does overclocking really pay off

[Flyby]

I have n't paid a lot of attention to it here, so I'm asking. I see some guys are above 4ghz with their processors. From what I've read around the net, the payoff at that speed is not very much for games anyway. Other tasks, maybe. Anyone seen any different? Curious about this sim specifically.
thanks,
Flyby out

[White Owl]

I'm a total newbie to overclocking... just tried it out for the first time last weekend. Took my processor from stock 3.2 GHz to 3.6 GHz very easily, and nothing bad happened to my computer. Tried to go up one more notch to 3.7 and saw my first BSOD. So I'm sticking to 3.6 GHz for now while I educate myself some more.

Ingame, I noticed the slow parts of the Black Death track ran a whopping 3 fps faster. No perceptible difference while actually playing. So my very limited experience so far is that it doesn't actually pay off. Maybe some more experienced overclockers will know better.

[Oldschool61]

I'm a total newbie to overclocking... just tried it out for the first time last weekend. Took my processor from stock 3.2 GHz to 3.6 GHz very easily, and nothing bad happened to my computer. Tried to go up one more notch to 3.7 and saw my first BSOD. So I'm sticking to 3.6 GHz for now while I educate myself some more.

Ingame, I noticed the slow parts of the Black Death track ran a whopping 3 fps faster. No perceptible difference while actually playing. So my very limited experience so far is that it doesn't actually pay off. Maybe some more experienced overclockers will know better.

You wont get huge improvments just a few percent here and there. Video card OC is the lowest usually so its almost worthless, you just burn up your graphics chip sooner. With video you get best improvement by going up in gpu class.

[janpitor]

I think he talks about CPU overclock. I saw a post somewhere about i7-2600K overclocked and an old CPU, both tested with the same GPU (GTX 580). Sims are rather CPU intensive, so the answer is, yes, in complex simmulations of all kinds CPU overclock usually helps unless the GPU is really the bottleneck. Maybe your specs could help

The thread here:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22448&page=2

[csou]

I have a CPU Intel Core i7-870 BOX(1156/2.93) and a MB Gigabyte P55A-UD6(1156/P55/DDR3). I am interested in overclocking it and if that is possible,in what speed? 3.00 ghz or more? Is there anyone who can give a hint in the internet? Is overclocking going to REALLY help with the performance of the game?

[Kuky]

Well it does pay off if you don't overdo it and burn your CPU or motherboard... it will not matter if the software/game you are running already has acceptable frame-rate... say if you have a "target" of 30fps at any time while playing this sim and default CPU clock gives you 25fps and you know for sure it's the CPU being the bottleneck and limiting you frame-rate and you are able to overclock CPU by 20% you will achieve your 30FPS target.

If you are getting 30+ you don't need to do it as it defeats the purpose of being able to run faster then what you need.

And why it pays off... because to get that 20% faster clocked CPU you'd normally buy more expensive CPU... by overclocking you achieve the same at must lesser cost (you will still need to get better CPU cooling). So you take the benefit into one hand (you get CPU with more calculations per second hence faster frame-rate) and less paying for the same effect by buying lot more expensive CPU. If this is still unclear then I don't know what else to add... to some it's just personal preference... some love to push their hardware to the limit and most are scared to do it because they've never done it and are not so much into knowing how and why the PC works etc and just want to play their game.

[Rattlehead]

In my experience with overclocking it doesn't make much of a difference to games.

By all means try it for yourself, but the percentage gains will be small. Is it worth stressing your entire system, and sometimes stability, for a few more fps? That's up to you.

[RE77ACTION]

It can absolutely make a big difference. Especially when you overclock something that is your current bottleneck. However, when you overclock a component that isn't your current bottleneck, you should expect no or minor differences. Besides, there are always certain risks involved and power usage will increase dramatically.

[SG1_Lud]

It can make BIG difference.

For good or for bad... if you know what you are doing, is worth it. If not, better stay out.

To do a proper OC needs a lot of reading and understanding... be prepared once you know the minimum stuff for a good amount of tests in your system until you can assure is perfect stable.

To resume in a few lines how one should approach their first OC:

* OC is not only about going up some Mhz in your CPU or GPU speeds. You have to know your system very well and play with many variables in the BIOS, like clock speeds of several components and voltages. The best way to accomplish a succesful overclocking is to join a forum of overclockers of your motherboard.

* Simply because you were able to start windows in a system with a new clock, dont think you're done. You have to assure the stability of the system full loaded (that involves days or weeks of testing), or you risk data corruption and lot of problems and you will complain about the software or the OS, when the blame is yours.

* never, never install anything in a OC state. Switch to normal clocks for installs or risk data corruption very hard to track down.

You see, nothing difficult for us hardcore simmers that like CEM and so... but you have to take it seriously and then it pays off. Let's say you invest a good amount of time in learning, but once you get the skill, you benefit from it forever.

BTW, some stock clocks machines have faults that the average user never notice, until he/she stresses the system enough to show its ugly face, normally in the middle of something... that's why it also pays off to become an advanced user and know how to to test thoroughly even your stock system before doing anything serious whith it.

S!

[SEE]

A PC is a system, RAM, HDD, GFX Card, CPU, PSU, mobo, etc, all of which play a part in the overall performance. OC'ing on its own is not guaranteed to give significant improvements if other parts of the system are underperforming. Bear in mind that overclocking will increase the CPU thermal output (and load on the PSU) and generally requires additional/improved cooling.

Some Mobo and their Bios are better than others and some CPU's more stable than others. Like others have said, read and join a forum that covers your mobo/cpu. There are benefits but there are pitfalls too........

[Ataros]

i7-860
@2.8 stock = occasional micro-stutters both in ArmA2 and BoB in the vicinity of large numbers of AI especially
@3.8 - almost no noticeable stutters after recent patches

[Ze-Jamz]

Short answer...YES

how someone can say overclocking a 2.8ghz CPU to a 3.8ghz CPU doesnt make any difference is mad..

just make sure you have adequate cooling, that doesnt mean you need water cooling either, i have a CM storm case with 3 fans blowing and sucking aswell as the CPU fan obviously and its OK o/c my Phenom 6 core 2.8 up to 3.5 and its stable without having to worry about extra volts..

i5 very over clockable to 4/4.5ghz from a 3.3ghz
AMD 1100t Black edition is very over clockable which would also do those frequencys..

most Mobos allow you to O/C easily but when you adjust your Cpu frequesncys it will adjust your Ram frequencys too so do your home work:

I have G-Skill 1600mhz Ram that i can only run at 1333Mhz stable when overclocking my Cpu with my particular Mobo-Gigabyte 890GPA (some vary obviously)

[Flyby]

Actually, yes I am speaking about overclocking the CPU. I'm focused on whether or not overclocking would help a complex sim like CLoD. I was looking for some before-and-after data here, if anyone has some to offer up. They guys over at [H]ardOCP test video cards on an x58 board, overclocking the i7-920 to 3.6ghz to "remove the CPU bottle neck". That site has not tested CLoD and may never.
So, I should have posed the question like this: "How much has CLoD benefited from overclocking your processor?" Also is there a point of diminishing returns? As I've said, some guys here are running at over 4ghz. How much more responsive is CLoD to 4+ghz versus <4ghz?
Ought to be revealing. ;). The answers may help me decide on buying a new processor or keeping the old (un-used) 920
Flyby out
thanks guys

[maclean525]

For "games" that don't use much CPU no it doesn't make much of a difference. For sims though, that are very CPU intensive, it makes a HUGE difference. On one of my sims I see a 50% frame rate increase going from stock on my i7 (3.06) to 4.0GHz.

[sg1221]

I think it can help some , but not nearly as much as it did in the " old days ".
I remember overclocking an $89.00 Celeron processor to run as fast as a $900.00 Pentium II back in the 90's. It ran flawlessly for a couple years and allowed me to play games I would not have been able to run otherwise.

Todays multicore processors are all pretty powerful IF the game you are playing USES them properly. You need to approach overclocking with the knowlege that damage is possible so if you can't afford to replace your motherboard and or
processor you might not want to risk it. CPU's are kinda like fingerprints , no two
are exactly alike , some will overclock easily others won't.

[Buchon]

Watch out guys.

No one wants a wave of newbies burning theirs PCs.

[l3uLLDoZeR]

Flyby your current CPU is known to be a good overclocker and the performance might be worth it. I learned tons from HardForum and those guys really know what they are talking about. The I920 will require a little more work to overclock than say the new I5/7 2500k and 2600k. Those new ones with ONE CLICK in the bios you're at 4-4.2ghz..and a p67 or z68 motherboard. They made it simple for noobs..pros can still get them up to 5ghz manually with air cooling.
You will have to go into the bios and manually change clock speeds and maybe voltage on your setup. You could probably get 3.5-3.8ghz outta that 920 with little effort. If you use the stock intel cpu cooler you need to upgrade so you dont over heat the chip. This is basic but its probably worth the little effort involved!

[Flyby]

Thanks for the added replies, all. I've been out of the PC-building game for a while, but I know the i920 will reach at least 3.6 with air cooling and a good quality CPU cooler. It's a bit more work, as DoZeR says, but seems fairly do-able. I've though to sell it and buy an i2500K, just to more comfortably hit higher clocks. Plus, even when overclocking the 2500K, the power draw is substantially lower than the 920, not to mention that you can singularly focus on just overclocking the CPU. Apparently CLoD doesn't support or need hyperthreading either, and the 2500K doesn't have that feature. Too bad no crystal ball for what the future holds for gaming requirements, but if HT were to be a requirement, there's always the 2600K lurking. As I mentioned, the 920 has never been used, so maybe I'll find a buyer on the tech forums elsewhere.
thanks again!
Flyby out

[l3uLLDoZeR]

You know whats up flyby...the 2500k is the best choice, low power and higher overclock. It's kinda something you have to choose which route to go.

Be warned microcenter sells the I7 960 for $199, thats gonna push the value of your "new" 920 down. Unless you plan on running more than 2 graphics cards the 2500k is the way to go!

[MadTommy]

This is a post i made on the DSC forum...

I'd thought i'd share some info for anyone interested or doubting the performance a modest overclock can give you.

I'm running a modest overclock, a dual core E8400. Default it runs at 3Ghz, 18 months ago i overclocked it to 3.6Ghz. Very stable, no overheating, no fancy cooling.

A few days ago my BIOS reset itself without myself noticing, and set it back to factory default. (removed the overclock). This coincided with the latest Warthog patch release. Installed the patch and was getting terrible performance. My fps had reduced by 50%. Naturally i initially thought it was the patch. I reduced graphics setting but it made no difference. I was now getting 15 fps dropping to 5 every now and again, when i had been always been between 25 - 60 fps.

I noticed my overclock had been removed.. reinstated it through my BIOS save setting feature and my fps increased by about 70%!!! I went from getting 15 to 45fps on the exact same mission! From a 0.6 Ghz increase!!

My cpu is my bottelneck but i was amazed, i had, to be honest, never realise what a boost it was giving me in A10c.

My rig for reference.
E8400 stock 3Ghz - overclocked to 3.6 Ghz.
GTX 480 (1.5GB)
4 GB Ram (1066)
x-fi extreme music
SSD HD

All game settings on High except Water & Traffic on Medium.

Getting overclocking people!!!

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

One of the best places to lurk and learn about overclocking is at www.overclock.net.

[Flyby]

I last visited the site in July of last year. I'd forgotten about it! A great resource for sure.
Flyby out

[Codex]

Well I used to "overcook" ;)


Even with manufactures now engineering their hardware to perform at “overcooked” specs, they still won’t provide a warrantee if you do over clock them. Plus, I personally hate the smell of burning plastic in the house and the sight of smoke coming from by PC. I won’t do that again … LOL


I now religiously pay for the best performance rather than try and make a lower spec’d component perform at a higher specs.

[louisv]

I overclocked my quad core from 2.66 to 3.2 GHz and fps in FSX was boosted by the same proportions.

If the graphics card is the bottleneck, like in most non-sim games, it will not happen until you change the card.

Know your bottlenecks...

[AndyJWest]

Hopefully, I'll be able to find out for myself when the custom build from Scan I've ordered finally arrives: an i7/950 system, overclocked to 3.80GHz from 3.06GHz. If it doesn't make any noticeable difference, I'll probably turn the overclocking off. No point in toasting the system for a few FPS, and this beast is going to use quite enough power anyway.

(Incidentally, if anyone else is thinking of ordering a system from Scan, don't take their estimated delivery times too seriously - they seem to work on Oleg time, and '10 working days' seems to equal a month. I'd have been prepared to accept this anyway if they'd been more realistic, but it is irritating to have to be given overoptimistic estimates time and again.)

[patrat1]

Actually, yes I am speaking about overclocking the CPU. I'm focused on whether or not overclocking would help a complex sim like CLoD. I was looking for some before-and-after data here, if anyone has some to offer up. They guys over at [H]ardOCP test video cards on an x58 board, overclocking the i7-920 to 3.6ghz to "remove the CPU bottle neck". That site has not tested CLoD and may never.
So, I should have posed the question like this: "How much has CLoD benefited from overclocking your processor?" Also is there a point of diminishing returns? As I've said, some guys here are running at over 4ghz. How much more responsive is CLoD to 4+ghz versus <4ghz?
Ought to be revealing. ;). The answers may help me decide on buying a new processor or keeping the old (un-used) 920
Flyby out
thanks guys

the black death track and all the stock quick mission have nearly the same FPS regardless if im running at 3.7ghz or 4.5ghz on my i5 2500k.

that being said, ive found that if i run a custom mission with over 100 planes in the air, 4.5ghz gives me a min fps of 20 over land, while with 3.7ghz im in the single digits.

hope this helps.

[RE77ACTION]

Watch out guys.

No one wants a wave of newbies burning theirs PCs.

I think that Intel and AMD wouldn't mind... ;)

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Well I used to "overcook" ;)


Even with manufactures now engineering their hardware to perform at “overcooked” specs, they still won’t provide a warrantee if you do over clock them. Plus, I personally hate the smell of burning plastic in the house and the sight of smoke coming from by PC. I won’t do that again … LOL


I now religiously pay for the best performance rather than try and make a lower spec’d component perform at a higher specs.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, as I'm honestly curious, how in the world do you fry a system while overclocking? I've been overclocking since the AMD Thoroughbred days and never myself or known anyone personally who has fried anything. What happened? What did you do, and did you find out where it went wrong?

[335th_GRAthos]

I bet it was a GeForce 6800 which refused to go Ultra.... :)

[Rattlehead]

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, as I'm honestly curious, how in the world do you fry a system while overclocking? I've been overclocking since the AMD Thoroughbred days and never myself or known anyone personally who has fried anything. What happened? What did you do, and did you find out where it went wrong?

I can only imagine some people go too crazy with their voltages, not knowing the harm they're doing.
But personally I've also never had anything actually stop working as a result of overclocking, not permanently anyway.
(I did see some smoke coming from my old PC once, which was alarming, after a particularly stressful overclock. :-P)

Nowadays I just leave everything at factory settings...

[Osprey]

I bought my i5 2500K with the express desire to OC it. Haven't done it yet tho'

[TonyD]

I can only imagine some people go too crazy with their voltages, not knowing the harm they're doing.
But personally I've also never had anything actually stop working as a result of overclocking, not permanently anyway.
(I did see some smoke coming from my old PC once, which was alarming, after a particularly stressful overclock. :-P)

Nowadays I just leave everything at factory settings...

I did once, but pre-Thoroughbred days. My son had a Duron 1 GHz in an A7V mobo that I was trying to get to 1.2 GHz, but pushed the FSB too far for the LAN controller (yeah, I know, it shouldn’t have been plugged in at the time :-P ). I had to settle on 1150 MHz using a modified multiplier (remember the pencil trick?) which was a nice improvement over stock.

In reality there’s not a lot to gain making your cpu run faster, particularly in relation to game performance. There are some circumstances where you will see a difference, but I feel that the risks outweigh the relatively small improvement achieved. These days with unlocked multipliers it’s a lot easier, but there’s still a possibility of over-doing it, and you will only find that out too late. And it’s not necessarily the cpu that will fail, more likely something on the mainboard (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-p55-motherboard,2436-15.html)

Running components faster and/or at higher voltages than specified will shorten their life, but by how much is anyone’s guess. A mate ran an over-clocked GeForce 7800 reliably for nearly a year before it suddenly died, but we never established why.

I suggest that unless you know what you are doing and understand the risks involved, don’t over-clock! It could otherwise be an expensive lesson.

[Honeymonster]

It really depends on what your overclocking and how it scales.

For example my Q6600 GOSLACR (A known good overclocking chip) has been running for well over 2 years with over a 40% overclock with zero issues, a very small voltage increase and sensible temps.

I successfully overclocked a GTX460 (another known good overclocker) to simply stunning speeds with a massive improvement in performance using basic software.

However my latest aquisition a 5870 scales very badly with an overclock. It needs loads of voltage, gets very hot and makes little or no improvement.

The best option is to search the overclocking community and find out what's hot and what's not.

So yes IMO overclocking is well worth the effort with the right hardware and lots of testing but it's not for everyone. You really need a basic grasp of what you're doing or at least some good instructions.

My success has always showed on my 3dmark scores and been very noticeable in game.

I've never melted or damaged anything but once you start modifying voltages have no doubt it's more than possible.