Worth upgrading my CPU?

[ATMINSIDE]

I would do four, due to how FX handles the modules. That will leave one module for the game and one for background processes.

 

[cjkart20]

I'll give 4 a try. Starting to mess with it now. Doesn't seem like I'll be able to squeeze that much more of an overclock with voltages and temps already pretty much peaked out

 

[caddi daddi]

go ahead and cut it back to two cores, my guess is that most of the time you won't notice the missing cores. most of what we do is single threaded anyway.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Could also try cutting it down so that it's one core per module and running three cores that way.

 

[caddi daddi]

you can only turn off pairs of cores with fx.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

you can only turn off pairs of cores with fx.

Depends on the board.

 

[cjkart20]

I have played with it some. Got up to a 4.9. Doesn't seem like it has really gained me all that much.

 

[caddi daddi]

then it might be time to move to intel or wait and see what amd's zen might offer, either way you're in for a board, memory and cpu.

 

[cjkart20]

Yeah. I guess I am going to revert back to the 4.6 and save for an Intel upgrade. Which I'm sure is the best thing to do overall. It was definitely worth a shot to see if it gave huge improvements though.

On a side not. When I did my 4.6 overclock done I disabled all the power saving features. So my computer just constantly stays at a 4.6. What power saving feature to I need to reenable so it will power down and sleep?

 

[caddi daddi]

you will find that after you get the clock stable you can turn all the green stuff back on as long as you have the base vcore high enough that when it is sitting there idle it will not sag so low that is bsod's on you.

 

[cjkart20]

Perfect thanks.

From everyone's past experience is overclocking Intel pretty much the same as overclocking AMD stuff?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Perfect thanks.

From everyone's past experience is overclocking Intel pretty much the same as overclocking AMD stuff?

Easier, actually.

 

[caddi daddi]

sometimes, much, with my 4790K game rig it's just add vcore, adjust multi, no real gain in anything else.

 

[machausta]

I actually was about to ask the same question as the OP, only I'm running a FX-8120 @ 3.8ghz -- I'm guessing the same advice applies.

 

[Johan45]

Yeah pretty much either make do or start saving. Cuttting cores will allow for a higher clock.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

In iRacing what's your max cars on screen setting?

 

[machausta]

I just logged into iracing to check, I'd never changed it from the default 20. Its really only an issue at Daytona/Talladega (and load times, sheesh!)

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Still something to think about. You would need to more than double that to see a full field in a cup race, which hammers the CPU.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I have played with it some. Got up to a 4.9. Doesn't seem like it has really gained me all that much.

I could have saved you the time and told you that dropping cores and OCing higher doesn't always work well for games.
I did the same on my FX, dropped it down to 3 cores. It took an extra 100Mhz just to match the FPS I was getting with 6 cores and 4.6Ghz. (So 3 cores @ 4.7Ghz = 6 cores @ 4.6Ghz)

I really hate to say it but switching to Intel is the best option as you've discovered.

Overclocking intel is...... simple... compared to AMD.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Perfect thanks.

From everyone's past experience is overclocking Intel pretty much the same as overclocking AMD stuff?

Not really. Like two different worlds to me.

AMD involves a lot of balancing the Front Side Bus (or whatever it is called now), HT Frequency (or whatever they're calling it now), memory speeds and timings (and memory multipliers or dividers (different boards call it different things), voltages, and whatever else I'm forgetting.

Intel (post-2011 (the year, not the socket type)) is generally stupidly simple to overclock on if you have a CPU with an unlocked multiplier. If you have a locked multiplier though, it can be difficult, and you generally don't gain much from overclocking a locked CPU (LGA1155 and up?) since any gains are quite limited. You generally just adjust the CPU multiplier, set your memory speed and timings, and add voltage if necessary.

It sounds like the performance limitations you are experiencing won't likely be solved by overclocking the CPU. You likely need a higher Instructions Per Clock rating, so a CPU that can execute more instructions at a faster rate. Which does likely limit your choices to an Intel CPU at the moment, unfortunately.

Unless AMD comes out with a better CPU/better platform that can accept and execute more instructions more quickly than their current FX-series AM3+ lineup. Which, they are supposedly working on one, but rumors I've heard are that it won't be available until somewhere between Q2 and Q4 of 2016. These are only rumors though, so AMD might not come out with it until 2017.