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GAF do you overclock your components?

Leonidas

Member
Yeah, I overclocked every CPU and GPU I've had since 2012. Probably my biggest GPU overclock was with the 980 Ti, something like 33% higher than it's "stock" boost back in 2015, that's ages ago at this point...
Just about every component I ever had overclocked decently to very good, and I've been through tons of components over the years, except for one Ryzen 1700 I breifly used, wich was a complete dud, it did only 3.7 at safe voltages and would only allow memory at like 2666...
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Fuck yeah I do! YOLO

I avoid it to not reduce the lif of the device. I’d rather invest and buy the strongest GPU/CPU i need.
As long as you do it relatively competently and don't do something stupid like blow your vcore, it'll be time to upgrade anyway before you significantly reduce the life of your CPU.
 

JordanN

Banned
I avoid it to not reduce the lif of the device. I’d rather invest and buy the strongest GPU/CPU i need.
Is there actually proof of this?

The PSP, 3DS and Wii were all using overclocked parts and they still work to this day. I also bought my 2600x which was technically rated at 3.6Ghz but it overclocks to 4Ghz during intense loads.
 
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yes, like 99% of other pc gamers, i have only money for midrange gpu [150-300€] and use this gpu for 3-5 years and without overlocking my fps will be on AAA games <30fps, means worser than on consoles.

I know that the big majority not ovelock the gpu and i ask myself how can they play in sub 30fps with all graphics options on lowest level.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
yeah, of course. if that performance is on the table i'm taking it.

CPU

my 9900K can do 5.1GHz within reasonable voltages + temps but I dialled it back a bit to 5.0GHz with a -2 AVX offset. This CPU gets insanely hot if you put it under an AVX load. Like it will hit 100C no problem in stress tests. to be fair, my 3700X ran hot too at 91C running at just 4.4GHz. So, when my PC is under an AVX workload it will downclock to 4.8GHz. otherwise it will hit 5.0GHz. i could probably get away with a -1 offset. in gaming it sits at 40-60C but of course it really depends on the game and scenario. mostly it's ~45-55C. (this is with a Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 air cooler). when it comes to video encoding temperatures are fine. i just encoded a 2 and a half hour movie this morning and it averaged 66C. voltage usually sits at about 1.26V.

the reason i'm not running it at 5.1GHz with no offset is probably because of my experience with my old 6700K. the best i could ever get out of that was 4.5GHz with 1.36V! so after a couple years i started to notice performance degrading. 4.5GHz became impossible. 4.4GHz was stable but temperatures were too high. I had to lower it to 4.3GHz to keep the temperature in check. and this was with a Cryorig R1 Ultimate air cooler.


RAM

my sticks are rated for 3200 CL16. both my old 6700K + 3700X systems couldn't manage to run them at 3200. the 6700K could only do 2666 and the 3700X could only do 2933. my 9900K can handle them at 3200 CL16 no problem but you don't really need to worry about RAM speeds with Intel so to lessen the strain I run them at a slightly slower 2933 but improved CL15 latency.

GPU

i have an RTX 2080 Founder's Edition. in MSI afterburner i have a +110 core / +700 memory offset meaning it runs at ~2075 core/7700 memory. this it running at the absolute edge. if i were to do a +115 or +750 offset it would crash in the stress tests i use but probably would be no risk of constant crashes in daily usage. temperatures are just fine but i have set a custom fan curve. temperatures rarely ever go over 70C and never go over 75C. mostly it sits at about 40-65C depending on game/scenario. the fans on this are LOUD at full speed. i can tolerate them up to about ~60-70%. i've tuned the fan curve to strike a balance between sound/performance. very happy with it.
 
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Patrick S.

Banned
Only my laptops GPU. It has a GTX 970 that's getting long in the tooth even for 1080p, so I'll put it on +135 Mhz and +250 Mhz through Afterburner whenever I play a game that doesn't run too well.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
i would never overclock a laptop. for starters they have shit airflow and run hot at the best of times. if you burn out your cpu/gpu then that's it. at least in a PC you can just swap out a dead part.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
i would never overclock a laptop. for starters they have shit airflow and run hot at the best of times. if you burn out your cpu/gpu then that's it. at least in a PC you can just swap out a dead part.

It's a MSI Apache gaming laptop. It has nice twin fans, and has a button to manually put the fans on max. If I feel the latop is getting hot, I'll put it on full blow for a moment.

Kg0dQEZ.png
 
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I had 2500k that ran on 4.4ghz for many years.
Nowadays, I don't overclock that much. I'm running my ryzen 7 stock but I did undervolt and overclocked my vega 64.
 

Three

Member
I was a member of Xtremesystems.org. Overclocking was part of the fun. Subzero coolants and having to deal with condensation. Good times.

Then I grew out of it and it was not fun anymore. I didn't do it for performance but the fun of it. I don't overclock at all anymore because playing most games the performance is usually enough to max everything decently anyway. It was the fun of overclocking that had me doing it before. Like the people who tinker with cars but don't do the actual racing.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Degrading life on your hardware is the biggest bullshit ever. You simple need good cooling and don't go over voltages that hardware is builded for. I had a CPU for 10 years oc'ed by 50% and pushed to max volts at hot temps and still works.

I overclock only my GPU and CPU and that's about it as they give you the biggest gains.

My biggest success story on CPU front is 2,8ghz i7 to 4,1 ghz.
GPU are all kind successful, current 1080ti is kinda a dud for ocing tho, hardly hits 1950 mhz, 970 was a beast in ocing. Also flashed a 9800 into a 9800 pro which gave a ton more performance back in the day.
 
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kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Nope, never. I don't care if the statements about shortened lifespan are true or not, I just don't want to take any risks.
it's not a risk though.

overclocking your GPU is very safe. unless you start modding the BIOS you'll be fine because the BIOS will have protections set in place to avoid any insane voltages or temperatures.

RAM is pretty safe too. For most people you just go into your BIOS and enable the XMP profile which lets you run the sticks at the advertised speed which is technically an overclock. say you buy 3200 RAM kit then it'll run at 2133 unless you overclock it. pretty much all RAM out there is advertised by the overclock speeds. they are binned so you're completely safe. the only way you'll do any damage is if you manually try go beyond the advertised speed and set insane voltage. for example my kit has an XMP profile of 3200 1.35v. if i were to try set it to 3400 1.4V it could damage it.

CPU is riskier but still safe unless you go crazy with voltage. my CPU runs at 5.0GHz with 1.26V. it's safe to run <1.35V. if you were to put something ridiculous in like 1.45V then yeah that'd damage the CPU. generally, the worst that'll happen if you overclock (knowing what you're doing) is the system will freeze/BSOD then boot back up.

the risk of overclocking is running at high voltages + temperatures for a long time. if you try running at 5.1GHz with 1.4V and it hitting 90C then that'll damage it. if you overclock properly you can hit 5.1GHz with ~1.3-1.35V and keep reasonable temperatures.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
it's not a risk though.

overclocking your GPU is very safe. unless you start modding the BIOS you'll be fine because the BIOS will have protections set in place to avoid any insane voltages or temperatures.

RAM is pretty safe too. For most people you just go into your BIOS and enable the XMP profile which lets you run the sticks at the advertised speed which is technically an overclock. say you buy 3200 RAM kit then it'll run at 2133 unless you overclock it. pretty much all RAM out there is advertised by the overclock speeds. they are binned so you're completely safe. the only way you'll do any damage is if you manually try go beyond the advertised speed and set insane voltage. for example my kit has an XMP profile of 3200 1.35v. if i were to try set it to 3400 1.4V it could damage it.

CPU is riskier but still safe unless you go crazy with voltage. my CPU runs at 5.0GHz with 1.26V. it's safe to run <1.35V. if you were to put something ridiculous in like 1.45V then yeah that'd damage the CPU. generally, the worst that'll happen if you overclock (knowing what you're doing) is the system will freeze/BSOD then boot back up.

the risk of overclocking is running at high voltages + temperatures for a long time. if you try running at 5.1GHz with 1.4V and it hitting 90C then that'll damage it. if you overclock properly you can hit 5.1GHz with ~1.3-1.35V and keep reasonable temperatures.
I will admit that my knowledge about PC hardware is very limited and I never tried to change that by learning more advanced stuff. I just never felt like I needed to make that extra step so that my PC could run a little faster.
 
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Patrick S.

Banned
I will admit that my knowledge about PC hardware is very limited and I never tried to change that by learning more advanced stuff. I just never felt like I needed to make that extra step so that my PC could run a little faster.

My philosphy is that I only start overclocking when my components are old and don't run the newest games well anymore. At that point, if my stuff breaks, I don't really care. It's outdated anyway. If it doesn't breakt, I can delay the purchase of new components, which is nice :)
 

DESTROYA

Member
Dont really need to. My hardware runs everything fine stock.
Besides bragging rights whats the point of OCing if not really needed? I mean wasting weeks just trying to hit a certain number is insane when you can spend your time doing things that are actually fun.
 
Having been with Radeon for several years now, I don't overclock - I undervolt :messenger_smirking:

The ol' Ryzen is overclocked though, R5 1600 running at 4Ghz under water. Still plenty for the 4K/Ultrawide gaming I do and the odd video render.
 

Leonidas

Member
Dont really need to. My hardware runs everything fine stock.
Besides bragging rights whats the point of OCing if not really needed? I mean wasting weeks just trying to hit a certain number is insane when you can spend your time doing things that are actually fun.
If it's taking weeks for someone to overclock they are doing something wrong. GPUs can be overclocked in minutes.
Overclocking 3000 series AMD CPUs seems pointless, but for Ryzen 1700 you could go from 3.2 all core easily to 3.7-4.0, which is a pretty substantial increase...
 

DESTROYA

Member
If it's taking weeks for someone to overclock they are doing something wrong. GPUs can be overclocked in minutes.
Overclocking 3000 series AMD CPUs seems pointless, but for Ryzen 1700 you could go from 3.2 all core easily to 3.7-4.0, which is a pretty substantial increase...
Don’t tell that to me tell the OP, he was chasing a mythical number for the most part that doesn’t really add much benefit to already high end hardware.
I can see trying to squeeze the performance out of low/mid tier CPU’s and GPU’s but the higher end stuff is only for bragging rights and wagging your epeen around.
 

TaySan

Banned
Don’t tell that to me tell the OP, he was chasing a mythical number for the most part that doesn’t really add much benefit to already high end hardware.
I can see trying to squeeze the performance out of low/mid tier CPU’s and GPU’s but the higher end stuff is only for bragging rights and wagging your epeen around.
Why buy a high end processor, motherboard and cooling system if you are not going to push it to its full potential? I want to get as much performance as I possibly can In my system I would have paid much less otherwise.
 
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Myths

Member
I’m currently overclocking both CPU and GPU. The GPU boost gives me the extra few FPS to round out to 30 here:

 

DESTROYA

Member
Why buy a high end processor, motherboard and cooling system if you are not going to push it to its full potential? I want to get as much performance as I possibly can In my system I would have paid much less otherwise.
Thats fine but I just dont think chasing a few FPS is worth the risk .
 

Kenpachii

Member
Dont really need to. My hardware runs everything fine stock.
Besides bragging rights whats the point of OCing if not really needed? I mean wasting weeks just trying to hit a certain number is insane when you can spend your time doing things that are actually fun.

OC actually increases your FPS drastically mate. Its not just bragging rights. Also ocing these days is piss easy. See what voltage u can push and boom clock until the stuff stops crashing and done.
 

Gargus

Banned
Nope.

In this day and age with even a somewhat modest budget you can buy stock parts that will run anything.

All over clocking does now is increase energy use, exert more heat which needs to be delbt with, avoid any warranty you may have, and potentially shorten part life span. And in some cases cause issue with games and operating systems. And you always run a risk of destroying hardware.

It was once a fun past time but now it's just pointless. Like overclocking a celeron 350 to 1.1 ghz with my boss at a computer store I worked at was fun. We had to buy dry ice to do it and use a mini fridge as a PC case. That was fun to mess with but that's it.
 

Type_Raver

Member
I avoid it to not reduce the lif of the device. I’d rather invest and buy the strongest GPU/CPU i need.

i7 3930k 3.2GHz @ 4.6GHz

Running strong since 2012.

I have upgraded the graphics cards from the original GTX 680, to GTX 1060 and now RTX 2060. All which I overclock, find the limit then take it down a notch and go.
Good cooling and a quality PSU is key, plus follow good advice and take no shortcuts.
 

DESTROYA

Member
OC actually increases your FPS drastically mate. Its not just bragging rights. Also ocing these days is piss easy. See what voltage u can push and boom clock until the stuff stops crashing and done.
No kidding !
I know that because I used to do that all the time when I had no so great hardware, XTU,Throttle Stop, MSI Afterburner, Nvidia Inspector and whatever other program that might help.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Depends on the task at hand and the hardware being used. For Ryzen 1600, I'll usually leave the CPU with a slight bump at 3.7GHz. For 2060 Super, I have GPU Tweak profiles for default and maxed-out. You get a free 7-8% jump without pushing too hard, and can get up to 9-10% if you wanna push it. That 8% can give you an increased setting or 2, or push your game up by 5fps and give you a more solid 60fps baseline. I also like to OC when I'm capturing a gameplay vid at higher settings(1440p/60fps, 4K/60fps), as it will give you back the lost 1-2fps from recording and some.
 

V4skunk

Banned
I've been on a 2600k overclocked an entire Ghz for 9 years and it's still going as strong as ever. As long as it's cooled properly it won't have any effect on the life of your components. Heat is the enemy, not clock cycles.
My 2600k has been at 5ghz on air for 8 years.
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
I never over locked my CPUn(i5 4690k) until I needed to for performance gains, but GPUs are so easy and risk free there's really no point in not doing it. Especially now with newer Nvidia and the automatic overclock feature of Afterburner (I think that's what has the feature). I plugged in my 1660ti, auto clocked, then checked a guide to see how to do it manually. Only got a few ticks higher than the auto, which is impressive.

CPU is a bit more involved, but if you're buying an unlocked CPU that's the whole point of your purchase.
 

Meted

Member
i overclocked my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB a few weeks back exactly to an online guide i found and it had no impact on performance for some reason
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
i overclocked my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB a few weeks back exactly to an online guide i found and it had no impact on performance for some reason
Perhaps your performance is being limited by another component, likely the CPU. Use Rivatuner's overlay to find out what is holding your performance back. That's how I decided to overclock my CPU - performance drops in Resident Evil 2.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
i overclocked my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB a few weeks back exactly to an online guide i found and it had no impact on performance for some reason
I had both EVGA SSC 1060 6GB and MSi GT 1060 6GB(during ether mining bonanza), and both were solid overclockers that would boost above 2GHz. Most review sites had 10%+ performance gain with any 1060 6GB, as did I. Maybe your bottleneck is elsewhere, as previously mentioned. If you have the time, maybe we could poke around a bit and see what's up?

1. What are your system specs? CPU, RAM, and MOBO in particular.
2. What program are you using for OC?
3. Have you tried using the free version of 3DMark Fire Strike to verify performance? Can you download it from Steam if not(the free demo version)?

Once you get 3DMark and run Fire Strike, it should give you test results that show most of your specs, and will give us your Graphics(GPU) and Physics(CPU) scores. A screenshot of that would be very helpful. P.S.- I used GPUTweak for my OC tweaking.
 

GymWolf

Member
It's never too late to start! Just take your time with it and make sure everything is stable and you are golden! :)
the fact is, how much you gain by constantly stressing your hardware? 5 frames? 10? is it really worthy? i can just tone down shadows and occlusion and puf 10 frames gained.

of course if we talking about 20-30+ frame gain on every game then maybe i will start to think about overclocking.
 

Meted

Member
I had both EVGA SSC 1060 6GB and MSi GT 1060 6GB(during ether mining bonanza), and both were solid overclockers that would boost above 2GHz. Most review sites had 10%+ performance gain with any 1060 6GB, as did I. Maybe your bottleneck is elsewhere, as previously mentioned. If you have the time, maybe we could poke around a bit and see what's up?

1. What are your system specs? CPU, RAM, and MOBO in particular.
2. What program are you using for OC?
3. Have you tried using the free version of 3DMark Fire Strike to verify performance? Can you download it from Steam if not(the free demo version)?

Once you get 3DMark and run Fire Strike, it should give you test results that show most of your specs, and will give us your Graphics(GPU) and Physics(CPU) scores. A screenshot of that would be very helpful. P.S.- I used GPUTweak for my OC tweaking.
1. CPU - Intel Core i5 7640X @ 4.00GHz
Ram - 16GB
Motherboard - ASRock X299 Gaming K6
2. MSI afterburner
3.
OnnPCLF.png
 
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