reviewers end up reviewing and
giving these obscenely high scores
and dubious awards to.
Not everyone cares for these things
and that I accept. However, not caring
for something doesn’t in any way mean
that those who do care are wasting
their time. That overclocking on LN2
isn’t practical is immaterial, for the same
reason that going around in circles on a
track isn’t anything everyone will care
for. Virtually all competitive endeavours
right at the top have no direct
relationship with how Joe Average
interacts with that particular enterprise.
In fact, many of these competitions
don’t’ generate any money for the
companies involved. Ferrari isn’t in
the sport of F1 to make money from
it, they are in F1 so they can sell road
cars. The same applies to Mercedes
and the money they were making
is directly related to their strong
performance in F1 motorsport even
though they don’t make any money
directly from the sport.
Overclocking, or more specifically
competitive overclocking, isn’t
easy. It’s quite involved and rather
challenging. Competitors can spend
days or weeks tuning memory, only
to find that it doesn’t necessarily
behave the same way when cold or
when the CPU is cooled to negative
temperatures. Tuning the operating
system, tweaking the driver
settings, the weekends where you
don’t get a single useful score etc.
It’s all involved and time consuming.
Just look at the amount of work
that’s involved in SuperPi 32M
competitions. It’s that detailed and
highly contested. Just cooling down
and controlling one component
with LN2 is difficult, let alone both
the CPU and GPU. Now consider
that some go so far as to cool
four GPUs with LN2 and the CPU
as well. Keeping a close watch on
temperatures across 5 probes, re-
filling the LN2 flasks, checking the
voltages, and keeping the system
stable enough to complete the runs
- it’s involved, it’s taxing and it's
extremely difficult.
Those that partake in it may not be
as numerous as those who are into
gaming. It is fitting, though, that one
is just simpler to do than the other.
Anybody with a PC and a Steam
account is a gamer, yet not everyone
with a PC is an overclocker.
So I say to all overclockers, be it
they are starting out or veterans.
Hold fast in what you do. Those
that have never taken a system
and put it under LN2. Those that
have never spent hours if not days
tweaking their memory, building
a stripped OS, searching for the
best driver, modifying a card or
board. They can never know what
it takes and their voices while loud
are vacuous of content. What you
do matters and nobody should
ever tell you differently. You push
the boundary, you push the edge
and do things that even those who
built these components didn’t think
were possible. All you may hear is
complaints, but here is one person,
one publisher who appreciates it
and always will. You pour money
into it and rarely if ever make
any of it back. There’s no cash
incentive and you’re unlikely to
ever make a living directly from
it. In fact, if anything it’ll cost you
money. That you continue though
is admirable and something worthy
of respect. We care and appreciate
what you do without end.
TheOverclocker
Issue 41 | 2017 The OverClocker 17