Overclocking

[Daletheman]

ok i want to know how to seriously OC my CPU and Vid card to get their full potential....any suggestions?

[Tortelvis]

I hate to see this thread die. I don't feel qualified to give good reliable advice, but I'll point you in a direction where you can do some reading and learning from http://www.ocforums.com/. Good luck and happy reading.

[Tombstone]

Alot of the advice will depend greatly on your entire system. Everything from Motherboard (bios options for OC'ing), CPU, RAM, Power Supply, cooling (both case and CPU). I find it is best to go to some of the site that focus on OC'ong look for reviews or forum thread about the parts you own and take notes. Not all parts will respond the same even in identical settings.

The 2 big things you must be ableto modify and control are increaseing power (up'ing voltages to get past modest OC limits) and handlling the heat that comes from up'ing the voltage and increasing the Mhz.

In most cases you will look for the ability to modify the FSB (Front Side Bus) speed on teh Motherboard. Most CPUs have a locked mulitplyer so you increase the speed by increasing the bus speed. Those CPUs that have unlocked multiplyers allow you to combine changes to multi and FSB to get the most OC possible.

There are different option when OC'ing a video card. On video cards you can OC the GPU or the memory. There are some pretty straight forward tools for doing this but heat becomes a huge issue and usually overheating will cause artifacts (white dots), texture tearing, lookups, or worse...a dead card. Most cards will have some slight ability to squeeze a few more FPS with modest OC'ing.

You should also plan how you want to check for any perfromance boost. There are benchmarking programs out there or you can check the framrates in your favorite game. A dedicated benchmarking program is the best way though as in-game there are just too many variables.

Just be sure to read alot about it before jumping into it as fried parts or a non booting system can be the result.

I will try and post back with some links you may find useful.

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[DannieD]

Does overclocking really make a dramatic change? If you do overclock does it shorten the life span of your equipment?

[Daletheman]

thanks Tomb but it sound like to me i better leave well enough alone:)

[Tombstone]

P1, in my experience yes, OC'ing does make a big enough difference...BUT only IF the parts are capable and the system is capable. Most of what I overclock are parts that I specifically research and buy for their overclocking potential. If I have read that a certain generation of CPU is been shown to have a big upside by other OC'ers then I will usual go for it. It's a matter of paying for a lower end CPU and pushing it to the performance of a higher priced CPU. Same goes for video cards. If you are patient and daring enough you can get a big price vs performance benefit.

For instance my first AMD 64 CPU was a 3200+, the version manufactured with the latest/smallest processing. It was shown by OC'ers to have big OC potential because it was the slowest chip manufactured on the new process. The CPU would usually run at 200 mhz FSB with a system multi of 5 for a 1000 mhz system bus. I was able to get the CPU up to 245 mhz with a system multi of 4 for a system bus of 980. But the difference in CPU performance from 10x200= 2Ghz and 10x245= 2.45Ghz showed my CPU to equal that of a 3900+ CPU. At the time it would have cost me almost 3x more $ for a 4000+ CPU. By doing reserch I was able to get the performance I wanted for less money along with some trial and error and a little risk.

I started overclocking back when Intel first started making Celeron CPUs and the 450mhz Celeron could be pushed to almost 600mhz. Most all of my systems have been OC'd since. I have never ***knock on wood*** burned up a CPU and have only lost one Video Card. It usually gets to the point of needing to upgrade before I ever worry about a part expiring prematurely.

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[psychodad]

Does overclocking really make a dramatic change? If you do overclock does it shorten the life span of your equipment?

Theoretically yes, it will shorten the life of your CPU, but there are many factors that determine by how much. Cooling is very important, and if you can keep the temp under 40c, you probably won't see a big decrease in lifespan.

As for the dramatic change...I have an Athlon 64 3500+ rated at 2.2Ghz. I bumped up the FSB from 200 to 242 and it's running 2.66Mhz now (and around 32 to 36C temps due to a great fan setup). That's about the same speed as an Athlon FX-55, so it's a pretty good thing.

The good news: CPU's are generally designed to last about 10 years at rated output levels. How many of us are running a CPU that's 10 years old?