Overclocking not what it used to be?

A

Ange062

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 30, 2002
Messages
2,088
I feel like the effort and money involved in getting a good overclock only nets nearly unnoticeable gains in real world performance. With current CPU's and GPU's already pushed to such high frequencies, getting an overclock that can match the 'glory days' (i.e. 2.4b @ 3+ = easy) is hard to come by.

On my current rig I have messed around with overclocking, but the damn thing is so fast and overclockability percentage wise so bad compared so some of my older setups, that its not even worth it because I see no difference in performance.

What do you guys think?
 
I think it highly depends on your components. Just like in the "old" days (celery 300a / P4 2.4 etc.), when you have the right chip, it might be worth it.

Look at the opteron chips. I got myself a Opteron 146, which i run at 2.8GHZ on air, which compares to a FX57 for just $160 back then. It's a tremendous speed increase.

Of course, trying to overclock a already fast FX57 (2.8) to 2.9 or 3.0 won't give you nearly as much "awwww" factor.
 
The 2.4B wasn't that great of an overclocker, are you getting it confused with the 2.4C?

I have a P4 2.4C@3.4 and a Celeron D 2.4@3.8 and both of them show a dramatic increase in performance when overclocked. It all about where your baseline is. If you start with an FX60, you probobly won't feel a big speed increase even if you have a 'good' overclock. For me, if a processor won't overclock 25+% over its stock speed, I won't even bother.

Celeron 433@590: 136%
Celeron 600@1035: 172%
Celeron 1.3@1.6: 123%
Celeron D 2.4@3.8: 158%
Pentium 4 2.4C@3.4: 141%

I felt the same way as the OP when I upgraded to my P4 systems. I was a 440BX system for the longest time and all my overclocked experience was with that. Now looking back on it, yes there is a little more involved with overclocking, and yes you need to buy more specialized equipment. but, if your overclocks are high enough then the gains are still worth it for me.
 
Yeah, 2.4c on the 800mhz FSB, typed the wrong letter.

acascianelli, the procs you mention are those that i was referring to as 'the glory days'.

ScYcS, i think your right, but that is also what i was getting at. The new cpu's, especially the high end ones, that are coming out RECENTLY dont seem to OC as well. My athlon 64 is 1 example, and i dont have any experience with the dual core stuff but i would imagine there is a severe limitation because of power consumption and current clock speeds.

I agree that it is still fun to do just to get every penny worth out of the chip and satify our hacker / tweaker mentalities, but i just dont see it like it used to be.
 
my 2.66ghz (daul core) P4 D 805 will do 3.6ghz with stock cooling and no voltage change. and its uber cheap as will at £90.

converting divx/xvid to dvd's, the extra ummph really makes a difference.
 
What do you mean "No real world difference"?

Normally you won't see much of a difference between OCed rigs and Vanila rigs, but that's only until you start using a "power" application, such as exporting a DVD to AVI file. Clockspeed makes a HUGE impact there. You're right, however, overcocking can yield great numbers, but actualy being able to discen the differences at such high clockspeeds can be tough. Now, taking an Opteron from 1.8ghz all the way to 2.7+ghz is noticable!
 
Yeah taking my 170 from 2.0-2.7 or 2.8 made a huge difference. Noticably faster response times and program launches, etc. It really does depend on what you're starting with.
 
Yeah, my FX55 going to 2.9 isn't really that big a deal, however taking my 2.66 P805D to 4.0 is :)
 
Weazmeister said:
Yeah, my FX55 going to 2.9 isn't really that big a deal, however taking my 2.66 P805D to 4.0 is :)
Click to expand...

I need better ram before attempting the big 4gig with my 805,,, its already bang out of sync and my board doesnt offer up any decent dividers.
 
There are some really good deals on Newegg for PC2-6400 right now. Might want to check those out.
 
no difference? wen i clocked my 144 to 3.0ghz, i felt a noticeable difference right away, esp. in games :cool:
 
Ange062 said:
I feel like the effort and money involved in getting a good overclock only nets nearly unnoticeable gains in real world performance. With current CPU's and GPU's already pushed to such high frequencies, getting an overclock that can match the 'glory days' (i.e. 2.4b @ 3+ = easy) is hard to come by.

On my current rig I have messed around with overclocking, but the damn thing is so fast and overclockability percentage wise so bad compared so some of my older setups, that its not even worth it because I see no difference in performance.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...


There may be hope yet, Rumor has it conroe is a beast of an overclocker.
 
pick up a sempron64 and overclock that. i promise you'll see the difference between stock and oc'ed levels.

1.8ghz -> 2.95ghz is definitly something ;)
 
I used to feel the way the thread started did after I coulden't find an OC friendly replacement for my 2.4c @ 3.3.

That is untill I came across the P4D 805. Holy $hit! 3.75GHz stable on stock cooling! I can't wait for this thing to burn in so I can strap it up the the water cooler and hit 4Ghz+

I was worried about the death of overclocking, but now I have no doubt our craft will be practice well into the next decade.

What I'm worried about is the era of optronics making the FSB and multipliers of our electron-based CPU obsolite. How do you make light go any faster?!
 
Quicksilver said:
How do you make light go any faster?!
Click to expand...
how do you make electricity go faster?

you're asking the wrong question :D

how do you make light SWITCH faster? turn up the brightness (voltage) of course :p
 
Ange062 said:
On my current rig I have messed around with overclocking, but the damn thing is so fast and overclockability percentage wise so bad compared so some of my older setups, that its not even worth it because I see no difference in performance.
Click to expand...
I overclocked an opteron 165 to 2.7ghz (50%, which is pretty good but not great). If there is no difference in performance, then why would anyone even bother buying an FX-60 other than bragging rights? :) (or any other dual core processor)
 
Overclocking has gotten to god damned complicated so I threw in the hat. That and the components I buy never seem to be the performers that everyone else gets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top