Is overclocking worth it?

M

MajorGN

Weaksauce
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I had a chat with someone the other day. And as we spoke about OC'in a E6600 for example. At the end I thought whats the point in it all I.E.

In games, not much performance is increased i.e. 5FPS mostly
Windows performance will not increase much if not at all
Only things in which you would see a difference is £D work i.e. Rendering, Photoshop/

Is this all right? If so I wont bother trying to OC my E6600 and blowing it.

Cheers ;)
 
Well it might depend on who you are, but even if you are right you won't have answered your own question. If your gain is so minimal that it amounts to nothing. Lets say that your 5 FPS more on a X6800 opposed to the E6600 is true (25% overclock of the E6600, modest OC and approx same speed as the X6800), then you might aswell have gotten the E6300, after all it's only 5 FPS less than the E6600. Does 10 FPS more count?

Lets put a price on 3 GHz (roughly):

X6800 w/stock cooler $970 on Newegg

E6600 OCed w/Scythe Ninja $355.99 on Newegg

E6300 OCed w/Scythe Ninja $226.99 on Newegg

In all three examples any decent DDR2 PC6400 memory should get you there (unless you are unlucky in the case with the E6300). From an economic viewpoint OCing an E6600 is more than $600 worth, OCing an E6300 might be as much as $740 worth. In essence the question you could ask yourself instead is "why does ANYONE buy the X6800 if they only gain 5 FPS for $600?"

Processor prices pretty much follow the law of deminishing returns and if you can get the last $600 worth of performance for free, then why shouldn't you? Also some people find OCing funny so it most certainly has entertainment value aswell. Personally I am looking forward to OCing when I get a hold of a Conroe...
 
The difference depends on a variety of things. What resolution you play at, what video card, what game you play, etc. There was atleast a 15fps increase in cs:s when going from stock 2.4ghz to 3ghz. Thats from running the video stress. But my fps was already very high but my understanding any boost in clock speed will help. Windows performance wasn't noticed able. Encoding speeds did drop a lot.

If you are worried at blowing up your chip, you wont. Thats unless you over volt it or let the temps get to high. If you are worried still, 3ghz is fine for a overclock. It will be faster then a x6800, and can be done at stock volts unless you got a dud chip. You should overclock to get the most out of your chip.

For a good comparision
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=15
The difference is more then 5fps:D
 
I know at stock windows loads slower than OCed. Even BF2 loads much faster with an OC than stock. From 2.0 - 2.6 there is a decent difference.
 
Is overclocking worth it??? Hell no! Go out and buy the most expensive INTEL (or AMD) chip available (even if you need to take out a second mortgage)! :p

I own stock in both. ;)

Seriously though... you do realize that Intel (and AMD) doesn't specifically make certain speed processors cause they "want to". They can make "x" amount of chips out of a single silicon wafer. ALL chips are tested (and tested and tested), and the ones that pass more tests (higher standards) are "marked" as higher speed processors, while the lesser ones get a lower speed value. To look at it from another point of view.... the manufacturers themselves are overclocking. The higher the overclock, the more YOU pay.
 
MajorGN said:
I had a chat with someone the other day. And as we spoke about OC'in a E6600 for example. At the end I thought whats the point in it all I.E.

In games, not much performance is increased i.e. 5FPS mostly
Windows performance will not increase much if not at all
Only things in which you would see a difference is £D work i.e. Rendering, Photoshop/

Is this all right? If so I wont bother trying to OC my E6600 and blowing it.

Cheers ;)
Click to expand...

I am into my new E6400 system for a TOTAL price of just under $900. For well under the price of an X6800 chip alone I have an entire system that blows the X6800 performance level away by a huge margin.

I have clocked it at high as 3848 MHz for 9 hours more than enough to make it to the top of the Conroe overclocking database. But day to day usage I am running at a "sedate" 3720 MHz and have set up the system to boot at a "snails pace" speed of 3600 MHz.

So is it worthwhile to overclock? Most definitely.
 
I enjoy the noticeable windows boot-time when i'm OC'd.

Usually it takes about 3-4 bars, but only about 2-3 when OC'd over 2.5 Ghz.

Then again I have pretty empty drives...
 
Adionik said:
I enjoy the noticeable windows boot-time when i'm OC'd.

Usually it takes about 3-4 bars, but only about 2-3 when OC'd over 2.5 Ghz.

Then again I have pretty empty drives...
Click to expand...

It takes two bars for me with a pretty empty drive. I paid $150 retail for my stock 1.8ghz and turned it into a 2.8ghz, $700 retail chip. I'm gonna run it there until I sell it and build another rig.
 
As long as you're not adding voltage and have a good handle on your temps, you're not going to fry your CPU.
 
I'd rather have that extra 5 FPS for free.

I mean, free is free. If I offered your $5, no terms, yours to do whatever you please, are you telling me you wouldn't take it?
 
Usually my computer loads faster, but when I attempt to load it at risky voltages and or clocks, when my programs load my computer seems to slow down and even intermittently freeze, like its taking its sweet time. It goes away after stuff loads up, but its more noticeable at high voltages, like the cpu cant take anymore and wants to kick off.
 
Before you do anything, you need to ask yourself one question. "Can I replace this product if something goes wrong ?" Once you have settled on a answer, your either off to the races or your living in a world of factory satisfaction.
 
Thanks for all your replies. Amazing stuff

Well I will be spending £1500 on a PC. E6600. 2GB Memory (Dunno what one yet). Nforce 680i. 8800GTX. Stacker 830.

It's just I dont want to.

1) Blow the chip by accident. Thats £200 done.
2) Reduce the chips life. I dont have £200 to spend every 4-5 months on a CPU.

I've NEVER OC'd myself. And Its a thing that I have always tought "I will never do it". I have a guy building my PC, well he most likely will be. But he has said to me he will NOT Oc the chip. So if he wont, who will?..

:(
 
ok, time to stop lurking....

Overclocking used to be a big thing when you could net an easy 20% gain from hardware....pretty much it used to be if you were a hardcore gamer, or a brokeass (like I was....sometimes I didn't eat)...you had to overclock since it was your only upgrade path....and you had to do it right the first time.

Nowadays, you can get plenty of power for cheap....plus if you need better FPS, you can usually get a system that will play any game today with acceptable video quality for $1000-1500. that's a full system, monitor and all.

It's when you want that screenshot level quality all the time that it gets expensive.

Honestly, I find getting an SLI setup to be as quiet as possible on aircooling without resorting to stock cooler temps to be a bigger challenge....that's the way I have went.
 
if you OC w/o increasing vcore you will run almost no risk of frying your CPU...

and you can go up in vcore to approx 1.45v with temps under 60*C with no problems... in most cases...
 
MajorGN said:
Thanks for all your replies. Amazing stuff

Well I will be spending £1500 on a PC. E6600. 2GB Memory (Dunno what one yet). Nforce 680i. 8800GTX. Stacker 830.

It's just I dont want to.

1) Blow the chip by accident. Thats £200 done.
2) Reduce the chips life. I dont have £200 to spend every 4-5 months on a CPU.

I've NEVER OC'd myself. And Its a thing that I have always tought "I will never do it". I have a guy building my PC, well he most likely will be. But he has said to me he will NOT Oc the chip. So if he wont, who will?..

:(
Click to expand...

Your not overclocking but you spend the money to buy a overclocking motherboard...You could have went with something cheaper.
Its not that hard. There quite a few tutorials, plus theres people with the same board as you that can walk you through it if you cant do it. The chip will last longer then 5 months unless you overvolt it.
 
WarriorX said:
Your not overclocking but you spend the money to buy a overclocking motherboard...You could have went with something cheaper.
Its not that hard. There quite a few tutorials, plus theres people with the same board as you that can walk you through it if you cant do it. The chip will last longer then 5 months unless you overvolt it.
Click to expand...

Well I went with this board because of excellent reviews, and really a PC needs a good Mobo.

Well I havent bought ANYTHING yet. So anything is changable. I will get the PC is around 1 months. Then I will get it built and Il leave it for around another month. IF I feel I need to OC. I will see what I will do. But I mean I'm upgrading from a Athlon 1900 to a Core 2 Duo. Its a big step. :)
 
You can fairly easily overclock conroe chips over 3GHz at stock voltage (or below). I was able to undervolt my e6300 to around 0.95000v at stock speed, stock voltage is 1.32500.
 
If that NV 680i board is going to be the eVGA board, you might want to read around the motherboard forums and see the massive amounts of problems people have been having with it.
 
mwarps said:
If that NV 680i board is going to be the eVGA board, you might want to read around the motherboard forums and see the massive amounts of problems people have been having with it.
Click to expand...

So are the other 690i brands are better? I thought the best Mobo out atm was the 680i.
 
I think it's worth it when you buy a cheaper CPU and it bypasses a more expensive one.
 
I've been doing it for years. Getting more bang for my buck per say.

This 3800+x2 stock is 2.0, mine is running flawlessly at 2.75ghz. That's a major, major gain in processing speed and I definitely noticed it in benchmarks and general computing. Games increased a lot too, especially those that are CPU limited.

It's definitely worth it as long as you learn ALOT about what you are going to be doing and understand how it works, what cons there might be and etc. If you get a decent cooler I don't see a problem running more volts through a CPU than its stock. I've been overvolting for years to overclock with success. There may come a time when a CPU of mine meets an early demise because of this, but I say if it lasts me a good 3-7 years then its good enough for me. I usually upgrade more often then that anyway.

Key points being: Just read and make sure you understand what you are doing. Take your time to LEARN and I mean really learn about it. For some its more bang for the buck, but for others its a hobby. I find it fun trying to squeeze as much as I can from my parts.
 
Arcygenical said:
In Oblivion, I gained 19FPS by overclocking both my CPU and GPU.

Worth it to me!
Click to expand...

Yep, im glad you touched upon that... video card overclocking can realize alot of gains.

Here's the thing, yes you really can tell when your cpu was at 1.8 and you bumped it up to 3.0 Ghz! If you do your homework it's really simple and safe... If it wasn't every other thread on this forum would be "Man I think i fried my CPU" or "Dont ever overclock this chip!"

Sentiments like "if you cant break it, don't mess with it" are true but a little too conservative. Overclocking is mainstream now, a hobby if you will. Part of me thinks that Intel purposely clocked the conroe line with plenty of headroom, to what end I'm not sure about.

Here's something that you must be sure of, that I haven't heard you talk about in your build, a PSU.... get a damn good PSU thats dead stable at load (i.e at load the 12 volt rails are 12.03v not 11.99v) and has good efficiency compared to whats drawing from it. First time builders often skimp on their PSU. Base your PSU selection off several well regarded reviews... Forum wise I think this is one of the stronger PSU recommendation boards >>> http://csd.dficlub.org/pgpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=45

Mobo wise, I haven't built yet with a conroe but people seem to revolve around the 975x and 965p chipsets
 
MajorGN said:
I had a chat with someone the other day. And as we spoke about OC'in a E6600 for example. At the end I thought whats the point in it all I.E.

In games, not much performance is increased i.e. 5FPS mostly
Windows performance will not increase much if not at all
Only things in which you would see a difference is £D work i.e. Rendering, Photoshop/

Is this all right? If so I wont bother trying to OC my E6600 and blowing it.

Cheers ;)
Click to expand...

my experience is completely opposite, increased performance in all aspects of computer use from simple windows tasks to my game. Plus the computer just "feels" better. Of course with a 6300 I had more to gain.
 
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