Will CPU overclocking yield significantly higher FPS in games?

Engram

Engram

Engram

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6 Jul 2004
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Hi,

I've been running some benchmarks on my PC in preparation for some overclocking. However, I'm starting to wonder if overclocking will help my game performance.

I've tried the Uniengine benchmark and a Crysis Warhead timedemo and neither seem to put a lot of stress on the CPU. It's all on the GPU. The Uniengine benchmark only uses 25%. (I do realise that there's no AI, physics etc. but even the Crysis benchmark only uses about 60%).

On the other hand the CPU does get involved in sending data to and from the GPU...

So what do you guys reckon? Is it worth the effort? I'm not interested in synthetic CPU benchmark increases; only in measurable FPS increases in games.

System spec:
Core 2 Duo E6850
Radeon HD4870 512MB
2GB PC-8500 (soon to be 4GB)

Bonus question:
Do games, such as Crysis, adjust their RAM usage based on the total amount of RAM installed? (Currently, with my 2GB, Crysis Warhead uses about 1.2GB).
 
it very much depends on the games, yes a higher OC will definetly give you a better fps, however some games are very CPU dependant for example Source Engine based games like CSS/L4D/TF2/HL2, GTA4, Crysis etc etc. do your homework first and check Processor Benchmarks.
Nowadays theyre converting games to use all 4 cores in quad core cpus instead of just 2, and since your OCing all the cores it will signifcantly boost fps
 
Thanks. I've looked up some benchmark results and I see your point. For some games it makes almost no difference but for others it does.

I guess I need to find a TF2 benchmark!
 
As already posted, the effect of CPU overclocking on FPS varies on the game and how bad the CPU is to start with.

I have an E2160 and Crossfire'd 4850s (don't ask)...

Mass Effect (with 8xAA and 16xAF @ 1280x768) is not really playable once I get a load of baddies on screen because the stock CPU can't handle the load. Bumped up to 3.5GHz, and I have no framerate problems.

The same goes for X3: Reunion.

Crysis, on the other hand, is massively dependent on GPU power and only improves noticeably when I overclock my GPUs and their associated memory.
 
Hmmm.. sounds like I shouldn't base my benchmarking on Crysis Warhead then.

Anyone know the answer to my memory question? Or, is there anyone here with 4GB RAM who remembers how much memory Crysis Warhead took?
 
CPU overclocking will only give you more FPS if the GFX card can use the extra bandwidth. eg.. If a GFX card can process 5GB/sec and the CPU is only delivering 4GB sec at it's current clock speed then yes overclocking will gain you some performance.
but if the CPU is already delivering 6GB/sec bandwidth then you will see no gains.
 
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