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Overclocking Macbook Pro 5,5? Please help

C

CameraTester

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2012
15
0
Hi. I am interested in overclocking my 2009 Macbook CPU and GPU

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 2.26ghz
I believe it is the Intel P7550

It's 64-bit

3mb on chip shared L2 cache

System bus is 1066 mhz


It has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M



Don't know if this makes any difference but I have 2 hard drives inside the mac. One is an 80gb SSD with the OS and apps on it and a 750gb 7200RPM inside a hard drive caddy that replaces the DVD drive, and 8gb of ram (2x4gb)

I have mountain lion 10.8.2



I am wondering how much I can overclock the CPU and GPU, and how I know if something is going wrong, if it is, and even how I do this in the first place?

I hear these 2 are very overclock-able.

The computer isn't as fast as I need it to be. And I was thinking of selling it to upgrade, but can't do that right now.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

----------

Just some info on what I use it for. I have between 1 to 4 (sometimes 5-8) chrome windows open in full screen, I sometimes run iMovie, and Pages and Keynote and Numbers and the App Store. Also Lightroom 4 (sometimes I have a few of those open at once). I have other programs running all the time in the top menu bar like menutab for facebook, twitter, lockscreen, little snitch, and some others. Apps like Instadesk, and itunes 11, Preview, Paintbrush, Spotify, Tweetadder, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and some others (can't remember) are usually running most of the time.

I don't play 3D games, or any games at all really.
 
CameraTester said:
Hi. I am interested in overclocking my 2009 Macbook CPU and GPU

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 2.26ghz
I believe it is the Intel P7550

It's 64-bit

3mb on chip shared L2 cache

System bus is 1066 mhz


It has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M



Don't know if this makes any difference but I have 2 hard drives inside the mac. One is an 80gb SSD with the OS and apps on it and a 750gb 7200RPM inside a hard drive caddy that replaces the DVD drive, and 8gb of ram (2x4gb)

I have mountain lion 10.8.2



I am wondering how much I can overclock the CPU and GPU, and how I know if something is going wrong, if it is, and even how I do this in the first place?

I hear these 2 are very overclock-able.

The computer isn't as fast as I need it to be. And I was thinking of selling it to upgrade, but can't do that right now.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

----------

Just some info on what I use it for. I have between 1 to 4 (sometimes 5-8) chrome windows open in full screen, I sometimes run iMovie, and Pages and Keynote and Numbers and the App Store. Also Lightroom 4 (sometimes I have a few of those open at once). I have other programs running all the time in the top menu bar like menutab for facebook, twitter, lockscreen, little snitch, and some others. Apps like Instadesk, and itunes 11, Preview, Paintbrush, Spotify, Tweetadder, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and some others (can't remember) are usually running most of the time.

I don't play 3D games, or any games at all really.
Click to expand...

First, max your ram, then start thinking about overclocking!
 
Overclocking could lead to instability, I would avoid it. I don't know of any OSX utilities that would do what you want anyway.
 
Ram is maxed, and you have an SSD- and you call it sluggish?

Any amount you can overclock it (never OC'd a mac, regularly OC my gaming PCs, however) won't make it smooth enough to your satisfaction. Even if you get to 3GHz it's still a dual-core penryn chip, which are far, far slower Clock-for-clock than the IvyBridge chips these days.

Save up/use Apple interest-free financing.
 
jomirrivera said:
First, max your ram, then start thinking about overclocking!
Click to expand...

It is maxed at 8gb

----------

For those who believe in overclocking, I want to know how to do this. Even if it's at 3ghz like someone here mentioned, that's still good, If I can do that, I would be happy

Then there is the GPU which I would like to do too.
 
CameraTester said:
]For those who believe in overclocking, I want to know how to do this. Even if it's at 3ghz like someone here mentioned, that's still good, If I can do that, I would be happy

Then there is the GPU which I would like to do too.
Click to expand...

I overclock my PC desktop, and I also watercool it. The cooling capability of a laptop is severely limited, you ant going to get much out of it.
 
I try to teach myself not to give up that easily, so if there is any way I could possibly do this, I would like to know.

I don't mean to tell everyone they're wrong, that's not what I mean. I guess I want this really bad, and would like to know how to do it really bad.

If anyone can tell me how and what I need to do and know, that would be great.

Thank you everyone so far for all the help so far. I really appreciate it! :)
 
CameraTester said:
I try to teach myself not to give up that easily, so if there is any way I could possibly do this, I would like to know.

I don't mean to tell everyone they're wrong, that's not what I mean. I guess I want this really bad, and would like to know how to do it really bad.

If anyone can tell me how and what I need to do and know, that would be great.

Thank you everyone so far for all the help so far. I really appreciate it! :)
Click to expand...

A google search brought up some info. Most overclocking utilities are Windows only. I did see a couple of threads on here that pointed towards a Mac based utility, but I didn't see any links.
 
CameraTester said:
Hi. I am interested in overclocking my 2009 Macbook CPU and GPU

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 2.26ghz
I believe it is the Intel P7550

It's 64-bit

3mb on chip shared L2 cache

System bus is 1066 mhz


It has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M



Don't know if this makes any difference but I have 2 hard drives inside the mac. One is an 80gb SSD with the OS and apps on it and a 750gb 7200RPM inside a hard drive caddy that replaces the DVD drive, and 8gb of ram (2x4gb)

I have mountain lion 10.8.2



I am wondering how much I can overclock the CPU and GPU, and how I know if something is going wrong, if it is, and even how I do this in the first place?

I hear these 2 are very overclock-able.

The computer isn't as fast as I need it to be. And I was thinking of selling it to upgrade, but can't do that right now.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

----------

Just some info on what I use it for. I have between 1 to 4 (sometimes 5-8) chrome windows open in full screen, I sometimes run iMovie, and Pages and Keynote and Numbers and the App Store. Also Lightroom 4 (sometimes I have a few of those open at once). I have other programs running all the time in the top menu bar like menutab for facebook, twitter, lockscreen, little snitch, and some others. Apps like Instadesk, and itunes 11, Preview, Paintbrush, Spotify, Tweetadder, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and some others (can't remember) are usually running most of the time.

I don't play 3D games, or any games at all really.
Click to expand...
None of what you mention would benefit from over-clocking in the first place.

So why do you want to do it?

Clocks speeds don't matter nearly as much as they did 10 years ago, much more goes on under the hood now with dual core this, turbo boost that, and all that jazz.


As far as I know, there isn't much you can do in the way of over-clocking a Mac, there is no BIOS you can modify(Apple uses EFI, which is locked, of course) and there are no over-clocking utilities under OS X apart from some dating from the PowerPC days.
 
snaky69 said:
None of what you mention would benefit from over-clocking in the first place.

So why do you want to do it?

Clocks speeds don't matter nearly as much as they did 10 years ago, much more goes on under the hood now with dual core this, turbo boost that, and all that jazz.


As far as I know, there isn't much you can do in the way of over-clocking a Mac, there is no BIOS you can modify(Apple uses EFI, which is locked, of course) and there are no over-clocking utilities under OS X apart from some dating from the PowerPC days.
Click to expand...

CameraTester said:
Hi. I am interested in overclocking my 2009 Macbook CPU and GPU

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 2.26ghz
I believe it is the Intel P7550

It's 64-bit

3mb on chip shared L2 cache

System bus is 1066 mhz


It has an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M



Don't know if this makes any difference but I have 2 hard drives inside the mac. One is an 80gb SSD with the OS and apps on it and a 750gb 7200RPM inside a hard drive caddy that replaces the DVD drive, and 8gb of ram (2x4gb)

I have mountain lion 10.8.2



I am wondering how much I can overclock the CPU and GPU, and how I know if something is going wrong, if it is, and even how I do this in the first place?

I hear these 2 are very overclock-able.

The computer isn't as fast as I need it to be. And I was thinking of selling it to upgrade, but can't do that right now.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

----------

Just some info on what I use it for. I have between 1 to 4 (sometimes 5-8) chrome windows open in full screen, I sometimes run iMovie, and Pages and Keynote and Numbers and the App Store. Also Lightroom 4 (sometimes I have a few of those open at once). I have other programs running all the time in the top menu bar like menutab for facebook, twitter, lockscreen, little snitch, and some others. Apps like Instadesk, and itunes 11, Preview, Paintbrush, Spotify, Tweetadder, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and some others (can't remember) are usually running most of the time.

I don't play 3D games, or any games at all really.
Click to expand...

You can enter efi with rEFIt and mess with settings. But be careful EFI is so integrated with hardware that you can turn your Computer into an expensive paperweight.
 
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snaky69 said:
None of what you mention would benefit from over-clocking in the first place.

So why do you want to do it?

Clocks speeds don't matter nearly as much as they did 10 years ago, much more goes on under the hood now with dual core this, turbo boost that, and all that jazz.


As far as I know, there isn't much you can do in the way of over-clocking a Mac, there is no BIOS you can modify(Apple uses EFI, which is locked, of course) and there are no over-clocking utilities under OS X apart from some dating from the PowerPC days.
Click to expand...

Ok I understand. So I would take it that overclocking isn't what I should do.
 
CameraTester said:
Ok I understand. So I would take it that overclocking isn't what I should do.
Click to expand...

As far as performance goes, you've taken it about as far as it'll go with your extra RAM and SSD. It's time for an upgrade if your computer is holding you back. If you did succeed in overclocking it, you'd be generating more heat which in turn could shorten the life of the electronics inside.

I'm not saying what you want is impossible, simply saying the benefit you expect might simply not be there.
 
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