Overclocking PC - Does It Help With Encode Time?

[ripburnlearn]

I've been thinking about OCing my computer to make my encodes (hopefully) go faster but I was wondering if anyone else here can speak from experience. If I bump up my 3.2GHz quad core to a 3.6-3.8GHz CPU do you think it would be worth it to make my encodes on BD-Rebuilder faster?

I've got the aftermarket cooler and my specs are high, but they could go higher. :D

[Ch3vr0n]

the chances of speed increase outweigh the riscs. x264 may be tiny but its extremely sensitive and system demanding. Overclocking has been tried and proven to be a big factor in x264 crashing while using BD-Rebuilder. If you overclock, don't come crying to jdobbs thats x264 crashes

[RobertM]

do you think it would be worth it to make my encodes on BD-Rebuilder faster

Sure it will reduce your re-encode times. And it will increase your core temps. If you overclock too much your system will overhead and shut down, causing you to lose whatever re-encode job is in process, and you'll have to start again. At best you are only talking about speeding it up 10% or so, and your disc read/write times will not be changed, so the overall encode time reduction would likely not be too great.

You can go ahead and try it if you want. If worse comes to worst, you just have to slow it down again and re-do your re-encode job. But if it doesn't work, and you want advice on optimizing your OC settings, then this would be the wrong forum.

[jdobbs]

Sure it will reduce your re-encode times. And it will increase your core temps. If you overclock too much your system will overhead and shut down, causing you to lose whatever re-encode job is in process, and you'll have to start again. At best you are only talking about speeding it up 10% or so, and your disc read/write times will not be changed, so the overall encode time reduction would likely not be too great.

You can go ahead and try it if you want. If worse comes to worst, you just have to slow it down again and re-do your re-encode job. But if it doesn't work, and you want advice on optimizing your OC settings, then this would be the wrong forum. Another thing to watch is the Windows 7 ACPI processor control functions. It will automatically lower the power to your processor when it hits a certain temperature. You don't even know it's happening unless you're monitoring processor power (with something like CPUID Hardware monitor). When that happens you actually get lower overall processing power than if you just left the processor at default. Overclocking pretty much always requires additional cooling or it can be counterproductive.

I get lots of reports in spring and summer of X264 crashing because of the higher ambient temperatures. When I tell people it is their overclocking -- they get all defensive and tell me about how they ran Prime95 or how everything else runs ok. They then typically get angry and tell me BD-RB is the real problem and I'm unwilling to accept their obvious bug report. The fact is that nothing you can run compares to the test your processor goes through with X264. There are too many "experts" out there that believe they know a whole lot more than they actually do. Reading an article at "overclock.com" doesn't make anyone a genius. All I can do is shake my head, throw up my hands, and go on to the next report.

That doesn't mean I don't overclock (I do), but you have to know what you're doing and do it right. You also have to not hesitate to assume it is the overclocking first if you ever run into any issues.

[ripburnlearn]

I get lots of reports in spring and summer of X264 crashing because of the higher ambient temperatures.This is actually one of the biggest reasons holding me back from OCing my computer right now. Days are getting hotter and I don't know if I can take the heat (10 hours and more CPU heat = a very hot room for me).

Thanks guys for replying there are some good points here.

I also have another question and rather than make a new thread I mind as well ask it here. Does anyone have an opinion on Nvidia's CUDA encoding?

[burfadel]

Overclocking can definitely be a good help, however be wary of what some others try to claim. Some people have 50 percent or higher overclocks, which as you can imagine isn't a good thing! Realistically, as long as you keep the memory speeds etc in check, a realistic overclock is between 10 and 33 percent or so with temperature at 100 percent load a key factor, although that also depends on the architecture. For most processors though, 10 percent is safe, and if it overheats at 10 percent then it is probably running too hot even at stock :)

[AnonCrow]

With an only 10% overclock, the best aftermarket forced-air coolers are more than capable at keeping the cpu cooler at full load than the stock cooler at stock speed - if you don't mind the roar of the fans (which means two or even three 120/140mm fans for the cpu cooler alone, and case fans on top of that). Water-based cooling is probably beyond the scope of your question.
Of course, everything depends on your individual CPU and how well it happens to overclock - it might only go to 3.5GHz , no matter how much you increase the voltage, or it might easily do 4.0+GHz even with lower-than-stock voltages.