True overclock gains

[MagickMan]

I would wonder why I lost 20fps in Shattrath. 🙁 My OC made quite a difference.

 

[DanDaMan315]

I have a AMD 3000+ Venice core at 2701mhz running at about 35 C. I notice maybe 10-25% improvement in speeds. I chipset is running at 300mhz as well, and ram at 2-2-2-5 at 225mhz, 2GB in 2T.

What about running Half Life 2/Counter-Strike: Source video test. That test is fairly real world. You could also just peak at your frames in Counter-Strike: Source as this is actually a real world application if you play the game.

 

[JavaMomma]

Overclocking allows me to play 1080p content.
3800x2... stock speed (2Ghz) 1080p content is unplayable, I could have to have bought a new CPU but instead I just overclocked my CPU - stable at 2.6Ghz and now I can watch 1080p content without any problems at all.

 

[DanDaMan315]

Originally posted by: JavaMomma
Overclocking allows me to play 1080p content.
3800x2... stock speed (2Ghz) 1080p content is unplayable, I could have to have bought a new CPU but instead I just overclocked my CPU - stable at 2.6Ghz and now I can watch 1080p content without any problems at all.

Your computer is faster for sure, no denying that. But there is a lot going on in a CPU that overclocking does not account for. Such as L1, L2, and L3 cache. And you can't compare one overclock to that of another architecture.

 

[jeffw2767602]

I didn't see him comparing different architectures.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: DanDaMan315

Originally posted by: JavaMomma
Overclocking allows me to play 1080p content.
3800x2... stock speed (2Ghz) 1080p content is unplayable, I could have to have bought a new CPU but instead I just overclocked my CPU - stable at 2.6Ghz and now I can watch 1080p content without any problems at all.

Your computer is faster for sure, no denying that. But there is a lot going on in a CPU that overclocking does not account for. Such as L1, L2, and L3 cache. And you can't compare one overclock to that of another architecture.

Overclocking increases everything by the same ratio, including cache, with the exception of Phenom which has a seperate L3 speed that is independant of the core clock.

He is also not comparing cross architecture, not sure what you're about there, he simply o/ced his 3800+ from 2GHz to 2.6GHz and as a result 1080p now runs smoothly.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: jjrowley
When I went from 2.83 to 4.0 my epeen went from a mere 5.5 inches to a now impressive 9.5 inches. Win.

Nomination for post of the month.

In all seriousness, I personally notice a big difference between my E2180 at stock (2.0ghz) vs its oced state at 3.2ghz -- Vista booting is much faster and games are certainly noticeable. As an example, I play COD4 at 12x10 on an old (but very good) 19" CRT everything maxed. Most times, I average 77 - 91 fps with my card (see sig). At 2.0ghz, the avg frames drop to 58 - 75 fps. On the more elaborate and detailed boards like Creek, it drops to 31 fps vs 48 fps while oced.

Now on other games like World in Conflict, my processor is barely hanging on as is at 12 x 10 2xAA and mostly High settings with ~ 37 - 42 fps. When the really big battles start, this drops into the 20s -- and this is all at 3.2ghz. The game would be unplayable for me at those settings running the CPU at stock.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

 

[nyker96]

I agree with Dravic on why many people OC. It's cool to see say a $100 chip after little OC can beat up a $200 chip. You essentially getting something for nothing. Well not quite since most of us uses that extra cash for cash/fan/CPU HSF/TIM costs.

 

[Avalon]

I tend to play games at lower resolutions such as 1280x960 or sometimes 1600x1200, and lots of source based games, so my 1Ghz overclock on my CPU does make a difference. I tend to run my games at a comfort threshold, stacking on as many quality features as possible to the point where the game is still just barely very smooth during the majority of gameplay at about 50-60fps average. As long as my mins don't go under 30 I'm generally happy. If you turned off my overclock, my framerates would probably be riding in the 40s, and would dip into the 20s, which I'd definitely notice as choppy.

 

[mikeg]

Do you guys know that the computer waits for us more than we wait for it. Its just that if you don't have something to do it just sits there waiting for something to do. The real word gains you see on ocing is dependent on how much you can give the computer to do. If you have things that are CPU intensive like video encoding then just a 300Mhz OC will save you time if you are always waiting on the computer to finish things. So think of it in that way.
Mike

 

[exar333]

I think you see the biggest gains when you are overclocking lower-end CPUs to mid-range levels. A good example is when you can OC a 21xx or 52xx series cpu for less than $100 to 3.0-4.0Ghz. The stock speeds are pretty low and it really changes the processor from being sub-X2 class to really a decent low to mid-range processor.

Noticable: YES

IMHO it is less noticable when you upgrade from a 2.4 quad to a 3.0 quad for gaming or general windows usage; but this would be noticable if you are big into encoding or other CPU-only intesnive tasks.

As someone else said here, OCing made the difference with a X2 3800 to do 1080p encoding versus stock speeds. That could be a huge benefit to someone who then doesn't have to purchase a new CPU to accomplish the same goal.

 

[California Roll]

After finding myself doing a ton of video editing and encoding, I realized I needed to upgrade my computer. I went from a 5 year old 2.4 hyperthreaded intel cpu to a 2.4 quad. Needless to say the improvement was drastic. I then overclocked my 2.4 quad to 3.2 and again, noticeable improvement in encoding times. Considering I didn't spend any extra money on computer parts specifically to overclock, this was free and noticeable improvement (for my real world purposes).

 

[Phunk0ne]

I'm running my Q9550 @ 3.4 and did notice some gain in the games I played. But the best part of it all is, I still have some space left to overclock some more and see if I can push it to a nice and comfy 3.8.

But before that happens, I will need to do some more lapping of both my cpu and heatsink, and mostlikely a different motherboard as well.
But for now, I am happy with the OC this quad is giving me =)