Overclocking results

OK, As I posted earlier, I recently upgraded my rig. (See specs in previous post).
So I just used the Asus on board utility to overclock, and it seemed to run smoothly, and after rebooting stated that the overclock was a success. It declared that I had achieved a 30% ioncrease in performance, and that my Core I7 was now running at or about 4.4GHz. So I have been running the CPU sensor/Frequency diagnostic which came with the MOBO, and I get a read out like this:
1649.2MHz(average readout)
103.0 X 16.0 @ Core 0(also average)
Occasionally it flashes something in the 4400 range, but rarely.
Is this my MOBO scaling down during off usage, or are these results correct for such an overclock?.As I said, I know very little of how this works, and am going to make it my goal this year to figure it out. Until then any input you may have on what I am seeing would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not savvy on OC'ing either but I'm finishing mine today so when I get it up and running I'll see if I can figure it out also.
I'm using an Asus board too, since they were out of the Gigabyte one I wanted.
I believe most heavy duty OC'ers don't use the utilities and do it manually through the bios.
My guess would be it's showing the cpu freq's under idle and loads. It could also be the turbo boost function being used. I would think it would scale down to save energy and create less stresss on the cpu to lessen wear and tear on it. I believe most OC benchmarks show the cpu under full load so what your seeing could be normal.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

I got mine up to 4.3 OC'd. I don't understand what those numbers mean either, but I believe it OC's in turbo mode under load but not when it's idling.
Still figuring out all the settings so I'll get back later.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

Never understood the reasoning behind overclocking. To me, its like over reving a push mower and walking at the same speeds and expecting the lawn to be mowed faster.

PC's are so fast now, that it seems defeatist.
shrugs
Just never understood.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

The point is to get more performance out of your hardware (This should be obvious). Generally speaking, the only difference between model x, y, and z of some chip is whatever clock speed it's locked at. Outside of being explicitly different chipsets, of course.

For example, you can core unlock certain dual and triple core CPUs, because at the time of their release, while the hardware was already there, using all the cores was unstable. Due to updates for BIOS used with those chips, they can now be used stably.

This also means you could buy a quad core chip equivalent for about $100 less. The same is somewhat true with overclocking. Why pay $200 more, when you could use better cooling and push the same (relative) chip to the same speeds?

If your chip is in the ~3+ year range of its lifespan, there's literally no reason not to do it. Working the chip harder isn't really an issue, it's generally the same hardware put in the chips factory clocked higher anyway. And generally most CPUs and GPUs are built well enough that you can overclock them pretty safely.

Unless you're pushing outrageous voltages, it'd actually be pretty difficult to damage the chip if you just pay attention to what you're doing.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Ya, increasing speeds, means you can process tasks faster. So when you're already taxing your system and multi-tasking, it could be less of an issue. What's not to get?

Also, time-intensive processes, like rendering or compiling a model (or any pre-processed asset) will run quicker.

In this case it's indeed like reving a push mower, but also being able to walk faster. Faster mower speeds = are like a quicker process going through, and walking faster = more tasks to be done in that same time as before!

-Does that help?

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

I think I understand Orph though, it's like people with an extreme computer are still not satisfied and want to make it even faster by overclocking.

But you could also say it's like a free upgrade of your computer.

What I've never really understood though is that, if it can be overclocked, why don't they sell it overclocked? Does it have more risks maybe?

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Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nibgames

Why do you guys always do that? I understand the fundamentals of overclocking. That is totally and completely different than comprehending why someone would desire to overclock/stress their machines needlessly.

Seriously people. Try not to do that. You guys seem to forget that my education may be behind yours but my IQ is prolly within just a few points of yours. eyeroll

Its sad really that Nib has only known me for a short time and understood my post way better than you guys that have known me for years.

If we were talking about someone or some place that had a need to save days of computation time for a number crunching task that could save millions of lives or dollars I could see it. BUT we are talking about people by and large who want their machine to scream for BRAGGING rights. Not realistically using it at that speed and saving time.

Seriously you guys. Stop acting like I'm am as dumb as you post.

[edit]
Imagine that we are discussing a burning building and I say "I don't understand why someone would burn down their house"
You guys are explaining the ignition point of combustibles when I am discussing the mentality of setting the house afire in the first place.

If that didn't make sense, then you're hopeless.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Actually that's a very poor analogy, because I would be discussing the insurance reimbursement benefits.

I don't think it's that we mis-understood you, it's that we literally answered what you asked :P

Nib, They do! There are chips that DO come pre-overclocked (They're called super-clocked, usually). Also, if you look at different CPUs ... you'll see that some series of chips will be identical, except for core clock frequency. The only difference is, the chips that are clocked higher have been quality assurance tested at those speeds (Therefore, also warranty covered at those speeds). They are, however, EXACTLY the same chips internally. Unless you jump to an entirely different line of processors, of course.

While I would agree the way most people do it IS just to brag (I mean what the hell, you bought a $350 i7 and you want it to go 4.5GHz!? Are you rendering a Pixar movie!?) That doesn't discount the validity of trying to do it. It IS a silly thing to do for day to day tasks, though. If you don't experience game improvement or compiling/rendering/whatever improvement, then there's no point in doing it. (Unlocking cores is entirely different, to note)

However, Orpheus you are the guy who would often say under-clocking is just as dangerous (which is ridiculous) sooooooo don't be so uptight about it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

WOW!
Didn't know this would cause such a stir.
It's ok Orph, don't let it upset you.
I just did it because I never have before. I built this one with trying it in mind. My wife spends hundreds or thousands a years in sewing and knitting supplies, so this is my hobby..computers.
Told her I was gonna build one to scream and hopefully it will.
I'm actually waiting for the new 3770K intel's to come out and try that one, but no OC'ing that. So I'm not to worried about frying this one, I'll get another and know better next time.
I do a lot of 3d rendering and modeling..though I'm not all that good at it. That's why the rendering needs to go fast because it takes me forever to make the damn thing.
They just sell them with the multipliers unlocked Nibs, I'm sure they know they can go faster but they only rate them for a certain ghz because they know people will OC them or try to. I don't think they have the time to OC every chip and rate it that way, too many man hours involved.
It's sold and run at the speed they set because they feel that's safe so if it goes bad they're not replacing thousands that people have fried by running them hotter.
Besides let the customer beware...you fry it "too bad." They make more money that way.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

Sometimes I just dunno how things are read versus how things are perceived I guess.

Lemme reiterate then: When I say "I don't understand the reasoning behind overclocking" I am not really asking the technical background. I am asking MYSELF "I wonder what is going through someones mind."

Yes I know the technical stuff.

Most of the time when I say something of this nature I am actually thinking out loud.

I dunno. It just always strikes me odd that people overclock a machine and some time down the road they re-post an update saying opps, I fried the machine.

I myself have overclocked on two separate occasions. Both times were years apart on two massively different machines. I did it. I tested it. Found that it only boosted "What I use a PC for" by only a few seconds of time and then I reset the machines to their original specs.

Anywho's, it just seems like around here I see something, and everyone else sees something totally unintended.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Why not set up a cheap render farm?

http://digitaltimmay.com/2011/03/16/how-to-build-an-inexpensive-render-farm/
http://helmer.sfe.se/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/render-farm-node,2340.html

You don't have to use the level of hardware they're suggesting. But it offloads the entire render task to a computer cluster that may end up costing you very little (or nothing if you know where to look) You need very little to make one of these, all the software is also open source and free to use.

They likely just QA test a sample set at the voltages/speeds they want then if it meets their qualifications they set the clock speeds higher and send them out.

Each chip does have to be tested ... but yeah, they're not going to take each commercially ready chip and put it in a board or something. They do have an automated process, though.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Oh, BTW, I am in Troutdale, delivering to Clackamas at 6 am in the morning.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Ah, well I seem to have hit a soft spot Orph. Although, I was puzzled why I thought you may not understand the principle, I couldn't remember for sure, but only afterwards did I recall you had mentioned it before in the forums: That you yourself had overclocked. So I was just responding to what I thought was a straight-forward question without giving consideration to the context.

While it may not be apparent on a forum, I am a fairly dense person, and not compulsory usually. Sarcasm and speech nuances fly right over me most of the time. multiply that effect when it's just text on a screen!

Maybe in the next version of Snarkpit, we should include voice forums, with built-in recording buttons and playback features! (*writes down ). ...To get across those difficult-to-communicate-through-text emotions and feelings. (unless you're an excellent writer)

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

You know, all this does bring up an interesting thought. Interesting to me anyway.
All processors have a safe range of operation. Say +/- "whatever mhz"
If your motherboard can sense that a fan speed needs to be higher because the parts are warming up, why can it not sense that the workload has increased and speed the mhz up too?

If you have a I7 that runs at idle and doesn't need full output it can slow itself down to its minimum safe speed but if its number crunching something it can boost itself accordingly till it reaches maximum.

I know that everyone has a slightly different machine, even if they have the same specs. It just seems to me that it would be a fairly easy program to hardwire into every mainboard so that it can self diagnose its own specific maximum to minimum ranges depending on cooling systems and whatnot you specifically install.

As to the other topic. We had a colloquialism topic thread ages ago discussing the nuances of why a post reads and interprets differently.
I swear that I reread my posts several times and I never seem to read them the way you guys seem to perceive them. It just annoys the doggy fuck out of me sometimes that the first response you guys have is "Look at this idiot. He doesn't even know why we overclock a machine" When the comment I posted was just a rhetorical statement of non-comprehension of why a person would desire to do it at all.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I see what you were saying. I'm using an ASUS mb and it's pretty intuitive in that regard. The software that came with is pretty sweet. When I ran it I could hear the fans speeding up and slowing down and it rebooted a couple times. I guess it was finding the most stable settings to use.

So maybe they are getting to that point where it's like you said Orph. I'm the ignorant one in regards to Oc'ing, but this was fairly painless doing it I imagine, compared to the old way.

Perception is a strange beasty truly because everyone does see things differently. I have a guy at work that no matter what you say he has a different opinion or take on a subject(drives me nuts). Rhetorical or not he has to have and give you a different answer.

Hell that's what makes it all interesting though, if we all thought the same way, you'd all be after my wife. I couldn't take that kind of pressure.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

Motherboards DO dynamically overclock the CPU, if you enable it. Every manufacturer has a different name for it.

The reason why they didn't "before" is because overclocking required voltage jumps, which you CANNOT do in software. (it's not as simple as changing some speed setting ... it's changing the speed BECAUSE the voltage is now increased)

Current processors can be overclocked the same way a GPU can be overclocked, which is just ... changing the timing. You can still increase voltages, but you can't do that through software, you have to go to BIOS.

This is a more common feature than dynamic fan speeds :P

(They don't underclock the CPU, though, they will go back to baseline, which is the stock speed. Some CPUs have built in features to do this, but they'll turn off other cores to do it.)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.