AMD still proudly advertises that all of its CPUs and chipsets (save for very few) support overclocking, and Intel's K-class CPUs and Z-class motherboards still sport overclocking as a premium feature. But today, there are fewer reasons to overclock than ever, and it's pretty clear that the hobby is getting less popular as time marches on. The r/overclocking Reddit community top posts of all time are dominated by posts made from two to three years ago. Google searches for overclocking are also at an all-time low, and are 50% of what they were three years ago, and I don't think that's a coincidence.

So, what happened to overclocking? It's down to the combined impact of three loosely related factors, which have gradually emerged over the last couple of decades. While overclocking as a hobby will always exist so long as there are processors around that we can overclock, it ultimately has lost most of its relevance. The PC ecosystem has changed and practically outgrown overclocking at this point.

CPUs and GPUs have great out-of-the-box performance today

While overclocking can be done just for fun, and I myself largely overclock purely to see a number go up, most users have undoubtedly overclocked to achieve higher performance in the games they play and the apps they use. However, the latest and greatest CPUs and graphics cards are already really fast by default, and it's hard to overclock them at all these days.

Years ago, the only realistic ways to get more performance out of your PC was to either lower graphics settings, buy new hardware, or overclock. And considering lots of CPUs and GPUs could easily be overclocked by double digits, it was often a no-brainer for anyone with a decent amount of technical skill to go ahead and do some overclocking. Even if your CPU is locked, GPUs seldom are, so gamers could always rely on a beefy overclock in case the stock clock speeds weren't quite enough to hit 60 FPS.

However, things aren't the same anymore. For users that need an extra boost, there's resolution upscaling technologies like DLSS and dynamic resolution built into both games and drivers (well, just AMD's for now). That's especially important considering we're probably never going to move on from 1080p, unlike how we jumped from 480p to 720p to 900p. Sure, 1440p and 4K are options, but most users are still sticking with 1080p, likely because it's plenty clear at popular monitor sizes. Those two factors alone lessen the need for chasing extra performance, and has contributed to a declining interest in overclocking.

Even without those factors though, the latest processors are already clocked pretty high out of the box. The Core i9-14900K boosts to 6GHz, and it's a mainstream processor; you're unlikely to get many more hertz out of one. Then there's Ryzen, which has been almost pointless to overclock since the 3000 series. Traditionally, all-core overclocks are generally detrimental to the performance of Ryzen CPUs since the 3000 series, and even per-core overclocking doesn't yield great results.

The latest chips consume a ton of power

What's turning off users to overclocking even more is the fact that CPUs and GPUs consume more power than ever before. The RTX 4090 and Core i9-14900K are pretty crazy as they're designed to run at 450 and 350 watts respectively, and that's cascaded down to lower-end products too. It should be pretty obvious why higher power consumption is a problem: it increases the electricity bill, it causes noise in the form of loud fans and coil whine, it requires better cooling, and since power turns into heat, it can make your room or even whole home hotter than you'd like.

Take for instance the GTX 970, which had a TDP of 148 watts. Today, the RTX 4070 has a TDP of 200 watts, which is actually down from the RTX 3070's 220. AMD's graphics cards have also seen a similar surge in power usage, with the company's 2016 RX 480 demanding just 150 watts while the RX 7600, RX 7700 XT, and RX 7800 XT use 165 watts, 245 watts, and 300 watts respectively. Keep in mind that the 7600 is AMD's lowest-end RX 7000 series card, while the RX 480 was upper-midrange in the wider RX 400 and RX Vega product stack.

The power requirements for CPUs and GPUs have been increasing steadily for decades, but now it's at a somewhat critical point. For today's high-end components, you need to support them with high-end PSUs and coolers just to use them at all, and overclocking just exacerbates that. You can't run the Core i9-14900K at its stock settings without hitting 100 C even if you're using one of the best air coolers on the market.

The PC just isn't what it was two decades ago

The PC has changed in many ways over the past couple or so decades, and it's not just limited to the changes in hardware I mentioned above. Computers have gone totally mainstream and are part of everyday life, and that's true for traditional desktops and laptops too. The PC has gotten really, really big, and yet overclocking is declining almost year after year. At the very least, it should be leveling out, but that clearly isn't happening.

Ultimately, I think the PC going mainstream is perhaps the thing that ties everything together. Obviously, companies like Microsoft, AMD, Intel, and Nvidia have wanted to grow the PC market, and the direction they've collectively gone in has trampled right on top of overclocking. More users want better out-of-the-box performance; give them that performance. It's getting harder to offer better performance at the same power, but buyers of top-end hardware still want faster performance; boost the TDP and call it a day.

When owning a computer was niche in itself, it should be expected that something more technical and down to the metal like overclocking could thrive. But now overclocking is a niche within a mainstream PC industry, and it's clear that newcomers to the PC, even the more technically minded ones, are increasingly less interested in overclocking.

Personally, I haven't overclocked my CPU in several years even though the option is there, because I don't see the point anymore. It's sad that what I loved doing as a kid is dying out and is becoming harder to do even if it's technically possible, but ultimately the times change. I don't really feel bad about not having to overclock though; it's nice to have great performance without tweaking anything. Still, overclocking will always be nostalgic for me, and it's sad to see it fade into history.