Most users have no idea of the speed potential of their hardware.
When you purchase a CPU or graphics card, it comes rated for a certain processing speed. However, you can alter these numbers by judiciously manipulating settings in your computer’s BIOS, also known as overclocking. Making the right changes to your system can supercharge your processor, GPU, and memory, increasing speeds across the board.
Today’s PC hardware is more hobbyist-friendly than ever, allowing you to boost performance well above factory specifications.
CPU Overclocking
When I decide to make my PC faster, the first thing I look at is my central processing unit. Each CPU comes from the factory preset to run at a set speed, usually one that doesn’t tax the hardware extensively or produce too much heat. By increasing the clock multiplier, I can boost the CPU’s speed, affecting almost every aspect of my computer’s performance.
If I’m not sure of my CPU’s speed capabilities, I usually work slowly, increasing the clock multiplier in small steps and ensuring that each new speed plateau remains stable. If you encounter sudden crashes and bluescreens while overclocking your PC, you’ve probably reached your CPU’s speed limit and should reduce your settings to restore stability.
GPU Overclocking
Another way to make my PC faster, at least in gaming terms, isto overclock my GPU. Boosting the speed on a graphics card increases its ability to handle the complex graphics tasks that are common in modern 3D games. This usually requires a specialized program to handle the adjustments, either one provided by the manufacturer or a third-party program.
Like CPU overclocking, you should always increase speeds in small steps. You should take extra care when overclocking your GPU, because some manufacturers actually ship their cards in an overclocked state, reducing the safety margins for system stability.
Stress Test
Once you think you have a stable overclocking setup, your best bet is to run a stress test. There are many programs available on the market that will put your system through its paces, and running one of these programs for a few hours will let you know if your sped-up system can handle the extra load, or if intense processing is going to cause overheating and component failure.
Luckily, modern hardware usually contains a number of fail-safes to prevent components from actually suffering damage due to incorrect settings, a vast improvement over early overclocking experiments where you might only learn of your processor’s limits by frying it to a crisp.
Caution
While most hardware can benefit from overclocking, you can cause a number of problems fiddling with settings without knowing what you’re doing.
There are many resources online that can help guide you through the overclocking process, such as Tweakboy’s Ultimate Overclocking Handbook. Doing a little research before you start playing around under your computer’s hood can save you a lot of headaches and computer crashes.
