Making Fx 8120 into a 4 core

[Sam90]

Hi,I have bought the Fx8120 when it released and only recently tought of overclocking it.I was wondering since most games take up only 4 cores maximum,wouldnt it benefit to reduce the number of cores on the Fx8120 to 4?
I am not an expert in computers nor in overclocking but from what ive heard reducing the number of cores on the fx 8120 may allow for higher overclocking and in theory benefit gaming since you dont really need 8 core.
I realise that the fx 8120 along with its brothers is somewhat on the bad side of cpus but i dont have the money to buy another one so i want to get more performance from it.
Also i am curious if overclocking the cpu to lets say 4.0 Ghz+ would benefit my Radeon 7870.
Thanks for your time and patience with me

 

[Sam90]

I forgot to mention my motherboard:Gigabyte 970A-Ud3 and if its possible to achieve any sort of decent overclocking on it with a thermaltake contac 29.
Also i have the Thermaltake Overseer Rx-i case.

 

[HEXiT]

its unlikely to make any difference in performance , it may however reduce power draw and heat...

 

[noob2222]

In order to get any benefit you would have to disable odd cores aka 1/2 the module. Making it into a 4100 isn't beneficial at all.

 

[Sam90]

I understand.Thanks for the information.
Another question if i may....is the 970A-UD3 motherboard suited for overclocking and is the Thermaltake contac 29 cpu cooler enough to make it worthwhile?

 

[noob2222]

Id say you should be able to push around 4.4 with that cooler, might need to add the second fan if the temps get too high.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

You do realise you don't actually have eight cores?
You have four bulldozer modules, each of which has one 'real' core and one 'integer' which isn't a real core per se, but they work together as one module
you can't disable half a module, you could disable two of the four modules but there really is no point in castrating your processor,
I would also say to add that second fan, but yes, you can clock it up some, just leave your modules alone
Moto

 

[Sam90]

Thanks everyone for your advices.You have been most helpfull.