i5 3570k - OC for Gaming

[cameronmc88]

Hello,

I've recently been overclocking my chip to 4.2ghz and 4.4ghz (Haven't pushed further yet) just trying to see how much of an impact it has on gaming performance and the games that I've been trying is:

Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft

In WoW the difference from stock clocks to 4.4ghz was like 1 fps difference? if that, I think 4.2ghz was actually worse by 1 fps!
Haven't tested GW2 yet properly but it seems similar also, no major increase in FPS from CPU overclock.
Strange because I thought these two games were CPU-Intensive rather than GPU!

My question is,
Is it worth overclocking my CPU for gaming performance, like will it ever give me a huge increase in FPS like 5+ at least?
Going to 4.4ghz has given me 1 fps, if I hit 4.6ghz would that give me 2fps? haha

Anyway resolution is 1080p and using a HD 6870 graphics card.

Thanks.

 

[inzone]

The single most important part in a computer for gaming is the video card and it's the combination of the video card and cpu that give you what you get for gaming performance. So if you have a top shelf cpu and a mid-range video card then it will be harder to get top gaming performance.
In your case the 6870 is holding your performance up and instead of overclocking the cpu you dhould be overclocking your video card to keep up woth your cpu. Don't get me wrong I'm not bashing your video card anf it's a very good card but your cpu is much better.
So I would suggest leaving your cpu at 4.2 ghz or 4.4 ghz which ever is the more stable and overclock the video card and see hat you get for an increase in fps.

 

[cameronmc88]

So what your saying is.. the HD 6870 bottlenecks my CPU at 1080p? what if I had a 680 GTX or something along those lines, then would my stock CPU bottleneck the GTX 680 at 1080p?

 

[devilofdeaths]

So what your saying is.. the HD 6870 bottlenecks my CPU at 1080p? what if I had a 680 GTX or something along those lines, then would my stock CPU bottleneck the GTX 680 at 1080p?

no the 3570k is mid ranged top selection like its the best of mid ranged cpu's and the 680's are the same because a 680 is no where near a 690

 

[poweruser_24]

As you haven't said what FPS you are getting (min/avg/max), then its not really worth recommending anything.

If you have money to burn, sure, buy a 680 or a 690, or even 2 690's and you may get a few extra FPS, but then if you are getting a min fps of 30 avg of 60 and max of 60+, then there aint much point in throwing money down the drain. Especialy playing online games which can lag like anything due to the internet.

 

[cyxryan]

Im sure with your setup you are getting pretty good FPS as it is, am I right? You should leave your CPU at 4.2ghz.

 

[inzone]

So what your saying is.. the HD 6870 bottlenecks my CPU at 1080p? what if I had a 680 GTX or something along those lines, then would my stock CPU bottleneck the GTX 680 at 1080p?

If you switched out the 6870 for a 680 then your cpu and video card would be working together at the same level and neither one would bottleneck the other. If at that time you were to overclock your cpu then you should also overclock the video card to keep up. You also wouldn't have to overclock because you would be getting great fps from those two parts.

 

[cameronmc88]

Im sure with your setup you are getting pretty good FPS as it is, am I right? You should leave your CPU at 4.2ghz.

It's at 4.4ghz atm you think I should go back to 4.2?

 

[inzone]

If your 4.4 ghz is completely stable then there's no reason to go back to 4.2 ghz , I mean people overclock all the time and the only reason to go back is because of the system being unstable. So no keep your overclock and decide what you may want to do besides that.

 

[cameronmc88]

I've just ordered a HD 7870 video card to see if I can get a fair bit better performance for 1080p gaming, will leave CPU at 4.4ghz.

Now 4.4ghz isn't required for a HD 7870 right? I mean obviously stock i5 speeds won't bottleneck it. But keeping it at 4.4ghz will give me an overall system performance boost (Not just gaming) ?

 

[inzone]

Correct the 4.4 ghz is not required for the 7870 and the cpu that you have can run at stock speeds and not be a bottleneck for the 7870. If you got a second 7870 then you may have to overclock but that's a maybe. Yes to the overall system performance with the 4.4 ghz overclock.
You will notice a huge gaming performance increase with your new video card.
Good luck with it and enjoy.