how much of a difference does clock speed make

what are your cpu and gpu clock speeds and temps whilst gaming, speedfan & cpu-z & GPU-Z will help. Immediate thought is a throttling issue.

4.4/3.4 = 1.294 = 29.4% faster (assuming perfect scaling and 100% cpu caused bottle-necking); so if you're getting 30 FPS @ 3.4ghz you'd probably get 38FPS @ 4.4ghz

Understand 4k and 1080p or even 720p all at the same graphic settings will affect the cpu about the same. the only variation will be whether the gpu is the bottleneck or not. so If people are getting 40fps in 4k with your setup, then they're probably overclocked to a moderate 4.4-4.5ghz on that cpu to manage it.

From the Intel ARK:
i7-6700: "Max Turbo Frequency.....4 GHz"

We're looking at a difference of 400-500 MHz between the overclocked cpu and stock boost clock of your cpu. In other words, the difference in clock speed is not even close to the culprit for someone getting nearly twice twice your frame rate. Overclocking never has been a game changer performance wise. While it does help, there has to be something else at play here.

How clean (software and hardware[dusty] ) do you keep your system? Any temperature problems?

I see nothing odd there at all, CPU util is good, CPU temp is good, gpu temp and util is good, gpu clocks are good, ram usage ok (not sure how much you have), page file useage on the first image looks wrong, way too high.

What are you power settings in windows, make sure max performance?It's no symptomatic of it, but could be.

latest drivers? clean uninstall of drivers and reinstall?

I will have to strongly disagree. CPUS aren't a zero sum game.

first of all intel's turbo technology does not work like you are suggesting, it's not an overclock, and the "max" turbo is only if 1 core is taking all the load, it's a one core turbo.

As to what I mean about a zero sum game. There are a number of things that load to the cpu for a game. but ONLY so many. so lets call that number X. so X number of things will need to be handled by a cpu. if the cpu's able to handle Y items, and Y<X, then the game will be cpu bound. if Y>X then the game will NOT BE CPU BOUND. Think of it as a wall to jump over. Some games are so badly coded that they'll always ask more no matter how fast the cpu, those are the cpu bound games people use as benching titles for new cpus; in those titles you are 100% correct. overclocking won't help you much, though if you think about it, the difference between a choppy 48fps and a smooth 60fps is only 25%, which would be the same as clocking up a 4ghz chip to 5ghz. (because these games are used for benching CPUS, you can be forgiven for thinking overclocking isn't much of a solution, as usually overclocks translate directly into fps gains)

For the not truly -cpu bound games there is a point where more power doesn't matter anymore. MOST games are like this. This is why a 4.7ghz piledriver can produce 60fps in pretty much 95% of games out there. there is a point where more cpu power will NOT translate into more fps. however if you're under that point the game may play quite poorly (usually these titles have some pretty critical, game crippling issues if the cpu isn't good enough).

Since draw calls and other issues =/= displayed FPS we can't simply say "well you're getting 50% less FPS then your friends with the same system, so it can't be resolved with overclocking. It may be those 20% overclocks those friends pcs have are enough to overcome the number of draw calls a game throws at a cpu, which will result in the game performing DRASTICALLY better then a 20% overclock may indicate likely. those same friends might try an overclocking competition, and further increase their clock speeds and see ZERO fps improvement. as their game was always GPU bound (since the cpu was already clocked up past the requirements)


NOW ON TO THE SPECIFIC ISSUE
-He needs an overclocked cpu. I know this is the problem because total war titles are UNIVERSALLY cpu bound titles. Total War Rome actually can tax an 8 core haswell-e. Those games rarely are taxing on gpus, they almost always beat the junk out of cpus, and they tend to be single core titles as well (meaning they play like junk on AMD cpus).

[strike]Thanks for the clarification. Honestly never knew there was a difference between Intel Turbo and an overclock. I always assumed it was a power saving feature that scaled the core clock (on all cores) up to the limit as the load demanded and heat allowed.

In that case.. Overclocking across all cores might just give you the extra performance you need to put you over the edge.[/strike]

@ingtar33:

I'm not convinced by your conclusion.

First of all, this

4.4/3.4 = 1.294 = 29.4% faster (assuming perfect scaling and 100% cpu caused bottle-necking); so if you're getting 30 FPS @ 3.4ghz you'd probably get 38FPS @ 4.4ghz

Click to expand...

seems like a useless abstraction. You recognize this yourself when you threw in the caveat: "assuming perfect scaling..." So I'm not sure why this mathematical comparison could stand as a useful metric.

Second,

it's not an overclock, and the "max" turbo is only if 1 core is taking all the load, it's a one core turbo.

Click to expand...

Intel Turbo Boost of 4.0GHz, while not equivalent to a 4.0GHz overclock, is closer than you seem to suggest. simonz93's PC does not have heating problems, and he just clean installed. He's provided the ideal environment for turboboost technology to perform as close to a manual overclock as possible.

Third,
The assumption that an overclocked CPU would perform better in Total War doesn't seem to be supported by any benchmark.
Anandtech Total War CPU Bench
PClab Total War CPU Bench
Units are FPS/s

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding some critical element, but I honestly don't see a CPU upgrade/overclock as a solution for simonz93's fps woes. I think Total War is just a mess of a game that no one gets >40FPS on.


@simonz93:
What FPS do you get in similarly CPU bound titles? Could you give us a broader picture of your system performance with fps from other games?
Also, could you refer us to the guy who gets 40FPS at 4K? Where are you getting this data? I'm not doubting it, I'm just curious if further investigation could reveal an underlying solution.

Lastly, make sure your GPU is set to max performance within Nvidia Control panel.

Haha that couldn't have been helping things!
It shouldn't make too much of a difference, low 80s isn't abnormal for GPUs. Low 90s and you might want to worry, and you'll start to see thermal throttling. Shouldn't run into anything with the temperatures you're at.

Yeah, I know it's a pain sometimes to enable/disable mods, but if you get the chance, trying without the reshade/ENB might give slightly more accurate numbers. Probably not worth the trouble though

Well... Prefer Maximum performance should always boost idle clock speed under use (outside of game). For instance, when handling webpages' hardware accelerated content. Though I'm surprised your temperatures are that high regardless.

Do you have multiple monitors, by chance?

Have you ever set up a fan profile for your GPU?

EDIT: "idle clock speed under use" what a redundant sentence I just typed. You know what I mean