Should I Overclock My PC?

Rowan88

Rowan88

Rowan88

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Glasgow
Hi,

I currently have the specs located in my signature. I can play games reasonably well at the moment, no problems to be honest.

But is it worth me overclocking my PC to get that extra power from my CPU and GPU with the new games coming out in the next month or so?

I was told my GPU was good because if I overclocked it then it was the same standard as a card that was £80+ more at the time because it used the same hardware.

What do you think I should do?

In terms of cooling I still have the two stock fans on my case and the BeQuiet CPU Cooler. Apart from that it sits on top of a table near a window with plenty of clearence space.

Thanks

:)
 
You can overclock your cpu but it's already fast. I got my I7 4770k at 4.5 with h100i. In games you would see from 5-10 average fps improvement and minimum too but dont know how much exactly in minimum fps. Please note that overclocking haswell processors it's silicone lottery. This cooler should handle 4.2ghz overclock.

Just remember when overclocking your cpu do not exceed 1.3v and temperature of 80 Celsius degrees under prime95 for 24/7. Lastly note overclocking gives you performance boost but it decreases lifespan of cpu and increase heat output so higher temps
 
Rowan88 said:
Hi,

I currently have the specs located in my signature. I can play games reasonably well at the moment, no problems to be honest.

But is it worth me overclocking my PC to get that extra power from my CPU and GPU with the new games coming out in the next month or so?

I was told my GPU was good because if I overclocked it then it was the same standard as a card that was £80+ more at the time because it used the same hardware.

What do you think I should do?

In terms of cooling I still have the two stock fans on my case and the BeQuiet CPU Cooler. Apart from that it sits on top of a table near a window with plenty of clearence space.

Thanks

:)
Click to expand...

i don't see why you wouldn't mate, it's free extra performance really, plus it's fun to fiddle with as we are all enthusiasts aren't we?
 
Why would you buy a K series cpu and Z series motherboard if not to be able to overclock? If you had no intention of clocking then you could have saved a load of money with a non K series cpu and a B85/H81 motherboard. Get it clocked. 4.2Ghz should be easy enough, after that it depends on the silicon lottery as to how good the cpu is. It's just a case of setting the multiplier to 42x, sync all cores and adding voltage, 1.25v should do the job. If it is stable increase the multiplier another notch and retest. If stable keep going until it becomes unstable at which point you will have to add more voltage. Keep checking temps!!
 
Thanks for the replies.

I mainly boughty Z and K equipment because it was recommended to me here (or because I liked the aesthetics lol).

I will give a go at overclocking my PC today. I supose I will start with the CPU since I have a nice big CPU cooler.

As for the GPU is it okay to overclock that when all I really have are stock fans in the case and on the card? Should I not have some sort of extra measure before doing that?


Also is the speed difference worth the extra heat and noise that will be generated?
 
I'm not sure if this is the right setting I done but I went into my BIOS and under Performance I changed it to 100% but it was blue screening (think it went to 4.8GHz lol). I changed it down to 40% and its booted into windows and in CPUZ it showed:

4.2GHz and x44 multiplier with around 1.4v... but the weird thing is now it has just changed to 799MHz with x8 and 0.9v.

Does that mean I need to lower it again as its unstable?

How can I change the settings manually rather than the 20/40/60/80/100% increase selection in the bios?
 
Now I reallyneed help.

I changed the voltage to 1.24v and saved. When the computer restarted it black screens with a white cursor and I can't get into the BIOS!!

How can I fix this :(
 
Sorry for the constant post but panic averted :)

I took out the CMOS battery and reset it back to default all is working fine.

Everything I looked up there said I had fried my CPU so I was panicing lol.

I see the bit on the BIOS for changin the voltage to just under 1.25 but I don't see the other stuff to change :(
 
Rowan88 said:
I'm not sure if this is the right setting I done but I went into my BIOS and under Performance I changed it to 100% but it was blue screening (think it went to 4.8GHz lol). I changed it down to 40% and its booted into windows and in CPUZ it showed:

4.2GHz and x44 multiplier with around 1.4v... but the weird thing is now it has just changed to 799MHz with x8 and 0.9v.

Does that mean I need to lower it again as its unstable?

How can I change the settings manually rather than the 20/40/60/80/100% increase selection in the bios?
Click to expand...

The CPU will change clock speeds because of speedstep. This automatically reduces the CPU clock speed and voltage when the CPU load is low to save power, reduce noise and increase the lifespan of your processor. Once the CPU load increases it will go back to whatever speeds you've set it to.

I'm not used any recent Gigabyte board so not sure about their BIOS layout, but if you want a quick and dirty OC you can pretty much just find the 'CPU Ratio' setting and change it to 40-42 and leave everything else on auto. If it boots fine then start checking the stability and your load CPU voltages. If it's stable you'll want to look at applying a negative offset voltage. if it isn't stable then the real tinkering starts :p

There's plenty of settings you can tweak down the line for a better OC, but for just getting started the CPU ratio and voltage will pretty much get you going on these modern CPU's.
 
Ok I changed the CPU Clock Ratio to 42 and the VCore Voltage to 1.247v

Does this look right then?

80c415de_o.jpeg


So now all I need to do is run Prime95 and make sure it doesn't crash and thats my CPU correctly boosted up to 4.2GHz?
 
Prime95 uses AVX coding that will really heat up Haswell so the temps you get when running it will be much higher than normal day to day use. Keep a close eye on them.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I was told that overclocking is luck of the draw. I could do everything right and run a stress test and fry my CPU. Is that true?
 
Rowan88 said:
Thanks for the replies.

I was told that overclocking is luck of the draw. I could do everything right and run a stress test and fry my CPU. Is that true?
Click to expand...

No you wont fry your CPU.
Modern CPU's protect themselves.

If they get too hot they throttle the clocks down.
If they get really hot they shut down to protect themselves.

To fry one you would have to subject it to very high voltage and extreme clocks.
Not thinking of going for world records on LN2 at 2V+ vcore are you ?
 
I have exactly the same CPU, Mobo and Cooler.

I run a simple overclock using Linus Tech Tip's video on this:


I booted straight on at 4.6Ghz with that simple voltage adjustment and running AIDA64 temps were no higher than mid 70's. Prime95 seemed to go way above this into the 90's. Advise against testing with Prime95. Start to knock back the voltage from here and when you cant get into windows up it a notch or two.

Ofcourse, a lot of knowledge here but the vid above will give you a holding hand.

Regards,

Shawrey.
 
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