Overclocking = better performance??

[phucahwa]

First of all, i dont know much about overclocking (the pros and cons) but managed to over clock my PC anyways,
Here is my list of things that i overclocked on my PC

Duo2Core E6850 3.0 OC to 3.8
4 gig og G.Skill DDR2-800 OC to 1100 5.5.5.5.12
BFG 8800 GTX 785MB (or725?) 600/900 OC to 625/1000 (prolems when OC to 650/1050)
I dont remember the motherboard model but its a "OC king" as claimed on some boards and reviews. Made by EVGA i think (.....im not on my PC at the moment).

Again, i dont really know much but by reading tutorial, i managed to get these OCed and have them running without problems.

Anyway, i remember reading somewhere that OCing the CPU too much will actually slowdown the GPU? or something about speed of OCed CPU will not sync up with speed of OC GPU.....really have no ideas......

Can anyone look at my OC setting an check if it is ok? or should i increase something/decrease something or just set them back to factory clock?

Please help, and sorry for this long post. THankssss

PS: I just want to have my PC run fast and able to take on Crysis and World in Conflict on max setting. Will this OC help? ALSO, would a RAPTOR 10,000 RPM harddrive run game better than the 7500 RPM harddrive?

[Freddie]

Well that’s a good overclock for a first timmer, the new B0 stepping in those Core 2 Duo’s really work wonders in terms of overclocking. Are you using the heatsink and fan (HSF) that came with the CPU or are you using a third party one? If you’re going to overclock your CPU, I would use a third party HSF, the intel stock cooler is alright but for better preformance nearly all third party ones are better.

I also wouldn’t overclock that video card, its 8800 GTX which I fast enough it doesn’t need to overclocked as I find that over clocking your video card leads to graphical corruption.

[phucahwa]

I'm using the Zalman 9700NT? fan and heatsink model (again, i dont remember the exact model, but it is one of those big fan and heatsink from Zalman). Seem to do the job fine.

Also, i used Riva tuner to OC my videocard and set it to run the OC setting everytime when windows start up. So, if i uninstall Rivaturner, all the OC setting for the card will be erased?

[Hadrian]

Yes, OCing will make your system better, faster, stronger as you are unleashing untapped performance from your components. The OCing of your CPU and memory are tied together as they rely on one another. The OCing of your GTX is totally seperate from the others.
Careful blindly OCing video cards and processors though, especially pushing them to their limits as they will wear out faster because of the increased heat caused by the increased bandwidth.
I agree with Freddie that the 8800GTX is really fast enough on it's own. A slight and precise OC will cause it to match the performance of the 8800 Ultra model and thats about as far as I would recommend OCing the GTX. With your Conroe at 3.8MHz and your DDR2 memory OCed as well, plus a GTX, your systems fast enough for virtually any game out there......your good to go dude.
And yes, if you unistall Riva Tuner (that's what I OC my video cards with) you will lose your OC as that is the program telling your GPU to be OCed so your 8800GTX will revert back to it's standard clock settings.

[Ummagumma]

As with most things, to fully understand overclocking, you have to start at the beginning. Have a look around about what the bus speed is, what it does and how things are changed. Look at the multiplier value of the processor, and at the values of your memory (CAS/tRCD/tRPD/tRAS are the main figures quoted, but there are many more beneath the surface). Overclocking is a balancing act between the survivability of the system (ALWAYS my first consideration), bus speed settings, memory timing and processor multiplier. *hint* having a high memory speed at slack timing is not always better than a more conservative Mhz figure in favour of tighter timing - memory stepping sometimes has to be be lowered to enhance performance.
Anyway, nice going for a first attempt, and to echo the sentiments of others, I would leave the gpu at stock, or closer to stock for now. They are not the most durable of components.

[phucahwa]

Thanks guys, imma go ahead and set my GPU back to factory clock then.....also, just wondering what is the clock speed for an Ultra 8800?

[LoZz]

cons

overclocking voids your warrenty. if you fiddle with it and it breaks you will not be able to get your money back or a free repair.

overclocking pushes the hardware beyond its normal operateing enviroment, this results in.
-shorter life span - parts need replaceing sooner
- more heat - the fans will only be build to deal with a certain speed, when you overclock the parts work faster and generate more heat, the fans of course will not be built for this so this can cause your system to over heat and damage the parts, so dont forget to increase your fan speed!


pro's

increased performance - its not a great deal mind you, 10fps at most but that 10fps can be the diffrence between a playable game and a unplayable game. so that can in the long term save you money as you dont need to upgrade as often.

bragging rights - ive got my 100 pound card to perform just as well as your 200 pound card.


it doesnt really make your system stronger or weaker, the more you overclock the weaker and less stable the system becomes, gfx cards are easy to overclock, cpu is again something a bit more advanced and i personally would not fiddle with memory timeings unless you know what you are doing!

[Hadrian]

dont forget to increase your fan speed!

Good advice and an often overlooked adjustment when OCing a GPU. phucahwa, you can do this easily through Riva Tuner since you have it installed on your system....

It doesnt really make your system stronger or weaker, the more you overclock the weaker and less stable the system becomes

LoZz, I have to disagree with this portion of your statement. OCing does make a system stronger, that's the whole point of OCing, becuase it utilizes untapped performance. Only when incorrectly done does it potentially make a system weaker and more unstable, but when done right, it can actually make a system more stable, as well as more effecient and more powerful. Sweet spots do exist between components, especially memory dimms and processors.

phucahwha, there is an absolutely excellent article on OCing 8800's at a site called MADSHRIMPS and to correctly OC any 8800 model you really must read it. The new DX10 GPU's don't OC quite like the old DX9 cards did because there is now a third clock speed (the core clock is now split into the ROP domain and the shader domain) to take into account and the 8800s clock speeds increase in steps of 9/18/27MHz instead of the old method of increasing in single MHz because the 8800 series multipliers are step limited . Because of this change in architecture, you can jack up you clock speeds more than needed and miss the steppings of performance increase as well! I don't know the clock settings of an Ultra off the top of my head but I believe they are mentioned in the article and it even tells you how to match them with an 8800GTX.....

[LoZz]

Good advice and an often overlooked adjustment when OCing a GPU. phucahwa, you can do this easily through Riva Tuner since you have it installed on your system....




LoZz, I have to disagree with this portion of your statement. OCing does make a system stronger, that's the whole point of OCing, becuase it utilizes untapped performance. Only when incorrectly done does it potentially make a system weaker and more unstable, but when done right, it can actually make a system more stable, as well as more effecient and more powerful. Sweet spots do exist between components, especially memory dimms and processors.

phucahwha, there is an absolutely excellent article on OCing 8800's at a site called MADSHRIMPS and to correctly OC any 8800 model you really must read it. The new DX10 GPU's don't OC quite like the old DX9 cards did because there is now a third clock speed (the core clock is now split into the ROP domain and the shader domain) to take into account and the 8800s clock speeds increase in steps of 9/18/27MHz instead of the old method of increasing in single MHz because the 8800 series multipliers are step limited . Because of this change in architecture, you can jack up you clock speeds more than needed and miss the steppings of performance increase as well! I don't know the clock settings of an Ultra off the top of my head but I believe they are mentioned in the article and it even tells you how to match them with an 8800GTX.....

well if you push it to far it will make the system unstable, it cant nessicery cope with the speed, their is alot of factors etc. when you over clock you gpu it takes more power from the power supply, if your psu is not large enough it wont get enough power it needs, the extra heat can cause it to crash and in some cases you get artifacts in game. sure a little bit makes your system stronger but to much will just cause it to crash.

[spartan_phalanx]

Well I have over-clocked an E4300 to 3.6GHz which it comes stock @ 1.8GHz (double). It has been thoroughly stress tested and is completely stable. For a $115 bucks I am running faster than any other stock chip out there.

Over-clocking isn't for everyone but most do it to squeeze a little more out of there components before having to upgrade. I do it as a hobby more then anything.

The most important rule to remember is that: If you can't afford to replace it then you really shouldn't over-clock it.