Almost 20 years, provides the Intel Pentium processor out with 60 MHz and a CPU core. At that time, computing power is a precious commodity and every megahertz more immediately noticeable - even at word processing. Ten years ago, before the GPU is Nvidia Geforce fourth DirectX 8 chip with AGP interface is becoming a bestseller, especially graphics cards with NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4200th With the graphics chip, the underwater shooter Aquanox can play first in the 1600-resolution liquid with all its graphic glory. But already in the same year published successor "Aquanox 2: Revelation" GeForce 4 cards already forces in the 1280 resolution in the knee.
Looking back to the past two decades shows that overclocking represented a sensible and affordable way to speed up programs significantly: So-called killer apps from the past such as Photoshop in a production area or the first 3D games from the entertainment sector overwhelm the former hardware and require more power, which one tickles by higher level from the semiconductor chip. The aim is to trick overclocking barriers and technical barriers that have incorporated the manufacturer in their processors. OC-classics such as the L1 bridges of Thunderbird are a historical witness of this era.
Nowadays you can get for little money multi-core processors running at 3000 MHz and for running demanding applications such as video editing provide more than enough processing power. The latest 3D games usually run with a nearly two-year-old middle-class graphics card, such as the Zotac GeForce GTX 460 AMP! liquid. Yes, graphics cards have become so strong right that they displace in high-performance computers, the classic CPU cluster. On the other hand, there is a lack of killer applications. Best example: 3D games were a few years ago, the driving force for PC upgrades. Meanwhile, the hardware still hungriest game on the market for nearly five years under his belt. Crysis
CPU and GPU manufacturers use today not more power locks - on the contrary: Intel leads in November 2008 with the Nehalem generation of processors on the automatic overclocking feature Turbo Boost. AMD pulls in April 2010, according to the Phenom II X6, which dominates the technically similar overclocking Turbo CORE technology.
End of 2010, the additional performance acceleration Factory holds the first time in the GPU Radeon HD 6970 and 6950 under the name PowerTune collection. And with NVIDIA GPU Boost has since the end of March 2012 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 680 now an automatic overclocking function in the program. All techniques have in common a thermal protection function that prevents the semiconductor chip from dying of heatstroke. Moreover the overclocking dynamically limited by the power consumption and the heat generation of the entire processor.
Conclusion: brings to overclock the CPU or the graphics card by hand more risks than benefits. You will void the warranty, make your system more stable and stronger heat often attracts a higher level of noise noisy fan after themselves. The benefit is, however, a modest increase in power in the single digits or low double-digit percentage range, which has rarely used in practice a significant impact . One exception is the refresh rate represents in games where you can easily jerky representation through targeted overclocking the boundary between 25 and 30 frames / sec behind.
In time, however, the under clocking to in desktop mode to consume less power. For example, the performance of our test platform reduces pickup with a Radeon HD 7870 graphics card by almost 15 percent. Using tools like Afterburner you can set example for your graphics card a power-saving profile that you have a fully adjustable keyboard shortcuts can easily and conveniently on and off. Afterburner works with both AMD and Nvidia graphics chips and also with older graphics cards. For under clocking the CPU, there are no universal tool. Owners of motherboards with the AMD 700 series chipset, 800 and 900 can at least AMD Overdrive used for this purpose.
