Though overclocking community is far from dead, it would seem that it has dropped from its mainstream status of a couple years ago. Checking the Hardcoreware Forums, we see that the overclocking section only has a total of four threads in the past two months. Now admittedly there are still communities such as Exteme Overclocking which are as active as ever. It would seem though that overclocking has once again dropped from mainstream back to cult status. So why is this?
There are basically two reasons for someone to overclock their computer hardware. The first is the geek factor, and the second is for monetary reasons.
The geek factor is basically overclocking just for the sake of saying that you did or that you can. It’s the same reason that auto buffs tweak their engines to get the maximum amount of horsepower and torque. In day to day life you’ll never have need for so much power, but it’s great when you want to brag about your latest dyno results, or in the case of overclockers, superPi.
The monetary reason is fairly obvious. If you can purchase a lower prices chip and overclock it to run at the same speed as one that costs significantly more, you are then obviously getting a much higher value for your money. This reason has been the biggest draw for the mainstream user. As with anything else in life, money talks. This doesn’t explain why overclocking has dropped from the mainsteam though. There are still $1,000 chips for sale, and cheaper $500 chips that can be purchased and made to run at the same speed. So why is there; then now a lack of mainstream interest?
The main reason is that computer hardware capabilities have exceeded software requirements. This is a natural cycle that comes around every couple of years after major advances in hardware have been release. It takes time for software developers to create content that can utilize the full capabilities of the newly released hardware. As a result, even someone with a mid range system (eg. Core2Duo 6600, Geforce 7950GT) can easily play newer titles (eg. BF2142) at a high resolution with all graphic features set to max. What’s the point of overclocking your computer if its already performing at such a high level?
Things are about to change though and I predict that within another year overclocking will again have its time in the sun. As full adoption of Windows Vista increase so will the average hardware requirements required to run the majority of mainstream games. Also as software and game developers catch up and release newer more sophisticated titles, midrange hardware will no longer be able to perform at the highest levels. It will be then that the average consumer who does not have $1,000 to spend on a high end processor or video card will again seek out the help of the overclocking gurus searching for ways to stretch the value of their midrange hardware.
To many guys running high $$ modfied phase changes..futuremark should have classes..air-H2O- Pelts-phase-unlimited..really all it takes is money now before it was fun..now its just big money my 2ยข
I absolutely agree. I find myself somewhat uninterested in the overclocking scene of late. Although my current system is overclocked I rarely think about it anymore and I find myself looking at new hardware and instead of thinking about getting the best hardware to overclock I’m thinking more about quiet and multiple cores. Overclocking seems to have slipped out of my mind.
My current system has outlived its expected lifespan by at least a year and I still am not rushing to upgrade. Maybe the software companies will give me a reason to upgrade. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t come before the planned Q3 price reductions.
OC’ing for raw power used to and I stress used to be the big thing but not any longer atleast for the people I build for. There’s been a swing from excess power and it’s added costs towards machines with more capability using stock parts and spending the extra on tv tuners, quiet cooling, better video card as well as green/effiecient products. I too used to OC but now I just get Corsair that matches the memory spec of the mother board and spend the money saved on a better video card. There are so many people using them now and most treat it like a car, they hop on it, surf the net, do my space, d/l play music dvd’s or tv but they don’t care HOW it runs only that it does. Why else do you think they could sell Vista :) or should I say Windows ME 2007 :)
The Prescott went a long way to killing the OC community as well I think. Even though the chip had some headroom there was no way to max it out unless you went with a decent water cooling system, and even then things ran hot. When you have to buy a $250 cooling system to overclock there’s no monetary advantage to doing it anymore.
If most gamers were to focus on the cost aspect to time, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to go the PC gamer route in OC with high end graphic cards. The cost of a high end graphics card like the 8800 GTX would be as much or more than a dedicated game player like Playstation, Xbox or whatever. This holds true even with boards costing less but being used in SLI configuration which takes 2 boards of the same make and model. In addition to all of this is the extra costs involved to make the rest of the system more upscale
with coolers, memory, gamer board, drives,
etcetera. It all seems somewhat passe now
[...] they can operate at independent speeds and voltages. Should make for some interesting overclocking, if the need ever arises. Now we wait for real [...]