15 replies to this topic

[HybridTheory]

So I've spent some time over the years building systems very casually. I never buy a pre-built system anymore. I enjoy the idea of putting it together myself and having it work beautifully for me. That said, my knowledge of the tweaks and boosts (such as overclocking) are well honestly, a bit over my head. I've dabbled a very small amount into it but nothing really extreme. And my overall understanding of editing the BIOS on a computer is next to zero. With all that said, I'd like to post the specs of my system here and get a little feedback from the great MWO community and maybe some suggestions on how to optimize my system for gaming in general.

MOBO: Asus Rampage II Gene
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67 ghz (quad core)
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte PC3-12800 12GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24
EVGA GeForce GTX560 1024MB GDDR5
Western digital 250GB Raptor Hard Drive (10,000rpm)
Corsair HX650W Modular Power Supply

Cheers in advance all.

[Fresh Meat]

http://www.overclock.net/ is where i learned almost everything, very helpful. you should be able to overclock to at least 3.4 no problem. I bet you can tighten your ram timings too, its all there.

good luck

Edited by Fresh Meat, 07 July 2012 - 02:15 PM.

[RenegadeMaster]

I would expect MWO to run smooth on your system. I'm not sure that your processor would hold back MWO performance before your video card. If not, I wouldn't worry much about overclocking. Before you overclock, check the processor temperature. If it is already running hot (45+ Celcius, but don't quote me on that), you should definitely get an aftermarket heat sink & fan for the processor. Then take baby steps with the processor overclocking and monitor the temperatures.
At least with the 650W power supply that you have you won't be as likely to worry about power issues like I have with a 500W supply.

[sumdumfu]

overclocking computers usually boils down to two things: speeding up the CPU and/or speeding up the video card.

CPU: a computer runs at a certain frequency, governed by a chip called a Northbridge. the CPU operates at multiples of this frequency. example: my system speed is 100Mhz, and my CPU (i5-2500k) has a default multiplier of 33x, hence a CPU speed of 3.3Ghz (100Mhz x 33 = 3300Mhz or 3.3 Ghz). this is all in your bios, though bios interfaces vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. they all have the same terms in common though. if you wanna start tinkering, look for System Bus Speed and CPU multiplier in your BIOS.

Video Card: this is all about core clock speed and memory speed. core clock is how fast the video chip is; memory speed is how fast the onboard memory loads/offloads data. this can be done in the operating system and is generally safer to tinker with than the CPU. i have a radeon hd6950, and the AMD software it came with has built-in sliders for overclocking. i can vary my core clock from 500 up to 840Mhz and my memory speed from 1250 to 1325Mhz. i'm pretty sure there's aftermarket software can will let me go higher than those limits even.

in both cases performance will generally increase linearly with increases in core speeds. memory has less of an effect.

[Barbaric Soul]

Before you try OC'ing, you need a decent aftermarket heatsink. Don't try to OC any more than acouple hundred mhz if you have a stock heatsink, especailly with a Nahalem chip. With proper cooling, the 920 can achieve a 4ghz or higher OC.

[Nacon]

WAIT!

Just because you can overclock your CPU, doesn't really mean your game is going to run faster. You just need to make sure ALL of your parts are up to that speed in perfect balance.

So your RAMs and HDD can hold you back. Get some high clocked RAM chipsets and SSD to replace your HDD. (Or at least add SSD and install games on that instead and keep your HDD for "sexual-images" storage.)

Edited by Nacon, 07 July 2012 - 07:44 PM.

[Necrodemus]

As it stands you have a pretty capable system at stock speeds. You should be able to expect decent performance from MWO. It really depends on the options Piranha offers. MWO will be based on the CryENGINE 3 so you may not be able to turn everything to 'Very High' or 'Ultra' if it's offered, but you should be able to have a smooth game that looks good.

The decision to OC or not can only be made by you. There are almost as many opinions on the matter as there are people to opine about it. OC'ing, whether CPU or GPU, will grant you additional performance on various tasks. Most games see some benefit from both, but the GPU is usually the primary benefactor. The CPU you have is easily capable of feeding your GPU. With an i7-920 OC'd your CPU will start to approach stock i7-2600K performance. If you choose to OC your CPU, don't drive yourself nuts trying to get that last MHz out of it. It will make little difference. Same for your GPU. It's pretty capable at stock, so I wouldn't spend too much time trying to get really high clocks.

If you have any games that use the CryENGINE 3, load one up and see how it plays. MWO is based on CryENGINE 3, so other games based on the same engine will give you a baseline on what to expect with MWO. If your satisfied with the performance then there's no reason to OC other than for fun.

Fresh Meat, on 07 July 2012 - 02:12 PM, said:

http://www.overclock.net/ is where i learned almost everything, very helpful. you should be able to overclock to at least 3.4 no problem. I bet you can tighten your ram timings too, its all there.

good luck

There is a wealth of information on this site. If you decide to try OC'ing this thread is specifically for your CPU. There is also a subforum on nVidia GPU's and other threads on the principle of OC'ing CPU/GPU/RAM in general. There are many other sites with varying degrees of information, but almost all of them have something useful.

[HybridTheory]

Thanks everyone for the information and pointers. I won't be doing anything to the system as yet as I want to see how the game will run as is for the moment. I don't have any CryEngine 3 games at the moment... but my system runs the original Crysis very nicely. (A little dated I realise however that game was a real system hog if memory serves me.) Once again many thanks, and look forward to seeing you all on the battlefield!

[Barbaric Soul]

yeah, your CPU isn't going to need OC'ing to play MW:O. If your GTX560 is a non-TI model, you may want to OC it some. MSI Afterburner is a nice free little program made just for OC'ing video cards and is real easy to use.

[chomeop]

You'll be right, if anything I'd upgrade to a ssd, maybe a new video card but only if ur running 1920x1080 and want all the eye candy.

[Romulus Stahl]

HybridTheory, on 07 July 2012 - 02:06 PM, said:

So I've spent some time over the years building systems very casually. I never buy a pre-built system anymore. I enjoy the idea of putting it together myself and having it work beautifully for me. That said, my knowledge of the tweaks and boosts (such as overclocking) are well honestly, a bit over my head. I've dabbled a very small amount into it but nothing really extreme. And my overall understanding of editing the BIOS on a computer is next to zero. With all that said, I'd like to post the specs of my system here and get a little feedback from the great MWO community and maybe some suggestions on how to optimize my system for gaming in general.

MOBO: Asus Rampage II Gene
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67 ghz (quad core)
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte PC3-12800 12GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24
EVGA GeForce GTX560 1024MB GDDR5
Western digital 250GB Raptor Hard Drive (10,000rpm)
Corsair HX650W Modular Power Supply

Cheers in advance all.

I would try to get a SSD for the OS, and use the HDD for your storage. If funds are an issue cut costs from the Raptor (I do like Raptors ran my OS on a Raid 0 set for years, the gain from the Raptor for storage is limited if you use an SSD) and go with 8gb of memory (Mushkin is nice but there are other companies with better deals)

[Barbaric Soul]

Romulus Stahl, on 08 July 2012 - 04:15 AM, said:

and go with 8gb of memory (Mushkin is nice but there are other companies with better deals)

his system is triple channel, hence the 12 gigs of RAM(3*4gig sticks)

[Adm Awesome]

You might want to follow this guide. Not to the letter, because yes I realize it's a AMD cpu, but his general instructions and explanations really help you at least get a general knowledge of what that jarbled mess called the "BIOS" is.

http://forums.tweakt...lts-coming.html

Fortunately that's exactly the same CPU I have so it worked really well in my case, but his techniques such as trying to only raise CPU clock and voltage first to see where the CPU itself can sit at is a really good idea.

[Romulus Stahl]

Barbaric Soul, on 08 July 2012 - 04:18 AM, said:

his system is triple channel, hence the 12 gigs of RAM(3*4gig sticks)

I didn't catch that, didn't realize he had all the hardware as well at this point either.

[HybridTheory]

I should mention I run 1920x1200 res on all games on a 24" monitor. And the video card is not the Ti version.

[Odins Fist]

Here is a quick guide you "WILL" find helpfull..
I would have posted something myself, but I would have been accused of offering "anecdotal" advice .. Cheers.
http://www.overclock...r-930-to-4-0ghz
.
Guide is for 920 & 930 up to 4.0Ghz Overclock... Be careful

Edited by Odins Fist, 08 July 2012 - 04:44 PM.