Like any good system and chip, Intel provides its processors with a series of characteristics that in the past did not include and among which is a particularly tremendously useful one. We talk about Tjmax , which is so important for many PCs that currently a system without it is not understood, since as we will see below it is a safeguard that will avoid major problems.
Summer begins to arrive and in less than a sigh we will have it on top. The temperature will increase by almost 15 degrees on average and in some parts of the country it will skyrocket with highs between 45 and 50 degrees Celsius.
We can cool ourselves with a shower, go to the pool or the beach, but our poor PC depends on the dissipation system that we have in it. Nobody wants their CPU to suffer high temperatures, but money rules in these cases, so Intel had to move tab years ago to protect the integrity of it.
Intel Tjmax, the feature that will protect your CPU from death
Although most of you who read us have a medium or high level of knowledge about processors, the common user only sees a tower with a button that turns Windows on and off. Most people do not care about the temperature of its components, they assume that the PC is ready for everything and under any conditions.
This brought down the street of bitterness to both AMD and Intel in times past, where the number of RMAs increased dramatically as the TDP grew. For this reason, the blues launched a feature to avoid the death of their processors: Tjmax or also known as Tjunction max.
Whoever plays with the temperatures to the limit, either stock or overclocked, will have to thank both companies for thinking about the integrity of their processor more than him, so we will explain what it is and how it works.
Transistors are the most affected
High temperature directly affects the behavior and performance of transistors. Therefore, Intel with Tjmax specifies a value in degrees celsius that refers to the maximum temperature of the junction of the transistors of our processor before the internal thermal control of the same reduces the P states and thus limits the rise in temperature above the specified threshold.
Logically, limiting the P states implies another series of reductions due to the thermal control of the processor. These limitations as a rule refer to its frequency and voltage, since lowering both (even down to really minimal values) will prevent overheating of the processor and thereby save it from wear and tear that can lead to death.
The Tjmax value is set for each type of processor and model, since depending on its speed , TDP, nanometers and area of the chip and IHS , Intel stipulates different values and therefore is not something homogeneous even between platforms. When we talk about Tjmax, we talk about distance towards this value, something that is better understood with a simple example: if we have a processor with a Tjmax of 100 ºC and a load temperature of 60 ºC, there is a distance of 40 degrees to the Tjmax .
Therefore, it is important to have a temperature reading software (such as Core Temp, for example) that allows us to know both values to know how far we are and if it is safe.