The benefits and costs of overclocking.

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TheJackal

[H]ard|Gawd
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ok, i thought this would be a good thread for noobs to overclocking so maybe all of the expierenced users can post what they have learned from overclocking and what not to do and such. i also have a few questions to ask that may help other people new to overclocking and i will edit this post for the answer of the question.

i am not that new to overclocking. ok, well maybe. i didn't overclock my tnt or 9200 and i started with my x300. my x300 with just a heat sink could o/c quite well. and when i got my 6600GT, well i'll get to that later.

1.) what is the purpose of overclocking?
Well, what i always thought was more frames per second. i am most likely wrong though. i think fps dips are increased at fps level.

2.) how well does it help gaming on higher resolutions.

3.) why should you overclock?

what you should and shouldn't do!

1.) you should have good case cooling.
2.) have a good power supply with good rails and such.
3.) you shouldn't overclock beyond your knowledge. it will crash, lock up, or artifact.

prob lots more

So, what's my story? Well, i have had to RMA two of my 6600GTs due to overclocking. Overclocking them made me miss out of games for the weeks in between shipping. It has cost me money, as i had to ship via UPS. I learned that overclocking can be both a good thing and a dangerous thing. Sure, for 3d mark 05, i had mine cranked up to a stabble, not so really, 598/1336 and that is officially the highest overclock i could get out of it. a few weeks later, that card died. my latest card that died i think a few weeks ago, died when i was playing fear. i had it running at 550/1xxx as i don't remember the rest. i just RMA'd that yesterday and hopefully i get it next week. learned, overclocking can be dangerous. this is just gpu overclocking, cpu and ram are another. :p more than likely, i am done with gpu overclocking unless people can show me the real benefits of it.
 
I have never noticed a game difference with any video card I overclocked. Benchmarks, sure, some gains, but not a single time have I noticed the effects of overclocking in a game.
 
jdLordHelmet said:
I have never noticed a game difference with any video card I overclocked. Benchmarks, sure, some gains, but not a single time have I noticed the effects of overclocking in a game.
Click to expand...

I've noticed the exact same thing in my setup, am I doing something wrong? :confused:
 
neubspeed said:
I've noticed the exact same thing in my setup, am I doing something wrong? :confused:
Click to expand...

theres 2 things, Bios and Drivers, while the vid card is overclocked, the drivers can still interfear because it detects tat bios says card is 300mhz not 600mhz :p that and not reinstalling drivers after finishing overclocking causes them to get "dirty" basicly you installed them when you were running 300MHz but than later overclocked to 600MHz, but the drivers FOR THE MOST PART still remember it as a 300MHz card, so driver reinstalls and [H]ard Overclocks (once you get stable Overclock make a custom bios with that and flash it to card)

BTW just so people know I'M TALKING OUT OF MY ASS, what I said is what I do, bios flash the overclock and driver cleaner the drivers then reinstall them, and I ALWAYS see a pref bonus in games and benchmarks alike, but in reality other than maybe reinstalling drivers after a good overclock it really shouldn't make much of a diffrence (in terms of affecting preformance, as in overclocks should give pref bonus accross board, my steps listed above shouldn't make much of a diffrence, you SHOULD see performace benifets when overclocking a vid card all accross the board regardless of steps above :p)
Chilly
 
my last 3 video cards have been high end, and i can tell you overclocking high end cards will give a minimal 4 fps gain at a cost of heavy heat.

CPU overclocking is another story. It gives major gains and heat is minimal
 
TheJackal said:
ok, i thought this would be a good thread for noobs to overclocking so maybe all of the expierenced users can post what they have learned from overclocking and what not to do and such. i also have a few questions to ask that may help other people new to overclocking and i will edit this post for the answer of the question.

i am not that new to overclocking. ok, well maybe. i didn't overclock my tnt or 9200 and i started with my x300. my x300 with just a heat sink could o/c quite well. and when i got my 6600GT, well i'll get to that later.

1.) what is the purpose of overclocking?
Well, what i always thought was more frames per second. i am most likely wrong though. i think fps dips are increased at fps level.

2.) how well does it help gaming on higher resolutions.

3.) why should you overclock?

what you should and shouldn't do!

1.) you should have good case cooling.
2.) have a good power supply with good rails and such.
3.) you shouldn't overclock beyond your knowledge. it will crash, lock up, or artifact.

prob lots more

So, what's my story? Well, i have had to RMA two of my 6600GTs due to overclocking. Overclocking them made me miss out of games for the weeks in between shipping. It has cost me money, as i had to ship via UPS. I learned that overclocking can be both a good thing and a dangerous thing. Sure, for 3d mark 05, i had mine cranked up to a stabble, not so really, 598/1336 and that is officially the highest overclock i could get out of it. a few weeks later, that card died. my latest card that died i think a few weeks ago, died when i was playing fear. i had it running at 550/1xxx as i don't remember the rest. i just RMA'd that yesterday and hopefully i get it next week. learned, overclocking can be dangerous. this is just gpu overclocking, cpu and ram are another. :p more than likely, i am done with gpu overclocking unless people can show me the real benefits of it.
Click to expand...

One thing you did wrong is RMA a card when you killed it overclocking.
 
true dat, thanks for increasing video card prices, asshole.
 
I overclock all my hardware. I have never had a death. I do voltmods on most of my parts, my current videocard is going under the knife very soon. I notice huge gains from overclocking. Not just in benchmarks but in everyday gaming. After my gfx v-mod I hope to get around 600mhz on the core. Thats a huge difference and I should be able to run a full resolution or antialiasing setting higher in most of my games.
 
I agree with the others that have posted minimal gains. I used to run my 6800gt oc at 400/1150 but I only got like 4 more fps. If thats the dif between 28 and 32 fps I'm for it, but 80 and 84 fps, I just can't see the risk being worth it. Needless to say I run my cards stock atm. If two 7800gt oc's in sli don't do it for me, I need a new hobby...or a physics card! LOL!
 
I have noticed differences in games with things like being able to use higher textures and higher AA modes but not 'too' much of an increase.
 
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