What is Overclocking a video card?

Question

I hear the term Overclock a lot when talking about computers. I believe there talking about their graphics card or processor can somebody please explain this to me?

Answer 1

Overclocking is increasing the memory and/or clock speed of the card beyond the manufactured guaranteed speeds.

Some cards overclock very well, others do not.

Some video card companies actually offer a built in overclocking utility included with the card's software.

Others require 3rd party software to overclock.

The framerate change is usually minimal and it's usually not worth risking frying your card for a few extra fps.

Answer 2

It's basically making it able to do more work, and there are a lot of risks doing it.

Answer 3

Its basically making it faster that what it is rated at. You can either overclock the CPU which most people do and more of the gaming enthusiast overclock their video cards.

You are actually overclocking the memory chip in your video card which means it will produce more heat and if you use unsafe speeds may cause damage to the video card. This is the same if you are overclocking the CPU.