Is AMD automatic overclock safe?

[Rafeiro]

I'm doing automatic overclocking in AMD catalyst control center and I just want to know if it's safe

[Ad Hominem]

Yes. It's usually also very pedestrian as far as overclocks go, but it will depend on your motherboard too.

For example, a friend of mine has an MSI board with an FX-8350. Stock clock is 4.0Ghz. Most people can reach 4.5 without even touching the voltage. The auto OC only put it up to 4.3 if I remember right.

The thing that becomes unsafe about overclocking is the heat. Normally when you OC you get to a point where the chip becomes unstable. Usually at that point you will have to increase your voltage. Increasing the voltage will fix the stability but will create more heat. Too much heat kills chips (under normal circumstances, obviously if you static shock your chip you can kill it from that alone because a static shock is thousands of volts, but that's a different situation). That is why extreme overclockers will go to great lengths to cool their parts. Everything from liquid cooling to dry ice, or even liquid nitrogen.

If you want to try it out, it should be completely harmless, and let you get a little extra horsepower from your CPU. If you want to be extra sure, look up the max safe temperature for your particular CPU, and use a program like HWmonitor or Afterburner to monitor your temps under the most demanding tasks. As long as you stay below that max temp, you're golden, which you almost certainly will.

Even if you go above it by a little you're still pretty much fine. This is because chips have built in protection these days from over-temperature. They will reduce their own speed in an attempt to cool off a bit. This is known as thermal throttling, and is a safety measure so your chips don't fry themselves.

[Dumpster Player]

yeah it's safe

[Revelene]

Safe, yeah. Efficient, no.

You'll most likely end up with a weak, unstable overclock and excess heat. Just overclock manually in the BIOS and have a better overclock with lower thermals. It isn't hard to overclock.

[Ad Hominem]

Originally posted by Revelene:

Safe, yeah. Efficient, no.

You'll most likely end up with a weak, unstable overclock and excess heat. Just overclock manually in the BIOS and have a better overclock with lower thermals. It isn't hard to overclock.

I haven't found that the auto OC have ever been unstable, at least in my experience. They are pretty conservative though. Doing it manually will generally let you get more out of the OC, but you pay for that in time learning how to do it and actually testing clocks. I can see the draw of a one button OC. Does AMD have an all core boost like I have on my 8700?

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Originally posted by Revelene:

Safe, yeah. Efficient, no.

You'll most likely end up with a weak, unstable overclock and excess heat. Just overclock manually in the BIOS and have a better overclock with lower thermals. It isn't hard to overclock.

I haven't found that the auto OC have ever been unstable, at least in my experience. They are pretty conservative though. Doing it manually will generally let you get more out of the OC, but you pay for that in time learning how to do it and actually testing clocks. I can see the draw of a one button OC. Does AMD have an all core boost like I have on my 8700?

Run them though a true CPU stress test and they tend to quickly show instability, typically due to throttle. They may tend to be conservative with the clocks, but they are excessive with the voltage. It only runs them through a low power quick test that doesn't really test much.

It isn't hard to overclock. It is super simple, as most motherboards these days literally make this process so much easier than it was back in the day.

[Ad Hominem]

Originally posted by Revelene:

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

I haven't found that the auto OC have ever been unstable, at least in my experience. They are pretty conservative though. Doing it manually will generally let you get more out of the OC, but you pay for that in time learning how to do it and actually testing clocks. I can see the draw of a one button OC. Does AMD have an all core boost like I have on my 8700?

Run them though a true CPU stress test and they tend to quickly show instability, typically due to throttle. They may tend to be conservative with the clocks, but they are excessive with the voltage. It only runs them through a low power quick test that doesn't really test much.

It isn't hard to overclock. It is super simple, as most motherboards these days literally make this process so much easier than it was back in the day.

So its pretty much just unstable if your cooling isn't adequate. I'm sure it depends on the motherboard, as different board manufacturers will set it up differently.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Ad Hominem:

Originally posted by Revelene:

Run them though a true CPU stress test and they tend to quickly show instability, typically due to throttle. They may tend to be conservative with the clocks, but they are excessive with the voltage. It only runs them through a low power quick test that doesn't really test much.

It isn't hard to overclock. It is super simple, as most motherboards these days literally make this process so much easier than it was back in the day.

So its pretty much just unstable if your cooling isn't adequate. I'm sure it depends on the motherboard, as different board manufacturers will set it up differently.

Cooling is obviously an important factor, but any consumer cooling can be overwhelmed with how these auto OC programs typically set voltage.

I've seen automatic OC on all major manufacturers across many boards... It is the same story, whether it is via program or in BIOS, these auto oc all are excessive with the voltage.

Put any auto OC through Prime95 or AIDA64 and you'll quickly see why auto OC isn't recommended.

Change clocks, set a constant voltage, and test. Adjust as needed. Seriously, manually overclocking is easy. If you can use a computer, you can OC too.