I think overclocking is way too much overrated!

Why build a hotrod you can only do the speed limit in?

First off your limiting factor in your system is that GTX 660 it will bottleneck the entire system no matter how much you overclock the 4790k your 3 fps gain is purely from the gtx 660 overclock cpu OC did nothing for the frames as it is being limited by your GPU.

In all seriousness though, performance CPU overclocks are rarely worth it....most games are GPU bound. I buy these parts more or less for the higher binned chips that can yield a cooler quieter system at stock clocks, and if I wish I can turn that sh!t up to 11 if I want the performance boost, however minimal, sometimes that 3 fps is enough to get smooth framerate in high detail settings.

Maybe if you played at 4k resolution with a 980 ti you would benefit because that CPU is pretty much best you can get for gaming as far as FPS is usually more dependent on the GPU not the CPU.

Also it highly depends on what games you play some games use cpu more than others.

It all i n what you want and do with the rig, some OC for a better gaming experience, (and I've seen much better increases in the Futuremark BMs), others want increased performance for regular apps, depending on the app, it can be a real timesaver when running faster

Unless you are running SLI and or 4k....none.

Yep, in the meantime can be looking at games and what is CPU intensive vs games that are more GPU intensive

At the rate technology moves in 5 months pascal will be around the corner so no need for 980ti.

Regarding your statements saying you overclocked your CPU successfully, yet you show no details of CPU OC stability, or any load temperatures you have reached at all, for all we know you could be barely stable and your CPU internally throttling to protect itself.

And when your CPU internally throttles the end performance is crippled, as far as your GPU OC the results of your OC are not going to produce and fantastic results and you show zero load temperature regarding that either.

So lets look at your spec list and see what might be the problem since you list not one temperature that could affect your OC outcome.

01) You bought a CPU that was actually OCd 400mhz out of the Intel factory door, now for future reference when you buy something Pre-Overclocked, Do Not Expect Much OC Headroom At All.

02) Nothing to say there.

03) If you were ruuning that memory at 2400mhz you were already OCing the CPUs memory controller and adding additional heat to the CPU.

04) I think that GPU has been covered well by the others in the thread.

05) No Comment.

06) Probably why you did not reveal any load temperatures since that AIO cooler barely competes with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

07) No Comment.

08) More than capable for your particular setup.

Now why don't you list some load temperatures so we can get a better idea on what's actually going on temperature wise?

None of us can read your mind, we have no idea how you even overclocked anything you overclocked because you do not say how you did it, did you use auto overclocking, did you BIOS OC partially taking control of some features and leaving others on Auto, or did you take full manual OC control in the BIOS?

(I seriously doubt you took full manual OC control in your BIOS)

You come across like you have spent an enormous amount of money to gain overclockable hardware that have in your opinion fallen short of their expected goals, when in actuality you did not!

If you want OCing performance you have got to keep it cool enough to reach those goals, but first you have to know what the goals are? and how to get there.

However you did get some performance increase because you said, "I ran 3D Mark 11 to see the performance gains, but they were minimal. My score went up by about 500 points, but the individual FPS gains were of about only 3 FPS for each test."

You didn't even post your 3D Mark 11 result, but did see a performance increase, so even in your hardware situation, you must have done something right to increase your total score 500 points?

Which by the way was probably from the Physics score increase of the CPU overclock!

The link below is to an overclocking study.

One of the CPUs used in the study is the i7-4790K, the study shows the various cooling solutions they used to reach each successful performance overclock level of the 4790K.

Reading over their results you can see just what to expect in overclocking performance gains from the 4790K vs the cooling solution you invest your money in.

http://lab501.net/intel-core-i7-4790k-intel-pentium-g3258-overclocking-study/