What is overclocking?
Overclocking involves changing your computer system hardware settings to work at a faster speed than the manufacturer’s rating. This can refer to the motherboard bus speed, the CPU speed, or both. Also called pushing or speed margining, the practice has become highly popularized, especially among gamers and modders. Overclocking the CPU – In general CPU chips are tested by the manufacturer to see at what speed they fail.. They are then rated at a speed one step lower than this. Since the tests are quite stringent the idea is that it may be possible to push the CPU somewhat faster than its rating while maintaining stability in the system. Sometimes, when manufacturers are short on stock, they package faster GHz chips as slower ones; overclockers perceive this as a windfall. Results from overclocking the CPU alone must be balanced against the rest of the system’s specifications, namely the bus speed of the motherboard, memory, et cetera. For example, a 20% increase in processor speed doe
Overclocking is the process making a computer component run at a higher speed than that specified by the manufacturer. The components that can be overclocked include the CPU, the memory and the video cards. Although there may be many different reasons for overclocking, the most common reason is to increase hardware performance. For example the AMD Athlon 2500+ processor which normally runs at a CPU clock speed of 1.83 GHz may me made to run at a clock speed of 2.20 GHz or the GeForce 6800 cards may be converted to a GeForce 6800 ultra by enabling additional pixel shaders. However, it is very important to note that overclocking can result in system instability and sometimes even permanent hardware failure if done carelessly.
Most technical components have rated speeds i.e. speeds at which the manufacturer states they are designed to run. Processors have GHz ratings, motherboards may have maximum FSB (Front Side Bus) ratings, and RAM may have MHz ratings. Overclockers use a variety of methods to make those components run at speeds faster than they were originally intended. Some of it is done as easily as by changing jumpers on your motherboard or making changes to the BIOS/CMOS. Some overclocking is more involved and requires physical modification to the product. Sometimes it can be done by overclocking software or overclocking utilities. However, it’s not just a matter of making a part run faster, it’s a matter of getting it to run faster without affecting the stability of the PC. Once a part has been overclocked it’s then a matter of testing to see if the whole computer is stable. Booting the PC into Windows and having it crash all over the place is an obvious hint that not all is well. It sometimes takes
Overclocking involves altering your computer system hardware settings to operate at a faster speed than the manufacturer’s rating. This can pertain to the motherboard bus speed, the CPU speed, or both. Also known as pushing or speed margining, the exercise has become extremely popularized, particularly among gamers and modders. Many of them buy low-end computer parts which they then overclock to higher speeds, or overclock high-end components to achieve levels of performance beyond the designated values. Other people overclock obsolete components to keep pace with new system demands, instead of buying new hardware. Users who overclock their components primarily center their efforts on processors, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and Random Access Memory (RAM).
