Refer to your chip manufacturer’s specifications (available on each relevant brand’s website) for maximum safe voltages. Increasing voltage usually fixes system freezes, although this can damage your chip. Generally, this is a result of an unstable balance between the frequency and voltage. Freezes typically occur when a game or program asks for more resources than the overclocked component can handle. System freezes are one of the most common signs that your system is running an unstable overclock. So here are four of the most common worrisome occurrences that may rear their heads during overclocking, and how to handle them: 1. And knowing how to handle them when they arise is a great idea. With such imprecision (and sometimes luck) involved in the process, there are bound to be a few pitfalls. Chips within a given model that can run at higher frequencies at lower voltage settings are considered to be “silicon lottery” winners, a phrase that refers to the significant performance difference resulting from minute manufacturing variances between similar chips. Often, the overclocking capacities of chips from the same manufacturer and even model can vary wildly. A successful overclock can lead to faster program load and compute times, as well as better performance during games.īut it’s an inexact science. In order to overclock a component, a user must increase the frequency and voltage levels of the chip- either in the motherboard BIOS or using a GPU overclocking program like MSI Afterburner. Frequency refers to the rate at which a chip will perform operations, and voltage is a measurement of the electricity supplied to the chip. On a very basic level, there are two elements to overclocking: frequency and voltage.

Luckily, most problems faced with overclocking are easily fixed with some basic troubleshooting techniques.įor our purposes, we’ll look at issues affecting the components that are overclocked the most: the CPU and GPU. Overclocking is often a relatively simple way to squeeze out extra performance from computer components however, problems sometimes do arise. Often, PC enthusiasts will speak of overclocking the way car enthusiasts discuss high-performance engines, with megahertz and voltage taking the place of horsepower and torque.

Windows 10 not recognizing overclock