How to Reset CPU Overclock – An Easy Guide

• About
• Latest Posts

Asen Stoyanchev

Owner | Content Writer at Maximum Tech

Asen is a Microsoft Certified Professional turned blogger with 10+ experience working in the IT industry as a hardware and software support engineer.

Read more about Asen here

Latest posts by Asen Stoyanchev (see all)

• Front Case Fan Not Spinning: [3 Proven Fixes That Work - June 22, 2022
• Is 60 Degrees Celsius Hot For A CPU In 2022? [Must-Read] - June 7, 2022
• How To Handle CPU Temps Jumping: A Definitive Guide [2022] - June 2, 2022

Want to run your PC at the fastest speed that you’ve always dreamt of? Now, your dream can turn into reality by the overclocking component present in your computer.

You must be wondering about how your PC can run faster than the limited speed of it then let me tell you, this is what an overclocking feature exists for.

Clock speed is the original speed of a CPU chip. When we want to increase the speed of our PC, it means that we want our CPU to perform more operations in a moment of seconds. The PCs run slow because their CPU chips have become slower and overclocking can make them run fast.

This amazing feature comes with a fee but not all computers have the ability to overclock. Always remember that there are some risks always associated with overclocking your CPU but if you clearly follow all the 7 steps below then you will never fall into trouble.

What is Overclocking and When You Should Go for it?

Overclocking is done to considerably increase the performance of your PC but the benefits are not limited to it. 

When Would You Want to Reset an Overclock?

If you want to use your PC to its maximum capacities before upgrading it, then you surely need to overclock it. With overclocking, you will see more than a 20% performance increase than before.

And that’s required for heavy gaming or extensive multitasking.

Not only that, at the time of playing a game, we require the best performance from our PC and this too can be achieved from overclocking features. If you are facing severe performance-related issues, then you must go for overclocking.

No doubt, some people face excessive overheating or reduced lifespan of their PC but still the benefits of overclocking outnumber its risks.

In each processor of a computer, there are multipliers in the BIOS menu, which help in increasing the clock speed, and eventually, your PC runs faster than before. This is how overclocking is done.

Does Resetting Undo an Overclocked CPU?

If you are thinking about how you can undo an overclocked CPU, then it’s pretty simple. When your PC boots up, press F2, go to the motherboard’s BIOS, and just hit the reset button. This reset will get your BIOS back to original settings and overclocking will be removed.

Does it have any Impact on CPU Health?

With so many benefits, always remember that overclocking also impacts your CPU’s health. And it doesn’t matter if you’re running a fancy CPU or one of the best budget ones under $200 or $300.

We know that overclocking is done by increasing the number of multipliers in the BIOS menu and so it requires more voltage to work. This results in overheating of the CPU and results in a shorter lifespan of your PC.

Steps to Reset Your CPU Overclock

Remember, the outcome of overclocking varies from CPU to CPU. We have researched a lot about overclocking and here are the 7 steps that you must follow strictly to achieve the best overclocking result. You may fall into trouble if you don’t follow these steps properly. Let’s dive into it.

Step 1: Monitor Original Limits of Your PC

Always do prior research before starting overclocking. You must know how much voltage and the number of multipliers suit your PC. This step is a must to follow as it will decide the amount of voltage and multipliers for the next steps.

Step 2: Monitor Original Limits of Your PC

Restart your PC and when it boots up, press F2 and enter the BIOS of your PC. Go through the Asus so that you observe everything in detail. You might not be able to find certain settings as different manufacturers go for different names, simply google it and find the equivalent setting in your BIOS.

Select the “Load Optimized Defaults” option to reset your BIOS to its original settings. Your PC will start rebooting now.

Step 3: See if Overclocking can be done on your PC

Before overclocking, always run a stress test to make sure that the chips in your CPU are not defective, and overclocking can start.

After that, two screens appear, one that shows the temperature, voltage, and usage of your processor and the other screen shows all the options related to stress testing.

Click the necessary stress test options to see how temperature, and voltage changes when stress is applied to your CPU. This will give you an idea about how well your PC can work in stressful conditions. Reboot your PC after it.

Step 4: Raise the Number of CPU Multipliers

Now overclocking comes into action. You can get the clock speed of your CPU by multiplying a Multiplier with a base clock.

A good piece of advice is, increase the number of multipliers one by one and determine the highest speed of your CPU’s clock.

Click on “Core Ratio” which is the multiplier option, then enter a reasonable amount of multiplier and hit the enter button. E.g., start with a multiplier of 45 in case you have an 8080K.

Step 5: Set Suitable Voltage and Again do Stress Testing

It’s time to set a specific voltage and restart the stress test. Just select the option of “Core Voltage” and change it to manual setting, enter suitable voltage. Again do the stress test as we did in step 2. If it is successful, then increase the number of multipliers in your BIOS.

But if it turns out to be an error then it means you need to increase the voltage. Always note what temperature, voltage, and number of multipliers you are experiencing in testing. If the temperature goes above 86 degrees Celsius then don’t proceed further, you are in a danger zone.

Just like if you’d decide to use Intel Cpu with an AMD motherboard.

Step 6: Increase the Voltage and Multipliers

Keep on increasing the multiplier and the voltage until the temperature goes too high or limits get exceeded. Load-Line Calibration(LLC) is another most important feature to set as it controls voltage drop in stressful conditions.

Your voltage will not catch the voltage limit you set unless LLC is set.

Always set LLC to a suitable level (second strongest level is recommended) as an increased level of LLC can cause an increase in temperature. Now again run the stress test, you’ll see an increase in multiplier performance and a decrease in temperature.

While playing games, you want your PC to work with better performance, for that always sets different levels of multipliers for AVX and non-AVX loads.

Whenever you change any setting in BIOS, always run OCCT to make sure that everything is working fine and is not exceeding suitable limits.

Step 7: Final Stress Testing

If you think that voltage, temperature, multipliers, and all other related settings are now working as desired then it’s time to do stress testing for more than 3 hours. You should be performing different kinds of OCCT tests to monitor the behavior of the CPU clearly.

If no error occurs, then you can trust the settings now and can see your CPU running to its maximum capacities in the future. But in case, you are playing some game and you encounter an error screen then you can reset the overclocking to its original settings.

Things That Can Go Wrong While You’re Resetting Overclock

Overclocking gives a major performance increase of a CPU, GPU, Motherboard, or RAM but still has many risk factors associated with it. As for performance increases, high voltages directly affect these major components of your PC and make them less durable.

No doubt, overclocking has many benefits but if you don’t follow the steps properly, you may fall into the trouble of unstable overclocking. This unstable overclocking can do a lot of damage to your PC. That’s why always read about the suitable levels of voltage that suit your PC.

Also, read – does overclocking GPU increase fps?

Normally, a heat sink and a fan help in reducing the effect of overheating. After overclocking, these two devices can’t handle the excess amount of heat and you have to buy other alternatives to deal with this problem.

If you are going to do overclocking and your chips miss any important component (cooler etc.) then it is possible that your PC immediately shuts down and you never start it again as the increased temperature can cause extreme damage to the hardware and you might end up with losing your PC.

It is always recommended to keep the core voltage as low as 1.5 Volts and always stay conscious about the temperature of your PC. You must know how to reset the CPU to default settings if you encounter some problem and need to go back.

Always increase the voltage one by one and do stress testing for a better outcome. Higher the voltage, the greater will be the heat, and eventually, it kills your CPU.

FAQs

Also read – does overclock GPU make a difference?

Final Words

You might have purchased the same CPU as your friend has, seeing that overclocking is working best for him but you must know, it may not prove best in your case. It’s because there’s no guarantee that your PC will bear the same amount of high temperature and will reach the same level of overclocking as well.

Now, you very well know how to overclock CPU, when you need to do it and as it comes with possible risks so you must be brave enough to bear the loss in extreme conditions. Read guides and gather as much knowledge as you can before you give it a chance.