What does "overclocking" a system mean?

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SamdalabonaHD

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I am on the edge of buying a new PC (Custom Built) and have been told the CPU I chose is locked and cannot overclock. I plan on using the PC 24/7 for playing games and video editing so do I need a CPU which can overclock?
 
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Wolfshadw
Overclocking means running your computer components at higher than stated specifications at the cost of more heat and more power usage.

No, you do not need to over-clock your system, but if you determine later that you want to see if your programs can run a little faster, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get an unlocked processor.

Personally, I do not see the need for it

-Wolf sends
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Wolfshadw

Wolfshadw

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Overclocking means running your computer components at higher than stated specifications at the cost of more heat and more power usage.

No, you do not need to over-clock your system, but if you determine later that you want to see if your programs can run a little faster, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get an unlocked processor.

Personally, I do not see the need for it

-Wolf sends
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Overclocking simply means changing the settings to make the CPU run a little faster than the advertised clock speed.

Say you buy a CPU that is advertised at 3.4Ghz. If you buy the right one, you can change that to 4.2Ghz. So it runs somewhat faster. (and generates more heat that you have to deal with)

For instance:
An intel i5-3570k can be overclocked
An intel i5-3570 cannot.

Also, your motherboard has to support it.

Is it critical for gaming? No. Is it nice to be able to? Probably.
 
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The_Click

The_Click

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AMD CPU's Can Be Overclocked And Intel CPU's Are Hyperthreaded.
Well If You Don't Have Enough Fans Or PSU , You Should Not Overclock Your Device As It Increase Your Clock Speed And Simultaneously The Efficiency Of Your Processor But Produce More Heat And Consume More Energy In Return.

If Your Budget Is Low You Can Go For AMD FX-4300 Which Is A Brilliant Processor At A Reasonable Price With All Facilities Like Overclocking In Your Case And Have Piledriver Or Vishera Architecture(IDK) Which Is Nice And A Lot Better Than BullDozer.

If You Want An Equivalent Intel Processor Then You Can Choose Intel Core I3 3220 Which In My Opinion Is Better Than 4300 But It Is 2 Core Processor. If You Are Gonna Overclock AMD FX-4300 Then I Is Better Than I3 3220.

Well, I Will Choose AMD FX-4300 For Gaming.

If You Want To Do Multitasking Then Intel Is Way To Go. For Gaming I Will Choose AMD As Some Game Of Now Requires 4 Core Processor.

Intel's Hyperthreading Technology Helps In Multitasking As Cores Can Share Resources Among Them.

So If You Ask Me -
Gaming - AMD FX-4300
Multitasking - Intel Core I3
Overall - Overclocked AMD FX-4300 @ 4.2 GHz If You Have Enough Air Cooling And 4.5 GHz With Water Cooling

And Of-course , If You Have A Bigger Budget Then Obviously I5 Is The Best Or If You Can Buy I7 Paired With 8 Or 16 GB Ram , A Decent Motherboard And A GTX 780 Ti.

With Low Budget- AMD FX-4300 , 8 GB Ram , A Decent Motherboard And A GTX 650 Ti.

Hope This Helps... :) :) :)
 
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TheAshigaru

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No you do not *need* a system that can overclock. The benefits of overclocking are that you can get all of the performance possible out of your computer's components, provided you can cool them well enough. The downside is that you'll spend a little bit more up front. If you check out some benchmarks, you can see the actual performance variation between overclocked CPUs and their non-overclocked counterparts. While you do get some nice performance boosts, it will rarely if ever make the difference between playable and non-playable FPS in games.

In my experience overclocking, I might have gotten a 5 FPS boost on average (depending on the game).

As to what it actually means: Overclocking is simply forcing the CPU to run at a higher frequency than what was set at the factory. Most CPUs can run above their factory stock settings, but Intel (for example) just caps them at a specific speed, so people actually know what they're getting. You wouldn't want to buy a mystery box processor that runs anywhere between 3.0 and 4.5 Ghz, would you? No: it's a lot better to state on the box that this processor runs at 3.5Ghz and that one runs at 3.2. You know what you're getting.

Processors designated with the "K" branding have unlocked multipliers. This basically means that Intel has set a specific speed at the factory, but you can modify it later in the BIOS if you want.

Processors without the "K" are set to a specific speed at the factory and "locked" there so you can't change it later.
 
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