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over clocking macs
- Thread starter tbluhp
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Safe depends on if it can be done [on the Mac] and how far you push the voltage. CPU's today are powerful and fast enough that IMO, they do not need to be over-clocked.
When somebody responds to OP, could you also explain to me what "over clocking" is?
Over-clocking is a method to increase the CPU speed by changing the voltage and CPU clock multiplier in order to speed up the CPU. For example if Intel made a CPU and it shipped at 750MHz, an over-clocker could increase it to say 800MHz or more.
Doing so was (maybe still is) very popular on the PC in the 1990's and early 2000's when CPU speeds were much slower, single core and had no hyper-threading.
It also raises the temperature of the CPU and if pushed far enough requires extra cooling methods like water cooling to keep it in a reasonable operating temperature. Otherwise, and sometimes despite the extra cooling, the increased speed and subsequently the extra heat generated causes serious instability of the computer and can cause physical damage to the machine if not done properly.
^^No.
If you want to overclock buy a faster Mac.
Money dose not grown on tree's even with a good paid job working 5 or 6 days per week I still don't get enough to cover my bills.
All I wanted to point out is that overclocking does almost nothing today, if you want a faster Mac the only right way is to buy a faster Mac.
overclocking on a capable machine like a PC is fun to do, and it also make sense in area such as video gaming, miscellaneous cpu intensive graphic rendering, and ultimately pushing bechmark scores. beside those three area of realistic use there is also 'brag rights'. But seriously I think bragging about you overclocking your computer is such a terrible cliche.
there is a trade off in over clocking your processor. you are gaining faster processor frequency at a cost of efficiency. the notion about higher clock frequency equals more processing power is really a myth to tell you the truth. efficiency is the part that demonstrate the usefulness processing capability of a processor. for example how many bits of data the processor can process in a single clock cycle "without" having to redo it again on the next clock cycle. on a time sensitive application where data timing is critical and the processor keep re-processes the same miscalculated bits of data over and over, the program would crash.
on a 'high efficiency' processor and at the 'default' clock speed, more useful data is process on a single clock cycle. however, efficiency is an inverse function to heat. As the cpu is loaded up, it will also heat up, and if that heat is not dissipated quickly enough the cpu will process less useful data per clock cycle, thus efficiency is reduce.
in video game, overclocking is less risky because if your computer crash, you just reboots and play the game again. on stuff like databases and auto cad work where utmost reliable is a concern, overclocking can be very risky. furthermore, it is known that overclocking can corrupt your hard drive data as well, not just simply crash your computer.
take care
there is a trade off in over clocking your processor. you are gaining faster processor frequency at a cost of efficiency. the notion about higher clock frequency equals more processing power is really a myth to tell you the truth. efficiency is the part that demonstrate the usefulness processing capability of a processor. for example how many bits of data the processor can process in a single clock cycle "without" having to redo it again on the next clock cycle. on a time sensitive application where data timing is critical and the processor keep re-processes the same miscalculated bits of data over and over, the program would crash.
on a 'high efficiency' processor and at the 'default' clock speed, more useful data is process on a single clock cycle. however, efficiency is an inverse function to heat. As the cpu is loaded up, it will also heat up, and if that heat is not dissipated quickly enough the cpu will process less useful data per clock cycle, thus efficiency is reduce.
in video game, overclocking is less risky because if your computer crash, you just reboots and play the game again. on stuff like databases and auto cad work where utmost reliable is a concern, overclocking can be very risky. furthermore, it is known that overclocking can corrupt your hard drive data as well, not just simply crash your computer.
take care
The only mac you should even think of overclocking, is a Mac pro. Macs are slim devices, and most likely won't manage the heat.
Think of this: you can easily damage your computer to the point of very expensive repairs, for only minimal gains. Maybe a 5% increase. Just not worth it at all.
When your Mac has let's say a "2.7 GHz" processor, that means the processor has been tested and is guaranteed to work at that speed. The question is: How fast could it run? There are three possibilities:
1. You have a processor that won't work at a higher speed. Such a processor cannot be overclocked.
2. Demand for 2.7 GHz processors may be so high that Intel sells processors that actually work fine at 3.0 GHz with a "2.7 GHz" label. Such a processor can be overclocked.
3. Your chip may be one that _mostly_ works at 3.0 GHz, but some tiny number of transistors in the chip are not fast enough and only work reliably at 2.7 GHz. That's the dangerous chips. When you overclock to 3.0 GHz, it will seem to work, but you will have occasional crashes when software happens to use those transistors that failed the 3.0 Ghz test.
Well, I wouldn't know what category the mac processors fall in, but it's pretty much guaranteed that it will heat up when you overclock it. Maybe in a few rare circumstances.
Mac devices are pretty slim, so overclocking a laptop is nuts.
One other thing to be aware of is that Intel's current chips "self-overclock" depending on the needs. For example, the 2.4 GHz version of the Macbook Pro may run at 2.4 GHz normally, but if the system detects that one or two cores are being heavily utilized while the others are largely idle then it will increase the clock rate of the utilized cores up to 3.3 GHz (the exact clockrate numbers depend on the chip itself; these numbers should give you a rough idea of the clockrate differences).
Otherwise, as others have said overclocking puts the system at risk for overheating. It seems particularly risky to do on a laptop. Are you sure that you're being bottlenecked by the processor? Perhaps there's some other upgrade or adjustment you could make to improve your performance.
Otherwise, as others have said overclocking puts the system at risk for overheating. It seems particularly risky to do on a laptop. Are you sure that you're being bottlenecked by the processor? Perhaps there's some other upgrade or adjustment you could make to improve your performance.