Why do Gamers want to Overclock their CPU's ? - i just don't get it.

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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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I've ran 4 different benchmarks tonight using 3DMark11, identical hardware just different clocks to see what the actual overclocks did for my gaming PC.

Here are my findings:



it's disappointing that there's minimal difference in FPS going from 4.0Ghz - 4.4Ghz which makes me think i may as well stick with the 4.0Ghz clock

Why do Gamers want faster CPU's for current Games?

The biggest benefit was the GPU overclock +50Mhz core and +100Mhz Memory which resulted in a 5% increase for the Gfx Score when compared to an extra 1000mhz cpu clock resulted in a 21% increase in physics for near enough 30% CPU clock.

what am i not taking into consideration here - i must be missing something!?

 
Solution
D
It depends entirely on the game and even the part of some games. In the multiplayer campaigns of BF3 and BF4 for instance a CPU overclock may help significantly while in the single player campaign it may not help at all. Skyrim is a very CPU dependent game while other games will not give you a single extra frame per second with an overclock. An overclock also removes any possible CPU bottleneck.

Not all gamers use there systems entirely for gaming either and in other tasks an overclock can make a huge difference.
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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i completely understand your logic - everyone in this world wants the best value for money (in this case Ghz). i guess what my benchmarks have demonstrated for me (as a gamer) there's minimal difference in FPS based on the criteria i tested against.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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Please do and post your Physics, Gfx and overall results in a similar fashion.

i found adding an extra 400mhz per core (which results in extra voltage/heat) provided negligible benefits.

P.S lets stick to the topic its not a competition lol :)
 
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neon neophyte

neon neophyte

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thing is, the benchmark between one piece of software and the next will vary with the parts. although you may see no gains with a benchmarking utility there may by circumstances outside that where a faster cpu could make a difference.

you could measure everything you do, make sure the slower cpu speed isnt costing you any performance and sit happily knowing that your slower cpu isnt affecting you in any way. or. you could just clock it for all its worth and sit happily knowing you are definitely getting all you can, no extensive series of benchmarking required.
 
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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Well, i think your %'s are off. A stock 4670k will hit 3.8ghz just using it's own Boost technology or whatever it's called. So for your first comparison, you have a 200mhz overclock over stock, then 400mhz, then 600mhz. The physics scores proceed to show a good gain for each overclock, so I don't see a problem. Just because the gfx scores don't change much isn't actually indicative of what you'd see in FPS in an actual game. There are many instances of websites overclocking Cpu's to show you what your gain would actually be in a given title, and they all show a decent enough percentage that a goodly number of people do want to overclock.
 
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shadow32

shadow32

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Not a competition, I want to compare to a larger over clock. From 4.0 to 4.9 is a huge leap.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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it's an interesting point you make that we can all measure everything we do, i guess to develop this conversation a little further, i'm just calling out that in my situation where MANY people said go for the 4670K if i'm just gaming with a good gfx card.

Maybe i won't see the benefit from todays games i.e. BF4 but i will in the future ?? where's my crystal ball!
 
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It depends entirely on the game and even the part of some games. In the multiplayer campaigns of BF3 and BF4 for instance a CPU overclock may help significantly while in the single player campaign it may not help at all. Skyrim is a very CPU dependent game while other games will not give you a single extra frame per second with an overclock. An overclock also removes any possible CPU bottleneck.

Not all gamers use there systems entirely for gaming either and in other tasks an overclock can make a huge difference.
 
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PyjamasCat

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Yes, a 400MHz increase doesn't often bring a lot with it. Especially when your CPU can run the task with power to spare at stock already. All I see in my overclocks (CPU and RAM) is FPS stabilization (and bragging rights which I can upload/validate soon :p ). My PC less frequently flicks up and down of 60FPS (my monitor refresh rate) and almost never stutters. My actual performance increase from RAM and CPU was between 0 - 20FPS in various games with vsync off.

For the extra heat, I think it is totally worth it. (Who can't resist buttery frame rates with glorious detail and resolution?)
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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Your absolutely right around the boost to 3.8 and i forgot about this when doing my maths, great shout.

Why are the scores not indicative of a game ? i thought it's purpose was to test the performance of your PC.

not that i have an "extreme system" but they do say that some of their tests are designed for extreme gaming pc's which i thought would be indicative of how my pc would perform with everything thrown at it i.e. simulating future software based on current limitations.

i guess my overall assessment of my benchmarks on my system using this software have resulted in me asking the question 'whats the point?

thanks for the input dude.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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great will be an interesting read, don't get your hopes up though as my top clock was 600mhz faster than the 3.8 (including the boost) and it made 1fps difference lol
 
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Turbo Boost is related to core activity. 3.5Ghz with 4 cores, 3.6Ghz with 3 cores, 3.7Ghz with 2 cores and 3.8Ghz with one core active.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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Interesting points there fella. so software dependent...

i completed skyrim on the xbox 360 and wished i waited to play it on this PC i've just built as it looks beautiful.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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i love smooth FPS, shame my monitor only does 60! 120hz monitors need to be cheaper!



is that extreme or normal fire strike? if extreme, why the hell didn't i buy an AMD or slower GPU! :) (or in this case faster?) ;)
 
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Synthetic benchmarks are just that, synthetic. An FX 8xxx chip needs to be at 4.5Ghz+ to compete with your CPU at stock speed in gaming. No fanboyism in that statement just cold hard facts.
 
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shadow32

shadow32

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Truth, coming from an AMD fan.

And, I just ran the regular free 3D mark 11


-------------------------------------------------

FX 8350 @ 4.0 Ghz
HD 7850 1GB @ 1050

Physics Score 7152

Graphics Score 7095

Combined Score 6515


------------------------------------------------------


FX 8350 @ 4.9 Ghz 23% increase
HD 7850 1GB @ 1050

Physics Score 8231 15% increase

Graphics Score 7104 1% increase

Combined Score 7521 15% increase
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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That's why i asked the question to get the facts.There's no games out there (which i know of / play) which don't run in in the region of 60fps minimum which is nice. i guess i can always use a higher o/c profile in the future for specific game requirements IF that software would benefit from the extra CPU speed.
 
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Jonathan Cave

Jonathan Cave

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Same situation with you then, negligible gfx score differences as a result of a 900mhz overclock.

must just be the software! nice to see the physics making a solid transformation though.

same there's no fps info.
 
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Michael Mansour

Michael Mansour

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Im running an fx 8320 with a full 1ghz overclock, also have a gtx 760 here are my scores:
GFX:8100
Physics:7728
Combined: 6576
 
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