Over clocking software
 

Alright i was taught/told that it is much better to oc hardware like ram and the cpu through the bios vs lets say through nvidia software in windows. Is there any difference vs ocing something in windows than doing it in the bios? How does everyone do it here?

I was told the same thing so I do it in the bios.

yea i was just curious because it would way easier to do it in windows than the bios!

I say overclock in BIOS mainly but if you want to squeeze a lil more out of your cpu then use setfsb in windows, if your mobo allows for it. The advantage of doing that is you will be able to squeeze a lil more out due to not having to go thru the boot which causes alot of heat. GPU's you have to use software unless you modify the card.

Definitely use the bios for overclocking your cpu and ram with the only exception being setfsb for that last little bit you are trying to get for a bench. Using setfsb at that point is ok as you are already pushing your system to the very edge of it's capabilities and breakage isn't just a possibility anymore...it's a probability!

If you are looking for a 24/7 cpu+ram overclock then it's bios only! The reasons are simple:

Anytime you overclock, instabilty becomes likely and must be alleviated through testing and bios adjustments. If you just change your clock speed in windows using some ghetto software tool you will not only likely corrupt your os but you will corrrupt the bios as well!


When you alter a bios setting within windows you are assuming that the system is stable to begin with, if the system isn't stable and you adjust your bios this way you run a high risk of corrupting your bios and bricking your board and the os is almost guaranteed to be screwed up. I myself don't even use setfsb as I don't push my hardware to the point of likely failure, If attempting to break a world record....ANYTHING goes!

Video card overclocking has to at least initially be done with software and after testing can be flashed to the card, not all people are comfortable with flashing their cards but I at least am a fan of it. You will get slightly better performance with a flashed overclock due to cpu clocks being freed up and you are no longer relying two pieces of software (driver+oc software) to maintain stability to run your cards.

Thank you for that very informative!!

No problem! As long as you can learn from others mistakes you are way ahead of the game...I learned the hard way.

How hard is it to flash the video cards? I didn't know that could be done.

It's very similar to flashing a motherboard, in my case I had to do it twice for each card: once for each primary gpu and again for each secondary gpu (4870X2's) but for single core cards it is very simple.

Hmmm, might try that if I ever find a high enough stable OC for my 280's.