jpz

There's a lot more to overclocking than that. That was just an example I made up to help you understand. The Q6600 was a solid processor when it was released about two years ago. My Q6600 @ 3.6ghz is faster than some of the stock i7 processors and I think it's neck and neck with the stock Core i7 965.

A lot of the details in my example apply only to Core 2 systems. For example, the Core i7 does not have a front side bus and instead uses QuickPath Interconnect(QPI). The RAM dividers/ratios you are given to work with are whatever your motherboard supports- the problem with slow RAM is that you have to use the slowest ratios to run the RAM at that slow speed. Since you only have so many divider/ratio options given to you by the motherboard(you can't enter your own) then you are SOL if your RAM uses the slowest divider/ratio by default because you can't lower it for overclocking.

Five years ago we had P4 Prescotts with stock frequencies as high as 3.8ghz. Overclockers broke the 8ghz barrier with the P4 and Celeron, the 7ghz barrier was just broken with the Phenom II and the 6ghz barrier with Core i7.

You need to realize that freqency(hz) is not a unit of performance. Also, Processors have a small amount of high speed memory we call cache that it uses to store code and data. CPU cache has many times more bandwidth than system RAM. The RAM we have today is more than sufficient to supply our processors with data. As for why we have 3ghz processors and 800mhz RAM- that's just the way it worked out. There are many companies that make computer parts and electronics- all of which are working as hard as they can to develop the fastest, most efficient computer parts while remaining cost effective.

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Monst3r

I always find that higher MHZ yields better performance then lower MHZ but tighter timings.. Remember to run benchies and Look for your bandwidth and latency.. Remember lower the latency and higher bandwidth is always better

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Blameless

Latency does not equal timings. Timings do not equal latency.

Latency is affected by both timings and clock speed. Higher clock speed = less latency. Tighter/lower timings = less latency.

Going from 1066 7-7-7-x to 1600 9-9-9-x, is a large reduction in latency and an increase in bandwidth, for example.

Clock speed will determine max theoretical bandwidth, but timings play a large part in determining how much of that bandwidth is realized.

As for alt-tabbing, amount of memory, and things like CPU speed and GPU drivers generally make more of a difference than memory performance.

tubers

man.. are u a computer prof or something? thanks hehe..

cpu cache never crossed my mind! i wish i had just bought the q600 instead of my Phenom 9950 (i just started looking around at pcs on aug 26, 2008)..

man such a waste for me.. cant even reach 3.0 Ghz..

so the CPU clockspeed (Ghz/Mhz) doesnt mean performance increase?

tubers

whats a good benchmark?

(no 3dmarks plz i tried that that i cant even tell much difference when changing memory stuff)

tubers

oh.. then what would be the real use of 1600Mhz 8-8-8-x to me?

jpz

Higher Ghz means more performance when comparing two of the same model/series processor. For example, a 3.6ghz Q6600(Kentsfield), 3.6ghz Q6700(Kentsfield), and 3.6ghz QX6800(Kentsfield) should all perform about the same, and all of them will be faster than a 3.4ghz Q6600, Q6700, or Q6800. What you cannot do is compare a 3.6ghz Q6600(Kentsfield) to a 3.5ghz Q9550(Yorkfield) or a 3.2ghz Core i7 965(Nehalem) and say the Q6600 is the fastest because it has the highest clockspeed- the 3.2ghz Core i7 is probably faster.

I've seen a lot of people using the Everest cache and memory benchmark lately. That will give you raw performance data.

You wouldn't notice any difference with 1600Mhz 8-8-8-X.

Tubers, next time please make use of the multi-quote function instead of triple posting. Instead of clicking the wide buttom that says "Quote" at the bottom right, click the button just to the right of that which has a "+ on it. You click that button for each post you want to quote, and then on the final one you press the normal quote button. Then all the quotes will be in one post.

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Monst3r

Good benchmarking program for memory that reads bandwidth/latency Lavalys Everest cache And memory Benching software.. As for Overclocking your ram, its better to have a higher MHZ OC with looser timings then say a lower OC with tighter timings such as 4-4-4-12 for example..

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