Over clocking?

[ML52]

I'm just beginning to research what I want in a new computer and have been reading here. There are terms I don't understand and overclocking is one, what does that mean?

[FLS]

Over-clocking is running the PC faster than specified. It can increase heat and power use for a modest gain in FPS.

[Dragon Tamer]

Your processor, RAM and video card all run at a certain speed. Usually somewhere between 3GHz and 4GHz for processors with RAM varying by a very large amount depending on what generation it is and even it's speed (DDR2 is slower than DDR3 and DDR3 1333 is slower than DDR3 1600). The speed of the RAM and processor is determined by the motherboard when the computer starts. It looks at the processor and checks to see what speed it should be run at, same goes for RAM. Graphics cards are usually governed by hardware on the card itself. It's also worth noting that some cards come factory overclocked (a very conservative overclock in most cases) but can also be pushed a little bit harder.

With overclocking, you are pushing these clock speeds of these parts past what they are designed to normally operate at. This is done in an attempt to get better performance (usually does yield some sort of boost but the amount varies between applications), but there is also a cost to all of this. Overclocking a processor immediately voids its warranty, it also produces more heat so the cooler that comes with it probably won't be enough. It uses more energy to run the processor and shortens its lifespan.

I wouldn't even bother overclocking the RAM, it's incredibly difficult to do and often offers little to no noticeable performance gain.

Overclocking anything on a computer takes time and patience. You have to set a clock, start the computer and run a stress test (for several hours) to see if it crashes. If it doesn't crash then you have a good overclock. If it does crash, you have to restart and either dial the clock back or add more voltage or both. Even after you get it stable, the odds of a crash are still there and are higher than normal speeds. Everyone will get a different clock speed that is stable, even if the same processor is moved to a different motherboard.

For gaming, overclocking the processor and RAM offers almost no performance gain. There is a video somewhere of a tech group that was testing this and they only saw a minor performance game in tripple A titles, I'll see if I can find it. Overclocking the graphics card usually does yield a better frame rate though and depending on the game might be worth looking into (overclocking graphics cards is also quite a lot easier than overclocking processors).

[ML52]

Thank  you gentlemen for the explanations. It sounds like something I don't need to do and want to try.

[ebfd11]

Just remember not to overclock too much at once... go in increments ...tooo much at once can lead to component failure... and having to replace with a new one...and not only one thing can pop..multiple items can go poof.. so be very very careful.

LAwnDart

[Bizman]

It sounds like something I don't need to do and want to try.

You might want to try it at the time you feel like getting new hardware anyway. Overclocking may boost your system enough for you to wait for the best bargain. Sort of the swan song of a retiring system.

[guncrasher]

you need to overclock the ram with some mobo's to actually make it work at the right speed.  for example mine needs to be overclock so it can run at 1600 instead of the standard 1020 or so.


semp

[Bizman]

you need to overclock the ram with some mobo's to actually make it work at the right speed.  for example mine needs to be overclock so it can run at 1600 instead of the standard 1020 or so.


semp

In my opinion, based on personal experience, that might not be as fancy as it first seems to be. First I bought a pair of Gskills that were meant to be overclocked and to be honest that could be done without major issues. The biggest problem was that the motherboard used different terminology than the memory instructions. The problems started when I had to reset the BIOS for some reason which I don't remember. Some kind of issue with trying various setting, maybe even an automatic reset after an unsuccessful boot, I can't really remember anymore. Anyway, I had lost the instruction booklet and couldn't find the settings from the Gskill site where they used to be. Apparently they had removed 'old' stuff to boost their novelties. Trial and error, multiple resets and reboots and I never was quite happy with the result.

If you think I had learned my lesson, think again: I then upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit and soon noticed the 4 GB to be a little too little. So I read some reviews about DDR2, looked at ebay, and found a quartet of Crucials which had performed great in a best-bang-for-buck comparison because of their incredible overclockability. Well... I never got them stable within the limits I dared to overclock them, so they now run at their default clock rate.

Conclusion: Saving some €20 has cost me numerous hours of twiddling without gaining me a single frame per second in the game. Plus later I have learned that the speed of RAM doesn't really matter that much, some 10% faster or slower has virtually no effect outside of benchmarks.

[save]

you extend your gaming-rigs life quite some by only overcklocking the Cpu and Graphics.

Asus, as an example, provide you with over-clocking software for the CPU.

[Skyyr]

you extend your gaming-rigs life quite some by only overcklocking the Cpu and Graphics.

Asus, as an example, provide you with over-clocking software for the CPU.

You extend it the most by not overclocking anything.

[Wiley]

My personal feeling on it is, if you get a noticeable performance boost, can afford to possibly brick your components, and feel like twiddling with your rig, go right ahead.  If any of those conditions isn't met, don't bother.

The only time I have thought about overclocking was with my current i5 2500k.  3.3 GHz normal, some people were reporting over 4GHz overclocks.  Almost 1/3 more GHz sounded pretty good to me, but with what I was doing with this machine, I couldn't really see anything that would utilize it so I never bothered.

My threshold for fiddling with stuff at home went WAY down when I hit 35.

Wiley.

[guncrasher]

In my opinion, based on personal experience, that might not be as fancy as it first seems to be. First I bought a pair of Gskills that were meant to be overclocked and to be honest that could be done without major issues. The biggest problem was that the motherboard used different terminology than the memory instructions. The problems started when I had to reset the BIOS for some reason which I don't remember. Some kind of issue with trying various setting, maybe even an automatic reset after an unsuccessful boot, I can't really remember anymore. Anyway, I had lost the instruction booklet and couldn't find the settings from the Gskill site where they used to be. Apparently they had removed 'old' stuff to boost their novelties. Trial and error, multiple resets and reboots and I never was quite happy with the result.

If you think I had learned my lesson, think again: I then upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit and soon noticed the 4 GB to be a little too little. So I read some reviews about DDR2, looked at ebay, and found a quartet of Crucials which had performed great in a best-bang-for-buck comparison because of their incredible overclockability. Well... I never got them stable within the limits I dared to overclock them, so they now run at their default clock rate.

Conclusion: Saving some €20 has cost me numerous hours of twiddling without gaining me a single frame per second in the game. Plus later I have learned that the speed of RAM doesn't really matter that much, some 10% faster or slower has virtually no effect outside of benchmarks.

this is my 3rd set of ram i have.  and I have yet failed to achieve the specified speed with oc them.  then again i always bought ram that the mobo specified it was compatible with.

my current system is about 3 years old I think.  I have no need to oc the cpu or gpu as they give me the max frames with everything on except for evm.   I have a 2500k with a 770 vc.  I have overclocked both kept it for a year and nothing happened to them.


semp

[BaldEagl]

All these replies and I didn't see the simple answer; It is, quite simply, making your 3 Ghz processor run at 3.5 Ghz for instance.

I don't know what type of processor you're looking at but Intel CPU's for years have been able to overclock by 20% relatively easily, safely and reliably.  You can push them farther.

I've had my 2.66 Ghz Intel running at 3.2 Ghz consistently for eight years now (probably time for an upgrade) and had it pushed to 3.5-3.6 Ghz (don't remember for sure) at one point but the voltage needed to maintain that created more heat than I was comfortable with so I backed it back down to "daily driver" range..

you need to overclock the ram with some mobo's to actually make it work at the right speed.  for example mine needs to be overclock so it can run at 1600 instead of the standard 1020 or so.


semp

Mine was the same.  The motherboard specifies the "lowest compatible" settings by default.  It was simply a matter of jumping into the BIOS and resetting the latencies and voltages to the RAM manufacturer's specs.

[save]

You extend it the most by not overclocking anything.

Not true, using adequate cooling.

I used to run my intel i7 930 at 2.9 gighz to 3.8 gigaherz at same temperature with a big cooler until last year.
it had the same temp as the stock cooler had at 2.9. at the same time I slightly overclocked my 7870 by 200hz or so.

When I started to fly other games I switched first to a Gforce 780 and now switched to an i5 4960 over-clocked to 4.2 gigahertz when I started to use SSD.

[Drano]

I've had my 2600-k clocked to 4.6 under load using a Zalmann 9900maxx cooler. I set it up using a guide on overclock.net. The trick is in the cooling. Not keeping track of the temps on your rig is a sure recipe for disaster. Mine never gets much into the 60s but if it did I'd just knock it back a few notches.

You can overclock safely. You just have to have the right hardware for it first. All my components were selected in order to overclock. You also just can't go in guns blazing and set things to 6Ghz! You'll fry for sure. It's a long process of testing in baby baby steps.

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