What does the clock optimizer solve?
One equation with three variables: output = machines × base rate × clock speed. Lock the one you refuse to change, drive a second, and the third is the answer.
| You lock | You drive | You read | Discrete stops |
|---|
| target output | machines | clock speed | yes |
| clock speed | machines | output | yes |
| machines | clock speed, 1 % to 250 % | output | no |
What makes this more than a rule of three is that the three variables are not of the same nature. A machine count is a whole number of buildings you place, a clock speed is bounded to between 1 % and 250 % and is paid for in power shards, and the output is free. The base rate can be pre-filled from any of the game recipes, or typed by hand for anything that is not a recipe.
How many power shards does overclocking cost?
One power shard always buys +50 % on a single machine. The cost is therefore linear, and the cheapest way past 100 % is to saturate machines at 250 % one at a time rather than raise everybody a little.
| Clock speed on one machine | Power shards |
|---|
| up to 100 % | 0 |
| over 100 % up to 150 % | 1 |
| over 150 % up to 200 % | 2 |
| over 200 % up to 250 % | 3 |
So a machine at 250 % takes 3 power shards, and that is the most a single machine can hold. The saving from concentrating the overclock is real and easy to miss — seven machines producing ten times the base rate, here 200 items/min from the 20 items/min Iron Plate recipe:
- uniform — all 7 machines at 142.857 %, 1 shard each: 7 power shards;
- concentrated — 2 machines at 250 % and 5 at 100 %: 6 power shards.
Same seven buildings, same 200 items/min, one shard less — and five of the machines left at their default clock, with no shard in them at all. The page shows both spreads side by side so the two totals can be compared at a glance.
Why does the slider click between stops?
Because machines are whole buildings. With the target output locked, the reachable clock speeds form a discrete ladder — one rung per machine count — so the slider walks that ladder instead of interpolating between two states you cannot build.
For 1000 items/min from a base rate of 20 items/min, the ladder is:
- 20 machines at 250 %, 3 shards each — 60 power shards, and the floor: 19 machines cannot reach 1000 items/min at any legal clock speed;
- 25 machines at 200 %, 2 shards each — 50 power shards;
- 50 machines at 100 % — no shard at all.
This is what turns a refusal into geometry: below 20 machines the slider simply has no position, so there is no impossible plan to draw and no message to read. Typing an out-of-range value is handled differently — the page keeps what you typed, marks the clock speed as out of range, and names the machine count that would fix it.
Should I underclock or overclock?
Underclock whenever the buildings are available: power draw rises faster than output, so the same rate from more machines at a lower clock speed draws less power, and no power shard is involved. Overclock when space, buildings or belt count are the real constraint — and then concentrate it.
- Under 100 %, the uniform spread is the optimum. There is no shard to save and nothing to concentrate, so every machine takes the same clock speed.
- Above 100 %, the concentrated spread is the optimum. Saturate machines at 250 % one at a time and leave the rest at 100 %: that is the minimum number of power shards for the output, and it is never worse than a uniform overclock.
The same 1000 items/min shows the whole trade: 50 machines at 100 % cost 0 power shards, and the 20-machine floor at 250 % costs 60 — thirty buildings traded for sixty shards. This calculator prices overclocking in power shards and not in megawatts: it tells you how many shards a layout needs and how few it could need, and leaves the power budget to you.
How many decimals can I type in game?
Three. The clock speed field in game keeps three decimal places on the percentage, so every clock speed on this page is already rounded to a value you can actually enter — 142.857 %, never 142.857142857 %.
That is also why there is no error figure to read anywhere: if the number shown is the number you type, there is nothing left to reconcile. The gap the rounding leaves is bounded by machines × base rate × 0.000005, in items per minute, which is not a quantity anybody builds around. The clock speed can be copied to the clipboard as a bare number, from the field or from any cell of the two tables, because pasting “142.857 %” into the game field does not work.
Frequently asked questions
Where do the recipes come from?
From the game documentation pages published on the Satisfactory wiki, which mirror the game data as three JSON pages — read directly rather than scraped out of rendered tables. The import is run by hand once per game version and committed, so the list spans the 12 production buildings, alternate recipes included, and nothing is fetched while you use the page. The picker only pre-fills the base rate; typing it yourself always works.
Can I clock a miner?
Yes, by typing the base rate instead of picking a recipe. A miner’s output depends on the purity of the node it sits on, so it is not a recipe and cannot be in the picker: a Miner Mk.1 on a normal node produces 60 items/min at 100 %, and once that figure is in the base rate field everything else on the page works identically.
What is the maximum clock speed?
The maximum is 250 % and the minimum is 1 %. A machine at 250 % needs 3 power shards, the most a single machine can take. Asking for more is not refused outright: the page keeps the numbers you typed, marks the clock speed as out of range and names the machine count that fixes it — 50 items/min of Nuclear Pasta, at 0.5 items/min per Particle Accelerator, needs at least 40 machines, because 5 machines would be asking for 2000 %.
Can I have a fraction of a machine?
The calculator answers with the fraction rather than rounding it away, then names both neighbours. With the clock speed locked at 100 % and a base rate of 20 items/min, a target of 90 items/min is 4.5 machines: 4 machines produce 80 items/min and 5 produce 100 items/min. A machine count only becomes whole when you place the buildings, so 4.5 is the honest answer to the question as it was asked.
