Product Description

Overclocking has a long tradition: It became popular in the PC mainstream as different speed grades were introduced for platforms, processors and memory over time. As components offered hardware or software options to tweak the required parameters, people all over the world started to tune their systems. They bumped up the system speed to overclock both the processor and the platform, and even graphics processors weren't spared. Anything that is clock-based can technically be overclocked - including the main memory. Overclocking is free of cost, as you simply run your existing hardware above the specified speed. Usually, this results in performance that equals what you would get from far more expensive components. But today, overclocking isn't just the most effective way to reach higher performance anymore. It has created new market segments for high-end hardware, similar to what you can find on the car tuning market. There are overclocking contests, and the fastest PCs are based on highly overclocked hardware today! Many manufacturers couldn't resist overclocking their products for the questionable purpose of winning awards of comparative reviews and roundups. A good example is motherboards: If you raise the system speed by as little as 1%, your product will beat its competitors that run at standard settings. Luckily, the tendency of cheating by factory-overclocking has transformed into the creation of products that are particularly designed for overclocking. In the graphics space, companies such as Gainward became popular by offering factory-overclocked products such as the so-called Golden Sample series. Different from former approaches, the vendors offer their standard warranties for these products - although the components used run considerably above the hardware spec. Motherboard manufacturers fight for awards in highest overclocking spheres nowadays, since there is virtually no performance differentiation at default speeds.