**The Importance of Voltage Ripple**

Voltage ripple is a crucial aspect of power supply design that can have a significant impact on component longevity and overclocking stability. It's essential to understand how voltage ripple affects our systems, especially when it comes to overclocking.

In most cases, you can't get down to zero voltage ripple in the consumer market. Instead, you'll always have some level of variation in the supply voltage. This is because even high-quality power supplies can't completely eliminate voltage ripple. However, understanding how much voltage ripple is acceptable and managing it effectively is vital for maintaining system stability.

**Impact on Component Longevity**

Voltage ripple has a direct impact on component longevity. When the power supply delivers more voltage than required, it increases the demand on the VRM (voltage regulator module) and the power supply itself to regulate the voltage. This can lead to increased heat generation in the capacitors, which in turn can cause them to fail prematurely. Electrolytic capacitors, a common type of capacitor used in high-end components, are particularly susceptible to damage from heat. As a general rule, every 10°C drop in temperature increases the lifespan of a capacitor by a factor of two.

**Impact on Overclocking Stability**

When overclocking, voltage ripple has a significant impact on system stability. The GPU, for example, requires a specific voltage level to operate at its maximum capacity. If the power supply is unable to deliver this voltage consistently due to high voltage ripple, the system will exhibit instability. This can manifest in various ways, including driver crashes, flickering screens, and black screens. To mitigate these issues, users often need to add an extra margin of voltage to the supply, which increases the overall power consumption.

**The Role of Power Supplies**

Power supplies play a crucial role in managing voltage ripple and ensuring system stability. A good quality power supply is essential for overclocking, as it can provide the necessary margin of safety to maintain stability. However, when budget constraints become an issue, users may need to make compromises on power supply quality.

**Budget Considerations**

When selecting a power supply, budget considerations should be taken into account. The cost of a high-quality power supply is often prohibitively expensive for enthusiasts and overclockers who require the highest level of performance. However, it's essential to strike a balance between budget constraints and the need for stability and reliability.

**Power Supply Efficiency**

The efficiency of a power supply is another critical factor to consider when selecting a power supply. Higher efficiency means less heat generation in the system, which can help prolong component lifespan. However, this also increases the overall cost of the power supply.

**Extremes Overclocking**

For extreme overclockers, a higher-end power supply is often necessary to maintain stability and reliability. These users require more precise control over their systems and are willing to invest in high-quality components that can handle the demands of extreme overclocking.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, voltage ripple is a critical aspect of power supply design that affects component longevity and overclocking stability. Understanding how voltage ripple impacts our systems is essential for maintaining system stability and reliability. By selecting a power supply that meets our needs and budget constraints, we can ensure our systems perform at their best and last longer.

**Recommended Power Supplies**

We recommend high-quality power supplies for extreme overclockers who require the highest level of performance and stability. However, for enthusiasts and overclockers on a budget, there are still affordable options available that offer good value for money.

**Power Supply Dictionary**

For those interested in learning more about power supply specifications, we've created a comprehensive dictionary of terms and definitions. From active PFC to wattage ratings, our power supply dictionary provides a detailed explanation of the various specifications used by power supplies.

**Voltage Ripple Article**

We have an in-depth article on voltage ripple available on our website, which provides further information on this topic and offers practical advice for managing voltage ripple in your system.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone I'm Steve from Gamers nexus.net and today we're talking about voltage Ripple as it pertains to power supplies overclocking and component longevity this is something we've already published on the website it was written by Michael Kars one of our writers and that talks about what voltage Ripple is and how it impacts those two factors but we're going to dive into it a little bit more here for the YouTube audience so first of all what is voltage Ripple voltage Ripple is the fluctuation of the voltage Supply Supply down each of your three main lines of power your rails so your 12vt your 5vt and your 3.3 volt are not perfectly 125 and 3.3 volts if you read them out with an oscilloscope in fact the voltage of each of these different lines of power we'll talk specifically about 12vt because it goes to the GPU the CPU things like that the power supplied the voltage supplied down the 12vt line is not going to be perfectly 12.0 volts if you read it out with an accurate instrument like an oscilloscope or an oscope you'll see that it might fluctuate between for example 12.1 12.14 it might drop down and this is called voltage Ripple so this is the amount of fluctuation in the wave form Peak to Peak between the voltage levels as the voltage is continuously supplied to whatever it's going to and there is an ATX specification for power supplies this is the spec to which all power supplies sold in the consumer Market must abide there's a much stricter server spec that is really not something you'll encounter in general in the consumer market so let's look at the ATX spec the specification for ATX power supplies for voltage Ripple is that they must be less than 120 molts so you should see a fluctuation no greater than 120 molts down any of your 12vt rails the specification for 3.3 and 5 volt is 50 molts so there should be no greater than 50 molts of fluctuation in those instances but some higher end power supplies will Target 60 molts of fluctuation which is pretty darn good and that's actually what Michael Kars myself included we both kind of look for power supplies in that range when we're buying because we do a lot of Enthusiast stuff like overclocking you want to make sure you have a very consistent voltage Supply when you're dealing with any kind of very volatile components which is what happens in overclocking so that's what voltage Ripple is it's the fluctuation of voltage down the supply it's very normal it's not something you can really have down to zero especially in the consumer market so you're always going to have some voltage Ripple it's just a matter of how much and this impacts two main things as I've mentioned it impacts component longevity and it impacts the overclocking stability so with component longevity that is impacted because voltage Ripple will increase the demand on the vrms and the power supply itself to regulate the voltage Supply and it also increases the heat of capacitors as capacitors heat up they are more prone to popping to failure and just leakage or damage over time so there is a an electro uh electrical engineering rule that states that for every 10° C drop in thermals a capacitor should be expected to double its life span if we're talking about a nonsolid electrolytic capacitor which is a fairly common type of capacitor on the higher end components you will see solid capacitors slightly different rules apply but that's the the general idea so less heat is very good for capacitors helps them live longer and a healthier power supply means healthier components receiving the power so that's the the heat issue the component longevity issue if you have More Voltage Ripple you're putting your devices the power supply especially and the receiving devices the vrm all of that goes through more strain when trying to make the f tuned adjustments to keep your system running stably and then on the overclocking side we have a slightly different concern so let's take an example say your GPU at a strictly Hardware level electrically requires 1.2.12 volts this is somewhat standard for some architectures so this is not the voltage that your overclocking software says you are providing this is the voltage that the GPU says it wants it's on an electrical level purely Hardware level now let's step it back so now we're looking at the software if you start overclocking and you need to supply More Voltage then you increase the voltage increment in your overclocking software that much we know the amount that it is incremented will depend on a lot of things we're going to forget about most of them for now but the the one we're talking about here is voltage Ripple so if the Ripple is 50 molts which is very reasonable then you will have to as a user effectively add in an extra 50 mols of overhead of room for fluctuation in the supply of voltage to the GPU because what happens is if you dip down below what the GPU needs electrically because of voltage Ripple or really because of anything you'll exhibit instability in you'll see instability in the system you'll see driver crashing flickering black screens stuff like that stuff we've all discussed in our various articles on the website on Gamers nexus.net Kerns and I have both talked about this so that's where the overclocking impact is that's why you want a good power supply you want something that can eat the extra load and Supply some stability to your system there's a lot more to power supply selection than this so if you are curious about power supplies how they work what the other specs mean what active PFC is and stuff like that check the website we have a Specs dictionary it is at the top in the menu and you'll find a PSU dictionary in there we defined several of these we're adding more definition soon and then the voltage Ripple article is already live on the site so that's the basics of voltage Ripple why it is important and how it can impact your system we do of course recommend high quality power supplies but it's not always possible and for Budget reasons it's not always within budget so it is not the end of the world if you can't afford a $100 power supply but even when you're looking at the low end you do want kind of a bottom line of how low you're willing to go and how low quality you are willing to accept so do consider am I overclocking am I planning to use this system for a very long time and other factors like that how much you're willing to spend how much Efficiency do you need and that will all help in determining how much you should really budget toward a power supply if you are doing extreme overclocks definitely consider a higher end power supply because you need that stability so that's all for this time check out our forthcoming ask GN video we've been doing these lately so there's a uh Power Supply discussion on there actually where we talk about the wattage Supply to components so that's all for this time hit the patreon link in the post roll of this video if you like our content and want to support us we're up to nine backers now so as I keep saying starting small but it's helping us with removing some of our dependency on the regular advertising of the industry so that lets us keep doing some more uh free of criticism from manufacturers content which I know you all enjoy I will see you all next timehey everyone I'm Steve from Gamers nexus.net and today we're talking about voltage Ripple as it pertains to power supplies overclocking and component longevity this is something we've already published on the website it was written by Michael Kars one of our writers and that talks about what voltage Ripple is and how it impacts those two factors but we're going to dive into it a little bit more here for the YouTube audience so first of all what is voltage Ripple voltage Ripple is the fluctuation of the voltage Supply Supply down each of your three main lines of power your rails so your 12vt your 5vt and your 3.3 volt are not perfectly 125 and 3.3 volts if you read them out with an oscilloscope in fact the voltage of each of these different lines of power we'll talk specifically about 12vt because it goes to the GPU the CPU things like that the power supplied the voltage supplied down the 12vt line is not going to be perfectly 12.0 volts if you read it out with an accurate instrument like an oscilloscope or an oscope you'll see that it might fluctuate between for example 12.1 12.14 it might drop down and this is called voltage Ripple so this is the amount of fluctuation in the wave form Peak to Peak between the voltage levels as the voltage is continuously supplied to whatever it's going to and there is an ATX specification for power supplies this is the spec to which all power supplies sold in the consumer Market must abide there's a much stricter server spec that is really not something you'll encounter in general in the consumer market so let's look at the ATX spec the specification for ATX power supplies for voltage Ripple is that they must be less than 120 molts so you should see a fluctuation no greater than 120 molts down any of your 12vt rails the specification for 3.3 and 5 volt is 50 molts so there should be no greater than 50 molts of fluctuation in those instances but some higher end power supplies will Target 60 molts of fluctuation which is pretty darn good and that's actually what Michael Kars myself included we both kind of look for power supplies in that range when we're buying because we do a lot of Enthusiast stuff like overclocking you want to make sure you have a very consistent voltage Supply when you're dealing with any kind of very volatile components which is what happens in overclocking so that's what voltage Ripple is it's the fluctuation of voltage down the supply it's very normal it's not something you can really have down to zero especially in the consumer market so you're always going to have some voltage Ripple it's just a matter of how much and this impacts two main things as I've mentioned it impacts component longevity and it impacts the overclocking stability so with component longevity that is impacted because voltage Ripple will increase the demand on the vrms and the power supply itself to regulate the voltage Supply and it also increases the heat of capacitors as capacitors heat up they are more prone to popping to failure and just leakage or damage over time so there is a an electro uh electrical engineering rule that states that for every 10° C drop in thermals a capacitor should be expected to double its life span if we're talking about a nonsolid electrolytic capacitor which is a fairly common type of capacitor on the higher end components you will see solid capacitors slightly different rules apply but that's the the general idea so less heat is very good for capacitors helps them live longer and a healthier power supply means healthier components receiving the power so that's the the heat issue the component longevity issue if you have More Voltage Ripple you're putting your devices the power supply especially and the receiving devices the vrm all of that goes through more strain when trying to make the f tuned adjustments to keep your system running stably and then on the overclocking side we have a slightly different concern so let's take an example say your GPU at a strictly Hardware level electrically requires 1.2.12 volts this is somewhat standard for some architectures so this is not the voltage that your overclocking software says you are providing this is the voltage that the GPU says it wants it's on an electrical level purely Hardware level now let's step it back so now we're looking at the software if you start overclocking and you need to supply More Voltage then you increase the voltage increment in your overclocking software that much we know the amount that it is incremented will depend on a lot of things we're going to forget about most of them for now but the the one we're talking about here is voltage Ripple so if the Ripple is 50 molts which is very reasonable then you will have to as a user effectively add in an extra 50 mols of overhead of room for fluctuation in the supply of voltage to the GPU because what happens is if you dip down below what the GPU needs electrically because of voltage Ripple or really because of anything you'll exhibit instability in you'll see instability in the system you'll see driver crashing flickering black screens stuff like that stuff we've all discussed in our various articles on the website on Gamers nexus.net Kerns and I have both talked about this so that's where the overclocking impact is that's why you want a good power supply you want something that can eat the extra load and Supply some stability to your system there's a lot more to power supply selection than this so if you are curious about power supplies how they work what the other specs mean what active PFC is and stuff like that check the website we have a Specs dictionary it is at the top in the menu and you'll find a PSU dictionary in there we defined several of these we're adding more definition soon and then the voltage Ripple article is already live on the site so that's the basics of voltage Ripple why it is important and how it can impact your system we do of course recommend high quality power supplies but it's not always possible and for Budget reasons it's not always within budget so it is not the end of the world if you can't afford a $100 power supply but even when you're looking at the low end you do want kind of a bottom line of how low you're willing to go and how low quality you are willing to accept so do consider am I overclocking am I planning to use this system for a very long time and other factors like that how much you're willing to spend how much Efficiency do you need and that will all help in determining how much you should really budget toward a power supply if you are doing extreme overclocks definitely consider a higher end power supply because you need that stability so that's all for this time check out our forthcoming ask GN video we've been doing these lately so there's a uh Power Supply discussion on there actually where we talk about the wattage Supply to components so that's all for this time hit the patreon link in the post roll of this video if you like our content and want to support us we're up to nine backers now so as I keep saying starting small but it's helping us with removing some of our dependency on the regular advertising of the industry so that lets us keep doing some more uh free of criticism from manufacturers content which I know you all enjoy I will see you all next time\n"