Clock speed
| Clock speed | |
|---|---|
| |
| Unlocked at | Power Slugs Research - Overclock Production |
Production and power buildings, such as Miners, Constructors or Biomass Burners, can have their clock speed set to any percentage between 1% and 250%. For production buildings, this allows them to operate slower or faster at the cost of greatly reduced or increased power usage. For power buildings the maximum power output and accompanying fuel consumption can be increased in tandem, granting more utility from a single building. Overclocking and underclocking both have utility in optimizing a factory, helping to synchronize production, increase energy efficiency and smooth out the peaks in factory power consumption.
Contents
Terminology[edit | edit source]
Clock speed is the speed of operation of a building. 200% clock speed means the building will operate twice as fast, 50% means half operation speed, however, this is not the case for power generators, see below.
Overclocking refers to setting the clock speed above 100%.
Underclocking refers to setting the clock speed below 100%. Underclocking does not require any Power Shards.
Unlocking[edit | edit source]
Usage[edit | edit source]
To change a clock speed, interact E with a building and look at its lower left of the UI. Underclocking can be done freely, however overclocking requires Power Shards, which are crafted from Power Slugs. Up to three power shards can be placed into a building, each allowing the maximum clock speed to be increased by 50%. The clock speed can be changed in increments of 1% using the slider or by directly typing in the desired value for either Clockspeed or Target production rate.
Setting the clock speed by desired item production per minute rounds to two decimal places, while typing in a percentage rounds to the nearest percent. Typing in an arbitrarily high value will max out production, while non-numeric inputs are ignored. Setting 0% Clock speed will result in 1% clock speed instead, this is visible when the machine UI is re-opened.
Where desired item production per minute results in a percentage with decimal, the game will automatically floor it to the nearest percentage. Take note as this may lead to some efficiency loss, engineers are advised to ceil up the overclocking percentage instead.
Clock speed for production buildings[edit | edit source]
Overclocking Miners and Oil Extractors is highly beneficial. For production buildings, the craft time is directly proportional to the clock speed, but the power required changes polynomially. As the item production rate increases, the ingredient consumption rate increases as well. The table below shows five different clock speeds on a Constructor, for example, producing Iron Rod that takes 4 seconds.
| Clock speed | Craft time | Power required | Energy per iron rod | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 40s | 0.1 MW | 4 MJ | 25% |
| 50% | 8s | 1.3 MW | 10.4 MJ | 66% |
| 100% (Default) | 4s | 4 MW | 16 MJ | 100% |
| 150% | 2.67s | 7.7MW | 20.4 MJ | 128% |
| 200% | 2s | 12.1 MW | 24.2 MJ | 151% |
| 250% | 1.6s | 17.3 MW | 27.7 MJ | 173% |
The formula for power usage is:
(power usage) = (initial power usage) × (clock speed / 100)1.6
where clock speed is an integer between 1 and 250, and
both power usage and initial power usage are measured in MW.
For relative energy usage per item produced, subtract the exponent factor by 1, that is,
(energy usage) = (initial energy usage) × (clock speed / 100)0.6
Underclocking Constructors and Assemblers in early game is highly beneficial. It can yield considerable fuel (Biomass) savings. With Splitters and Mergers available, fuel savings can be accompanied with zero loss to production rate. Miner Mk.1 with two Smelters operating at full clock speed can produce over 570 ingots from normal node with the energy of one stack of leaves. Miner Mk.1 with nine Smelters operating at 22% clock rate yields to over 900 parts with same amount of energy. Net production rate will be virtually identical and the energy saved can be used elsewhere.
It should be noted that production buildings use the full calculated value, and as such the rounded value listed in-game is not always accurate.
Clock speed for power generators[edit | edit source]
Overclocking of all types of power generators provides no benefit other than saving building space.
For power generation buildings, both power capacity and fuel consumption rate are increased at the same rate. The effect of this is that the energy produced per fuel item, or Fuel Value, stays the same, so one piece of Coal is always worth 300MJ of energy regardless of clock speed. The table below shows three different clock speeds set on a Coal Generator. Note that a 250% overclock does not give 250% power as the in-game target MW value suggests. The true production values are listed with the generator's fuel.
| Clock speed | Coal burn time | Coal per minute | Energy per coal | Generator capacity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 23.55s | 2.75 | 300 MJ | 12.75 MW | 17% |
| 100% (Default) | 4 s | 15 | 300 MJ | 75 MW | 100% |
| 250% | 1.976s | 30.4 | 300 MJ | 151.8 MW | 202.4% |
The formula for fuel burn time is:
(fuel burn time) = (initial fuel burn time) x (clock speed / 100)-0.77
where clock speed is an integer between 1 and 250, and
both fuel burn time and initial fuel burn time are measured in seconds.
The formula for the multiplier to power capacity is:
(power capacity) = (initial power capacity) × (clock speed / 100)0.77
where clock speed is an integer between one and 250, and
both power capacity and initial power capacity are measured in MW.
Note: If more accurate calculations are needed, use 1/1.3 instead of 0.77.
Nuclear Power Plants scale differently with overclocking, as they use 1/1.321928 instead. At 250% clock speed, one operates 2.00000009951 times faster compared to 100% clock speed.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
An underclocked Constructor. You can type numbers at the % or items/min, or using the slider.
An overclocked Miner. Power Shard(s) is required for overclocking beyond 100%.
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