What do you REALLY get from OCing?

[stillkicking]

This may seem like a stupid question to the super geeks but I would like to know what the actual real life benefits are to OCing? I am not talking about being able to get a higher number on some test. What do you actually experience in your everday usage on your computer? Is this a visible benefit for games or downloading something off the web or what? I tried some very basic OCing on my mobo and was able to substantially boost some scores in a few tests and also saw my temps go up slightly. And that was it. Nothing else so I went back to the "normal" position. Again, are there some real benefits to this, and where are they, or is it just something to play around with? Thanks.

3.0 Northwood
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
MSI NEO2-PFISR
Kingston 512 3200 (2)
PowerColor 9600 Pro

 

[Jeff7181]

Well when you're talking about the difference between an XP2500 at it's normal speed, or an overclocked Mobile XP2500 at 2.4 GHz... you're talking about an Athlon XP that's faster than any Athlon XP AMD ever released.

Just understand that you're not going to make MS Office any faster by overclocking... you're not going to make IE any faster by overclocking. Overclocking is beneficial to things that are limited by the speed of the CPU (or video card or RAM or whatever you're talking about overclocking). If only 25% of your CPU is being used for a task, increasing the speed of the CPU isn't going to do a bit of good. It's when you're doing something like gaming or video encoding or compiling or some other task that keeps the CPU at 100% usage where you benefit from overclocking.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

With your multiplier-locked northwood, raising fsb adds very substantial real-world benefits in a number of ways.

few examples common to desktop:

higher framerates in fast-action games that are more programmed to be cpu-dependent.

higher bandwidth between your system memory and cpu helps in faster video encoding and other digital editing.

 

[Ariste]

Well, if you barely overclock a CPU you're not really going to see a difference. A 100MHz overclock won't have much of an affect in real life situations. If you overclock a decent amount, however, such as an A64 2.2GHz to 2.4-2.5GHz or something like that, you definitely see some real world results. Keep in mind, every MHz you add to an Athlon 64 CPU will have more of an effect than the same amount of MHz added to a Pentium CPU. This is because the Athlons do more work per clock cycle, so adding a smaller amount of MHz will have a bigger affect.

The actual real life benefits are the same as buying a faster processor. Obviously, when you add more MHz to a CPU, it will run faster and be able to do more calculations every second, which will equal faster performance in real life situations. If you don't add a significant amount of speed, however, you really won't notice all that much of a difference.

 

[Mik3y]

basically, you get increased speed, better performance on gaming or apps, and basically everything will run better then it is at stock speed. if ocing didnt have at least a 5% increase in performance, i doubt most people would bother doing it, but since we're able to gain 10-40% on an overclock, its well worth it. basically, it will keep you from having to pay more for a faster cpu or it can keep you from having the need to upgrade sooner.

 

[Tiamat]

For example. My 1800+ runs at 1.53ghz. When I overclock it to 2.0ghz There is a noticeable difference. Things just seem snappier. Maybe its my mind playing tricks, however I have noticed games to run a bit better (UT2k4) [less choppy]. From 2.0 to 2.1ghz, I "feel" no difference. From 2.0 to 2.2ghz, I almost can tell a difference.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

All benchmarks aside, The best benefit I get from overclocking is how much faster my distributed computing projects run. My system runs 24/7 and all idle cycles go to crunching so, if for instance, I can finish a SETI WU 1/2hr faster on average then it adds up and after a month the difference in work done is enormous.

 

[NewBlackDak]

Compiling my single-handedly written bug-riddled code!! LOL
Seriously. The more time passes the more massive the code base gets. It sucks when a high-up wants a "feature". I get to write, test, and debug it all myself.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: NewBlackDak
Compiling my single-handedly written bug-riddled code!! LOL
Seriously. The more time passes the more massive the code base gets. It sucks when a high-up wants a "feature". I get to write, test, and debug it all myself.

=overclocking helps pay the bills. Now there's an angle I really like :beer:

 

[nvfx]

OVerclocking my Kt800 screws up 3DMark 03. Its is more beneficial when having a PCI/AGP Lock.

P4's are the Kings in OC despite a Locked Multipliers. But the Athlon XP and MP's are just as good.

The only thing which should concern you if there is any damage to OC. You already have a decent CPU Cooler. I have a Pure Copper version yet i dont like to OC much.

In real world, you'll learn alot when OCing. Read and identify your temperature readings and calculate the amount of excess temperature you are getting. While OC for my P4 from 1.5 to 2.0 Ghz does help a bit in quicking the Windows Load-up. But strange as it seems, my AMD64 3000 loads WinXP slower than my P4 1.5.

The amount of performance felt in games will gain be difficult to identify. You can indeed feel some increase in some games which you have played alot. Like i do, i know my games and i know where they slow up. So after OC, if my games do run a bit faster at points they used to be slow, thats an instant advantage.

Otherwise, OC wont help you save $$$ unless you cant take it upto a new generation CPU.

Like an XP OC to perform closer to AMD64 will be ideal. But an increment of only some MHz which will do nothing but to load MS Word 1 Nanoseconds quicker will be stupid.

 

[CaptnKirk]

The 'Thrill of the Kill'.

 

[MichaelZ]

running UT04 max details with the exception of the shadows function @ 1280x1024x32 on a ti4200? skipped a whole generation of video cards and still going strong. Doom 3 will change that though i suspect.

anyway, i too have a 3.0C and i've tried it @ stock and @ 3.7, the difference in performance in gaming is quite large and i probably wouldn't go back to running it stock.

the tweaking of hardware itself to push it to its limits is entertaining in its own right, that would be the other reason. it's probably not what you're looking for in a response but that's just my opinion anyway.

 

[oldman420]

you do get some bennifits up to certain speeds on any givin die
i know from experience that the barton goes stable from 500 mhz all the way up to 2.4 ghz on air cooling as for p4s im not sure but if you take a barton mobile and oc it you will get a sizable difference in things like file transfer app opening and general gui. but there is a limit unless you overvolt and that is risky and cooling is expensive and somewhat sketchy still. so i say play with the chip and you may even notice that if you underclock it it will still seem just as fast with less temps.
i have found that with a mobile barton i get the best performance/stability at 2300 12.5 x 200 1.75 vcore but temps are an issue so i keep it at 11 x 200 at 1.45 vcore it never gets hotter than 45 and as you pointed out it realy seems about the same.

 

[JBT]

what do you really get from OCing? well I would say a faster CPU and faster running programs that max out the CPU. Which would be games, video editing and and other programs that can put some stress on it. Thats about it what did you expect??

 

[trexpesto]

My comp boots and loads all those task tray programs in 10 seconds. Sometimes I don't even see the welcome screen
Although I don't have numbers for unclocked.
In a way I can kind of see your point, in that I don't oc mine to the highest it can go because I dont want to shorten the chip life. Gets hot here some days, and we have no AC. So there is a point of diminishing returns, especially if you have a job that pays you money instead of fiddling about all day.
Many people only overclock their stuff when it is nearly obsolete to extend its useful life, partly out of necessity, and partly because it is less valuable in case they burn it up. In my case, since I am now po' folks, I do it so I can get a killer setup for a fraction of the cost.
For instance my next rig will be a Duron 1.6 shooting for 2.2 GHz. They only cost $43! but it a hardware mod, supposedly easy.

Besides, chicks dig it.

 

[edmundoab]

run my XP2100+ from 1.7 Ghz stock to 2.25 Ghz.
Better game performance, ( of course I have my ram in sync )

 

[eLiu]

kicks and giggles

 

[PhoenixOrion]

knowledge on how to control voltages and temperatures.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: stillkicking
This may seem like a stupid question to the super geeks but I would like to know what the actual real life benefits are to OCing?

Mostly?

More money in my pocket and less spent on my computer.

For example, my main system is:
Athlon XP 2500+ @ around 2300 MHz (~$85)
ASUS A7n8x Deluxe -E (~$100)
1 gig Kingmax PC3500 (~$200)
Radeon 9700 non-pro @ 360 core/340 memory ($103 used from eBay)

My in-game performance is probably better than yours, primarily due to the overclocked 9700. CPU performance is probably pretty close to even. At current pricing, my stuff was probably $100-200 cheaper than yours.

Quite frankly, nobody would buy a setup like yours to overclock. There is little to do with your system. The memory limits the FSB overclocking you can do. You can probably get some noticeable boost from overclocking the 9600Pro. The way I see it, overclocking has to be in mind BEFORE purchase to be truly beneficial. If you play around with it after you bought the wrong components for overclocking, then you will see little gain because your components are not matched properly to do overclocking.

Also, for most current games, CPU performance is not going to be limiting you when you have a Radeon 9600Pro, so you're not going to see any real benefit of CPU overclocks.

 

[chinkgai]

didnt realize you guys got all that...i just get satisfaction

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
The 'Thrill of the Kill'.

 

[3LEMENT0]

best bang for the buck..... why spend more if you can clock more instead....

 

[pelikan]

An expensive, obsessive addiction. But hey, its lots of fun.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Originally posted by: pelikan
An expensive, obsessive addiction. But hey, its lots of fun.

exactely.

 

[Sid59]

i gained 400mhz for FREE! .. that should be something noticable when opening apps, photoshop, video / audio encoding ...

 

[screw3d]

I have an AXP from 1.47GHz to 2.3GHz - that's a free 800MHz right there.. you tell me