And specific users can go further to optimize the algorithm for their own crystal.

AMD’s new Curve Optimization tool, which will be supported in firmware starting with AGESA 1180 in BIOS updates for 400 and 500 series motherboards, is designed specifically for user voltage tracking. The goal of the tool is to reduce stress in minimum and maximum load scenarios as much as possible, but instead of just applying a fixed voltage bias across the full range, the technology will use internal sensors (workload, temperature, etc.) to adapt the voltage to as needed. With the AMD tool, the processor can change the voltage up to 1000 times per second.

Curve Optimization will be part of AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive 2 technology suite, meaning it will void your hardware warranty, but AMD knows that some users love overclocking or Undervoltage and want to get the most out of their hardware. The company said this adaptive methodology will improve performance in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, as opposed to standard voltage variation, which the company says is effective only in multi-threaded tasks.