user21126: What does the clock frequency of my miner mean. I can change it but how does it affect performance? For BFGMiner when I start my Gridseed I can press 'C' to change it.

user18196: I believe that is just a parameter to allow you to control the clock frequency (usually measured in MHz) of your miner. You can see a sample list of configurations for CGMiner here. 
There is an inherent trade-off here. A higher frequency means a higher hash-rate but more energy consumption and wear-and-tear on your hardware. For example, this site shows a sample chart of different frequencies and hash rates for a particular piece of hardware. It's up to individual miners to figure out what the right trade-off between performance and energy consumption is for them. 

21126: <p>What does the clock frequency of my miner mean. I can change it but how does it affect performance? For BFGMiner when I start my Gridseed I can press 'C' to change it.</p>
 18196: <p>I believe that is just a parameter to allow you to control the clock frequency (usually measured in MHz) of your miner. You can see a sample list of configurations for CGMiner <a href="http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/README" rel="nofollow">here</a>. </p>

<p>There is an inherent trade-off here. A higher frequency means a higher hash-rate but more energy consumption and wear-and-tear on your hardware. For example, <a href="http://bitcoinrigs.org/instructions/antminer-u1/" rel="nofollow">this site</a> shows a sample chart of different frequencies and hash rates for a particular piece of hardware. It's up to individual miners to figure out what the right trade-off between performance and energy consumption is for them. </p>
