[Ugmore Baggage]

Realistically, at what temperature does a processor lose the the ability to gain even one more hertz of clock speed?

I assume AMD and Intel users will see different "points of no return"

[Terra Knight]

Lose the ability to gain anymore? Well, if you mean topping out the processor, which means that it's been overclocked to it's highest stable speed, it totally depends on the chip. I'm and AMD user. I run my Duron 1.0Ghz Morgan at 10.5 x 114. That gives me 1197Mhz and my Vcore has been upped. In essence, unless I do alot of cooling and bring up the Vcore more, which makes the CPU really hot, I'm topped out, or caped, at 1197Mhz.

Other Durons, if you check the CPU database. have been overclocked way more. A chip won't lose it's ability to overclock, but it will more than likely fry when it gets to hot. It's like 80*C on an AMD for max, but the more you overclock and you bring up the speed, the hotter things are gonna get, so stability drops. Hope this helped you.

[stool]

There is no definitive number for any brand of chip. Each chip has its own maximum, and the only way to find that point is trial and error. Even with all things being equal(temps, voltage, etc), the same type and speed of chip may not overclock the same. Like Terra Knight said, a check of the CPU database will give you a general range of what certain chips can do.

[Ugmore Baggage]

Perhaps I should re-phrase my question.

Is there any point to keeping your processor under 20 or so degrees celcius I understand it'll fry if it gets too hot, but what is gained by keeping it especially cold?

I can see the value in a vapochill system if your're pouring 50 or so volts through your CPU and the vapochill controls the heat to a balmy 20C. I'm curious about the usefullness of subzero temps.

At what point of actual balanced running core temperature is there no advantage? I assume that there is some advantage because I see so many people with various styles of chiller systems with extremely cold core temps. So extreme overclocks must require extremely cold temperatures, right?

Of course I can see that various chips would have different points of no return, but I'd like to her from owners of chillers, how much of what you're doing is "waste" or "overkill" as measured by pure comparative numerical results? Or do you get a few Mhz per degree? Again, we aren't discussing system btu output, I mean running core temps.

[Istari1]

I did see something a little while back that said at a steady -10 C you would almost always see around a 50% overclock. I've heard this otherpaces also, but I dont know how they got these numbers.

[neo86]

More like -50 degrees. There was an article on fridge cooling which mentioned it.

I have no doubt the p4's will beat out AMD when it come's to overclocking thanks to their horrible efficiency.

Of course it's all relative. A little AMD overclocking goes a long way.

People have cooled their processors to within 50º of absolute zero, and have still hit a limit.