17 replies to this topic

[NuclearPanda]

I can't say I'm dissatisfied with my current setup, considering I built the thing myself, but I've always wondered about OC'ing.

I'm not the most knowledgeable in the possibilities in this so any and all suggestions are welcome. I like to learn and figure this could be an interesting experiment.

I recently got a new-ish video card which was a huge upgrade from my previous one (which was a GTX460 model) but I'm wondering if I'm CPU bottlenecked at all by it. This is what I've got in my PC currently:

Processor:

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3 ghz, 3.7ghz turbo socket AM3 125w Six Core processor

Motherboard:

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3

Video Card:

MSI Gaming N760 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

HDD:

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Case:

AZZA Solano 1000 Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh in front MicroATX/ATX/Full ATX Computer Case

Power Supply:

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

I have standard cooling in this thing currently and haven't had any issues with heat obviously because I've never tried OC'ing anything (been afraid to tinker really with direction). Any thoughts? I've had no issues running MWO at max settings and still get around 45-55FPS without issue really.

[H A S T A]

go for FX-8350 , i get between 80 - 110 fps on gtx 670 with i7 and gtx 760 is supposed to be like a gtx670..

for cpu cooling , it's your choice, Corsair h80i is great.

I would get a 120GB SSD also


for 1100t OC, check that link : http://www.overclock...guide-for-newbs

and that one too : http://www.overclock...ad.php?t=596023

Edited by HastaLaVistaMec, 10 December 2013 - 08:30 AM.

[Sen]

Quote

go for FX-8350 , i get between 80 - 110 fps on gtx 670 with i7 and gtx 760 is supposed to be like a gtx670..

His performance isn't that bad. With a respectable overclock he may be able to push it over 50-55ish [luck of the draw]. Not worth throwing away a whole rig. . it's not like you get any benefits running at 110 FPS compared to 60 FPS. . or even 45 FPS. [as long as it's SMOOTH in heavy combat anyway]



It's generally not recommended to overclock on stock cooling, but that's a personal decision. You might also look at faster ram [if applicable] as from what I understand AMD cpu's get bottlenecked by slower ram. [slower is a relative term, naturally]

Mind you, I haven't had an AMD in years, so a better explanation by someone like Vulpes or Catamount may be forthcoming.

I can get ya this tho:

http://www.overclock...ad.php?t=596023

Thuban overclocking guide. Can't hurt to at least read up on it. From what I've read on the forums, overclocking AMD can definitely help increase performance in MwO. By how much. . and is it worth the price to upgrade the cooler and/or ram.....

That's your call

Hope at least some of this helps ya ^^

Edited by Sen, 10 December 2013 - 08:32 AM.

[NuclearPanda]

HastaLaVistaMec, on 10 December 2013 - 08:25 AM, said:

go for FX-8350 , i get between 80 - 110 fps on gtx 670 with i7 and gtx 760 is supposed to be like a gtx670..

for cpu cooling , it's your choice, Corsair h80i is great.

I would get a 120GB SSD also


for 1100t OC, check that link : http://www.overclock...guide-for-newbs

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819113284

So you're talking about another $200 into the rig? Hmmm, maybe around tax time. I've had the Thuban though since 2011 and it's been running fine so far. I'm pretty sure that 3.3ghz is bottlenecking my card performance though.

*edited* Would it even be worth it to purchase the above considering my MoBo? I know my MoBo is AM3+ capable but I'm still concerned about switching out processors. As I said before, this build was my first real "do it yourself" thing where I ordered individual parts! This is the exact MoBo I have



What do you guys recommend for a RAM suggestion? Is the RAM I have all that bad? It had great reviews a few years ago when I bought it. Was basically plug and play system. I haven't done any tweaking really.


*Double Edit*

Just read up some more on my MoBo. I don't think it'd be wise really to try to upgrade to the FX-8350 with the current MoBo I have. Something about how it's a "revision 1 board" which don't have something about "load-line control" and causes all sorts of problems with the new FX chips even though it's an AM3+ compatible board. :/ Meh indeed.

Edited by NuclearPanda, 10 December 2013 - 08:45 AM.

[Sen]

Guide should answer most of your questions about the technicals. Whether it's better to work with what you have or upgrade. . that's up to you.

[H A S T A]

Make sure your BIOS is the last one too before changing anything!

You can get a FX-8320 and overclock it too if you want to save and get a nice cooler.

Edited by HastaLaVistaMec, 11 December 2013 - 09:27 AM.

[TheFlayedman]

80-110 fps? on what resolution? Prove it.

[Grendel408]

NuclearPanda, on 10 December 2013 - 07:27 AM, said:

I have standard cooling in this thing currently and haven't had any issues with heat obviously because I've never tried OC'ing anything (been afraid to tinker really with direction). Any thoughts? I've had no issues running MWO at max settings and still get around 45-55FPS without issue really.

NuclearPanda... dude, you've got a nice setup as it is... add liquid cooling (depending on the case, Corsair has two excellent selections H80i or H100i)... and up your PSU to 750w or more... especially if you decide to overclock. I've got a very similar system with a lower end GPU, but even with the CPU, GPU, and RAM overclocked, I get between 37-45 FPS during heavier action with 6+ mechs on screen doing the dirty If liquid cooling is too much, or your case isn't compatible... buy a new case! CoolerMaster has some awesome cases right now that excel in cooling...

Spoiler

Note: Some fans have been replaced since this pic was taken and an additional 140mm fan (w/blue LED) added to the bottom of the case next to the PSU... mind you this started off as a budget build and has turned into a fine gaming machine that can handle MWO, BF4, Civ5, and many other GPU/CPU heavy games.

Edited by Grendel408, 11 December 2013 - 06:52 PM.

[Ghogiel]

I went from a 5830 to a 270x last week, I have faster ram than yours, but with a slower cpu> phenom X4 3.2

I gained pretty much nothing in terms of FPS moving from a 5830 to a 270x.

Based on that, IMO your CPU is where your bottleneck is. I doubt adding 2000mhz ram will do anything at all. You already have a good GPU.

[LennStar]

Hello NuclearPanda, Legendary Founder!

Why do you want to OC? Everything runs smooth, right? OC makes your computer parts getting damaged more easy and is bad on your power costs.
How much % of your CPU are you using? Use process explorer to look, its way better then standard windows software (which is why MS bought them) http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspx - switch on the CPU history to log if you have a fully used core.

Personally I go the other way - undervolting. But anyway...


You have a very nive (but a little old with all what comes from that) CPU. Current AMDs have a problem with single thread performance because of their design.
The Phenom II is the K10 Family, which was a very good build. Modern AMDs aren't much faster in single thread at the same GHz of K10s.
No much sense in upgrading here (and I dont think your should). No big gain on single thread, and a 6-core is good enough in multi threaded.

RAM: I have never heard of the Thuban getting slowed (in any meaningful way) by slower RAM.
Modern APUs get a lot on the graphics power with faster RAM.

It is not that you have a slow computer - MWO is just slow. Its the only game I cant play with my A10 5800K on Full HD. Before last month, I had to play in the lowest resolution, now I'm up two steps to 1600x900 - after just one MWO update. They will make the game less demanding in the future, too.

Also MWO is one of only 2 games I know where running BOINC (takes all CPU power) in the background slows down the game. On MWO it does so tremendously, but only since 12vs12, so here again MWO is the reason. (I dont know if only on the APU like the other game - a console port - or any CPU.)
Thats why you should look with process explorer, if you have one fully used core with MWO (constant 16% or more on a 6 core) - then your CPU is indeed a bottle neck.


IF you really want to upgrade, I suggest getting a real new computer and sel the old one.

For Power Gaming (Full Details, Full HD and double the fps you need), get an Intel i7. AMD cannot compete in the performance market at the moment with intels smaller production processes.
Also, get a better cooling if you use more then 30% of your CPU on a regular base. Especially AMD standard cooler get insanely loud at higher Watts. (Of course, if your GPU does it anyway...) A good air cooling starts at ~30€ /50US-$. It's quite cheap, but it can half your db and is good for your CPU.

For normal play, keep your existing rig for another year or two. No sense in getting a better one if it works fine.

For "cheapskates" and power-sensitive players, wait for the AMD Kaveri APU, get a completely new computer with 2000 RAM (for the integrated graphic card since you don't use a dedicated) and a good, silent cooling. Add a silent "80+" power part (preferably silver or gold - platinum is too expensive right now)
With that you can play all games (except MWO at the moment) at Full-HD (even if not on highest settings for most).
You will not be able to hear it while playing and it will use only a bit more then 100W. (Here in Germany where I pay 0,27€ per kWh next year that gets important over time)

(Mark that the APU-computer would be a bit less powerful then your current rig on the GPU part and only slightly better on CPU, but with less then half the power consumption)

[Bullseye69]

The current build which is direct X 9 is CPU dependent. Just built a nephew for christmas a 8350 8 gig ram 2 wd 1 tb Black hd , HX 750 corsair power supply and a XFX 280X 3 radeon video card running on a sabertooth 990FX rev 2 board. My monitor on support 1600 res is as high as it will go on very high setting and that res 1600*1050 never dropped below 47fps. When I was putting it together used a hd7770 and running at 1440 and medium detail never dropped below 36 FPS that pretty good when you consider that hd7770 is a 1 gig card. Exact same card running on athlon 2 645 3.2 ghz quad core had frame drops as low as 22 fps the only difference was processor.

Now when Direct X 11 comes out we should see the newer video cards showing better frame rates since Direct X 11 uses the GPU more than the CPU.

Upgraded my personal card to a XFX Radeon R9 270X I still don;t have that good of frame rate but the texture bug is gone in the game for me.

I would just wait and see what direct X 11 brings then if you want to over clock then just pick up one of the corsair and over clock it

[NuclearPanda]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

Yeah, this is the case I have currently. It looks like it is set up to install liquid cooling if I wanted it. Maybe I'll check into that after Christmas.

http://www.newegg.co...0131212134846:s



I did notice drastically better FPS though when they did the DX11 testing on the test servers, so I'm hoping that they roll out with that sooner than later.

I was just curious really if I should even bother looking into overclocking considering that this is seriously one of the worst performing games that I play currently as far as FPS goes, even though 50ish isn't bad at all. Looks like it's more of a software issue on PGI's part than a hardware issue on mine.

[Sen]

Quote

OC makes your computer parts getting damaged more easy

/facepalm

No dude. . . just. . NO. No it does not, unless you're pushing it to the absolute ragged edge and overvolting the hell out of it. Don't give it enough vcore and it won't boot/it'll crash.

Give it too much and it'll throttle/shutdown [you have to monitor temps, you see. . with one of those new fangled temperature monitoring software packages]

Kinda Like:

http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

Quote

I was just curious really if I should even bother looking into overclocking considering that this is seriously one of the worst performing games that I play currently as far as FPS goes, even though 50ish isn't bad at all. Looks like it's more of a software issue on PGI's part than a hardware issue on mine

It's definitely more of a software issue than a hardware one. . but why let that stop you from overclocking? Granted you won't safely get much out of it with the stock cooler, but even relatively low cost air cooling will give you more headroom. IIRC I got to about 4.2Ghz on my old 1090T waaaaay back in the day. Granted, it's been years since I've messed with em', but they DID O/C really well.

Edited by Sen, 12 December 2013 - 07:13 AM.

[NuclearPanda]

Sen, on 12 December 2013 - 07:11 AM, said:

[/size]


/facepalm

No dude. . . just. . NO. No it does not, unless you're pushing it to the absolute ragged edge and overvolting the hell out of it. Don't give it enough vcore and it won't boot/it'll crash.

Give it too much and it'll throttle/shutdown [you have to monitor temps, you see. . with one of those new fangled temperature monitoring software packages]

Kinda Like:

http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html





[/size]


It's definitely more of a software issue than a hardware one. . but why let that stop you from overclocking? Granted you won't safely get much out of it with the stock cooler, but even relatively low cost air cooling will give you more headroom. IIRC I got to about 4.2Ghz on my old 1090T waaaaay back in the day. Granted, it's been years since I've messed with em', but they DID O/C really well.

Yeah, from what I understand the AMD I have is "extremely easy" to overclock. I was just wary all this time because I haven't had the foggiest idea of if I should even bother lol. I think I'll look into a liquid cooling solution though before I start to tinker with it even though I have a gratuitous amount of airflow, space and large fans already within the case.

[H A S T A]

TheFlayedman, on 11 December 2013 - 05:55 PM, said:

80-110 fps? on what resolution? Prove it.

It will be a pleasure to show it , i will do print screen

resolution 1920x1080 , max settings. I have a BenQ lightboost monitor set a 120hz , the SLI is disabled , because it's not supported in mwo, PhysX is dedicated on the second gtx 670.

Just a little hint , im running on hexa core intel @ 4.5Ghz

Edited by HastaLaVistaMec, 12 December 2013 - 07:51 AM.

[Sen]

Quote

[color=#959595]It will be a pleasure to show it , i will do print screen[/color]

[color=#959595]resolution 1920x1080 , max settings. I have a BenQ lightboost monitor set a 120hz , the SLI is disabled , because it's not supported in mwo, PhysX is dedicated on the second gtx 670.[/color]


[color=#959595]Just a little hint , im running on hexa core intel @ 4.5Ghz [/color]

I'm looking forward to seeing the screen shot. Heavy combat, mind you, not staring off into space with nothing on screen... heck, I can get 110 FPS on just about ANYTHING that way



Edit:
I'm too lazy to pull the color tags, sorry. I have no idea WHY it keeps happening, but F' it. Sorry for the mess.

Edited by Sen, 12 December 2013 - 12:36 PM.

[VikingN1nja]

A big cooler and a 4ghz overclock.

[H A S T A]

ya i get 60fps sometimes on heavy combat.. 80-100fps just with team mate arround
on tourmaline is worst on average fps, like 55 to 75