Review of overclocking?

[hdrevolution123]

What are the benefits and disadvantages of overclocking your laptop/PC?

I have a laptop with an intel GMA 950 graphics card- not the very best =_=.

So what can I do if I overclock the laptop? Surely it won't make my laptop faster cos that's to do with RAM.

 

[AltF4]

Not much nowadays. There used to be a time when the clock speed of your computer was the most important factor. People used to go crazy overclocking during that time. But not so much anymore. Today you need things like lots of fast RAM and a good internet connection.

 

[Terra~]

Overclocking can be quite dangerous for the lifespan of your computer too.

 

[metalmonstar]

Alt can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe overclocking was done because computer parts were synced with the clock. Nowadays a part can run multiple times per beat making overclocking not as useful.

Benefit would be increase to speed.

Disadvantage would be that it causes a lot of heat and wear out parts.

 

[Frames]

overclocking is mad dumb clock speed isn't where the bottleneck is anymore u just need fast ram and good peripherals (gpus and hard drives)

 

[AltF4]

MetalMonster:

It's not that overclocking does NOTHING, it's just not worth the trouble today. Frames is right. Computers have lots of parts: CPU (clockspeed), RAM, Cache, GPU (graphics card), IO (hard drive, optical drives), etc... Your computer will only run as fast as the slowest component.

It used to be the case that CPU's were the slowest on the list. During that time, speeding up your CPU really mattered. Today, that's not really the case.

 

[Teran]

It depends on what the bottleneck on your system is.
My GPU is my bottleneck, and overclocking it can give me a few more fps.

To be honest though, AltF4 hit the nail on the head. The performance gain isn't really worth the risk, the void of your warranty, and the decreasing of a component's lifespan. You really won't gain much fps or performance due to all the other components in a system. It only runs as fast as its slowest component so to speak.

If I were you, I'd upgrade to a midrange GPU in the Geforce 9000 series.

 

[Sraigux]

No offense to anyone else here but overclocking is not as bad as you claim it to be, it has many benefits. It will increase your performance almost everywhere in your computer because it is the "brain" of the system. It is not dangerous unless you are going for an extreme overclock and if you are worried, buy and aftermarket cooler, like the core contact freezer. It will keep your cpu cool whilst still running at OC speeds. Unless you plan on keeping your computer for more than 5 or more years, than the dying early part would really not matter. But they are right, overclocking will not help you boost your fps by more than fps on a game, but its advantages are spread through synthetics such as multitasking, encoding and decoding and compression (Winrar, Winzip, etc)

If you need a guide check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide and if that does not help, check out the rest of the site, it is very informative

Oh and you said the speed has to do with the RAM. The speed is actually affected mostly by the CPU.

 

[hdrevolution123]

No offense to anyone else here but overclocking is not as bad as you claim it to be, it has many benefits. It will increase your performance almost everywhere in your computer because it is the "brain" of the system. It is not dangerous unless you are going for an extreme overclock and if you are worried, buy and aftermarket cooler, like the core contact freezer. It will keep your cpu cool whilst still running at OC speeds. Unless you plan on keeping your computer for more than 5 or more years, than the dying early part would really not matter. But they are right, overclocking will not help you boost your fps by more than fps on a game, but its advantages are spread through synthetics such as multitasking, encoding and decoding and compression (Winrar, Winzip, etc)

If you need a guide check this out: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overclock-quads-duals-guide and if that does not help, check out the rest of the site, it is very informative

Oh and you said the speed has to do with the RAM. The speed is actually affected mostly by the CPU.

Thanks for that. I only really wanted to know whether it can help me multitask on my laptop too

 

[Sraigux]

Thanks for that. I only really wanted to know whether it can help me multitask on my laptop too

No problem, I suffer from the same problem, my computer bottlenecks all the time when I am multitasking (unfortunately I have to use my 4 year old computer) but I cannot overclock it because I have a mobo made by intel back when they were anti-overclock

Edit: If you are OCing your laptop though, you cannot buy an aftermarket cooler because they are bigger than the laptops themselves xD so be extra careful!