Voltages and shizzle.

[Tibbz2]

Hey Guys,

I have been looking into overclocking things like the CPU/GPU for a while now, and am rather familiar with it, and how to do it.

However there is one thing i don't get about it. The voltages. I know to run at a higher speed you will need more voltage, but i just don't get how you know when you need to up the voltage/by how much/when etc etc...

Anybody shed some light for me?

Thanks

 

[Freakbro]

By trial and error really if you are striking out on your own, or read guides to give you an idea of other peoples settings, then you learn over time with experience.

I'm no expert at all, my first OC was with my E8400, I basically increased the Fsb a little at a time until it became unstable. It went from 3ghz to 3.6ghz (not in 1 step, it went 3.2, 3.4...) without needing any extra voltage at all and I left it at that

But I was more determined with my i7 920 and it's now at 4ghz.

So basically, start to overclock your CPU or gpu in small steps. Run stress testing programs after each tweak to see if it is stable, always keep an eye on temps.

If it is stable, up it by 1 more little turn and repeat. When it crashes/fails to load windows/bsods then you start raising the voltage (usually on vcore and/or memory controller) 1 notch in the bios and retest until it is stable again. Rinse and repeat.

I'm sure more experienced people have different ways of doing it, and there are more settings you can tweak if you need to, but start off simple, find an OC that is easy to reach, then the fine tuning for that last 0.2ghz is the tricky bit just keep in mind what the max voltage that item can take and be patient & careful

Remember, no 2 chips/cards will run on the same voltage to overclock, you just have to find your own limit.Also different boards have different names for the settings, so that can get a bit confusing

 

[Tibbz2]

By trial and error really if you are striking out on your own, or read guides to give you an idea of other peoples settings, then you learn over time with experience.

I'm no expert at all, my first OC was with my E8400, I basically increased the Fsb a little at a time until it became unstable. It went from 3ghz to 3.6ghz (not in 1 step, it went 3.2, 3.4...) without needing any extra voltage at all and I left it at that

But I was more determined with my i7 920 and it's now at 4ghz.

So basically, start to overclock your CPU or gpu in small steps. Run stress testing programs after each tweak to see if it is stable, always keep an eye on temps.

If it is stable, up it by 1 more little turn and repeat. When it crashes/fails to load windows/bsods then you start raising the voltage (usually on vcore and/or memory controller) 1 notch in the bios and retest until it is stable again. Rinse and repeat.

I'm sure more experienced people have different ways of doing it, and there are more settings you can tweak if you need to, but start off simple, find an OC that is easy to reach, then the fine tuning for that last 0.2ghz is the tricky bit just keep in mind what the max voltage that item can take and be patient & careful

Remember, no 2 chips/cards will run on the same voltage to overclock, you just have to find your own limit.Also different boards have different names for the settings, so that can get a bit confusing

Thanks, that helps a lot!

I can see I will be having some /fun/ with my build at Xmas