Looking back at the following old computers from 14 years ago, I look at my silicone 8700K that is so hot when running a full-core 5GHz, and I feel that these days are really unforgiving, and it is almost the end of overclocking games.

This content comes from @WHAT IS WORTH BUYING SMZDM.COM｜Author: Dongchen tony

Creative position statement: Tony's daily PC routine

Overclocking: A required course for DIYers

The author's CPU overclocking history since the first AMD K6 in 1999- 2 266 computers have been around for more than 20 years. Over the past 20 years, large and small have experienced several rounds of DIY crazes. Indispensable is the excitement of the Celeron 300A era. It is impossible to avoid the crazy 150MHz FSB of the iron-cased Tualatin , let alone the Barton 2500. + AMD of the era Yes!

Looking back at the following old computers from 14 years ago

Now, looking at my silicone 8700K that is so hot when running a full-core 5GHz, I feel that these days are really unforgiving, and it is almost dusk for overclocking games.

Taking the i7-8700K as an example, from all-core 4.3GHz to all-core 5GHz, the overclocking range is only 116.28%. In the overclocking era 20 years ago, this was almost equivalent to the ridiculed "Thunder-Thunder" scumbag. When it comes to the fun of PC DIY players, especially OCers, in the early years, you simply can’t appreciate it~

Take a few minutes and let’s review those amazing overclocking gods from many years ago~

1989~The previous CPU overclocking kings in 2011

and below In order of timeline, we will introduce the CPU overclocking gods that have appeared in history:

1989: Intel i486DX33

• Clock frequency : 33MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 66MHz
• Overclocking amplitude: 200%

You read that right, as early as the 486 era, CPU overclocking It has become a cool operation in the hands of DIYers

Summary: i486DX-33 is recognized as the originator of overclocking king in the PC circle, and is used with ASUS (yes, the earliest overclocking king motherboard has ASUS, and others include Golden Eagle, Ocean, etc.) The frequency jumper on the 486 motherboard changes from 33 to 66, jumping two levels in a row! A 200% overclocking range is equivalent to a full-core 8.6GHz i7-8700K. Isn’t it too scary to think about it?

1994: Intel Pentium 75MHz

• clock frequency: 75MHz
• overclocking frequency: 133MHz
• overclocking amplitude: 177%

P75 is strictly the second generation Pentium processor (note that it is not Pentium II, this is just a trademark)

summary: Published in 1994 The second-generation Pentium processor released in March 2019 fully utilized the advantages of the 350nm process. Different from the ignorant period of i486DX, this is an era when Intel is spraying toothpaste like crazy. Almost every Pentium processor can set the multiplier, FSB, and 75MHz processor at will through the jumpers on the i430 chipset motherboard. It can easily run at 100MHz, and with an excellent motherboard it can reach 120~133MHz.

1998: AMD K6-2 266MHz

• Clock frequency: 266MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 400MHz
• Overclocking range: 150%

I finally saw the CPU used in my first computer! Full of emotions ~

Summary: AMD in the K6-2 era is a bit like Zen+ in the 12nm era. The improvement of manufacturing technology has allowed AMD processors to gradually move from being an unknown candidate to the forefront. This CPU, produced using a 250nm manufacturing process, uses a very advanced packaging design process and is extremely overclockable. The most basic way to play

is to jump the multiplier to 5.5x66MHz FSB and transform into K6-2 350. If you have a high-end MVP3 overclocking motherboard, you can challenge the top FSB of the year of 100MHz, and then multiply it by x4 to get one K6-2 400MHz processor! The author's rubbish Tongdimensional motherboard back then could only reach K6-2 350, which was not very stable, which was a pity╮(╯▽╰)╭

However, the shortcomings of the K6-2 processor are also obvious. It does not have a secondary level. Cache, so in front of the next player...

August 24, 1998: Intel Celeron 300A

• Clock frequency: 300MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 603MHz (liquid nitrogen)
• Overclocking amplitude: 201%

No need to introduce more, right?

If the 200% overclocking range of i486DX33 is achieved on the basis of too low clock frequency, then this summer nine years later, Intel used a cheap processor costing more than 400 yuan to set off a completely different situation. Zen2 DIY craze in 2019.

The "A" suffix of the Celeron 300A means that it is a processor with its own second-level cache (the previous Celeron-free A series castrated the second-level cache to draw a clear performance boundary with the latest Pentium II processor) High performance processor. And its "basic operation" at that time was to jump directly to 100 from the 66MHz FSB, and what you got was a 450MHz "quasi-Pentium II 400". You know, the price of the Ben 2-400 back then was close to 1,800 yuan, and the price of the former was even less than 1/4 of that. Summary of

: The overclocking range of this CPU for advanced users is 500MHz~603MHz. The latter number is achieved based on the assistance of liquid nitrogen. A CPU with excellent physique is matched with a high-performance overclocking motherboard (such as ABIT and Mei of the year). Czech , ASUS, Diamond and other 440BX chipset motherboards), 500MHz are basically achievable levels. It can be said that Celeron 300A has saved Intel's reputation for at least 5 years, and also established an indestructible monument for the DIY trend that started in the early 21st century.

2002: Tualatin Celeron 1GHz

• Clock frequency: 1000MHz
• Overclock frequency: 1500MHz
• Overclocking amplitude: 150%

Multiplier lock, the end of the Celeron glory era

Summary: Tualatin is another indelible mark in DIY history, the largest PC in the country One of the circles is "Picture Bar". The ultimate " Pentium 3" with a process upgrade to 130nm and doubled L2 cache, coupled with the equally excellent Intel 815ETP overclocking motherboard of the year, can easily run on a 150MHz FSB. 1.5GHz meant smoothness in 2002 So smooth. The author also sold the AMD Duron 600 and Meta KT133 motherboards during the summer vacation of 2002, and replaced them with this beautiful thumbtack, which I continued to use until 2004.

Before going to the next article, let me insert a digression from the author:

From 300MHz in 1998 to 1500MHz in 2002, in just 4 years, the main frequency of the CPU we have has increased five times! Looking back from 2016 to today, the main frequency has indeed hovered between 4 and 5 GHz for too long. Fortunately, thanks to improvements in manufacturing technology, our mainstream CPUs have slowly changed from 2 to 4 cores to today's 6 to 8 cores or even 12 to 16 cores. This is an improvement that was unimaginable 20 years ago. Bar.

2003: AMD Barton 2500+

• clock frequency: 1833MHz
• overclocking frequency: 2810MHz
• overclocking amplitude: 153%

The author overclocked it to 2.5GHz (12.5x200MHz) on ASRock and ABIT motherboards.

Summary: Duron 600 is Socket462 The slot established a good reputation as an overclocking expert, which has continued to the Barton 2500+. It is also a turning point in the Athlon era. The SocketA (462pin) interface created in 2000 has been used dutifully until 2005, so changing the U without changing the slot is really a fine tradition of AMD! It was not until the advent of the Athlon 64 era of the Socket754 interface that non-64-bit processors came to an end.

Barton 2500+ represents the last stubbornness of AMD in the old CPU era before the advent of 64-bit: it was overclocked to 2.3GHz, easily destroying the Pentium4 2.8C, and overclocked to 2.8GHz, it had almost no rivals at the time, except for. .. ...

003: Intel Pentium4 2.4C

• Clock frequency: 2400MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 3600MHz
• Overclocking amplitude: 150%

Pentium 4 2.4C was a very "perfect" processor at that time, with a balance of temperature + performance + hyper-threading Summary on behalf of

: How should I describe the status of the Pentium 4 2.4C processor in 2004~ It is similar to today's i5-9400F. It is the last generation product of Intel's 130nm process, but its low temperature, strong performance, and high stability are almost perfect. If I remember correctly, the price of this processor in 2004 was around 850 to 950 yuan. Even if it was not overclocked, it could smoothly play almost all the mainstream game masterpieces of that year. Not all CPUs can achieve the overclocking range of

.6GHz, but the most conservative overclocking range back then was 3.2GHz. However, the heat generated by this frequency is a little uncomfortable, and the 3.2GHz Pentium4 C can only barely compete with the 2.8GHz Barton.

In November 2004, this CPU was discontinued, and Intel officially entered the 64-bit computing era.

August 2005: Pentium4 670

• Clock frequency: 3800MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 7000MHz (liquid nitrogen)
• Overclocking amplitude: 184%

N0 version stepped into 7GHz in the 2005 overclocking competition. Jie: What is the concept of 7GHz? It was still 2005 ~ However, Intel soon entered the dual-core era, and the "old world" of single-core high-frequency was about to come to an end.

2006: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

• clock frequency: 2400MHz
• overclocking frequency: 4000MHz (liquid cooling)
• overclocking amplitude: 166%

Core dual-core era has arrived, and the positioning of E6600 was very similar to today's 9600KF

Summary: Core architecture finally debuts, Pentium The era of high frequency, low energy and high energy consumption has finally been concluded. However, I am used to using Pentium processors that often run at 3 to 4 GHz, and the 2.4 GHz Core Duo processor is obviously difficult to satisfy the appetite of gamers back then. Therefore, it is a piece of cake to just go to 3.2GHz, and it is not uncommon to go as high as 4GHz. According to the dual-core x2 idea of ​​the year, this is equivalent to an 8GHz processor~

007: Intel Pentium E2160

• Clock frequency: 1800MHz
• Overclocking frequency: 3500MHz
• Overclocking amplitude: 194%

After the dual-core era started, the clock frequency "sucked toothpaste" significantly. "

Summary: The Pentium E2000 series dual-core processors are also derived from the Core architecture, so they have good potential in terms of overall performance. The only drawback is still the same as the Core 2E6600 above: the clock frequency is too low!

Therefore, the overclocking potential that has been exerted on the E6600 is also valid for the E2140 and 2160. This very cheap dual-core CPU back then could be overclocked from 1.8GHz to as high as 3.5GHz, with an overclocking range of an astonishing 194%, almost replicating the glory of the Celeron 300A era!

2008: Intel Corei i7-920

• clock frequency: 2666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666, mighty 4

  

  Costa Rica packaged quad-core Core i7-920 processor

  Summary: Finally, the first-generation i7 quad-core shining appeared. As the audiophile-grade LGA1366 interface product of the year, it was positioned in the 2,000 to 3,000 yuan range. The basic frequency of 2.66GHz is obviously too conservative for the 45nm manufacturing process. High-end players would choose the D0 version of the i7 920 that was overclocked to a maximum of 4.2GHz. If I guess correctly, to this day, there are still many users of the first-generation i7-920 who stick to the LGA1366 platform.

  2011: Intel Core i5 2500K

  • clock frequency: 3300MHz
  • overclocking frequency: 5000MHz
  • overclocking amplitude: 151%

  

  Finally ushered in the "modern history of CPU", the i5-2500K in the SNB era made its debut

  Summary: Author Still there until last summer Using the Gigabyte Z77+i5-2500 processor, after turning on the quadruple frequency, the main frequency reaches 4GHz. With the cooperation of the graphics card, it can still run most games and applications. For the unlocked multiplier version of i5-2500K with "K", the story is even more different~

  i5-2500K and the contemporary i7-2700K both have 5GHz overclocking potential, and the full-core 4.5GHz is even more Basic operations not worth mentioning. With the support of motherboards, power supplies and other accessories, the full-core 5GHz i5-2500K and 2600K are still capable of playing ruthless games today. The only uncomfortable thing is that the instruction set versions such as AVX are lagging behind, making them unable to keep up with today's new architecture products in terms of execution efficiency.

  * Note: Among the 65nm process antique CPUs launched in 2006, there is one with an overclocking range that beats all the overclocking kings above. The answer can be found at the end of the article (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

  Summary

  The story after 2011 will not be I have written more, after all, since that year, Intel has completely launched a toothpaste strategy based on its far leading technology, and AMD has also entered a long dark period.Even if there is an AMD FX-8150 that can reach 8.429GHz in the future, it can only complete this "numbers game" by turning on dual-core and dual-threading:

  

  On August 31, 2011, the Team AMD FX team completed the 8.429GHz overclocking record

  

  However, in order to achieve higher frequencies, this 8-core processor can only block out 6 cores to complete the overclocking test

  After the first i5-2500K was overclocked to all-core 5GHz in 2011, in 9 years, the all-core 5GHz They are all Intel's invisible barriers to the default frequency, which are difficult to overcome easily. It was not realized until the i9-9900KS at the end of 2019. Although the hardcore OC community has not stopped overclocking new processors, this behavior has changed from a daily operation of ordinary players to a rare "minority report" in the news:

  

  will 12 cores, base frequency Overclocking the 3.8GHz Ryzen9 3900X to full-core 5.6GHz requires liquid nitrogen

  And it seems difficult for a new CPU to win the global overclocking world record rankings:

  

  The global CPU overclocking record rankings are all old The old CPU can carry

  AMD FX-8370 above 8GHz with a clock frequency of 8.7228GHz. Among the top 10 overclocking list, is a Celeron D352 processor using an ancient 65nm manufacturing process, relying on a default frequency of 3.2GHz and 8.5437 With an overclocking frequency of GHz and an overclocking range of 267%, it has become the well-deserved overclocking king:

  

  In 2006, the Celeron D352 was a civilian Ferrari-level overclocking god U that could easily reach 5GHz!

  The history of CPU overclocking continues to this day, more than 30 years ago. From i486DX33 and Celeron 300A to today’s i7-9700K and Ryzen9 3900X, countless OverClockers have followed this path one after another, burning money, energy, youth, and desire, just to witness the tiny historical moments created by themselves. .

  Perhaps, we are not overclocking, but trying to surpass our ordinary selves~ What do you think?

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  Thanks for reading this article, I look forward to your likes and attention. See you in the next issueヾ(•ω•`)o~