Phenom II X4 940, overclocking questions

[Fkscott17]

So I have the 940, currently I'm running at stock speed. I've never really overclocked before, but I do know that this CPU is a great for it. I'm just kind of a novice when it comes to overclocking. I'm currently reading through many guides so that I will actually know what I'm doing should I go ahead and overclock. I use my computer for gaming, and web browsing. So what I would like to know, will overclocking even make a difference in my games? If not, then I'd rather not even bother with it to keep power consumption down. If it will give me a significant boost though, I'd like to. I've read that around 3.6 can be safely achieved on the stock fan, that seems like a great increase but is it worth it for me if I'm just going to be playing games such as Call of Duty,Crysis, Mass Effect? Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[EXT64]

First off, what cooler are you using? The 940 is a pretty powerful (in both senses) chip, and a moderate OC will definitely need good cooling.

 

[Fkscott17]

I'm using the stock fan and heatsink. Every review and article I have read said that it was sufficient in keeping the 940 cool when overclocked up to around 3.6 GHz. I just want to know if going above 3.0GHz will give me a boost in gaming, and if so a large or a small. If say it only gets me 5 or 10 more fps, it won't really be worth it for me to overclock.

 

[EXT64]

What GPU do you have? It also depends on the game, resolution, etc. (whether CPU or GPU bound).

 

[buzznut]

Yeah, I agree with ext64 it really depends on what you are after. Most enthusiasts do it for the same reason a climber go up a mountain-because they can. We (Toms people) all pretty much have machines that can run anything at stock speeds.

Its really about getting the most for your investment, and a little about bragging rights I suppose.
If you are on the fence, then it may not be the best idea for you. But the graphics and cpu manufacturers are making overclocking a cinch these days.

I recommend you download the latest version of AMD overdrive. play with adjusting the multiplier. run a benchmark like 3dmark06 or vantage first, then see how it improves after cranking it up a bit. Use the benchmark in AOD to check between tweeks. Use the stress test to see how your temps look under load. Then decide if you want to pursue further.

 

[buzznut]

Oh yeah, if you do become serious about oc'ing your rig, get an aftermarket HS like the Xigmatek 1283, or soemthing even better if REALLY serious!

 

[EXT64]

Also, I'd be a little nervous using the stock cooler for much more than stock. It is a decent cooler, but that is a lot of power for it to dissipate. If you do go that route, monitor temps very carefully. If it starts creeping into the high 50's (C), abort.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=509&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&f12=

 

[Fkscott17]

Thanks for all of the responses, I now have my answer. I found a great article about the 940 that went in depth of how well it overclocks. They ran a good number of benchmarks, heat and power consumption tests. In games the improvements were marginal, so I won't be overclocking. It's just not worth it to get a small boost yet increase the heat my CPU puts out and pull more power.

 

[apache_lives]

if you keep the v's down then you wont produce too much more heat or consume much more power

for games its more video card then cpu unless its a few select games like GTA4 etc

 

[EXT64]

One fun thing I did instead was undervolt. It easily went from 1.35V to 1.25V (and probably could have gone farther) which effectively made it a 95W part. However, if you do this you have to disable cool n quiet, so if you idle your computer a lot this will probably consume more power. For me it is mostly gaming, so it would be running at max normally anyway (and it was fun to do).