Is Overclocking worth it?

[VIAN]

Is it really?

You have to test the overclock every time a new driver or some hardware challenging game, such as doom 3, comes out to make sure it's stable. That's a lot of time. If time equals money, then I don't think wasting 8 hours every month or so, if you're an ATI boy/girl is worth it, especial those that have high paying jobs. F-it, just buy the more expensive hardware, you have to admit, convenience-wise, paying the money is a better option.

 

[Matthias99]

Who spends 8 hours a month tweaking their overclocks?

 

[SickBeast]

How could it not be worth it? You're getting extra performance for FREE. Unless you do something outlandish and destroy your hardware, it is absolutely 100% "worth it".

 

[DarkKnight]

it isnt that hard, overclock, run prime95 over night, if it's stable, try to bump it up again. Keep on doing it until u get to ur limit.

 

[clicknext]

It isn't really a safe method, but I just look around for speeds that people say are stable for them with the same card, and then I set it at that speed and just use the card normally, and then set lower if it crashes at all. I don't go through any big testing process.

 

[Sonic587]

Those reasons are absurd. If you spend more than 15-20 minutes OCing/testing your videocard, you must not know too much about the subject. It's quite easy, and as sickbeast mentioned, free performance.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I modestly oced my asus radeon 9800 pro burning smell insued a few days later the fans died : (

 

[someone16]

That doesn't have anything to do with the card being O/C'd. Even if it wasn't overclocked the burning will still happen...

 

[PowderBB3D]

Let's say you get a new video card and it runs 350/1000. This unnamed card cost you, let us say, $399.99. You could always have paid $100 more and get a 400/1100 version of the card - an 'ultra' version, if you will - but with overclocking you can save that $100 towards the next time you upgrade.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
How could it not be worth it? You're getting extra performance for FREE. Unless you do something outlandish and destroy your hardware, it is absolutely 100% "worth it".

Yeah but, all that just for a few frames? I can see someone wanting to o/c if their game is dipping into the high 20's, but what about the guys that are already getting 70 to 80fps in a game? Why do they o/c?
So they can get 74 to 84fps? Thats when its really not worth the effort, when your card is already a monster. I am for o/c'ing when you "need" to. There is definately a noticable difference between 25 fps and 30 fps. Just my 2 cents.

 

[PowderBB3D]

Then don't overclock your cards. The rest of us can have our fun.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: PowderBB3D
Then don't overclock your cards. The rest of us can have our fun.

I dont. And by all means do.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: SickBeast
How could it not be worth it? You're getting extra performance for FREE. Unless you do something outlandish and destroy your hardware, it is absolutely 100% "worth it".

Yeah but, all that just for a few frames? I can see someone wanting to o/c if their game is dipping into the high 20's, but what about the guys that are already getting 70 to 80fps in a game? Why do they o/c?
So they can get 74 to 84fps? Thats when its really not worth the effort, when your card is already a monster. I am for o/c'ing when you "need" to. There is definately a noticable difference between 25 fps and 30 fps. Just my 2 cents.

Yes, but how can something that is free not be "worth it"? It's like saying that the free slice of pizza being given away at your local pizza shop isn't worth it because you have 10 large pizzas sitting in your kitchen. Or that it's not worth it because you have to walk 1/4 mile to get it. To me, free is always worth it. Free is never a bad deal.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: SickBeast
How could it not be worth it? You're getting extra performance for FREE. Unless you do something outlandish and destroy your hardware, it is absolutely 100% "worth it".

Yeah but, all that just for a few frames? I can see someone wanting to o/c if their game is dipping into the high 20's, but what about the guys that are already getting 70 to 80fps in a game? Why do they o/c?
So they can get 74 to 84fps? Thats when its really not worth the effort, when your card is already a monster. I am for o/c'ing when you "need" to. There is definately a noticable difference between 25 fps and 30 fps. Just my 2 cents.

Yes, but how can something that is free not be "worth it"? It's like saying that the free slice of pizza being given away at your local pizza shop isn't worth it because you have 10 large pizzas sitting in your kitchen. Or that it's not worth it because you have to walk 1/4 mile to get it. To me, free is always worth it. Free is never a bad deal.

Ok, but unless your having a pizza party, you would have to throw most of that pizza away including your free slice. My point was, if you dont need it, its a waste of time and more like a hobby. Those with weak framerates should o/c to get their games playable. That is a worthy reason to do it. This is just my opinion guys and I am not telling anyone to do, or not to do, anything. Just my view for the OP because he asked.

 

[GeneralGrievous]

Yeah but, all that just for a few frames? I can see someone wanting to o/c if their game is dipping into the high 20's, but what about the guys that are already getting 70 to 80fps in a game?

If you are getting that many frames, why not increase your GPU settings? Unless you are playing at your max res (which should be 1600x1200 on a gaming monitor) with max AA/AF, there is always a way to lower your framerates and show the benefit of an overclock.

And to the OP: I overclock because I can.

 

[Evdawg]

i personally enjoy the thrill of seeing how much i can get out of it... and like he said, its FREE

 

[nitromullet]

Or that it's not worth it because you have to walk 1/4 mile to get it.

This is the point exactly... If in the same time you walked that 1/4 mile you could have made $20 doing something else, your slice of pizza really isn't all that free anymore. Convenience, time savings, etc... are all worth something to a lot of people. The question wasn't is it possible to OC your hardware and make it run faster, but was it worth it. To some it is, to some it isn't.

 

[MichaelZ]

meh. who cares if it's worth it or not. do it anyway.

 

[VIAN]

Who spends 8 hours a month tweaking their overclocks?

I was talking about CPU/RAM, also. You're right though, not 8 hours a month, but once a month you have to keep checking your OC when you download the Cats.

You're getting extra performance for FREE.

Time is money. You never get anything for free.

it isnt that hard, overclock, run prime95 over night, if it's stable, try to bump it up again. Keep on doing it until u get to ur limit.

Well, the way I do it is Bump until it will restart and perform a test and then run P95 until I get 0 errors within 8 hours. Then I would run P95 2 more times just to make sure.

Those reasons are absurd. If you spend more than 15-20 minutes OCing/testing your videocard, you must not know too much about the subject. It's quite easy, and as sickbeast mentioned, free performance.

If you OC your CPU, after a certain amount of time, it can have errors, so how do you know that your VPU won't have errors after 20 minutes. How do you know that a bit of heat won't accumulate over time because of your other components while you're playing a game and start to create errors.

Yes, but how can something that is free not be "worth it"? It's like saying that the free slice of pizza being given away at your local pizza shop isn't worth it because you have 10 large pizzas sitting in your kitchen. Or that it's not worth it because you have to walk 1/4 mile to get it. To me, free is always worth it. Free is never a bad deal.

I don't know if I would accept free pizza. I don't think the free slice of pizza is worth it if I have 10 already in my house. I wouldn't even walk a 1/4 of a mile just for a free slice, only if I passed through or something. Again time=money; the time it might take you to walk there, might buy you a slice.

4 factors.

Convenience
Inconvenience
Time
Money

You Inconvenience yourself by trading Time for Money for a Convenience. Such as the Convenience to buy food from a grocery store. Would you like to grow your own food? Maybe, maybenot. It would take you more Time to grow it, than to work and play for it. Convenience.

My point was, if you dont need it, its a waste of time and more like a hobby.

I happen to agree with it, why would you go and buy something you don't need. That's like those people that buy stuff that they don't need JUST because it's on sale. And they have a crap load of things in their house doing nothing.

Hey, why don't you hop over to my house and I'll give you a free T-Shirt.

3DMock 01: 19506 on my Ti4200.

This should say:

3DMock 01: 19506 on my P4.

 

[Zebo]

quote:

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You're getting extra performance for FREE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time is money. You never get anything for free.

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Yea you get the joy of tweaking. This is like saying fishing is a waste if time..when i could be making money. Sorry bud I like to stop and smell the roses.

 

[Shinei]

I'm soured on overclocking because my Ti4200 is on its last legs thanks to the overclocking I gave it (a modest 265/545 core/mem from 250/513); not only did I not get as high an overclock as other owners of a Ti4200 have gotten, my card lasted a lot less than theirs did/do (if memory serves, there are still people on this forum with 4200s at 300/600). I agree with Vian, it's not worth it if you're not going to get a big boost out of it (and by "big boost" I mean 20+fps in a real-world game); or if your hardware is simply not good enough to handle a heavy game like D3 or FarCry. Otherwise, it puts your silicon at risk everytime you boot up, and on top of that it's a VERY expensive gamble with these $500 video cards. I'll keep that extra $500 for other stuff, like a TV or a car payment or something.

 

[Megatomic]

I like to overclock for multiple reasons. First, it saves me big $$$. My cheapo 2500+ has been cranking away as a 3200+ for over a year now. That's several hundred dollars right there, remember how expensive the stock 3200+ chips were last summer? Secondly, as another poster mentioned, it is fun for me, an adventure. It gives me a goal, a project to fill my downtime. Lastly, I do it because I can. Just for hell of it. If a chip/GPU is unlocked I'm gonna push it.

And I certainly don't spend several hours a month reverifying my overclocks. I just fire up my games and roll. If the games play smooth and pretty then I'm golden.

 

[PowderBB3D]

Hahaha Shinei your "modest" overclock destroys mine. Granted it is a ti4600 but seriously. I got 8 mhz on the core before it started freezing under load. Wonderful. Never had much luck with video cards.

 

[Megatomic]

I had one of the first gen 4200s, made by VisionTek as a matter of fact, that ran @ 320/650 all day long. I flashed the BIOS of the card to make those the default clock speeds.

I actually miss that card though I'd not install it in the stead of my 9800 Pro.

 

[TStep]

I vote Yeah for what I do. My rigs usually fall into "the best of the last gen category". I buy on the cheap, clock the snot out of them, sell 'em and buy the new stuff when the true enthusiast get bored with what they've got.

Currently:
P4 2.4 @ 3.4 >> $400vs$130 >> $270 saved (3.4 wasn't even available at the time to boot)
AI7 vs econoboard >> maybe xtra $40 spent
9800np refurbed @ 400/320 >> spent $70 less at the time than a 9800pro

Spent about an xtra 2 hours jerkin around to find max clocks, prime95 / benchie loops overnight to confirm (cost me no time while I slept), back everything off a hair, totally stable since.

About $300 saved / 2 hours spent = $150 saved per hour. Now if I can only find a job that pays this well.