Does overclocking really make a difference?

[Kaadg]

Going to start my first build in another month and have been researching the forums for information, tips, and hints.

Enthusiasts love to overclock for various reasons and use benchmarks to show the gain in speed. But do you really see any real world benefits? I mean do you have a program that?s sluggish, then after overclocking it suddenly runs smoothly? Some of the articles I?ve read on the subject admit that most applications will not be noticeably faster. Of course it depends on the application too.

I?d like to hear what the overclockers here have to say.

Kaadg

 

[BlueWeasel]

Applications no, Games yes

 

[Stormgiant]

YES !!!!!

For instance, I got a 3000+ running by default at 1800mhz.
If you overclock it to 2000mhz, you will notice somethings a little faster, but not THAT faster....
But, if you put it at 2400-2600, then you will see everything faster.
Windows boots faster, programs responds faster, games go faster, can do more stuff at one time, etc...


Same for P4. If 3000mhz default, going to 3100-3200 will yeald a small increase. But if you go to 3800-4000, they will be alot faster.


Hope i helped.

 

[cubeless]

my xp1700 at 2.2ghz makes a big difference... my k6-3 450 at 600 made a big difference... my 1.4 tbirds at 1.5 didn't make too big a difference... my mp2500 at 2.4 makes a difference... and they make a difference in apps if there's no other bottleneck (like disk)... i generate lots of graphs in excel, and extra mips makes a difference...

 

[MisterChief]

In reality, OCing will give you some performance boost, but it also depends on memory: how much and what speed, and unfragmented HD's and registry, not to mention background processes and etc. So, although you can get a performance boost, try looking at different aspects.

 

[Kaadg]

With so many variables involved I see the answers vary also. I?m surprised that there?s a big difference in games because so much relies on the video card.

I have a cooling question, but I?ll start a new thread for that one.

Thanks for the answers everyone, it helps a lot.

Kaad_g

 

[zakee00]

newer games like HL2 rely very much so on the cpu. check this out : http://www.firingsquad.com/har...cpu_shootout/page4.asp
look at the amd 64 3000+, then look at the 3800+. i have a 3000+ clocked at 3800+ speeds, so at 12x10 (what i play hl2 at) i gained 15fps for free. not real noticeable, but it will probably make my min fps higher too, which is very nice. so games diffenately benefit from overclocking your processor/memory. the graphics card is a VERY nice thing to overclock too, i overclocked my 6800GT to Ultra speeds. saved me $100, with quite noticable speed increases in games.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

I see a slight speed increase when I OC by 10%.
For games, it only makes about a 5 fps differance in HL2.
It's more of a challenge to push my system to the limit and see how fast it can go.
Kinda like people who hot rod cars and take them to the track trying to run 11s.

 

[miketheidiot]

with my old 2500, I noticed a big improvement especially with bus increases. With my A64 I don't, because I'm very GPU bound.