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Active: 1339 users

Overclocking for a noob

Blogs > Geovu
Post a Reply
Geovu
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Estonia1344 Posts
October 25 2011 17:53 GMT
#1
First off, while I have tried to read up a bit about it (Wikipedia, google etc) and have learned a few things for the most part I have a pretty tenuous grasp of technical details. People posting piles of seemingly random conglomeration of numbers and letters still scares me a bit b/c I feel like I should be able to understand what they are without copy/paste/google-->go. If you asked me what a graphics card is and to explain it and I couldn't google it I would probably stutter a bit and mumble "It's... that part in the computer that lets you see things right?"

So a part of this is trying to learn knew things (Which when it comes to computers I don't think DIY Trial and Error is the best and safest method for learning v.v) and of course wanting to play The Witcher 2 on as high settings as possible, despite the fact that I'm several hours in and don't really like it anyways (lol). Also atm I have SC2 on high shaders and pretty well optimized settings, but if I turn it up any higher then the framerate dips below 60 (monitor refresh rate) but I would like to play with ultra shaders, lighting, shadows if it's possible. I'm saying this because I don't want people to say "Well if you don't know how to overclock you probably won't notice anything if you do" kind of responses.

Anyways onto my specs:

Graphics Card: Geforce GTX 550 TI
Processor: i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
8 GB of RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

Pretty sure I don't need anything else.

Anyways basically I'm clueless as to what to do. I've got this thing that came with the computer:

[image loading]
Pro cropping skills amirite?

And this cool looking fuzzy thing:

[image loading]
PS I have a game of Starcraft open, might be why Temp was @60 when i took screenshot. Not that I know if 60 is too high, I know I wouldn't want to be in a room that hot though


And beyond that I'm like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Logically I should probably smack those bars a bit over to the right and pray, but I don't know if my comp would spontaneously combust or not.

[image loading]
It's safer to assume the worst

PS I thought about posting this in the Tech Support section but I felt I would get told to 'gfto noob u dont know anything' a lot quicker there than if I posted it in the blog section aka pseudo "Ask TeamLiquid (About anything other than homework)"

a176
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada6688 Posts
October 25 2011 18:01 GMT
#2
Overclocking a 550 ti is not going to help you much.
starleague forever
repsac
Profile Joined March 2011
91 Posts
October 25 2011 18:10 GMT
#3
you will gain little overclocking a video card for sc2. if you want to o/c in order to improve performance in sc2, you would be best advised to start with the cpu, via bios.
Thrill
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
2599 Posts
October 25 2011 18:18 GMT
#4
You should buy an aftermarket heat sink and OC the cpu instead.
Geovu
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Estonia1344 Posts
October 25 2011 18:22 GMT
#5
On October 26 2011 03:10 repsac wrote:
you will gain little overclocking a video card for sc2. if you want to o/c in order to improve performance in sc2, you would be best advised to start with the cpu, via bios.

If I do go into bios how am I supposed to know what is relatively safe and what isn't?
gulati
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
United States2241 Posts
October 27 2011 19:35 GMT
#6
On October 26 2011 03:22 Geovu wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 26 2011 03:10 repsac wrote:
you will gain little overclocking a video card for sc2. if you want to o/c in order to improve performance in sc2, you would be best advised to start with the cpu, via bios.

If I do go into bios how am I supposed to know what is relatively safe and what isn't?


I would strongly recommend the following for a beginners guide to Overclocking:

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

As such, before you start doing anything, please know what you are doing. Nothing is worse than over-volting a component and causing it to fry (your memory). Invest in an after-market Air or Liquid cooling heatsink, such as the CM V8, or the Antec Kuhler 920, if you are seeking to make real headroom with OC'ing your CPU. You have an Unlocked one, so follow the guide for your exact model.

Best of luck, and be careful!
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