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So I downloaded the AMD software for my new mini PC.
During the installation a load screens pop up, on about how the software makes overclocking really easy.
I know "back in the day" there was a lot of different bios tweaks and stuff you could do to get every last drop of performance from a CPU before it overheated but is this still a think?
FWIW when I run the software it just seems to tell me how much work the different chipsets are doing and no way to change any settings as such.
Maybe I'm missing something?
Yeah its still a huge thing, as well as overclocking RAM too. Today's gamer-focussed motherboards have tons of options and liquid cooling solutions have come down a ton in price.
I know “back in the day” there was a lot of different bios tweaks
No there weren't. back in the daythere were dip switches on your MB you could "juggle",
the bios only really let you do things like set a boot password, tell it not to fail because you didn't have a floppy connected or were using a ps2 keyboard, set the time and date etc.
It's still a thing to some extent but I think it went a bit more mainstream a number of years ago and it's now more broadly back to people on a budget or who like to faff. (of which there are plenty but it's not every other person, every chance I'm wrong but I think overclockers are a bit like bike fetters, they're a significant minority but minority none the less)
Mainly it's gfx and ram overclocking now I think.
Just don't do it without better cooling - probably not recommended on a mini pc
No there weren’t. back in the daythere were dip switches on your MB you could “juggle”,
the bios only really let you do things like set a boot password, tell it not to fail because you didn’t have a floppy connected or were using a ps2 keyboard, set the time and date etc
I guess it depends on your definition of "back in the day". I remember Athlon CPUs with editable core speed and multiplier.
I remember Athlon CPUs with editable core speed and multiplier.
Pft, I bet you think LX, SX and DX are all shimano groups too.
Pff, real men had a BX.
All of you are Johnny Come Latelys. I swapped my 68k for a 68020 in an Amiga, and that was before hot dinners was invented.
Pff, real men had a BX.
But shimano never made a bx group so far as I know so the comparison wouldn't have worked 😉
I mean it's all about the zx anyhow but you couldn't over clock that. well I suppose you could have double density recorded the tape and then loaded from a standard cassette, can't see it being successful mind as breathing in the same room generally room generally meant starting again.
Even if it did I hate to think what Daley Thompson's decathlon would have done to a joystick at double speed. It would probably have caught fire.
Still running DX in this household. Lovely colour.
We're talking about Citroen's now, aren't we?!
Quite liked the XM, myself.
"All of you are Johnny Come Latelys. I swapped my 68k for a 68020 in an Amiga, and that was before hot dinners was invented."
Likewise, great speed post. Currently have an 030
Modern AMD CPU's aren't really that manually overclockable. Enable PBO in the BIOS or in Ryzen Master and it applies a factory overclock that's 99% of what you can get by hours of trial/error work on manual overclocking.
In my case with a 5700X, enabling PBO gave a cinebenchR23 score of 15127, and 3 hours of tweaking indivdual core timings gave 15365. Default score was around 12792.
Intel ones can still see significant gains whilst also turning your PC into a toaster.
Pff, back in the day meant meant sweet talking the right person to put your punch cards to the front of the queue.
As for hot, the whole building was heated by the computer, so you didn't want to up the cooling in winter as you got cold.
Doubt you will have many bios options on a mini PC.
Undervolting is definitely a thing these days.
A lot of modern chips won't boost to full speed for any length of time if they are too warm.
I've applied a negative vcore offset to my Intel 13600k... So it can run at full speed all day long, but at 100% Load it uses about 25w less power and runs about 10c cooler.
Overclocking, not so much... A lot of modern CPUs are pretty much nailed to the ceiling performance wise straight out of the box. You get a lot of extra heat and power consumption for reletivley little real world performance benefit.
Nowadays overclocking PCs you need to pay more attention to the particular platform you're using and what you can/can't do with it and what methods help deliver the best improvements. e.g. on Intel platform the 'K' chips tend to be the easiest to overclock whereas the others tend to have the multiplier between CPU and memory bus clocks locked.
Depending on what you're doing you may find that overclocking the CPU doesn't deliver much benefit and it is tweaking the GPU and RAM timings that is actually effective in improving performance.
I know “back in the day” there was a lot of different bios tweaks
No there weren’t. back in the daythere were dip switches on your MB you could “juggle”
No there weren't, back in the day there were frequency crystals you needed to replace.
No there weren’t, back in the day there were frequency crystals you needed to replace.
Pretty sure crystals are new age 😉
I have a ZX to my left and a Miggy to my right.
enabling PBO gave a cinebenchR23 score of 15127, and 3 hours of tweaking indivdual core timings gave 15365. Default score was around 12792.
And shit like this is why as a card-carrying nerd, I never bothered. Just buy a faster chip and get your life back.
The games I play run fine on my decade old system. As above. You want faster, buy something else.
What if this and the calculator thread were to merge?
What do you do with your mini PC that is processor intensive enough that over clocking might actually make a difference? I do have that right, over clocking is fairly pointless if all you're doing is browsing the STW Forum.
All of you are Johnny Come Latelys. I swapped my 68k for a 68020 in an Amiga, and that was before hot dinners was invented.
68040 at 40Mhz here. I could play mp3 files and everything.
What do you do with your mini PC that is processor intensive enough that over clocking might actually make a difference?
I've got absolutely no intention of overclocking anything.
It was just the multiple mentions of overclocking when installing the AMD software. Particularly when I'm sure the chip manufactures seemed to do their best to discourage it 20 years ago.
What if this and the calculator thread were to merge?
A who's calculator can integrate integrate e^(x^pi) lim 0>pi the fastest throwdown might draw the calculator overclockers out of the woodwork (it is an actual thing).
What do you do with your mini PC that is processor intensive enough that over clocking might actually make a difference? I do have that right, over clocking is fairly pointless if all you’re doing is browsing the STW Forum.
Talking generally, there are still quite a few CPU intensive things that can keep users waiting e.g. image cataloguing/editing if you're a photographer, even onedrive syncing hammers the CPU.
A who’s calculator can integrate integrate e^(x^pi) lim 0>pi the fastest throwdown might draw the calculator overclockers
Out of idle curiosity I just tested my pixel 4a mobile phone on super PI.
It can calculate PI to a million decimals in 3.9 seconds.
Not even going to bother testing my Intel raptor lake processor 😉
It was just the multiple mentions of overclocking when installing the AMD software.
It's kind of 'safe' these days as the computer will just become very unstable /shut down if you do something wrong....as opposed to keep running and catch fire or something.
Although in a mini PC, it just won't have the thermal performance to do anything like that.
You might be able to undervolt / lower the power limits or something though, to make it run cooler /more energy efficient without losing any performance.