Why do you overclock?

[Zapper]

I will piss off a lot of people here, but what kind of performence gain does it provide in real life application?

How much more FPS does it give you, compared to, let's say a driver update?

How much time do you save in video encoding or something like that?

 

I'm curious, I have never been too much a fan of overclocking, since it often gave me such a little performence gain.

I mean,with a 800$900$ pc, I can play almost any any game on ultra and 1080p with a decent amount of FPS, why would I overclock?

 

EDIT: made some ajustments following Itguy's comment

[maddogl]

sometimes i do it for the numbers to show off to my friends but with my gpu better fps as 8800gt in today's games it takes a beating like low fps if a grenade goes off but it's worse when i am been suppressed i lose like all of my 37 fps  

[JoshM]

Why wouldn't you overclock?

[Guest GRRigger]

for gpus-> it makes alot of difference. for instance, AMD gpus are clocked very low, and you have alot of overclocking headroom. it adds value to the card ( 7950 )

 

for cpus i give you this benchmark http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/05/01/intel-core-i5-3570k-cpu-review/1

but also depends on a game obviously

[Zapper]

Why wouldn't you overclock?

Not a real answer to my question, but I will still try to answer you.

 

With my i5-4570 and my GTX 660Ti, I play all games in ultra. Never been forced to drop a setting. Now, why would I waste time to try overclocking (because OCing is not just pressing buttons, you have to test it for many hours, maybe fail etc.). I just play games, sometimes the weekend. I don't want to spend 8 or 9 hours for 5 to 10 fps I won't even notice.

 

Now for older configs, I get it.

[Drethstoff]

The performance gains from overclocking varies from application to application. For some people like those that work with video encoding on a regular basis the performance gain can be noticeable but most of those programs have a higher performance gain when you increase the number of cores.The amount that is gained depends not only on the clock speed but the architecture of the CPU along with whether or not that program is optimized for more threads; most programs that deal with video encoding normally utilize more cores than say a game would. So when it comes down to programs like that the gain from overclocking will be noticeable but not as much as if you where to use a CPU with more cores at a lower clock speed versus a CPU with less cores and a higher clock speed. The CPU with the higher amount of cores will finish the job faster.

 

Games, for now at least, normally work with fewer cores. A higher clock speed will increase the fps that can be attained.

 

Also, overclocking is something that is done for the fun of it. It is something that people like to do just to see how far their own chip can be pushed beyond the original factory specs. This assumes that you are using similar CPU's with the same architecture like if you were to take a i3 versus an i7 of the same generation and a run a game. The fps would be similar. However, if the game would take advantage of more cores than you would see higher fps on the game that could utilize more of the cores.

 

Sometimes it just comes down to the games themselves and how they are coded. One game might rely much less on the CPU and will perform better with a graphics card that is more powerful and another might perform better if a more powerful cpu is being used with the same graphics card.

 

Overclocking is something that doesn't necessarily have to be done but you will find improved performance but you have to consider what application this is going to be for.

 

Plus its fun

Edited September 13, 2013 by Drethstoff

[JordanMac]

its free extra performance. need i say more?

[nokturrduk84]

I agree with author. I have 3770k and water cooling, but I don't overclock it. Why should I do that? All in all overclocked thing lasts less than non-overclocked. I really don't understand why u should overclock i7? It's beast even without overclocking.

[BlackOutCrisis]

I personally OC because on my 7950 I got an extra 30fps on average in games and for cpu's I normally don't push them that far but I optimize my settings for my specific chip so like my 3570k is UNDERVOLTED and overclocked to 4.3Ghz. So my cpu runs cooler with less voltage and faster, no brainer there...

[WoodenMarker]

I don't even compare for my performance gain. I know that oc'ing gives me substantially more performance so I do it. Whether it's gaming or render time, every little bit helps. 

[DaftBehemoth]

I agree with author. I have 3770k and water cooling, but I don't overclock it. Why should I do that? All in all overclocked thing lasts less than non-overclocked. I really don't understand why u should overclock i7? It's beast even without overclocking.

For me, it's because of the simple answer of: "Because I can, and because I have fun with it." If you know what you're doing, there's no risk, you get some extra performance out of it, and with these newer platforms it's extremely easy to do.

[Spannerhands]

I will piss off a lot of people here, but what kind of performence gain does it provide in real life application?

How much more FPS does it give you, compared to, let's say a driver update?

How much time do you save in video encoding or something like that?

 

I'm curious, I have never been too much a fan of overclocking, since it often gave me such a little performence gain.

I mean,with a 800$ pc, I can play any game on ultra and 1080p with a decent amount of FPS, why would I overclock?

 

Because some people like to push themselves and do things different, as it's rewarding to do so....

[qwertywarrior]

because i can

[A/C]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONcAuoj9iYk

[JoshM]

Not a real answer to my question, but I will still try to answer you.

 

With my i5-4570 and my GTX 660Ti, I play all games in ultra. Never been forced to drop a setting. Now, why would I waste time to try overclocking (because OCing is not just pressing buttons, you have to test it for many hours, maybe fail etc.). I just play games, sometimes the weekend. I don't want to spend 8 or 9 hours for 5 to 10 fps I won't even notice.

 

Now for older configs, I get it.

Well:

1. You have a non k processor...

2. some people find they need the extra HP for rendering and things like that

3. some people are enthusiast and like to push there system to the limit to show off or what ever

If you don't need to OC then don't, but it does't mean you never will need to/want too

[Cryptonite]

Not a real answer to my question, but I will still try to answer you.

 

With my i5-4570 and my GTX 660Ti, I play all games in ultra. Never been forced to drop a setting. Now, why would I waste time to try overclocking (because OCing is not just pressing buttons, you have to test it for many hours, maybe fail etc.). I just play games, sometimes the weekend. I don't want to spend 8 or 9 hours for 5 to 10 fps I won't even notice.

 

Now for older configs, I get it.

actually a basic answer to your question is that it is fun doing so, you do feel the performance difference in newer titles that are more cpu intense and a basic overclock on my i5 2500k (going up to 4.2 GHz) is basically just going into the bios and changing the multiplier from 33 to 42 and pressing F4 and choosing yes. it's that easy and even then the performance increase is rather immense in CPU oriented programs / games.

 

Instead of asking questions like these you're better off googling the subject and watching some comparison videos, although they don't do the performance increase justice as you can't tell the difference in a video comparison as you could if you have your system overclocked,

 

my Cmos miraculously reset about a week ago(battery wasn't connected properly) and I definitely felt my pc performing slower than it does when overclocked, I immediately went to p95 to test stability on all cores as I thought one of my cores weren't running or something, they all ran fine so I opened CPU-Z and saw that I was back on stock settings, went back and just turned up my multiplier to 42 saved and left it at that as I was in a hurry to do some work. going back to 4.6 GHz this weekend because it's my best "safe" overclock which will take around 5-10 years to degrade (if it even does) my cpu by which time I will have put it in someone elses pc (lil bro/mom/dad/friend).

[OneGun]

Cause i bought a K cpu!!!!!!!!

[fracking4oil]

I agree with author. I have 3770k and water cooling, but I don't overclock it. Why should I do that? All in all overclocked thing lasts less than non-overclocked. I really don't understand why u should overclock i7? It's beast even without overclocking.

 

 

Because it's faster, relatively safe & easy with todays overclockable CPUs and GPUs, these chips are designed to be OCed. As long as you keep your temps and volts down to reasonable numbers by the time the system breaks it'll be so old you won't care. In comparison my system feels slow and sluggish at stock speeds, while it feels speedy while OCed, although that's probably because I've gotten used to the extra speed (has been at stock probably less than a total of a couple hours at most).

[fracking4oil]

Not a real answer to my question, but I will still try to answer you.

 

With my i5-4570 and my GTX 660Ti, I play all games in ultra. Never been forced to drop a setting. Now, why would I waste time to try overclocking (because OCing is not just pressing buttons, you have to test it for many hours, maybe fail etc.). I just play games, sometimes the weekend. I don't want to spend 8 or 9 hours for 5 to 10 fps I won't even notice.

 

Now for older configs, I get it.

 

 

A CPU overclock doesn't just make games faster (most game see a very small increase with a CPU OC), it basically makes everything faster including loading Windows,  programs, webpages, ext. 

 

P.S. Sorry for not multiquoting, I don't always read things in order.

[WoodenMarker]

P.S. Sorry for not multiquoting, I don't always read things in order.

You probably should so you don't repeat something that's already been said 10 times over.

[Cryptonite]

You probably should so you don't repeat something that's already been said 10 times over.

if it's been said 10 times over an 11th time wouldn't hurt, it'll just give what is said more strength in numbers and therefore validate the point people are trying to get across.   (from a democratic view anyway >_<)

[Mooshi]

It's free performance...it makes no sense to have an unlocked cpu and mad components and run them stock. As of today, modern computer components are way too easy to overclock, just bump up the multiplier and you're set. As for wearing out, do you honestly see yourself using your same system 10 years down the line realistically? I'm not even implying it will break down in 10 years, I'm just being realistic. As long as you don't do anything dumb like try to get 5Ghz on a stock cooler, your hardware isn't going to magically die a lot faster than the same part running stock speeds.

[zinton]

Room gets cold durring winter.

[Alex780]

OC'ing can be very beneficial in games, especially if you're using multiple graphics cards

[A/C]

We are tinkerers by nature, if you have to ask why, you aren't one of us. We don't need a reason to turn a know other than to se what will happen.