Best overclocking CPU, overall?

denigor777 · 23 Mar 2021 at 22:20

I'm wondering which X86 CPU is the best overclocker. Meaning, as a percentage of its recommended base clock. I doubt it's a modern CPU. Maybe a Centrino? Something else that didn't really push the envelope originally? Maybe a clunky 486 had ridiculous overclockability?

Thus, if a CPU started at 20MHz, but could be clocked to 40MHz, it would be clocked at 200% (you don't get that sort of improvement percentage these days!)

Joxeon · 23 Mar 2021 at 22:48

You can get around a 70% OC on an X5650 from 2.66 to 4.6 if you're lucky.

im4gine3 · 23 Mar 2021 at 23:12

hmm couple cpu's which comes to mind would be Intel Conroe chip.. e6300 and e6600 i believe which managed to clock from 1.8 to 4ghz and 2.4Ghz to 4.9 respectively... on water most people got to just below 4ghz on the e6600. I think Athlon64 3800 was a good clocker too.. can't remember the full model name

watercooledman · 23 Mar 2021 at 23:28

E8400 was up there

JohnG7 · 23 Mar 2021 at 23:33

That is a x64, same as the E8600 WolfDale which was far better clocker.

thepfy · 2 Apr 2021 at 18:47

Quite a few did at least 33% by changing FSB from 66 to 100 or 100 to 133 without breaking sweat.

Intel dropped the Celeron 300A as when over locked to 450 in was faster than the P3 450, causing a huge hit in sales.

darket · 3 Apr 2021 at 22:26

thepfy said:
Quite a few did at least 33% by changing FSB from 66 to 100 or 100 to 133 without breaking sweat.

Intel dropped the Celeron 300A as when over locked to 450 in was faster than the P3 450, causing a huge hit in sales.

The 300A was an amazing chip and indeed in some areas was faster than the PII 450. The cache on the 300A was faster (when overclocked) and on the die but the PII's cache was much larger so it was swings and roundabouts.

I think my next chip was a Celeron 533A and then the 500e. I really miss those days, amazing performance for peanuts

Blue160 · 4 Apr 2021 at 09:53

I got my i5 750 from 2.66GHz to 4.1GHz on air. That was an amazing overclocking chip.

Deleted User 456458 · 4 Apr 2021 at 19:19

Sandy Bridge 2500k is good.

clv101 · 4 Apr 2021 at 19:39

I've had some good clockers:

P60 @66MHz
P150 @187.5MHz, 75 MHz bus meant it typically matched the 200MHz
Celeron 300A @ 464MHz, despite less cache typically matched the flagship PII-450
AMD 1GHz TBird @ 1.4GHz
P2.8A @ 3.2GHz
C2D E4300 1.8 @ 3.2GHz not bad for £50 CPU!

Today's overcocking is pretty pointless in comparison.