Wondering about Overclocking

[Iceycold]

Hello guys, lately I've been wondering about overclocking.

First of all, does it show significant increases in game performance?

Assuming it does then here we go :

I am currently running a AMD Phenom 1055t 6 cores @ 2.8 Ghz with the stock fan. Can I even overclock with the stock fan? Or can I just overclock just a little bit? How do I overclock? What program do I use? Or do I do it through the bios?

Then I have a MSI Hawk NGTX460, the version with 2 fans. It's supposed to be the best gtx 460 to overclock with since the Twin Frozr Cooler fan it has. I currently have MSI Afterburner installed.

Thanks Guys, also new to forums so hello everybody !

 

[lowjack989]

Whoa !!!...Cool your jets turbo !!!...one thing at a time....and Welcome to TH Newcomer !!!

1) Yes you can OC with the stock fan ( not advisable )

2) You might get 3.0 GHz out of it with the stock cooler...For sure get an aftermarket cooler if your gonna be OCing

3) Since it is a locked CPU multiplier on that chip...you will be limited to OCing through the raising of the FSB frequency...So, first off read all the stickies at the top of the OC forum page here on Tom's...Second, It starts like this... The FSB is kinda like the volume button on the computer..It turns all of the components frequencies up using a multiplier for each...So, default FSB starts at 200 MHz....that chip has a x14 CPU multiplier which equals 2.8 GHz....i.e. 200x14=2.8 GHz....OK with that behind us comes the RAM....you will have to set the RAM clocks back to a lower frequency but, don't worry when you raise the FSB clock up it comes back to spec..I assure you...Example: Raise FSB to say 240 MHz, set the RAM back...say if you had 1600 RAM you would set it back to 1333 MHz...with the bus speed at 240 that will bring you RAM back to 1599MHz..with the CPU at 3.360 GHz .... Which is what the above OC settings equal....You will have to raise the vcore voltage up a little bit...OC in small voltage increments...The Object of OCing is to find the maximum clockspeed at the least amount of voltage while maintaining complete system stability.....The performance gains you will see depends on the Game being played as far as performance increases are concerned with OCing. Whew...that was long winded....I hope it helps...

4)BIOS

5)See #4

 

[Iceycold]

Yeah, thanks for ALL the info man much appreciated.

So what I'll do is I'll hold till I get an aftermarket cooler for my 1055t.

Do you think overclocking only the graphics card make much a difference overall?

 

[lowjack989]

No OCing the GPU , your not gonna see much if any improvment from the stock clocks maybe 2-5% increase in FPS if your lucky

 

[Iceycold]

Ah well then till I do get aftermarket cooling we'll see.

LOL, I waited a long time for gaming PC, then when I finally build one, 2 weeks later the GTX TI's come out, and the sandy bridge... lol I was so mad. But oh well. I guess I did pretty good choices it was a $1k budget build. I bought this back in February of this year

This is the whole build :

CoolerMaster HAF 922
AMD Phenom 1055t Six Cores @ 2.8 Ghz
MSI Hawk GeForce GTX 460 1GB
CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W 60A Modular
Lite-ON 24x DVD/Reader/Writer
1.5TB (1,500 GB) Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive
G Skill Ripjaws 4GB Ram 1600MhZ
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Motherboard

So I was just hoping overclocking would hold me off for a few more months..

 

[lowjack989]

Not bad I got that board its really stable on the FSB up to 300 MHz...I am not saying try it ...I am saying that I tested it out on my set-up and it ran stable at 300 MHz FSB...granted the OC wasn't that good...I currently have three of these MOBO's one in the RMA process at ASUS at the moment...I can't say enough about how stable and easy it is to OC with....BTW...When you start OCing disable C1E and the Cool-n-Quiet feature in BIOS...and set all voltages manually like the NB set it to between 1.1 - 1.2v do not exceed 1.25v....the reason to set the voltage manually instead of leaving them on auto is that when OCing auto tends to try to compensate voltage for the OC improperly, and in turn can fry your board namely the NB on that board just make sure to set it at those values I gave you and you shouldn't have a problem with NB voltages at all HT voltage should be set to the same 1.1-1.2v

 

[Iceycold]

Ahh that's great to know once I do OC with it.. Well thanks for now, definitely helped me a lot, before I came here I thought you overclocked with those cheesy programs, but I guess it's through the BIOS, which makes more sense overall.

 

[lowjack989]

BIOS OCing is the only way to OC....Glad I could help...remember to pick a best answer so the thread can be closed.

 

[cuecuemore]

You can get a significant OC out of the Hawk, 15-20% increase if you do it right. And that's over the factory clocks, which are already 15% higher than stock. So overall 1.15 x 1.15 = 32% increase over stock.

 

[lowjack989]

Yeah, but the amount of the OC on the GPU is not proportional to performance gains i.e. fps increases...real world a 32% clock boost might give yo an 8-10% increase in fps which equals: 30fps+10%=33 fps...So not a real big improvement there if you take into account the extra heat generated

 

[cuecuemore]

You just haven't overclocked a GTX 460, have you?

 

[lowjack989]

Are you for real.....I have actually...but thats not the point....I already made my point...Sorry, you have convinced yourself that 32% OC on the graphic card equates to a 32% increase in performance...I guess this HAWK card suppose to be an exception to the rule because you own one or want one or know someone that has one, or your just a brainwashed fanboy

 

[cuecuemore]

Here's how it goes: assuming no system bottleneck before the GPU, performance will increase in a linear fashion as you overclock your GPU. Now, of course, there is the possibility of bottlenecking within the GPU, most simply put, either by the core or the VRAM. Assuming no VRAM limitation, core overclocking will give you linear gain until the VRAM or some component that's feeding the GPU becomes the limiting factor. Some games are very core-limited by a stock GTX 460; others are VRAM limited. This depends on a multitude of factors: texture resolution, lighting, objects, AA, resolution, ad inf., will all change the balance of how video processing resources are being used. But if you identify/eliminate all other bottlenecks (which isn't terribly hard to do) you can get linear scaling from a core overclock.

 

[lowjack989]

No way that a 32% increase would equate to 32% in fps i.e.= 30 would equal 39 fps....9 fps extra I just don't see that happening....40fps=42.8.....50fps=66fps....60fps=79fps...70fps=92fps...80fps=105.6 fps I just don't see that as feasible in the real world...with a 32% clock increase

 

[4Ryan6]

Best answer selected by 4ryan6.nnSorry OP, I did that for my own reasons.

 

[4Ryan6]

This topic has been closed by 4ryan6