What is overclocking? and how do I do it?

[Piccolo00]

I've heard it assosciated with graphics cards, but I don't know what it does or how to do it.

[Telexen]

It's not just with graphics cards, but CPUs and RAM also (primarily).

Overclocking is making the device or component faster than it really is. CPUs and Video Cards have Clock Speeds...this is the Megahertz or Gigahertz rating.

You increase the megahertz rating on a CPU *usually* by increasing the system bus associated with it...on recent CPUs, this is 100mhz, 133mhz, 166mhz, and 200mhz depending on your processor. This system bus speeds are multiplied by what's called a Multiplier. This is also dependant on the CPU. As an example, an AMD AthlonXP 2500+ is running at 1.83ghz, which is equal to 1830mhz. The 1830mhz is achieved by having a system bus of 166mhz, and a multiplier of 11 (166x11=1830). Most CPUs have their multiplier locked, so you can't change them, but especially the latest Athlon XPs have been unlocked, so you can adjust not only the system bus, but the multiplier. You can do this in your system's BIOS or with jumpers on your motherboard (if the board supports it, prebuilt computers from such companies as Dell, HP, or Compaq will not have this feature)

[tony_j15]

To overclock your videocard, all you have to do is buy Powerstrip. Then tweak the settings onscreen. That easy.

depends on the video card. if its nvidia they have there own free overclocking utility

[dlh75]

Make sure you have good cooling in your case. As overclocking will cause the temps to rise.

[wackoguy]

what card do u have, use rivatuner for a geforce or rage3d for a radeon, theyre both free

[Micro Bean]

If you want to know what is overclocking you can read this

What is Overclocking?