Hi% username%! In the relationship of the creators and users of technology, there is always a place of cunning, and most often the restrictions and traps are left by the manufacturer, and for interference with purchased electronics, other brands are ready to pester the head with patents. But only in the PC, the way to “win back the search” from the creators of iron turned everything around and turned from a set of tricks into a sport and a forge of the best computer components. We recall how overclocking came about, why we fought with it before, and now they worship it.

Dear megahertz and free overclocking

The working people have become accustomed to overclocking processors since 1985, when the Intel i386 processor was born. Moreover, the processor was not clocked at all by the will of its creator - motherboard manufacturers with DIP switches (toggle switches) to change the CPU clock frequency made their contribution. True, often for successful overclocking a replacement of the clock generator was required (this is such a microcircuit), and this was a time consuming and not interesting process for a simple user.
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At the turn of 80-90. Overclocking was a kind of experiment, but a start was made, and the first officially recorded in the database hwbot.org (Mecca of overclockers) overclocking took place in 1991 - a clone of 386th Intel, AMD Am386 lit on the scene. The very overclocking-friendly processor ran at up to 40 MHz against 33 MHz in Intel products. The name of the overclocking legend originally from Portugal - WoOx3r [Pt] is also associated with this processor. At one time, he, according to the precepts of Dima Bilan, proved that the impossible is possible and dispersed the Am386 to 50 MHz!

The abundance of processors for home PCs in those years did not exist, the megahertz was expensive, so overclocking the subsequent Intel i486 and AMD 486 (Intel 486DX2 with 60% - especially) was gaining momentum. Moreover, the “red camp” looked preferable and conquered the frequencies of 120 and 162 MHz with Am486 and Am5x86 processors. Today, even smart watches operate at a higher frequency, but double overclocking is still very cool.


The old Intel i486DX2

Lost profits right there

After the release of the successful Pentium family in 1993, Intel began to observe an unpleasant situation for itself - from the triple models with a frequency of 75, 90 and 100 MHz, buyers began to massively buy the younger modification, so that later using clever motherboards to overclock it in half and get the flagship CPU “small” blood "for ridiculous money.

The fact is that in the naive nineties the processor makers have not yet learned how to “marketing degrade” them before they were released - chips with different markings, but almost the same potential, went off the assembly line. In an ideal world, low-end CPU models should be a rejection of flagship models that work only at low frequencies. But there were actually fewer defective processors than the actually sold basic Pentium, and not only “technically advanced poverty” (it was such a belief), but already a significant number of buyers were busy overclocking the younger model.



Problems came on all fronts - selling overclocked Pentium at retail under the guise of older models and tips “don't buy older Pentiums, there is no difference between them” in the PC user community did not add optimism to Intel. Yes, and ABIT motherboards without jumpers and with overclocking functions in BIOS added fuel to the fire already in 1996.

But what about AMD? Already in those years, it was hot and required active cooling in overclocking, but the K5 processors had fast Intel counterparts at equal frequencies. Therefore, every AMD K5 was accompanied by a PR rating with a digit-answer to the question “which model of Intel is your model equivalent to?”.


AMD K5 PR166 - one of the best overclocking processors of the "era of classicism"

Separate fun was overclocking Pentium Pro processors designed for servers and workstations. Today, by the way, the “boost” of the Xeon models is considered just as fashionable.

Walk while young

Fortunately for overclocking fans, CPU manufacturers were not so dexterous as to thoroughly “tighten the screws”. If in fast Pentium MMX, overclocking was relatively simple, as in the case of the Pentium II, Intel transparently hinted that it was not happy with the massive overclocking, and introduced a fixed multiplier. What did the treble lovers do? They started cheerfully pushing the processors “on the bus”, as a result of which the cheap Celeron 300A received overclocking by 50% simultaneously with changing the FSB frequency from 66 to 100 MHz (and motherboard manufacturers happily provided this opportunity).


Intel Celeron 300A - a budget processor with excellent overclocking, greatly hindered Intel from selling more expensive models

The Coppermine generation Pentium III generation didn’t give any surprises, although the 500E modification was “ overclocked ” very vigorously - from 500 to 667 or 750 MHz. A base Coppermine with a frequency of 750 MHz overclocker efforts conquered the 1 GHz line back in 1999!

Evaluate how effectively the frequency of the Pentium III 500E was increased (from 500 to 775 MHz). Source of the illustration - iXBT.com

After that, “overclockers” for a while received a blank check - not very successful from a constructive point of view, the Pentium IV received overclocking, which did not affect the PCI and AGP buses, cheap AMD Duron processors could be converted into a more powerful Athlon using a soldering iron , but Ahtlon XP themselves accelerated well. The Athlon XP 2500+ overclocked from 1.87 to a staggering 2.7 GHz and cost a moderate $ 200.


Soldering the bridge L2 - and trousers processors are transformed from Duron to Athlon XP! Illustration - Overclockers.ru

In order to overclock the processor successfully, reliable and fast RAM was required. Therefore, in the heyday of overclocking, in 2002, Kingston founded the HyperX division - selected coffee beans with low latency proved to be well-established and quickly settled on the iron overclocking championships.

A little later, the "red" hit a competitor with 64-bit Athlon 64, although the latter did not demonstrate any revelations in overclocking. On the other hand, Intel was surprised by whose Pentium IV Northwood “stoves” overcame the 5 GHz barrier - starting with these models, liquid nitrogen in overclocking turned from exotic to standard paraphernalia. Around the same years, overclocking became a revered movement, and processor manufacturers released special series Extreme Edition (Intel) and Black Edition (AMD). The above-mentioned HWBot has become an overclocker Wikipedia and a podium, and experienced sponsors and serious budgets have come to overclocking competitions.

Overclocking came out of the underground and became fashionable.

Since 2006, overclocking has turned from a fun enthusiast into a fashionable trend - component manufacturers began to massively open gaming-overclocking units (take at least the same ASUS ROG), and Intel released the top-end Core 2 Duo processors and overcame the 8 GHz line. The low-cost Core 2 Duo E6600 took the 4 GHz line at home, and the Core 2 Quad Q6600 brought overclocking to inexpensive quad-core with its 3.6 GHz frequency (9x multiplier at 400 MHz bus).

True, starting from the first generation of Core, Intel has allocated overclocker processors to a separate caste - models with the K index have become an alternative to the indecently expensive Extreme-series, and the integration of the clock generator under the CPU lid almost buried the overclocking of the “civilian” models. Rare motherboard manufacturers riots, when it was possible to overclock the processor without additional payment for a separate model, Intel was promptly eliminated, and the anniversary Pentium G3258, a monument not made by hands and a tribute to times when it was possible to overclock the processors without local Roscomnzdzor, was the only inexpensive chip to overclock.

Using Intel's changeable mood, AMD set a processor frequency record in 2011. Eight-core FX (Bulldozer) with the support of liquid helium (and also talented overclocking Macci and Chew) conquered 8.429 GHz, for which he entered the Guinness Book of Records.

Who and where are being driven today

The word “acceleration” itself came into use by PC enthusiasts only in the nineties - earlier it was decided to disperse either means of transportation or rallies. In the computer sense of the word "overclocking" means increasing the clock frequency and speed of iron to the limit. The only condition is that after overclocking, the computer must be able to consistently perform its tasks.

Like any other sphere, overclocking has different tasks and, according to them, is divided into several areas:
• "Everyday-household" overclocking components . It is close to the origins of the flow and means “I bought PC accessories and I want to squeeze out of them a little more than the manufacturer allows. The problem is solved by a trivial selection of components (motherboard with overclocking support, a processor with an unlocked multiplier, effective air cooling or SVO and a “perishing” video card) and a short procedure for “twisting” the sliders.
• Extreme overclocking at home . Almost as in the conventional meme “two words for you” is liquid nitrogen. That is, hard methods of dealing with overheating and not quite “popular” PC components - we are already talking about Intel Extreme Edition processors and Sandy / Ivy Bridge-E and Broadwell-E platforms (AMD has lost the arms race, unfortunately).
If we are talking about video cards, overclocking is performed with a custom cooling system and edits in the voltage controller. The platform already allows for fine tuning of core power, “combat” modes of RAM, special settings for PCIe controllers and other goodies.
• Extreme overclocking for competitive purposes . A professional photographer differs from an amateur, ladies and gentlemen, not by the length of the lens, but by the fact that taking photos is his work.

Professional overclocking = extreme overclocking "at home" + a bit of ozerin. Because in this area the main installation is a record, and the excuse "seems to be working normally, and so is not accepted". Because for overclocking the best samples of the best equipment are selected (different instances of the same processor are chased differently). Iron, from which they squeezed out all the juices at competitions, is most often sent to the scrap immediately after fixing the record, and the configuration itself does not look like the “coffin” of the system unit in a home PC.


How is it accelerated at events? Not at all like at home

Cooling is carried out by horse doses of liquid nitrogen, freon or helium, and the goal is the best of all, without options, instances of a specific processor. The processor itself does not have to be the newest and most expensive model - it is important how much a “higher head” a separate kind of CPU can jump.

What is the essence of overclocking the processor as a whole? In frequency, certainly. The CPU frequency is the system bus frequency multiplied by the processor multiplier. Therefore, the paths to the heart of a man of “stone” in a computer run through “overclocking by a multiplier” or “over the bus”. In fact, the overclocking of the processor is the “heart” of overclocking for all times. The most common tests relate to calculating the number of Pi (SuperPi with 1 million and 32 million decimal places) + a series of multi-stream wPrime tests with patterns 32M and 1024M, PiFast and XTU (Intel Extreme Tuning Utility).

Simultaneously with the overclocking of the processor, the overclocking of the RAM also develops. “Combat” RAM most often helps set complex records for one-piece configurations, but from time to time, memory in itself sets impressive records. Last year, for example, the DDR4 HyperX Predator overclocked to a record 4,265 MHz and collected 6 out of 10 awards at CES 2015. The RAM speed does not guarantee the whole computer’s excellent results, but it’s like a runner’s shoes - that is, good would it be of high quality. The results are usually recorded in the CPU-Z Validator utility and checked using the MaxxMEM and MaxxMEM Read Bandwidth tests.

Overclocking video cards is the closest and most understandable topic to PC gamers, because the crooked hands of other game developers are easier to “overcome” with powerful hardware than waiting for patches. The toolkit is standard - maximum overclocking of the graphics core and maximum video memory capabilities. In the old standoff between AMD and NVIDIA, leaders are constantly changing, and after last year’s NVIDIA Maxwell triumph, the new AMD 400 Series video accelerators catch up. In their current form, overclockers sometimes activate GPU computing blocks for overclocking, experiment with voltage, and do not spare liquid nitrogen.

Overclockers (those that are athletes) overclock the already powerful equipment, so these guys always use synthetic benchmarks to measure the results. The 3DMark tests became a classic and one of the motivators for overclocking - modern video cards compete in the 3DMark Vantage and Fire Strike Extreme disciplines, Unigine Heaven Xtreme, Catzilla and GPUPi 1B.

Not pampering

Perhaps, overclockers, like cybersportsmen, fly a lot of claims in the style of “the plants are standing, and they are tormenting processors for nothing.” As in the case of military technology, overclocking in less radical varieties benefits the entire computer industry.

For example, high-frequency components "thresh" the data in render farms , physical and other scientific calculations in cases where the next level of iron is worth a disproportionately large amount of money.

The “combat experience” of cooling overclocked processors, firstly, allows building fast and almost silent computers, and on the other hand, it comes in handy for building configurations with mega-cool cooling — at least look at the “underwater server” .

Workstations today are also subject to overclocking, but in a safe, of course, framework. Modern Intel Xeon does not have overclocking, but Core i7-5820K and Core i7-5930K are very common data threshers in overclocked state.

And, of course, overclocking comes in handy in mining - in pursuit of bitcoins and enthusiasts modify anything with% koins, they modify the cooling system of video cards (most often AMD) and build farms running the “all-money” farm managed by the GNU distribution kit / Linux called "Scrypt-Miner".

"Razgonnadzor" in modern components

The freedom-loving community of Geektimes does not tolerate a pointer from above, but, as we can see, even innocent pranks, like acceleration of iron, sooner or later begin to be regulated by manufacturers. Is it good or bad? Neither is otherwise.

Computer components have not become worse - just the "ceiling" of opportunities sat down a little in comparison with the past decades. And the PCs themselves have become as common and boring as washing machines or microwaves. Acceleration at the same time became ... more civilized.


Today, being an overclocker is not only exciting, but also profitable.

Comparison with cars looks drawn (overclocker does not carry such a danger to others), but the “purebred” iron has become the same separate component class as the factory modifications of sports cars. Hooligans on tinted self-assembly cars with “neonkoy” were and will be, but the selective filling and culture of dispersal allow you to focus on the result, rather than stubbornly cross the hedgehog and already in hopes of good results.


Solder, overclock, but in this measure know how Intel tells us

Moreover, today, overclocking has become a smithy for iron producers as much as the military industry has made innovations in the peaceful way of life of people. Soon we will recall the improvements that overclocking presented to mere mortals, and tell you how ordinary enthusiasts transform into overclockers and professionals.

Thank you for your attention and stay with Kingston on Hiktatimes!

We send the rays of good and every kind of respect to the readers and again reinforce it with the distribution of the brutally tough iron Kingston! At the end of October, we will hand over 3 cool RAM sets to our blog subscribers:
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And so that no one leaves offended, we give a discount of 12% on all available DDR4 Predator models on the Yulmart network. Arm with a promotional code GEEKPR16 and have time to buy high-speed memory until December 31, 2016.

For more information about Kingston and HyperX products, visit the company's official website . In choosing your kit HyperX help page with visual aids.