Replies to post #14250 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[sgolds]

smooth2o, a better question is why there are still overclockers. Back when CPUs were clocked in double digit MHz, a 25% higher clock rate really made a difference to applications. Also, components were a lot more expensive. The first overclocking involved putting a fan and heat sink on a 486 chip. You could get a 25MHz 486 to run at 50MHz - a 100% increase! (Remember when processors had no fan or heat sink?)

In a way, all processors today are overclocked because these cooling methods were first pioneered by overclockers. Now it's standard. You have to go to expensive and exotic solutions to get what - maybe a 20% clock increase, when most applications don't even need it?

[spokeshave]

...can anyone tell me why there are overclockers?

For some, its the same reason that there are hot-rodders (or I guess they call them "tuners" nowadays). Some people just want to get as much speed as they can out of their hardware.

Others do it for economical reasons. You can buy an XP1700+ for $45, and overclock it to get the same performance as a processor two or three times as expensive.

[j3pflynn]

smooth20, 2 reasons basically:
1)budget - getting the most for your money
2)the challenge of getting the most performance out of a piece of equipment that is possible.
Paul

[CombJelly]

"but can anyone tell me why there are overclockers?"

Watch "Home Improvement". Especially the episode about the garden tractor.

[yourbankruptcy]

overclocking: imaging certain car manufacturer starts selling 4-cylinder cars by just disabling 2 cylinderws in a 6-cylinder engine. Then the overclocker is a person who is using some tools and knowledge to enable those 2 cylinders back.