overclocking

[quaere]

Can someone explain what is overclocking
what overclocking is for
how to overclock
can an AMD be overclocked

Thks guys/gals
😱

 

[dullard]

Overclocking is running your CPU at a faster speed than it was sold at. For example you can buy a 1 GHz Athlon and with overclocking you might be able to make it run at 1.2 GHz.

Typically you shouldn't expect more than a 20% overclock, however some chips can go to 50% faster or more.

Overclocking is for computer enthusiasts who want to run their computer as fast as possible. Years ago when computers were agonizingly slow, overclocking allowed a reasonable boost to speed. Now many people don't need any more speed. Thus they often buy a cheaper (slower) processor and then overclock it to about the speed of a top-of-the-line processor; it saves money.

Overclocking can permantently damage a processor, so you also need to make certain that your processor won't overheat. Many overclockers will purchase the bigest heat sink and biggest fan available to allow a large overclock.

Yes AMD chips can be overclocked.

 

[MrGrim]

Overclocking means to run a chip at a speed higher than the default one.

The speed of a CPU is the multiplication of the CPU's multiplier and the motherboard's FBS. (CPU = Central Processing Unit = Processor = AMD/Intel, Multiplier = a CPU's attribute/feature/value, FBS = Front Bus Speed)

So 800MHz = 12 * 66 or 8 * 100 or 6 * 133 (multiplier * FBS)

If you change either the multiplier or the FBS you change the CPU's speed. If you increase either of them you increase the CPU's speed, therefore you are overclocking your CPU.

Intel CPU's have locked multipliers that can't be unlocked. You can overclock them only by changing the motherboard's FBS.
AMD CPU's usually have locked multipliers by they can be unlocked. You can overclock by either changing the CPU's multiplier or by changing the motherboard's FBS.