The concept of overclocking has appeared in the everyday life of users since the first computers arose. Despite the long-standing origin of this term, not all modern users clearly understand all aspects and nuances of overclocking. What is this in the current interpretation, and then try to figure it out. After reading this material, many of those who want to engage in such actions will be able to perform them without much damage to the computer system. However, to do this, you first need to find out what are the actual actions performed and the risks associated with them.
What does overclocking mean in the general interpretation?
The term itself comes from the English word overclocking and means overclocking of some equipment in the form of installed "iron" components in order to increase the speed of the entire system as a whole. At the same time, in overclocking mode, the equipment begins to work not using standard parameters, but with exceeding them. How is this achieved? If anyone does not know, any component of the system, as it were, has a margin of safety, that is, it allows you to set higher values of the same frequency and voltage for its operation, due to which, in fact, a higher performance is achieved.
Goals, objectives and basic methods of overclocking
But this was just general information about overclocking. What this is in the sense of the tasks performed is a little understandable. Since the main goal is to accelerate the work of a certain component or several to use the installed equipment when working with some programs or modern computer games where maximum performance is required, special attention should be paid to some risks. The main thing for all known equipment installed on the motherboard is considered to be an excessive increase in temperature, which a regular cooling system can not cope with.
Thus, you need to either change the coolers to more powerful ones, or reduce the temperature by applying, for example, an additional amount of thermal paste to the processor, or apply more advanced, although not always available methods (for example, use special cooling mixtures based on nitrogen).
In the case of laptops, you can do a little easier by buying an additional cooling pad. But in any case, when overclocking equipment, you will need two types of software. Some applications act directly in the form of an acceleration tool, while the second ones are designed to control the most important parameters.
Outdated hardware overclocking methods
A little distracted from the consideration of modern methods of overclocking equipment, it is worth saying a few words about how such actions were carried out at a time when software capable of overclocking did not yet exist in nature. In most cases, the term described was understood to mean overclocking the processor (central), since then graphic chips with their own processor systems or RAM modules with which such operations could be carried out had not yet been created.
At the dawn of the development of computers, enthusiasts had to not only strengthen the CPU cooling system by applying thermal paste, but even change the position of the processor in the slot on the motherboard or increase the frequency of the system bus using special DIP switches. But such methods are outdated today and usually are not used, since they are very unsafe.
Overclocking: what does this apply to modern technology?
To maximize the safety of equipment from failure, in the modern computer world, completely different acceleration methods (software) are used that do not require physical intervention in the installation of some components and in its operation. Therefore, it is worth looking at the modern concept of overclocking. What kind of methods are these from the point of view of programmatically changing the operating parameters of the equipment, it is easy to figure out if we take into account the simplest and most suitable method for all beginner overclockers, which consists in increasing the frequency of the processor or system memory by changing the corresponding settings in primary systems (BIOS / UEFI). In some cases, you can increase performance even without it. It will be enough to complete the installation of an updated version of the primary system itself (firmware of the software part).
However, the most effective and maximally safe method is to use specially designed software for this with constant monitoring of the same temperature when installing enhanced performance characteristics than those provided for in the normal mode. Consider these techniques in more detail.
Overclocking Computer Components in a Primary I / O System
First of all, when you turn on your computer or laptop, enter the primary system using the Del key on stationary PCs, and on laptops the combinations or special buttons provided by the manufacturer directly on the keyboard panel. Now find in the settings the settings section of the main equipment and menu items with a name like Frequency / Voltage Control or even Overcloking (the names of menus, sections and items in different BIOS versions may vary).
The general methodology for overclocking the processor (overclocking in BIOS) in the order of the actions performed looks approximately as follows:
- reduce the speed of the memory bus to prevent errors and malfunctions (Memory Ratio, DDR Memory Frequency, Memory Multiplier);
- increase the frequency of the processor by 10% (CPU / PCIe Base Clock);
- save the parameters, reboot and perform a stress test in the program LinX or similar;
- increase the frequency of the processor in the above way until the system starts to work unstably;
- the first time a fault condition appears, return the last set value.
You can also apply another method, which is to first lower the base frequency, and then increase the value of the multiplier (CPU Ratio) in increments of 0.5.
In some BIOS modifications, when working with Intel processors, the Intel Turbo Boost Technology hardware overclocking item can be presented, the use of which will save you from manually setting the necessary parameters (for example, on ASUS laptops overclocking can be done in this way).
You can also increase the voltage (VCore Voltage), but the increment should not exceed a value of 0.025.
What should be taken into account when overclocking the processor programmatically?
Finally, when all the necessary settings are completed, and the values of the above parameters do not exceed the permissible values, use the Prime95 program and run a long stress test in it, designed to conduct a test within 12 hours.
You can call it through the Just Stress Test Settings item, selecting the Torture Test option and setting the Small FFT parameter to it as active.
Is RAM overclocking needed?
Now let's pay attention to another important component, for which you can also perform overclocking. What kind of equipment is this? Of course, we are talking about RAM.
In general, it is believed that when the processor is overclocked on the bus, RAM acceleration is performed automatically. It is not recommended to overclock the memory itself above the supported standard (for example, DDR1333 or 1866) at all, since such actions can be fatal for a computer system.
If you want, you can only activate the two-channel mode of operation, but for this RAM RAM will have to be installed in the slots through one (first / third or second / fourth, which is more preferable).
But owners of MSI motherboards are lucky in the sense that right in the BIOS / UEFI you can find a special overclocking tool called Extreme Memory Profile, based on Intel XMP technology and allowing you to configure the optimal memory mode in just a couple of clicks due to increased timing. It goes without saying that after setting the necessary options, the functioning of the memory module will need to be checked. The optimal program is AIDA64, which uses the cache and RAM test item (Cache & Memory Benchmark).
GPU overclocking
If we are talking about overclocking a video card, everything is much simpler here, since it is for the GPUs that the corresponding software is most developed.
Optimum tools are programs like ATITools, Riva Tuner, GeForceTweaker, TNTEdit, PowerStrip, TNTClk, NVIDIA Inspector and their analogues. It is best to use utilities like 3DMark or GPU-Z as the monitoring software. With this approach, you can milk a significant increase in FPS in computer games.
Other equipment
However, as evidenced by expert reviews, overclocking can be performed not only with respect to the described equipment. It is believed that it is also possible to disperse even routers or equipment installed on mobile devices.
On smartphones and tablets, you first need to get root rights, and then install special firmware, connect the device to a PC with USB debugging enabled, and perform overclocking using programs like SetCPU or IncrediControl. Naturally, before performing any action, you should save a backup copy of data from ROM (internal storage) and fully charge the gadget.