Why overclock?

[Shadowtroop]

So i was digging around and i found this article about overclocking and how to do it, its not exactly thorough or in depth but what i found most interesting was the comments section

 

http://digg.com/hardware/How_To_Overclock_The_Ultimate_Overclocking_Guide

 

Basically alot of what i saw was that overclocking is not what it used to be and that overclocking is basically irrelevant now.

 

Overclocking used to make sense a decade ago, when a little push could mean the difference between playable or not in games like Quake 2. Nowadays, the risk is greater in that the hardware costs more, and the payoff is much less, usually only a few FPS in select games.

 

In short, overclocking is mostly just a thing of the past, and a needless risk these days.

 

I agree that you should be buying components meant for the task, but the thing is that's not really overclocking. Overclocking is intended to push hardware beyond its technical specifications, not to the upper limit of its specifications, which is really what overclocking has become these days. ATI sells you a video card with "overclocking" capabilities not because they want to help the 1% of computer users who bother OC'ing, but because they know that they can clock the cards a little lower by default and when you see the words "overclock" you'll automatically assume that it's going to be extra fast, most likely without qualifying that assumption on any level.

 

Sure you do get a little more out of it than you might have otherwise, but that's really just because hardware manufacturer's realized the life-cycle of a typical piece of hardware ends before you could possibly burn it out with reasonable overclocking, especially if you're an enthusiast, so they kinda just said ***** it and embraced it.

 

I am fairly new to overclocking and PC gaming so i dont have much insight but what do you guys think?

[k1e1v1i1n]

most ppl on here push to see what they can do not to game any faster its just like any other hobby and it can also make ur computer last longer i mean longer between upgrades. most of the ppl posting there i would say are nubs and have no idea what there talking about but then again this is the interwebs and everyone is right.

[Shadowtroop]

most ppl on here push to see what they can do not to game any faster its just like any other hobby and it can also make ur computer last longer i mean longer between upgrades. most of the ppl posting there i would say are nubs and have no idea what there talking about but then again this is the interwebs and everyone is right.

 

 

i suppose that is true, i really cant explain why i overclock my CPU, i havent noticed a boost in gaming where it counts for me. But i still enjoy it, maybe seeing how far i can take my hard earned goods

[IVIYTH0S]

if my quad can come close to a new expensive chip stock clocked than there's your answer.

[Boinker]

"I do it Because I can, and I enjoy it".... That is all anyone ever needs to justify. That is what I usually tell people when they try to understand why I overclock or do anything that I do.

 

Same reason why I race R/C cars. See above reason.

[CowKing]

basically to just play Supreme commander decently

[ccokeman]

Its kind of the same thing that car nuts do but with computers. Making less expensive parts run as fast as the higher dollar parts for less money was and still is the allure. In gaming you will not notice a difference if your graphics card is the bottleneck. Otherwise it does give you more FPS!

[IVIYTH0S]

Its kind of the same thing that car nuts do but with computers. Making less expensive parts run as fast as the higher dollar parts for less money was and still is the allure. In gaming you will not notice a difference if your graphics card is the bottleneck. Otherwise it does give you more FPS!

not to mention if you are doing something CPU intensive like video encoding for instance, it really helps!

[Nemo]

We included an op-ed piece from Benchmark Reviews in a roundup last week called Desktop PC Platform: Killed By Overclocking that addresses this topic. Along with a lot of what's already been said here, I found this quote to be interesting: "At some point the computer industry went from asking consumers to pay more for the faster products, to paying more for products you might be able to make faster. "

[wevsspot]

Face it...... without overclocking there wouldn't be an enthusiast community (or at least not as enthused or passionate). And...... if there wasn't an enthusiast community then many (if not most) like "Benchmark Reviews" websites wouldn't or couldn't exist. Just like the analogy about race cars above, if there weren't some basic human drive inside of most men - and some women - to compete, to make things better, or make things go faster, or make my piece of gear run faster or better than yours for less money - aftermarket parts mfgs, magazine producers, websites etc. simply wouldn't exist.

[Waco]

Pfft...whomever wrote that just doesn't get it.

 

My stock CPU speed is 2.4 GHz. Overclocking raises that by 1.1 GHz to 3.5 GHz. That's a 45% increase! I doubt I could run anywhere near the settings I do with my current video card at my stock CPU speed...not to mention the fact that just about everything runs noticeably faster (especially encoding and CPU-intensive games).

[GabrielT]

Ok I have a 42.6 percent overclock, to me that is a significant increase in performance. You might not always notice the speed difference but who cares? It's free and if you have the stones to do it, it can be very enjoyable. If you do it enough you might find that it is really fun.