How much to push overclocks...

krisboats

krisboats

krisboats

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Joined
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Loughborough
Hey guys, so i've just built my new system up and it seems a bios these days has a lot more in the way of options than my old q6600 ever did.

As it stands i have the 2500k at 4.5ghz and the graphics card has been bumped from 925 to 1190 on the core. Its all in a single cooling loop going:

Pump>GPU>120 rad>cpu>240mm rad>res

Temps after hours of gaming and benchmarks/furmark/prime95 never get higher than 56 degrees on the cpu and never more than 45 degrees on the gpu.

Should i be looking to squeeze any more out of it given the lower temps or am i at the point where the gains aren't worth the extra heat/voltages that will be required? I had to bump the gpu voltage to 1240 instead of 1172 to stop that stalling in 3dmark and to be artifact free in furmark.

Openhardware monitor reports that my cpu never goes above 1.344v and i've got it set to offset mode with a +0.2 setting (off the top of my head). I have to say i've not fully read up on all these extra settings to get my head round what they all do yet.

Any help/advice is massively appreciated.
 
Yeah sounds like ya have it nicely tuned already for day to day use. Theres a point where ya have to start adding silly voltage to get any gains, i think thats a good place to leave it for every day use.

If theres a game giving ya trouble and ya need a little more power to get a smooth framerate then ya could push the cpu to 4.6 and see what ya can get for the full 1.3v on the gpu, but otherwise i would enjoy the cool temps and low fan speeds.
 
The 2500k is fine at 4.5GHz. You wont get much higher without adding more and more voltage, and the extra couple of hundred Mhz will make very little difference.
 
If gaming you might get some gains out of GPU overclocking. Cause your temps are that low I'd push it as far as it will go.

CPU is fine at that frequency. You might get it further but it'll require a good chunk of voltage and probably won't help much.
 
Agreed, I run 4.5ghz @.1.25v but chip will do 4.8ghz for benchmarks.
However, it needs 1.4v to do it. & tbh, I tried gaming with it & noticed absolutely no difference.
 
Ah, that sounds absolutely grand then. my gpu can go higher, i've had it finish 3dmark at 1250 on the core but running 1.28v. I was reluctant to push it any further as i noticed some coil whine during the 3dmark runs, although i can't say i was listening for whine before the runs i just assumed it was a side effect of the overclock.

Looks like i'll be keeping it as is for now then. It's running everything really well to be honest. Crysis 3 was the slowest of the lot running at around 46fps on average. Very much playable unless i added v-sync. Everything else max's out at nice rates, fallout 4 was silky smooth so i figured if i come across any other games i'll get a second 7970 off members market and go crossfire for once.


So that brings me to my next question. I've had the same fans since i got my new case.... in 2007/8. xigmatek orange glowing things. The computer is noisey as hell and i'm in the market for something good on a radiator, but almost silent. Looks aren't too important so long as they aren't as fugly as the noctuas and i guess silly lights would be a bonus, but not essential. Any reccomendations and why? Ek vardars seem to get good youtube reviews... those or the corsair led static pressure series?

It'll be going on a 120 rad and a 240 rad.
 
I think Linus has designed some Noctuas, i havent seen them yet so i dunno if theyre still ugly but i would check.
 
BluD said:
I think Linus has designed some Noctuas, i havent seen them yet so i dunno if theyre still ugly but i would check.
Click to expand...

I think they were a limited run. Regardless Noctua are great but seriously overpriced. I had 3 but needed to buy 6 more for rads and the price made me look to alternates. Bought some Arctic Cooling F12s which were nearly as good noise to performance for £3 each.

Now I use 8 OcUK/Silverstone FQ121WC which are even better: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/thre...21wc-watercooling-radiator-fan-bu-023-sv.html

However topping out at 1800rpm makes them loud if run on 12v. So you'll need some way of controlling them.
 
Hey kris. I am not sure how to write you a PM on overclockers, so I looked up your last thread. Where havd you dissapeared man!? Hit me up on steam!
 
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