You will need

• Computer, processor, skills in working with BIOS, knowledge of English sufficient to read the instructions for the motherboard and understand the meaning of BIOS parameters.

Instructions

Raising the clock frequency above the one set at the manufacturer's factory is called "overclocking" or "overclocking". Overclocking a processor increases its heat dissipation and increases the load on processor-related elements, for example. Before overclocking, check that your CPU and case coolers provide sufficient cooling. If the temperature of the processor cores in the “without” state is above 50 degrees, increasing the frequency without cooling is simply contraindicated.

If the cooling works effectively, start the overclocking procedure. Go to the BIOS control panel of your motherboard; to do this, immediately after turning on (rebooting) the computer, press the F2, DEL or F1 key, depending on the board model. In the BIOS menu bar, find the Processor Performance Management tab. It can be called differently; the instructions for the motherboard in the BIOS section indicate exactly how.

Raise the processor system bus frequency. In the BIOS, this characteristic is usually called “CPU Clock” or “CPU Frequency”. To do this, set the required value in the corresponding line.

The clock speed of the processor cores is the result of multiplying the frequency of its system bus by a multiplier. As a result, you can overclock the processor by increasing the value of this parameter. But in most processors the multiplier is locked and cannot be changed. Only AMD's Black series processors and Intel's Extreme processors can change the multiplier value. If your processor allows this, raise the multiplier value on the processor options page in the BIOS.

note

Please remember that the risk associated with overclocking rests entirely with you. Damage to the processor as a result of overclocking is not covered under warranty. Try not to increase the processor frequency by more than 20% of that declared by the manufacturer.

Sources:

• How to overclock processors

Screen refresh rate is a very important ergonometric characteristic of a monitor. It shows the frame rate of the image. If the frequency is set too low, the image begins to “flicker” - this is how the human eye perceives it. Working in front of such a monitor greatly damages the eyesight and quickly tires the user.

You will need

• Monitor, OS Windows

Instructions

Right-click anywhere on the screen. Select "Properties" from the drop-down menu. In the dialog box that appears, go to the “Options” tab and click on the “Advanced” button.

Select the “Monitor” tab, then set the desired frame rate. Check the box next to “Hide modes that the monitor cannot support.”

In version 7 of Windows, the screen frequency changes slightly differently. Place the cursor on an empty space on the screen and click on the right mouse button. From the context menu, select “Screen Resolution”. In the dialog box, click on the “Advanced options” button. Go to the “Monitor Settings” tab and set the required refresh rate.

The following situation is possible: you set the screen refresh rate to high, and then you had to change the monitor. If your new monitor doesn't support the set frequency, you won't be able to get started. Restart your computer, after the initial boot press F8. From the suggested boot mode options, select “Safe Mode”. Go to monitor properties. The refresh rate will be set to Default. Confirm your mode selection by clicking OK and restart your computer. Set the operating mode that the monitor supports.

There is another option for changing parameters. After restarting the computer, press the F8 key and select the boot mode “Enable VGA mode”. The computer will boot with gentle monitor settings: low screen resolution and minimum refresh rate. Go to the monitor properties and set the parameters that your monitor supports. Confirm your selection by clicking OK. Reboot in normal mode.

Video on the topic

note

LCD monitors generally maintain a screen refresh rate set to 60 Hz, even if the settings offer a choice.

Sources:

• how to change tv screen

The screen refresh rate, the so-called scan rate, determines the number of screen “flickers” per second. The comfort of working at a computer is directly proportional to the scan value of the monitor. You can change the refresh rate in several ways.

Instructions

Minimize all active windows so that only the Windows table is visible. Move the mouse cursor to any empty space and right-click once to open the context menu. Select "Properties" in it. The Desktop Settings dialog box will open. Go to the settings tab and click the "Advanced" button. In the connection module management window that opens, go to the “Monitor” tab. Among the monitor parameters, select the frequency updates screen and select the required sweep value from the drop-down list.

Using the method described in the previous step, open the desktop context menu and click on the “Graphics characteristics” line. This command opens the utility that comes with the video card and controls it. Go to the "Parameters" tab and, in the same way as described earlier, select the required sweep value in the drop-down list. Wait until the screen refresh rate change is applied and compare the visual effect with the previous refresh rate value. Save your changes.

Go to the Start menu and launch Windows Control Panel. Find the shortcut called "Screen" and double-click on it. A screen settings window will open, the same as after clicking the “Properties” button in the desktop context menu. You can change the screen refresh rate using the method described in the first step.

note

Some monitors do not support resolutions greater than 60 Hz.

Helpful advice

Set the screen refresh rate to the highest possible value for greater comfort while using your computer.

One of the main problems of many relatively old laptops is insufficient video card power. There are several ways to solve this, but the best way is to install a new video adapter.

Instructions

First, read the instructions for yours. Find out the type of video adapter currently installed. This could be an integrated chip or a full-fledged video card. If you encounter the first option, then open the instructions for the motherboard.

Find out if it has slots for connecting a full-fledged video adapter. If you do not have instructions for this part, then go to the motherboard manufacturer's website and find the required information there.

Find out the type of this connector for connecting a video card. Purchase a suitable video adapter. Turn off. Remove all mounting screws from the bottom cover of the device. Pay attention to the fact that sometimes it is necessary to unscrew the screws located in the internal compartments for RAM or hard drive.

Disconnect several cables going from the motherboard to other devices. Remember what should be connected where. Install the new video card into the existing slot.

Install drivers for the new video adapter. If you do not have a disk with the required software, then visit the official website of the manufacturer of your video card. Download from there programs and drivers suitable for this video adapter model.

Install the required software. If your integrated video card is installed on an Intel chip, the new video adapter will automatically turn on when you launch a powerful application.

Tip 5: How to increase the frequency of a laptop monitor with an Intel graphics card

Modern gaming laptop monitors with associated video adapters are usually configured using software included with the hardware driver. There is an opinion that the problem of monitor hertz only exists on computers running Windows, whose drivers do not allow raising the screen refresh rate above 60 Hz. If you spend a lot of time at such a computer, your eyes begin to hurt, and over time your vision deteriorates. Fortunately, this problem can be solved.

You will need

• - GPU-Z - a utility for diagnosing the clock frequency of a video card.
• - the latest video adapter driver for your device.

Instructions

Type the request “GPU-Z free download” into your browser’s search bar, download the utility and run it immediately. The only parameter that is of fundamental importance in this case is the Default Clock, or the standard clock frequency at which your video card is currently running. If you only need to increase the monitor frequency, then any value above 200 MHz will be sufficient for these needs. The Boost window indicates the maximum frequency to which you can safely overclock the device if the need arises.

On the next Sensors tab, you can also check what state the system devices will be in when operating in different modes. However, for modern technology this is more of a reinsurance than an objective necessity. You won't need this utility anymore.

Now proceed to update the video adapter driver. First, try to perform an automatic update, but there is a high probability that in Windows you will have to do it forcibly, because... Most often, the diagnostic result is the message "The driver for this device does not need to be updated." To do this, go to “Computer” -> “Properties” -> “Device Manager” -> “Video adapters” and select the existing one from the drop-down list. Right-click on it and select "Update drivers..." If the update result is negative, you will have to download and install the most up-to-date software for your equipment yourself.

The later the driver version for your device, the more options it will have. Therefore, first of all, determine the adapter ID. To do this, use the right mouse button to open the drop-down menu on the name of the adapter (most likely it will be Intel(R) HD Graphics, but there are situations when only a standard PnP adapter is installed), select "Properties", open the "Information" tab, in In the "Property" window, select "Hardware ID" and copy the top line from the "Value" field.

Go to the website www.getdrivers.net and enter the ID value you copied earlier into the search bar. The system will display several options, from which you will have to choose the most suitable one for your OS. If you can't find the driver you need on this site, try www.devid.info and do a similar search there. Important: when downloading any software, always pay attention to the bitness of your OS.

Download the zip file, open it, find the Setup.exe file, run it and wait for the latest drivers to load. Close all windows and running programs, because... After installing the driver, you will need to reboot the system.

Now you have to use a rather unexpected maneuver, namely, create a screen duplicate. To do this, go to "Control Panel" -> "Display" -> "Screen Resolution" -> "Multiple Screens" and select "Duplicate these screens" from the drop-down menu. Click "Apply". It's fine if your OS allows you to "Set" the second screen as your primary screen, but if not, click OK and close Control Panel.

As you know, the processor clock speed is the number of operations performed per unit of time, in this case, per second.

But this definition is not enough to fully understand what this concept actually means and what significance it has for us, ordinary users.

You can find many articles on this subject on the Internet, but all of them are missing something.

More often than not, this “something” is the very key that can open the door to understanding.

Therefore, we tried to collect all the basic information, as if it were a puzzle, and put it together into a single, holistic picture.

Contents:

Detailed definition

So, clock speed is the number of operations a processor can perform per second. This value is measured in Hertz.

This unit of measurement is named after a famous scientist who conducted experiments aimed at studying periodic, that is, repeating processes.

What does Hertz have to do with operations in a second?

This question arises when reading most articles in people who did not study physics very well at school (maybe through no fault of their own).

The fact is that this unit precisely denotes the frequency, that is, the number of repetitions of these same periodic processes per second.

It allows you to measure not only the number of operations, but also various other indicators. For example, if you make 3 entries per second, then your breathing rate is 3 Hertz.

As for processors, a variety of operations can be performed here, which boil down to calculating certain parameters.

Actually, the number of calculations of these same parameters per second is called .

Simple as that!

In practice, the concept “Hertz” is used extremely rarely; more often we hear about megaHertz, kiloHertz, and so on. Table 1 shows the “decoding” of these values.

Table 1. Designations

The first and last are currently used extremely rarely.

That is, if you hear that it has 4 GHz, then it can perform 4 billion operations every second.

Not at all! This is the average today. Surely, very soon we will hear about models with a frequency of terahertz or even more.

How is it formed

So, in it there are the following devices:

• clock resonator– is an ordinary quartz crystal, enclosed in a special protective container;
• clock generator– a device that converts one type of vibration into another;
• metal cover;
• data bus;
• textolite substrate, to which all other devices are attached.

So, a quartz crystal, that is, a clock resonator, forms oscillations due to the supply of voltage. As a result, oscillations of electric current are formed.

A clock generator is attached to the substrate, which converts electrical oscillations into pulses.

They are transmitted to data buses, and thus the result of the calculations reaches the user.

This is exactly how the clock frequency is obtained.

It is interesting that there are a huge number of misconceptions regarding this concept, in particular regarding the connection between nuclei and frequency. Therefore, this is also worth talking about.

How frequency relates to cores

The core is, in fact, the processor. By this we mean the very crystal that forces the entire device to perform certain operations.

That is, if a particular model has two cores, this means that it contains two crystals that are connected to each other using a special bus.

According to a common misconception, the more cores, the higher the frequency. It’s not for nothing that developers are now trying to fit more and more cores into them. But that's not true. If it is 1 GHz, even if it has 10 cores, it will still remain 1 GHz and will not become 10 GHz.

The fact is that each core performs its specific function and takes on part of the total load on the processor.

It happens that due to a large number of cores, the device will work even slower, since the bus that connects them cannot withstand the load due to poor quality. Although this happens extremely rarely.

This can be illustrated with a simple example. If 4 people are walking along the road at a speed of 4 km/h, this does not mean that all of them together are walking at a speed of 16 km/h (4*4).

They all move at a speed of 4 km/h.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. We will be happy to answer!

A whole generation of computer users has already grown up and did not catch the famous “megahertz race” that unfolded between the two leading manufacturers for desktop computers (who don’t know - Intel and AMD) at the turn of the millennium. Its end came around 2004, when it became obvious that processor frequency was not the only characteristic that affected its performance. The extremely “gluttonous” and extremely high-frequency Pentium IV processors on the Prescott core came very close to 4 GHz, and at the same time had difficulty competing with the K8 architecture, on which the new “stones” from AMD were built, which had a frequency of no higher than 2.6-2. 8 GHz.

After this, both manufacturers simultaneously moved away from the practice of identifying their products by operating frequency and moved on to abstract model indices. This decision was justified by the reluctance to mislead the end user about the performance of the processor, focusing on only one of its characteristics. Indeed, there is also the processor bus frequency, the size of the cache memory, the technological process by which the core is manufactured, and much more. But processor frequency still remains one of the most visual and intuitive measures of CPU “quality” for most people.

The processor actually affects its performance, characterizing the number of operations performed per second. But the fact is that processors built on different cores spend different numbers of clock cycles to perform one operation, and this parameter can differ significantly from generation to generation. It is thanks to this that the current processor with a nominal frequency of 2.0 GHz will leave far behind the flagship of seven years ago with a clock frequency of 3.8 GHz. In addition, the performance of the processor, as already mentioned above, is affected by both the size of the cache memory (the larger it is, the less often the processor will be forced to access the relatively slow RAM), and the frequency of the processor bus (the higher it is, the faster the data exchange will be). between the “stone” and RAM), and many other, not so noticeable, but no less important, characteristics.

Recently, such a concept as the maximum processor frequency has begun to come into use.

Gradually, both Intel and AMD are introducing such a feature as auto-overclocking into their products. The technology, which is essentially the same, is called by one manufacturer by another - Turbo Core, but this does not change its essence: the processor frequency can dynamically change, and automatically, without user intervention. The need to use such technology is due to the fact that multi-core modern processors have essentially become the norm, but multi-threading of modern applications, unfortunately, is not yet the case. The operating system, seeing that one of the cores is loaded much more heavily than the others, independently increases the frequency of this core, while trying to keep the processor within its “native” thermal package (i.e., the system tries to protect itself from overheating of the equipment). Moreover, depending on the processor model and specific conditions, such a frequency increase can range from 100 to 600-700 MHz, and this, you see, is already a significant increase in performance. This technology is supported by most of the latest processors from both manufacturers. For Intel, this is, in particular, all CPUs of the Core i5 and Core i7 range, for AMD - all processors on the AM3+ socket, processors on the FM1 socket (except for processors with a disabled graphics core), as well as some “stones” for the AM3 platform (six-core Tuban and quad-core Zosma). Moreover, for socket-based devices, such auto-overclocking is all the more relevant, considering that due to some architectural features, full-fledged “overclocking” by increasing the processor bus frequency is practically impossible. However, this is a topic for a completely different article...

Clock frequency is a parameter that is measured in gigahertz. A higher frequency allows faster data processing. This is one of the most important parameters that you should pay attention to when choosing a processor.

The number of cores is no less important, the fact is that the clock frequency at this stage of development cannot be increased any further, this prompted continued development in the direction of parallel computing, expressed in an increase in the number of cores. The number of cores informs how many programs can be run simultaneously without losing performance. However, it is worth considering that if the program is optimized for two cores, even if there are more of them, the computer will not be able to fully use them.

Cache and processor bus frequency

The bus frequency demonstrates the transmission speed of information entering and leaving the processor. The higher this indicator, the faster the exchange of information occurs; the units of measurement here are gigahertz. The processor cache, which is a high-speed memory block, is of great importance. It is located directly on the core and serves to improve performance, since it processes data at a much higher speed than in the case of RAM. There are three levels of cache memory:

L1 - the first level is the smallest in volume, but the fastest, its size varies between 8 - 128 KB.

L2 is the second level, much slower than the first, but exceeds it in volume, here the size varies between 128 - 12288 KB.

L3 is the third level, inferior in speed to the first two levels, but the most voluminous, by the way, it may be absent altogether, since it is intended for special editions of processors or server solutions. Its size reaches 16384 KB, it can be present in processors such as Xeon MP, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition or Itanium 2.

Socket and heat dissipation

Less significant, but still relevant when choosing a processor, are such characteristics as socket and heat dissipation. Socket called the socket where the processor is installed on the motherboard. By indicators heat release You can determine the degree of heating of the processor during operation. This indicator is measured in watts, and it varies from 10 to 165 W.

The average cost of processors on the Moscow market: Intel Core 2 Duo is 5,000 rubles, and AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core is 3,000 rubles, according to http://price.ru

Table 3 Comparison of processors

For working with graphics, the bus and processor frequency are important, therefore, in accordance with the minimum hardware requirements, when choosing between the two proposed CPUs, based on the above key characteristics, as well as on price qualities, I give preference to the AMD ATHLON II X2 CPU http://www.nix.ru .

Of all the technical characteristics of the processor, the most famous among users is the clock frequency. But few non-specialists fully understand what it is. More detailed information about this will help to better understand the operation of computing systems. Especially when using multi-core processors that have certain operating features that are not known to everyone, but which should be taken into account when operating a computer.

For a long time, the main efforts of developers were aimed precisely at increasing the clock frequency. Only recently has there been a tendency to develop and improve computer architecture, increase the amount of cache memory, and the number of processor cores. However, the processor clock speed does not go unnoticed.

What is this parameter - processor clock speed?

Let’s try to figure out what “processor clock speed” is. This value characterizes the number of calculations that the processor can perform in one second. Consequently, a processor with a higher clock frequency also has higher performance, i.e. capable of performing a greater number of operations in a certain period of time.

Most modern processors have clock speeds between 1 and 4 GHz. This value is defined as the product of the base frequency and a certain coefficient. In particular the processor Intel Core i7 920 has its own clock frequency of 2660 Hz, which is obtained due to the base bus frequency of 133 MHz and a factor of 20. Some manufacturers produce processors that can be overclocked to greater performance. For example, AMD's Black Edition and Intel's K-series line. It is worth noting that, despite the importance of this characteristic, it is not decisive when choosing a computer. Clock speed only partially affects processor performance.

Single-core processors have practically sunk into oblivion and are rarely used in modern computing devices. This is caused by the development of the IT industry, the progress of which never ceases to amaze. Even among experts, you can sometimes come across a misconception about how to calculate the clock speed of a processor with two or more cores. A common misconception is that the clock speed must be multiplied by the number of cores. For example, a 4-core processor with a clock frequency of 3 GHz will have an integrated frequency of 12 GHz, i.e. 4x3=12. But this is not true.

Let's explain this with a simple example. Let's take a pedestrian walking at a speed of 4 km/h - this is a single-core processor with a frequency of 4 GHz. A 4-core processor with a clock speed of 4 GHz is already 4 pedestrians walking at the same speed of 4 km/h. Indeed, in this case, the speed of pedestrians is not summed up, and we cannot say that they move at a speed of 16 km/h. We are simply talking about four pedestrians walking together at a speed of 4 km/h each. The same analogy can be applied to a multi-core processor. Thus, we can say that a 4-core processor with a clock speed of 4 GHz simply has four cores, each of which has the same frequency - 4 GHz. A simple and logical conclusion follows from this: the number of processor cores affects only its performance, and does not increase the total clock frequency of the computing device.