Overclocking by tweaking the multiplier.

[Pugnate]

Hey guys,

Was talking to a friend and he said that you can overclock without touching the RAM by just manipulating the processor multiplier.

How does that work? Can anyone help?

I always overclocked by tweaking the FSB. If I knew that you could overclock by manipulating the multiplier, I'd not have bothered with getting great RAM.

 

[MarcVenice]

Heh, most processors come with locked multipliers, or well, locked as in, you can lower them, but not increase them. AMD offers some black editions with unlocked multipliers, and Intel has some core 2 extreme processors if I'm not mistaken, with unlocked multipliers, but those often cost a ton. So in the end you are better of buying some decent ram and overclocking the CPU by tweaking the FSB.

 

[brassbin]

and my understanding is if you are just doing modest oc, such as getting to 3Ghz, you don't even need to do that much with RAM, which means inexpensive value set would do, unless i'm mistaken...

 

[PCTC2]

With RAM today, you're good to 400+ FSB for OC'ing (DDR2-800 is pretty standard).

Unlocked multipliers are good for boards with lots of FSB holes, boards with low FSB walls, or people that want to take their processor to the next level without any motherboard limitations.
The AMD Black Editions cost around the same or a little more than the processor they "replace' for their standard line. Core2Extremes go for $1K+. For Intel, it's a LOT cheaper to buy great RAM (DDR2-1066 goes for around $100 I think) with a decent processor ($300 E8400) than get a Unlocked multi proc ($1000) with cheap RAM ($50).

If you want to multipler OC, get an AMD. If you have money to blow, and a lot at that, get an Intel.

 

[PingSpike]

Why do you need great ram for intels? Even most ddr2-667 ram overclocks to 800 and that nets you a 400FSB? And I've seen any gaming benchmarks that seem to indicate ram speed does much of anything for c2d performance, at least in games. (To be fair, games are the only benchmark I ever bother to check so it could make a bigger difference elsewhere.

 

[PingSpike]

Sorry...regarding the original topic: Most processors are multipier locked. Intels have been since Pentium 2 and the original celeron days. AMD started locking their's midway through the Athlon XP's life cycle. Of course, there are some special exceptions. Overclocking by changing the multipier *is* much easier...especially with how complicated buses have gotten these days. And thats precisely why the cpu makers started locking them!