PC Gaming Tips
5
This is a general guide for people with low to mid-range computers who are trying to get the most performance that they can to play the games that they love. Even if you have a beefy system these tips can still help you out and the advanced tips at the bottom can show you how to make your games look even better. I'm just going to assume that everyone is gaming on Windows and if you are using Wine or something similar you probably already know better. Any programs I recommend are free to use. If you have a tip of your own to share please do so and if I find it worthy I will add it to my own. I welcome any and all criticism in order to make a more perfect guide. I'm trying not to be too technical with this guide but if you do not understand any term or acronym that I use try typing it in Google.
1.) Can you run it?
I would first start off before you even buy the game to see if your computer can run it. A very good site that tells you if you can is systemrequirementslab. If your computer meets the recommended specs then you should have no problems running it but if it barely makes the minimum settings then this next information will be extremely useful in making it run.
2.) Optimize your system.
Unless you have a beefy system compared to what game you are playing, your probably running the game with your processor and RAM at or near max capacity. Killing background processes frees up precious clock cycles and MBs of RAM so your game can take advantage of everything it can get. Also some antivirus programs will scan all files sent to memory which will cripple your game if its constantly loading a lot of textures. You should be able to disable the real-time protection they offer while you play your game in its settings somewhere so as to not bog you down. I would also consider uninstalling or disabling unnecessary programs from starting up altogether by using the Microsoft configuration utility. If you are unsure of whether you should disable a service or program, Google it. You can alternatively "clean boot" into windows as explained by this Microsoft article as a last resort.
I also suggest installing and running CCleaner to clean up your temporary files and tidy up your registry. You should also defragment your hard drive using the built-in defragmenter or by using UltraDefrag. And with UltraDefrag, I suggest you run the boot time scan to defrag your pagefile and registry also.
Also its a good idea to scan for malware if you notice your computer is just running sluggish all around. I suggest running a scan with the free version of Malwarebytes. Spybot and Ad-Aware are good alternatives.
Another good idea is to disable the graphics-intensive features of the windows UI. To do so right-click either the computer icon on the desktop or computer from the start menu and select properties. Select advanced system settings and go to the advanced tab and choose the settings bubble in performance. From there you can customize it yourself or simply hit the radial button for best performance. Click apply and notice the change and the increased responsiveness.
3.) Tone down your settings.
Lowering the resolution of the game is probably the easiest thing you can do to gain performance. But that makes the game look fuzzy and sometimes you'll end up with a different pixel ratio of your monitor and have things skewed out of proportion. For these reasons I like to leave the resolution at or near the monitor's native resolution and instead tweak the in-game settings for the performance gain and only lowering the resolution as a last resort.
Tweaking the settings in your game is dependent on what settings they allow you to tweak and how good your CPU and video card are and should be tweaked appropriately. For example, if your video card doesn't have a lot of RAM, lower the texture quality. Lights, shadows, effects, and post-processing put a lot of strain on your card and processor and should be turned off or toned down to a reasonable level. Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering smooths and cleans up textures and should only be turned completely off if you've tried everything else first (but don't be afraid to put them on a low setting). If your game has the option to enable VSync and triple buffering I would leave both of them on as Vsync eliminates screen tearing (where the top half of the screen moves faster than the bottom) and triple buffering reduces the performance hit that it causes. A lot of games don't have both options and the NVidia/ATI control panel only enables them on OpenGL games, which are few. To enable this on all of your games, download and install RivaTuner and with it comes a neat program called D3DOverrider which does just that. Just turn it on, configure the settings and to have it start with windows and your gold. You don't even have to use RivaTuner at all. You'll end up doing a lot of experimenting but in the end you should be satisfied with what you came up with. Sites like TweakGuides have very good guides on tweaking your computer as well as specific games.
4.) Upgrade.
If you got a game and really want to play it but aren't satisfied with how it turned out after optimizing your system and tweaking the game then this is the only option you are left with. If your computer is less than 5 years old then you can probably easily and cheaply upgrade it to play your games. If its older than that you are probably better off just buying or building a new computer. If you have a laptop, the only thing you can really do is either buy more RAM or buy a new laptop. The systemrequirementslab website has a good recommended hardware list for specific games if you choose to go this route.
Memory is probably the easiest thing you can upgrade and sites like memory.com, Crucial, and Kingston have tools that tell you what memory you have and help you find upgrades for it on the internet. Memory holds all your data for instantaneous access and if you don't have enough for your game your hard drive will act as "virtual memory" but that is up to 1000 times slower thus crippling your performance. For modern games, you'll probably want to have a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM and if you are running Vista or 7 you'll want 3 or more. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your memory here.
The next thing you can do is upgrade your video card. All graphics cards today run on the PCI-Express bus and if your motherboard is lacking this bus then I would suggest getting a computer with one. As for choosing a good card, that would depend mostly on your budget. Luckily websites like Tom's Hardware writes articles on this kind of stuff monthly in an article called Best Graphics Cards For The Money and even provides links of places where you can buy them. I would also look at the last page of the current months article at the hierarchy chart and try to get one as close to the top as possible depending on your budget. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your video card here.
You can also upgrade your processor. If you have a slow single-core processor you can more than double your speed by getting a faster dual-core or quadruple your speed with a quad-core. This is a lot more technical than upgrading RAM and your video card but this can be done with the proper research. Though if your using an outdated socket it may be hard to find processors for it. And if you absolutely must have a faster processor you'll probably end up having to upgrade the motherboard too (which in turn has the possibility of using a different type of RAM which you will need to buy as well). The first thing you need to do is find out what make and model motherboard you have. Its usually printed in bold letters on it and if you have trouble finding it you can try to find it on the internet by searching your computer's make a model. Now that you've found that out you will want to search the documentation for what socket the processor uses. Now that you figured that out, shop around sites like Newegg for that socket type and find one in your budget range. Be warned, some processors require you to upgrade your firmware which can be done by visiting the motherboard's manufacturers' website. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your processor here.
Advanced Tips
For those of you with beefy computers and want to get even more out of your games look here. Some easy things you can do to make your game look better is to open up your Nvidia/ATI control panel and crank up the antiaiasing, anisotropic fitering, and multisampling settings. Settings these too high can make you take a huge performance hit so experiment around. I also suggest you only do this on a per-application basis and leave the global settings at default. You can also force vertical sync and triple buffering in the settings but that mainly applies to OpenGL games and a select few DirectX games (most games run on DirectX). To enable vertical sync and triple buffering for the rest of your games, use D3DOverrider as explained earlier in the guide.
For the people with gaming rigs:
Overclocking your motherboard as presented by your one and only.
There is just so much shit you need to know to overclock and so much time spent simply testing each configuration that you basically don't even want to attempt this unless you are willing to spend an entire weekend on it and are comfortable with possibly fragging your motherboard and anything connected to it. Better cooling for your system is a must and water cooling is preferred. Also having a good PSU is a good idea as well. I assume no liability if you do end up fragging your computer.
http://www.overclockers.com/ is a good place for learning how to do any overclocking and I highly suggest you check out the forums. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-overclock-t11177.html is an extremely awesome guide on how to overclock and you should read it.
Anyways here is my rundown on overclocking your motherboard:
Each motherboard is different and overclocking an AMD is different from overclocking an Intel, though the principle is the same. Basically the bus speed x the divider on the processor = processor speed. RAM also has a divider as well which is more variable than the processor's so you can customize it more. By default your divider should be set to its highest so all you can change is the bus speed. But by doing that you also raise the speed of every component in the computer, like RAM. Because RAM and your processor are generally the only things you'll want to overclock, you find the max speed of both that your computer will handle before errors start appearing/your computer overheats. Also if you raise the bus speed your HT will go over its limit and you will have errors also.
For figuring out the max speed of the processor, you take the RAM and HT out of the equation by putting the RAMs divider as low as possible and the HT 1 notch lower than the default then you raise the bus speed while keeping the CPU's divider as high as it can go. Only go up in like increments of 10 and after each increment use prime95's benchmark for a few hours and see if you get any erros. As your doing this use a temperature monitoring tool like speedfan and monitor your temps. If no errors then go up another increment of 10. Keep repeating til you get errors then try raising the voltage on the processor slightly and try again (Be warned, if you raise the voltage too much your processor will fry. Be careful). Keep this up until you hit your max where you can't get any faster without your processor turning into a frying pan. (80+ C) Do the same to the RAM but the opposite with the dividers, (low CPU, high RAM, ) and instead use a tool called memtest86+ to check for errors. Higher quality RAM with higher speeds help a lot as you don't have to use a lower divider to get your CPU higher, thus keeping a 1:1 ratio which is highly preferred.
Once you have those numbers its a matter of figuring out the best combination without going over the limit. Also you have to watch out for your hypertransport multi and can't have that going over its limit which with a socket939 board is 1000 (bus x multi here as well). This is only my knowledge with overclocking an old socket 939 AMD board so some things will be different for you. You can also use a number of other programs to test your CPU/RAM and monitor your temps as well.
I haven't even had the slightest notion to want to overclock my graphics card as the thing runs hot as hell as it is but the overclockers.com site should have info on how to do that as well. I know with NVidia cards you are going to end up using RivaTuner to overclock it and another program to monitor for any artifacts (think of these as graphical errors). Its definitely not as complex as the motherboard but you will still end up spending hours on end testing each configuration and seeing how it performs.
1.) Can you run it?
I would first start off before you even buy the game to see if your computer can run it. A very good site that tells you if you can is systemrequirementslab. If your computer meets the recommended specs then you should have no problems running it but if it barely makes the minimum settings then this next information will be extremely useful in making it run.
2.) Optimize your system.
Unless you have a beefy system compared to what game you are playing, your probably running the game with your processor and RAM at or near max capacity. Killing background processes frees up precious clock cycles and MBs of RAM so your game can take advantage of everything it can get. Also some antivirus programs will scan all files sent to memory which will cripple your game if its constantly loading a lot of textures. You should be able to disable the real-time protection they offer while you play your game in its settings somewhere so as to not bog you down. I would also consider uninstalling or disabling unnecessary programs from starting up altogether by using the Microsoft configuration utility. If you are unsure of whether you should disable a service or program, Google it. You can alternatively "clean boot" into windows as explained by this Microsoft article as a last resort.
I also suggest installing and running CCleaner to clean up your temporary files and tidy up your registry. You should also defragment your hard drive using the built-in defragmenter or by using UltraDefrag. And with UltraDefrag, I suggest you run the boot time scan to defrag your pagefile and registry also.
Also its a good idea to scan for malware if you notice your computer is just running sluggish all around. I suggest running a scan with the free version of Malwarebytes. Spybot and Ad-Aware are good alternatives.
Another good idea is to disable the graphics-intensive features of the windows UI. To do so right-click either the computer icon on the desktop or computer from the start menu and select properties. Select advanced system settings and go to the advanced tab and choose the settings bubble in performance. From there you can customize it yourself or simply hit the radial button for best performance. Click apply and notice the change and the increased responsiveness.
3.) Tone down your settings.
Lowering the resolution of the game is probably the easiest thing you can do to gain performance. But that makes the game look fuzzy and sometimes you'll end up with a different pixel ratio of your monitor and have things skewed out of proportion. For these reasons I like to leave the resolution at or near the monitor's native resolution and instead tweak the in-game settings for the performance gain and only lowering the resolution as a last resort.
Tweaking the settings in your game is dependent on what settings they allow you to tweak and how good your CPU and video card are and should be tweaked appropriately. For example, if your video card doesn't have a lot of RAM, lower the texture quality. Lights, shadows, effects, and post-processing put a lot of strain on your card and processor and should be turned off or toned down to a reasonable level. Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering smooths and cleans up textures and should only be turned completely off if you've tried everything else first (but don't be afraid to put them on a low setting). If your game has the option to enable VSync and triple buffering I would leave both of them on as Vsync eliminates screen tearing (where the top half of the screen moves faster than the bottom) and triple buffering reduces the performance hit that it causes. A lot of games don't have both options and the NVidia/ATI control panel only enables them on OpenGL games, which are few. To enable this on all of your games, download and install RivaTuner and with it comes a neat program called D3DOverrider which does just that. Just turn it on, configure the settings and to have it start with windows and your gold. You don't even have to use RivaTuner at all. You'll end up doing a lot of experimenting but in the end you should be satisfied with what you came up with. Sites like TweakGuides have very good guides on tweaking your computer as well as specific games.
4.) Upgrade.
If you got a game and really want to play it but aren't satisfied with how it turned out after optimizing your system and tweaking the game then this is the only option you are left with. If your computer is less than 5 years old then you can probably easily and cheaply upgrade it to play your games. If its older than that you are probably better off just buying or building a new computer. If you have a laptop, the only thing you can really do is either buy more RAM or buy a new laptop. The systemrequirementslab website has a good recommended hardware list for specific games if you choose to go this route.
Memory is probably the easiest thing you can upgrade and sites like memory.com, Crucial, and Kingston have tools that tell you what memory you have and help you find upgrades for it on the internet. Memory holds all your data for instantaneous access and if you don't have enough for your game your hard drive will act as "virtual memory" but that is up to 1000 times slower thus crippling your performance. For modern games, you'll probably want to have a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM and if you are running Vista or 7 you'll want 3 or more. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your memory here.
The next thing you can do is upgrade your video card. All graphics cards today run on the PCI-Express bus and if your motherboard is lacking this bus then I would suggest getting a computer with one. As for choosing a good card, that would depend mostly on your budget. Luckily websites like Tom's Hardware writes articles on this kind of stuff monthly in an article called Best Graphics Cards For The Money and even provides links of places where you can buy them. I would also look at the last page of the current months article at the hierarchy chart and try to get one as close to the top as possible depending on your budget. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your video card here.
You can also upgrade your processor. If you have a slow single-core processor you can more than double your speed by getting a faster dual-core or quadruple your speed with a quad-core. This is a lot more technical than upgrading RAM and your video card but this can be done with the proper research. Though if your using an outdated socket it may be hard to find processors for it. And if you absolutely must have a faster processor you'll probably end up having to upgrade the motherboard too (which in turn has the possibility of using a different type of RAM which you will need to buy as well). The first thing you need to do is find out what make and model motherboard you have. Its usually printed in bold letters on it and if you have trouble finding it you can try to find it on the internet by searching your computer's make a model. Now that you've found that out you will want to search the documentation for what socket the processor uses. Now that you figured that out, shop around sites like Newegg for that socket type and find one in your budget range. Be warned, some processors require you to upgrade your firmware which can be done by visiting the motherboard's manufacturers' website. You can find tutorials on how to upgrade your processor here.
Advanced Tips
For those of you with beefy computers and want to get even more out of your games look here. Some easy things you can do to make your game look better is to open up your Nvidia/ATI control panel and crank up the antiaiasing, anisotropic fitering, and multisampling settings. Settings these too high can make you take a huge performance hit so experiment around. I also suggest you only do this on a per-application basis and leave the global settings at default. You can also force vertical sync and triple buffering in the settings but that mainly applies to OpenGL games and a select few DirectX games (most games run on DirectX). To enable vertical sync and triple buffering for the rest of your games, use D3DOverrider as explained earlier in the guide.
For the people with gaming rigs:
Overclocking your motherboard as presented by your one and only.
There is just so much shit you need to know to overclock and so much time spent simply testing each configuration that you basically don't even want to attempt this unless you are willing to spend an entire weekend on it and are comfortable with possibly fragging your motherboard and anything connected to it. Better cooling for your system is a must and water cooling is preferred. Also having a good PSU is a good idea as well. I assume no liability if you do end up fragging your computer.
http://www.overclockers.com/ is a good place for learning how to do any overclocking and I highly suggest you check out the forums. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-overclock-t11177.html is an extremely awesome guide on how to overclock and you should read it.
Anyways here is my rundown on overclocking your motherboard:
Each motherboard is different and overclocking an AMD is different from overclocking an Intel, though the principle is the same. Basically the bus speed x the divider on the processor = processor speed. RAM also has a divider as well which is more variable than the processor's so you can customize it more. By default your divider should be set to its highest so all you can change is the bus speed. But by doing that you also raise the speed of every component in the computer, like RAM. Because RAM and your processor are generally the only things you'll want to overclock, you find the max speed of both that your computer will handle before errors start appearing/your computer overheats. Also if you raise the bus speed your HT will go over its limit and you will have errors also.
For figuring out the max speed of the processor, you take the RAM and HT out of the equation by putting the RAMs divider as low as possible and the HT 1 notch lower than the default then you raise the bus speed while keeping the CPU's divider as high as it can go. Only go up in like increments of 10 and after each increment use prime95's benchmark for a few hours and see if you get any erros. As your doing this use a temperature monitoring tool like speedfan and monitor your temps. If no errors then go up another increment of 10. Keep repeating til you get errors then try raising the voltage on the processor slightly and try again (Be warned, if you raise the voltage too much your processor will fry. Be careful). Keep this up until you hit your max where you can't get any faster without your processor turning into a frying pan. (80+ C) Do the same to the RAM but the opposite with the dividers, (low CPU, high RAM, ) and instead use a tool called memtest86+ to check for errors. Higher quality RAM with higher speeds help a lot as you don't have to use a lower divider to get your CPU higher, thus keeping a 1:1 ratio which is highly preferred.
Once you have those numbers its a matter of figuring out the best combination without going over the limit. Also you have to watch out for your hypertransport multi and can't have that going over its limit which with a socket939 board is 1000 (bus x multi here as well). This is only my knowledge with overclocking an old socket 939 AMD board so some things will be different for you. You can also use a number of other programs to test your CPU/RAM and monitor your temps as well.
I haven't even had the slightest notion to want to overclock my graphics card as the thing runs hot as hell as it is but the overclockers.com site should have info on how to do that as well. I know with NVidia cards you are going to end up using RivaTuner to overclock it and another program to monitor for any artifacts (think of these as graphical errors). Its definitely not as complex as the motherboard but you will still end up spending hours on end testing each configuration and seeing how it performs.
0
There is a program called ... "Game Booster" ,
I heard it can turn off unnecessary System services while you playing games ..
useful much for playing games optimally ..
and it's developed by IoBIT .. the same good ol developer who makes Advanced System Care ...
And as far as i know it's free ..
but,
i think it's kind of buggy and cluttered .. so i wouldn't recommend it ..
nonetheless, worth to try ..
Anyway, Awesome Guide Nachbar ...
Informative and useful ....
My Rep goes to you ...
I heard it can turn off unnecessary System services while you playing games ..
useful much for playing games optimally ..
and it's developed by IoBIT .. the same good ol developer who makes Advanced System Care ...
And as far as i know it's free ..
but,
i think it's kind of buggy and cluttered .. so i wouldn't recommend it ..
nonetheless, worth to try ..
Anyway, Awesome Guide Nachbar ...
Informative and useful ....
My Rep goes to you ...
0
Tegumi
"im always cute"
I believe there is a site called SystemRequirementsLab which detects your system hardware and tells you if you can run the game. It's handy, I generally recommend it to people who ask me if they can run a game on their system or not.
I'm not sure if I should sticky this, since we already have four, but I'll try to find some way to give it mention, Nachbar.
I'm not sure if I should sticky this, since we already have four, but I'll try to find some way to give it mention, Nachbar.
0
I totally forgot about systemreqequirementslab. Indeed its a very useful website. Also, even if this doesn't get stickied, I wanted to see if I could write a general guide on PC Gaming and maybe help a few people in the process. Now if any friends ask me for tips I can just copypasta what I've already done.
0
tswarthog
The Iconoclast
Easy thing to do is just overclock, most motherboards even have programs that come with the board that will do it for you as high as you want your stuff cranked. Just dont be stupid and know your internal temp and have appropriate cooling. Then go into your graphics card control panel and tell it to go fucking crazy and jack everything to the highest of the high for settings in every game. Then enjoy this epicness on a 1080P certified screen.
0
tswarthog wrote...
Easy thing to do is just overclock, most motherboards even have programs that come with the board that will do it for you as high as you want your stuff cranked. Just dont be stupid and know your internal temp and have appropriate cooling. Then go into your graphics card control panel and tell it to go fucking crazy and jack everything to the highest of the high for settings in every game. Then enjoy this epicness on a 1080P certified screen.If you know how to do that safely without frying your GPU, then I am fairly sure you are not the target of Nachbars guide. Just because you have a nice interface to OC does not mean you can do it safely
0
ExESGO wrote...
spectre257 wrote...
Well done good sir!This thread needs a sticky.
Seconded.
Why?
It is useful and nice, but it really does not take long to figure out if you are looking for the information
0
jenslyn wrote...
ExESGO wrote...
spectre257 wrote...
Well done good sir!This thread needs a sticky.
Seconded.
Why?
It is useful and nice, but it really does not take long to figure out if you are looking for the information
It's a sticky for people who are too lazy to dig for this thread once it goes to another page. <which it will eventually do.
0
tswarthog
The Iconoclast
jenslyn wrote...
tswarthog wrote...
Easy thing to do is just overclock, most motherboards even have programs that come with the board that will do it for you as high as you want your stuff cranked. Just dont be stupid and know your internal temp and have appropriate cooling. Then go into your graphics card control panel and tell it to go fucking crazy and jack everything to the highest of the high for settings in every game. Then enjoy this epicness on a 1080P certified screen.If you know how to do that safely without frying your GPU, then I am fairly sure you are not the target of Nachbars guide. Just because you have a nice interface to OC does not mean you can do it safely
A lot of those programs that are built into the motherboard to OC wont let you go past a certain threshold so people cant sue them for destroying their CPU
0
tswarthog wrote...
jenslyn wrote...
tswarthog wrote...
Easy thing to do is just overclock, most motherboards even have programs that come with the board that will do it for you as high as you want your stuff cranked. Just dont be stupid and know your internal temp and have appropriate cooling. Then go into your graphics card control panel and tell it to go fucking crazy and jack everything to the highest of the high for settings in every game. Then enjoy this epicness on a 1080P certified screen.If you know how to do that safely without frying your GPU, then I am fairly sure you are not the target of Nachbars guide. Just because you have a nice interface to OC does not mean you can do it safely
A lot of those programs that are built into the motherboard to OC wont let you go past a certain threshold so people cant sue them for destroying their CPU
Most people who OC do it through the BIOS but for GPUs it's mostly done through a program of some sort...
It's usually a process of trial and error.
If you read the manual the act of OCing voids warranty meaning you can't sue them anyway.
0
tswarthog wrote...
A lot of those programs that are built into the motherboard to OC wont let you go past a certain threshold so people cant sue them for destroying their CPUThe only "program" built into the motherboard is the BIOS and if the board has overclocking capabilities, you can definitely go over the limits and fry your CPU, memory, etc.
If your talking about any software that came with the board to be used in Windows then I can agree on it being easy to do and relatively safe. But just like spectre said, any overclocking WILL void your warranty and you do it at your own risk. Also in order to overclock, the board has to be have the features necessary and you will most likely not find those features on a PC you buy at a store like Walmart which is what my guide is aiming at.
Also, you have to be crazy to sue somebody over a computer thats worth less than the cost of whats required to sue someone. And you will never win as their team of attorneys will always be better than yours. On top of that the software makes you agree that the company will not be held liable for any damage caused to your processor before you are allowed to install it.
0
tswarthog
The Iconoclast
Nachbar wrote...
tswarthog wrote...
A lot of those programs that are built into the motherboard to OC wont let you go past a certain threshold so people cant sue them for destroying their CPUThe only "program" built into the motherboard is the BIOS and if the board has overclocking capabilities, you can definitely go over the limits and fry your CPU, memory, etc.
If your talking about any software that came with the board to be used in Windows then I can agree on it being easy to do and relatively safe. But just like spectre said, any overclocking WILL void your warranty and you do it at your own risk. Also in order to overclock, the board has to be have the features necessary and you will most likely not find those features on a PC you buy at a store like Walmart which is what my guide is aiming at.
Also, you have to be crazy to sue somebody over a computer thats worth less than the cost of whats required to sue someone. And you will never win as their team of attorneys will always be better than yours. On top of that the software makes you agree that the company will not be held liable for any damage caused to your processor before you are allowed to install it.
THIS IS AMERICA WE SUE OVER NOT BEING INFORMED THAT COFFEE IS HOT!
0
could we by chance get a guild to overclocking? im pretty good with computers but im just a bit scared of touching that perticular subject without guideance
0
There is just so much shit you need to know to overclock and so much time spent simply testing each configuration that you basically don't even want to attempt this unless you are willing to spend an entire weekend on it and are comfortable with possibly fragging your motherboard and anything connected to it. Better cooling for your system is a must and water cooling is preferred. Also having a good PSU is a good idea as well.
http://www.overclockers.com/ is a good place for learning how to do any overclocking and I highly suggest you check out the forums. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-overclock-t11177.html is an extremely awesome guide on how to overclock and you should read it.
Anyways here is my rundown on overclocking your motherboard:
Each motherboard is different and overclocking an AMD is different from overclocking an Intel, though the principle is the same. Basically the bus speed x the divider on the processor = processor speed. RAM also has a divider as well which is more variable than the processor's so you can customize it more. By default your divider should be set to its highest so all you can change is the bus speed. But by doing that you also raise the speed of every component in the computer, like RAM. Because RAM and your processor are generally the only things you'll want to overclock, you find the max speed of both that your computer will handle before errors start appearing/your computer overheats. Also if you raise the bus speed your HT will go over its limit and you will have errors also.
For figuring out the max speed of the processor, you take the RAM and HT out of the equation by putting the RAMs divider as low as possible and the HT 1 notch lower than the default then you raise the bus speed while keeping the CPU's divider as high as it can go. Only go up in like increments of 10 and after each increment use prime95's benchmark for a few hours and see if you get any erros. As your doing this use a temperature monitoring tool like speedfan and monitor your temps. If no errors then go up some another increment of 10. Keep repeating til you get errors then try raising the voltage on the processors slightly and try again. Keep this up until you hit your max where you can't get any faster without your processor turning into a frying pan. (80+ C) Do the same to the RAM but the opposite with the dividers, (low CPU, high RAM, ) and instead use a tool called memtest86+ to check for errors. Higher quality RAM with higher speeds help a lot as you don't have to use a lower divider to get your CPU higher, thus keeping a 1:1 ratio which is highly preferred.
Once you have those numbers its a matter of figuring out the best combination without going over the limit. Also you have to watch out for your hypertransport multi and can't have that going over its limit which with a socket939 board is 1000 (bus x multi here as well). This is only my knowledge with overclocking an old socket 939 AMD board so some things will be different for you. You can also use a number of other different programs to test your stuff/monitor your temps as well but these are what I used.
I'll just toss this under the advanced section for people with gaming rigs since I took the time to explain what I know.
http://www.overclockers.com/ is a good place for learning how to do any overclocking and I highly suggest you check out the forums. http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-overclock-t11177.html is an extremely awesome guide on how to overclock and you should read it.
Anyways here is my rundown on overclocking your motherboard:
Each motherboard is different and overclocking an AMD is different from overclocking an Intel, though the principle is the same. Basically the bus speed x the divider on the processor = processor speed. RAM also has a divider as well which is more variable than the processor's so you can customize it more. By default your divider should be set to its highest so all you can change is the bus speed. But by doing that you also raise the speed of every component in the computer, like RAM. Because RAM and your processor are generally the only things you'll want to overclock, you find the max speed of both that your computer will handle before errors start appearing/your computer overheats. Also if you raise the bus speed your HT will go over its limit and you will have errors also.
For figuring out the max speed of the processor, you take the RAM and HT out of the equation by putting the RAMs divider as low as possible and the HT 1 notch lower than the default then you raise the bus speed while keeping the CPU's divider as high as it can go. Only go up in like increments of 10 and after each increment use prime95's benchmark for a few hours and see if you get any erros. As your doing this use a temperature monitoring tool like speedfan and monitor your temps. If no errors then go up some another increment of 10. Keep repeating til you get errors then try raising the voltage on the processors slightly and try again. Keep this up until you hit your max where you can't get any faster without your processor turning into a frying pan. (80+ C) Do the same to the RAM but the opposite with the dividers, (low CPU, high RAM, ) and instead use a tool called memtest86+ to check for errors. Higher quality RAM with higher speeds help a lot as you don't have to use a lower divider to get your CPU higher, thus keeping a 1:1 ratio which is highly preferred.
Once you have those numbers its a matter of figuring out the best combination without going over the limit. Also you have to watch out for your hypertransport multi and can't have that going over its limit which with a socket939 board is 1000 (bus x multi here as well). This is only my knowledge with overclocking an old socket 939 AMD board so some things will be different for you. You can also use a number of other different programs to test your stuff/monitor your temps as well but these are what I used.
I'll just toss this under the advanced section for people with gaming rigs since I took the time to explain what I know.
