Very Basic Overclocking Question

[Jason King]

I have a very basic noob question about overclocking CPUs.  These days pretty much every CPU has a "Boost" or "Turbo" function where the speed increases up to a fixed maximum if the temperature and other factors allow it.  In my experience, you don't usually reach the maximum boost setting unless you have some very good cooling going on.  My question is: what purpose does overclocking serve in a world where boost exists?

Here's why I'm confused.  Let's use a completely hypothetical unlocked CPU that has 3.5% base clock and 4.5% max boost by default.  For workloads that use multiple threads it will usually run around at 4-4.1% in a given system.  I'm assuming that means the system is detecting that these speeds are the best it can safely reach.  If I were to overclock that CPU, would I be increasing the BASE clock speed or the MAX clock speed?  If I were increasing the base clock speed that seems pointless as it will almost always run higher than that.  If I were increasing the MAX clock speed that also seems somewhat fruitless and it only ever reaches that in some single threaded workloads which are becoming increasingly uncommon and aren't really the workloads that need the increased speed (at least for my uses, YMMV).

I'm not saying Overclocking is pointless.  I'm actually assuming it's extremely useful and that I legitimately just don't understand it, hence I'm asking the question.  I want to understand how it actually works.

[GoldenLag]

7 minutes ago, Jason King said:

My question is: what purpose does overclocking serve in a world where boost exists?

It for when people like intel doesnt create a boost that uses the max of the CPU within the allowed heat output 

 

 

Also OC allows to exceed the TDP limits of a CPU.

 

Also boost needs to accomadate every CPU, OC is luck based on how much you can get from your CPU (silicon lottery)

[Jason King]

Thanks GoldenLag.  You provided some information on why OC works, but I'm still unclear on what it's supposed to accomplish.

 

[Jason King]

Let me rephrase my question to be as direct as possible.  Does overclocking a CPU:

A) Raise the base clock speed.
B) Raise the Maximum Boost clock speed.
C) Raise the point in between the Base and Boost clock speed where the CPU will usually run.

Let's say you have a hypothetical system that has a base clock of 3.5Ghz and a max boost clock of 4.5Ghz.  Lets also say this hypothetical system usually runs at around 4Ghz when under full workloads.

If the answer is A then I would have to raise the base clock speed above 4Ghz in order to get an actual improvement.  
If the answer is B then it seems like it would be of no use at all.
If the answer were C it would be extremely useful, but I always here people say how much they overclocked their CPUs in terms of it's new speed (ie, overclocked to 4.3GHz) so it seems like it's not C.

See why I'm confused?