Would OC'ing my CPU have any benefit?

Origin Saint

Origin Saint

Well-Known Member
Hey guys,

I was originally planning on OC'ing my CPU sometime when I first built the system, but since then I've discovered that the bedroom has a higher ambient temperature than I had thought and started thinking it might not improve much of anything noticeable. Obviously I'll need an aftermarket CPU cooler to manage any kind of OC'ing, I plan on getting a Noctua NH-D15 regardless of whether or not I OC.

I'm currently running a i5-4690K and a GTX 960 SSC 4 GB. The stock 4690K runs at 3.5 GHz, and my current ambient temperature (measured by Core Temp based on hottest core at any given time) is about 62 C during idle. I ramp up to about 85 C during a game load. I know that getting the CPU cooler is going to improve temps across the board, but I'm wondering if there would be any game performance increase from OC'ing the CPU. I'm not really noticing much of a bottleneck, and the games where I have a bit of trouble, I think are mostly being help back by the GPU, not the CPU.

What do you guys think? Would OC'ing help any of my game performance or would it be a bit of a waste in that regard? Thanks in advance for the help guys.
 
Depends on the game, not too much. The 960 is the limitation graphically and the stock clocks are plenty for CPU intensive games like Battlefield.

That being said you can usually get a 'free' few hundred MHz with minimal voltage adjustment.
 
What do you think of the temps at ambient and under load? They seem a tad high to me. Obviously if the bedroom is generally a bit on the hotter side, the computer can't be much cooler :( The bedroom usually varies from 22 C to 27 C.
 
Between the stock cooler and TIM those figures aren't too horrendous, idle seems a bit high but I'd verify with the reading in BIOS/UEFI.

My 4770K spikes up pretty hard just based on the poor thermal material under the heatspreader on a D14.
 
My room is frequently pretty toasty from my computer being on, but those temps won't have a drastic impact on your load temps. They do seem a bit high, but a new cooler will help immensely. If you leave your voltage alone the temps won't increase that much with a few hundred MHz bump. Might as well. You have really nothing to lose. My 8320 fairs better in some games with an overclock. Namely due to core efficiency.
 
Getting the Noctua D15 will greatly improve your temps. Once you get it you could definitely overclock your CPU and see some minor gains.
 
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