Why CPU overclocking is mostly now a thing of the past

What happened

You won't find nearly as many guides on how to overclock these days, nor is the hardware modding community as large as it once was. The performance gains you get with modern chips aren't as noteworthy as they used to be.

News Computing Why CPU (the general-purpose processor at the centre of a computer) overclocking is mostly now a thing of the past The performance gains you get with modern chips aren't as noteworthy as they used to be. 11, 2026 8:45 am EST Vladyslav Lehir/Shutterstock Add Engadget on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover If you were a PC enthusiast in the 2000s or even most of the 2010s, you may remember how popular overclocking was at the time.

Overclocking involves increasing a CPU's clock speed past the manufacturer's advertised specifications. In effect, it allows you to squeeze more performance out of a chip, making it perform better than its factory settings and potentially even matching higher-end CPUs.

But overcooking has fallen out of favor in recent years even though it's still technically possible on modern CPUs. Modern CPU spec sheets still advertise base and boost frequencies, but these are no longer definitive.