new to gaming pc. Under what circumstances do you overclock your parts?

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simonz93

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I don't really know anything about overclocking except that it makes parts run faster than they should and reduce their lifespan.
I have a friend who's recently overclocking his 980Ti and i7 6700k. I have an Evga GTX 980Ti superclocked (does it mean it's already overclocked?) and a i7 6700 that can't be overclocked. For me, these two can run most well optimized games very well and I just don't see why people would go through the trouble of overclocking them and in the process reduce their lifespan. My CPU isn't very good but if soon I need to change it, why should I overclock it instead of upgrading to a better CPU and sell the old one?

Can someone explain the rationale to me? Thanks.
 
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Gingerbread
People overclock because it's popular. Generally overclocking is used too extend the lifespan of your system, not buy best parts andd overclock them from day one. As long as everything runs fine, why reduce the lifespan of your system? Overclocking has become a trend, maybe because it seems cool. Also your superclocked means that it is factory overclocked. The gtx 980ti chip from nvidia comes with some poor cooling and stock clocks, manufacturers put a good cooling on it and overclock it, without damaging it.
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Gingerbread

Gingerbread

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People overclock because it's popular. Generally overclocking is used too extend the lifespan of your system, not buy best parts andd overclock them from day one. As long as everything runs fine, why reduce the lifespan of your system? Overclocking has become a trend, maybe because it seems cool. Also your superclocked means that it is factory overclocked. The gtx 980ti chip from nvidia comes with some poor cooling and stock clocks, manufacturers put a good cooling on it and overclock it, without damaging it.
 
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sizzling

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It can shorten lifespan but if done without raising temperatures and voltages too high the impact on lifespan should be minimal, chances are the item will become obsolete before it dies.

There is zero point upgrading your cpu, your cpu is considered overkill for gaming. Running an overclocked 6700k or other cpu will in most games give zero gain and in some you might see <5 fps max
 
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WildCard999

WildCard999

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-Performance increases (usually to fix any CPU/GPU bottleneck)
-Boredom

I don't find overclocking to be worth it unless you truly need to get as much as possible out of your CPU/GPU (and/or the prices for K/Z series were worth purchasing at the time). I overclocked my CPU due to boredom and wanted to try something different and temps/voltage were stable enough that decreasing lifespan would fairly minimal. The EVGA could probably be pushed farther but if your happy with performance then leave it as is. "My CPU isn't very good" Yes it is, just because it can't be overclocked as high as the 6700K doesn't mean its junk, its still a 4 core (8 thread) CPU that can handle all gaming/streaming and video editing if need be and your utilizing DDR4.
 
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Lodhi12

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Both sizzling, and Gingerbread are absolutely correct...
The thing is, Over-Clocking is like telling the world that "I have Bigger Balls than you all"... I have over-clocked everything.
Not much is gained at all, <5 FPS increase sometimes, and yeah, if done wrong, DAMAGE.
There is no need to overclock the 980Ti, its plenty strong to run ALL games at ultra settings. It's a beast, no need to take off it's leashes.

On the other hand, If you have an aging system, like 650Ti, with an older i5 K, then overclocking it would provide some relief for a few months... until you buy a better one :)
 
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simonz93

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Thanks everyone for your informative answer, I'm surprised to learn that overclocking is sometimes meant more for boosting your ego than actual performance of your PC parts LOL.
I wasn't planning on overclocking my parts, but was just curious because my friend has the same GPU and better CPU but he is overclocking them. I know very little about PC and assembling on is already a miracle for me, I would rather spend more to buy a better part than doing something risky like overclocking that could seemingly easily damage the parts.
 
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TJ Hooker

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The risk for overclocking is pretty minimal these days. Modern CPUs and GPUs have built in protection that will cause them to automatically down-clock and/or turn off it the temperature gets dangerously high, so you don't have to worry about burning out your the component outright. Running at high temperatures may reduce the lifespan of the component, but as was mentioned above, the part will probably become obsolete before that happens anyway. And if you are worried about it, you can adjust your OC and/or cooling to make sure your temps stay in a comfortable range.

Over-volting is probably the only thing with a meaningful amount of risk, but again, if you keep it within reasonable limits (which you can easily find in overclocking guides), the risk is pretty minimal. If you're really concerned, you can usually still overclock a bit without touching the voltage.

Some people just like to tinker/tune their PC, and enjoy the prospect of getting extra performance out of it, essentially for free. Even if that extra performance may be minimal in some cases.
 
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