Question regarding Overclocking.

With an AMD Phenom 9600 2.3GHz Quad-Core and a stock fan on it... would it be safe to OC to say 2.8GHz?

Also what is the max you should let your CPU get to (in Celsius please).

To be honest it's probably not worth oc'ing to 2.8Ghz just for Arma 2. You'd probably only get about a 1 frames per second increase :S

I'd put on hold any oc'ing, or upgrades especially for arma 2, and just wait to see what the next patch will bring - performance wise.

Rule of thumb regarding intel CPU's is maxtemp - 10 degrees (°C).

Intel has a nifty spec finder on its page where one can enter some details about the processor and get some more.

Maybe AMD has something similar?

Else - I think there are pretty many OC guides around. I think you better read tthem and ask your questions there. I suppose they'll give you more and more precise answers than you'll get here ;)

Also, it could help to know your native language. I know one or two maybe helpful guides in german. But if you can't read german at all theres no sense in posting the links ;)

Rule of thumb regarding intel CPU's is maxtemp - 10 degrees (°C).

^^ Who's rule of thumb is that!?! Whoa! :confused: I wouldn't be running my cpu at 90C unless I was trying to make a cup of coffee or cook some eggs.

As for overclocking effects, it all depends on what your GPU is like? What are you running? To be honest for a 24/7 OC I wouldn't run my CPU too much past mid 70's (priming).

Easiest way is OC it, run some tests and see if the performance gain is worth the OC.

I wonder what CPU you gut that doesn't got killed by any temps well below over 80° ^^

For Intel-users: http://processorfinder.intel.com/Default.aspx

Find out what your maximum temperature for your CPU is, subtract 10 degrees and you'll be fine (no warranty for any damage, though, ofc).

Mayhap that rule written above was kind of useless without writing that you gotta look up your CPU's specific temp beforehand.

To answer your question, Frag: I read this rule in several overclocker's guides and until now I'm - that is my CPU - am/is doing fine.

Maximum temp according to spec finder is around 73°C, OC'd and under Prime I got around 62°.

GunnDawg,

There is no doubt that Arma 2 does respond well to a bit of extra horsepower, so any significant overclock if stable should be worthwhile. As to whether your Phenom will comfortably reach 2.8 GHz you'll have to find out for yourself. Even chips from the same wafer of silicon can have very different overclocking limits.

Excess temperature and voltage can shorten the life of any processor, but unless you are really pushing things not by enough to matter as you're likely to have upgraded by then in any case.

In any case have a look at the relevant overclocking forums for tips and advice. A good place to start would perhaps be xtremesystems.org in the AMD section.

Have fun!

P

To answer your question, Frag: I read this rule in several overclocker's guides and until now I'm - that is my CPU - am/is doing fine.

Maximum temp according to spec finder is around 73°C, OC'd and under Prime I got around 62°.

I think you are misunderstanding the Intel Thermal spec, it does not give you max temp as in _limit_ of temp, but rather what temp will be at max TDP.. ie the top of cpu @ full TDP.. enabling OEMs etc to design cooling solutions

"Thermal Specification: The thermal specification shown is the maximum case temperature at the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) value for that processor. It is measured at the geometric center on the topside of the processor integrated heat spreader. For processors without integrated heat spreaders such as mobile processors, the thermal specification is referred to as the junction temperature (Tj). The maximum junction temperature is defined by an activation of the processor Intel® Thermal Monitor. The Intel Thermal Monitor’s automatic mode is used to indicate that the maximum TJ has been reached. "

Which means its the TEMP on cpu top (physically, if you put your finger on it) at the max power draw (TDP). Ie 73C is not your CPU's max temp!

What you need to base max temps on is core temp, and Tjunction or distance to. I honestly don't know about AM2/AM3 cpu's so check in XtremeSystems as suggested above!