How Much Overclocking is Too Much?

[Koalaman]

Hello, I have a 2500K Overclocked, I originally got it O'Ced (on air) to 4.7Ghz. Temps got close to what I was uncomfortable with (65-70 Celcius) So i took it down to 4.5Ghz. And since then have noticed NO difference in Geekbench (measurable atleast), games, and other system tasks. My CPU runs at 4.5Ghz all the time. No speedstepping etc. This brings me to the question, How Much Overclocking is too Much? I myself did not see any gains above 4.5Ghz. Please share your thoughts/experiences.

 

[Koalaman]

Pure Speed. As high as I could get it. The Cooler Master v8 With Push Pull. I game ( Assassins creed 1+2+BH, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, CODMW2, Minecraft, Two Worlds 2, All Humble Bundle Games, I use WINE/Cider a lot).

 

[Koalaman]

DAMMMN. I am Comfortable only in the mid to high 60s. Which is what my CPU is at during Prime95 testing.

 

[goober296]

Is there any reason to overclock on a hack? If you are dual booting and gaming on the windows side everything is dependent on gpu. Any of the recommended cpu's are more than enough at stock speeds. I know it's fun but it seems to go against what a mac is supposed to be about. Excess power usage, heat etc. Makes it more like a pc.

 

[Koalaman]

I don't use windows, I game on my Hack using WINE/CIDER. And a Mac is a PERSONAL COMPUTER, it's mine. SO therefore it's personal. And WINE/Cider uses a lot of CPU, so after overclocking for example, Skyrim flies now compared to stock.

 

[vinylkid]

i don't notice much difference in gaming at 4300Ghz vs 4400Ghz turbo. there's a significant increase in load temperatures between the two though, so i backed it off... and this is on water too. some say that the TIM between the CPU die and the IHS (integrated heat sink) is very poor, so unless you are prepared for a little CPU surgery (those who have overclocked AMD Opterons know what I'm talking about!) the temperatures will never be handled terribly well.

i've kept my voltages at stock so i don't have to worry about "everyday" volts.

 

[Koalaman]

Sorry if I didn't state but this isn't turbo. 4.5GHZ 25/7. No x16 etc.

 

[vinylkid]

my understanding is that if you're 24/7 at 4.5Ghz then you're always in turbo

 

[Kilrah]

To me, if it's stable then it's good

It's interesting because I hadn't restored my OC after setting my BIOS to work with OSX until today, and I just went up from 3.2 to 4.2 again. My Geekbench score is significantly higher on OSX than on W7 (16596 vs 14608), while there was little difference before OC.