Is OverClocking Worth it ? My budget system

Is Overclocking worth it ? That is a big question people new to overclocking want to know . So today I am going to run a bunch of benchmarks to see what the results are .

Some background info on me , I have been playing with PC’s and electronics for most of my life . I have overclocked most systems I have ever had even my Pentium I 200mmx was clocked at 233. I have never killed a CPU from overclocking (in the safe limits ) most things I have killed were from hard vmods , IHS removals ( then cracking the cores ) .

In the beginning of my overclocking days I used it as a way to get close to the Top End CPUs on a budget . Then it later evolved into loving benchmarking . Now it extends the life of my components from the extra speed . My upgrade path follows this logic , “ It is time to upgrade when the stock new processors are faster than my overclocked chip “ we are getting closer to that next step for me but I don’t feel that were are there yet .


I went through the games I owned and found which ones have in game benchmark programs .
I will be testing
Bioshock Infinite
Crysis 2
Far Cry 2
Hitman Absolution
Just Cause 2
Metro 2033 Redux
Metro Last light redux
Cinebench r15
Superpi 1m / 32m
Real Bench
Unigine Heaven
Unigine Valley
Aidia 64



My system is
Win10
Intel 4670k
Gigabyte Ga-z97x-ud3h-bk
Kingston Hyperx Furry 2x8 1600mhz ( HX31610FBK2/16 )
Asus 950GTX 2gig
Samsung 850 Evo 500gig
Cooling will be high end water Heatkiller IV copper and 5x120mm total radiators.

Benmarks will be run @ stock ( I will go into bios and load optimized profile on my MB this runs me @ 3.8 vs real CPU stock @ 3.4 IDK why my MB does this ) GFX card at stock as well . As well as overclocked 47x Multi on core 42x multi on uncore memory @ 1866 10-10-10-30-1T. GFX card with +200mhz oc on GPU and +400mhz on vram .


Bioshock Infinite

Crysis 2 Central Park Map

Crysis 2 Down Town Map


Crysis 2 Time Square Map


Far Cry 2


Hitman Absolution


Just Cause 2


Metro 2033 Redux


Metro Last light Redux


Cinebench R15


SuperPi


Real Bench


Unigine Heaven


Unigine Valley


Aidia 64





As you can see the overclocked system wins in every setting . In my opinion it is well worth the time ( and fun ) to overclock any system you have.

I will be adding Bf1 to this when I find a run I can duplicate that Im happy with .

I would like to see this article on our front page.

You clearly spent a lot of time on this Console. I wouldn't mind seeing this as a featured thread.

Blaylock said:

You clearly spent a lot of time on this Console. I wouldn't mind seeing this as a featured thread.

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Agreed!

Overclocking is the way to go unless you spend too much on high-end equipment to do it. When I started at the original Overclockers in 1999, the idea was to take a cheap CPU/Mobo/RAM combo and overclock it to perform as well or better than a high-end stock system a rich guy might buy. Today it seems many hobbyists spend top dollar for the highest overclock and end up spending big bucks. If you spend $250 on the mobo when you could have spent just $100, another $250 on water cooling when a decent air cooler is only $50, and then $200 on high-end RAM when decent RAM is only $100, then you've paid $700 vs. only $250. It makes no economic sense to do that. Just take the $450 you've saved on the cheaper mobo/cooler/RAM combo and get a better video card, SSD, monitor, whatever and you're better off overall.

Crysis was rig destroyer alone many didn't have that GPU power let alone Metro that kinda looked cool/alright.

RJ88

In the old days, manufactures didn't check to see how much headroom chips had. Often they left a lot of clock headroom "on the table". Conversely, sometimes a manufacture would underclock a chip to meet a specific demand. Guys like us would work hard to find those chips and get a lot more from them. Now days, manufactures test each chip then brand them according to the speed that they can reach leaving less room for us to OC. It can still be done and there is where the fun is.

don256us said:

I would like to see this article on our front page.

Click to expand...

I would be fine with that need some help probly cleaning up some graphs in the ocforum style and charts dont need to be ss but didnt know how to make them any other way .

I for one, think you did more than a fine job.
THANKS!!!!