I was told overclocking is bad for the computer and that I shouldnt do it. I was told that if I have a good video card and ram there is no reason to oc. (right now I have a gtx 570 and 8gb of ram) but isnt overclocking necessary to run fsx at high settings? Right now Im @4.7ghz with 1.44v is this ok?

I'd try descending below 1.4 volts. I'm running 4.6 @ 1.35v on my 2600k

While there's always a risk present when overclocking any hardware, it's generally very safe as long as you know what you're doing and stay within reasonable voltages and temperatures. I've been overclocking my processors for over ten years, and have yet to damage one (well aside from the ones I've deliberately pushed to breaking point).I assume you're on a sandybridge chip? 1.44 is probably a bit on the high side for 4.7, but really nobody knows what these chips can take yet as they've not been around for long enough. If you can get stable on under 1.4 at >4.6 then that's where I'd personally run things for the time being.

I always stay on the safe limit with OC. I have an i7 950 3.05Ghz and have it at 4Ghz. I could run it at 4.2Ghz, but to be honest I was pushing the voltage to it's max and for the little improvement in performance I didn't belive it was worth it. So I now run it a little slower, albeit almost insignificantly, but a large drop in required voltage. I feel happier doing it that way!

there is always a risk in overclocking, but to run fsx and to enjoy it you have to be around 4.0ghz. with overclocking you bring in higher voltages, higher temps, thus the possibility of overheating and shortening the life of your chip. Take for example I had a 975 never could get over 4.0, in return the company that I bought my computerfrom gave me a 980x and now I am safely overclocked at 4.4ghz. with voltage reading at 1.376. Unfortunately for me with this chip IfI treid to go over to 4,5 my volate reading read over at least 1.43 so its not going to make a difference so you have no when to stop pushing the envelope. .......also when overclocking which can take some time its not jjust abc, you must run some stress test to see if your computer is stable, like occt, linux, and prime 95, if you pass these tests with your current setting, you can feel pretty safe.

I was told overclocking is bad for the computer and that I shouldnt do it. I was told that if I have a good video card and ram there is no reason to oc. (right now I have a gtx 570 and 8gb of ram) but isnt overclocking necessary to run fsx at high settings? Right now Im @4.7ghz with 1.44v is this ok?

There is a lot of truth to what you were told. The pure correct answer is overclocking is absolutely bad for your computer at any level of voltage or temperature. In pure form, a good CPU, RAM, GPU should be enough.Overclocking is an art of assumed risk. The more risk that you are willing to assume will in some part determine how high of an overclock you will obtain. An overclock at any level requires some level of risk in the form of, no matter which way you slice it; you are degrading the life of the component. Whether that decrease in PC life is an hour, a week, or a number of years, remains undetermined.I too have overclocked for over ten-years, with no loss or damage to hardware, where that hardware was not able to run to obsolescence.FSX is CPU bound. If you are happy with the performance at stock settings then do not overclock. If you cannot stand FSX in standard settings then your only option is to overclock.There are no real experts when it comes to overclocking that I have encountered in all of my forum readings. I have never encountered (validated)a professional computer electronics engineer that was offering: sound and definitive overclocking advice. I have read countless web based reviews with lots of pretty pictures and well-chosen articulate words that would lead the un-expecting into believing the author expert. More times than not I have disproved that experts statements by specification or later reports that "I cannot get my computer to boot, what happened." or my computer un-expectantly shuts down." Overclocking is an art, there are no rules books. It is exceeding the manufacturer’s limits of design.Watch your voltage and temps if choosing to overclock.

I have only one rule and one rule only about overclocking and here it is..."If you can't afford to overclock don't"

I have only one rule and one rule only about overclocking and here it is..."If you can't afford to overclock don't"

Good advice from the man himself who actually talked me through every aspect of my OC and for that I am most grateful Alain :Applause:

Good advice from the man himself who actually talked me through every aspect of my OC and for that I am most grateful Alain :Applause:

Hey old friend, how are you doing?

Hey old friend, how are you doing?

Hi Matey, sure OK, we miss you over on the Orbx forum, it's a shame we can't entice you back, although I do remember you showing your face a few weeks back. My OC, or should I say your OC, has been running well. The only thing I did was to drop it back from 4.2 to 4Ghz as the voltage was very near to the recommended max and to be honest the performance gain from 4 to 4.2 was so small I didn't think it was worth it. The only thing I would like to do is concentrate on the micro stutters that I encounter, although small, I guess I'm with lots of other guys too. I've played around with every conceiveable tweak in the cfg and fsx sliders and sincerely believe it is about as smooth as I can get it from that angle. I am wondering whether there may be some timing issues going on somewhere in the bios. Although to be honest I shouldn't think so 'cos you made a stirling job of things :Applause:

We all have to deal with micro stutters from time to time, that's the way FSX run unless you want to fly with all sliders to the left but who want to do that..FSX will get better only with faster CPU and better hardware unless we get a little something for FSX from MS when they release Flight.....:Straight Face: I'm glad to know that you'r enjoying FSX better than before.

We all have to deal with micro stutters from time to time, that's the way FSX run unless you want to fly with all sliders to the left but who want to do that..FSX will get better only with faster CPU and better hardware unless we get a little something for FSX from MS when they release Flight..... I'm glad to know that you'r enjoying FSX better than before.

Cheers Alain, have a Bud on me

Have read (and heard... probably urban legend), that the life of a typical CPU is 10 years, and that overclocking can cut the lifespan up to 50%. Well, I've never used a chip longer than 5 years so I'm not too concerned. Have my Sandy at 4.8Ghz at 1.40v (just did a bump up today), as I have a lot of stuff running at once. Got my AMD 6-core running at 4.3GHz. Both have good temps so not worried. So I would try notching yours down a bit until FSX becomes unstable then notch up one from that. Clutch

None of us are going to have our current chips in 10 years (at least running them, of course I'd conduct a proper burial ). So I'd say that even with some integrity lost from the chip, it's still worth it to overclock.

None of us are going to have our current chips in 10 years (at least running them, of course I'd conduct a proper burial ). So I'd say that even with some integrity lost from the chip, it's still worth it to overclock.

Absolutely, if anyone is any kind of serious simmer then the quality and performance that will be demanded from secenry and aircraft design in ten years time will dictate the inclusion of the latest CPU, as it does more or less at the moment. I can't see many guys currently running CPUs that are ten years old to run the latest hi end sceneries and aircraft