Differences between 3.4 ghz and 3.8 ghz at games

[haszaszyn]

Hello. I have one question to you, I have processor AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE and I would like to know from you is there much differences in fps in games between those two clock speeds

Rest of my PC's hardware:
Asus GeForce GTX660 Directcu II
MOBO Gigabyte MA770-us3
8GB DDR2 800mhz

 

[Zstream]

It depends on the resolution, what are you gaming at?

 

[haszaszyn]

Now I'm on 1440x900

 

[Zstream]

That's less than 1280 * 1024. I wouldn't worry about overclocking but to answer your question, it will improve FPS. You should be able to run any game out there with a few AA/AF adjustments.

 

[haszaszyn]

But would it be enough big improvement to see it?

 

[Zstream]

If you're going below 35 FPS than I'm sure you will notice it. Outside of that, I don't think so.

 

[Ketchup]

Considering that model is 3 years old now, I think it is safe to say that overclocking will yield benefits in most games.

However, the extent of the change depends on what games you are playing and what video card you have.

Just remember what Zstream said. Just because it's there doesn't mean you will notice it.

 

[haszaszyn]

I wrote what my card is at beggining ^^ It is GTX660 and i play mostly fps games

 

[Ketchup]

I wrote what my card is at beggining ^^ It is GTX660 and i play mostly fps games

Sorry haszaszyn, read right over that. What games are you needing the increase in (need some specifics if you want a good answer).

 

[haszaszyn]

Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, GTA IV, something like this

 

[Ketchup]

Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, GTA IV, something like this

In that case, I would say push that CPU as far as it will (safely) go.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

You'll get about a 10% increase in CPU-limited situations. Getting the NB up another 200-400MHz will get you another 5%-10%. With that video card it's going to be worth it to get your CPU as high as you can.

 

[haszaszyn]

Should I increase NB voltage when i increase it for value which you said?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It shouldn't take much of a voltage bump if any for the NB. Mine was stable at 2200Mhz at the default 1.1v and 2400Mhz took 1.1250v.

 

[haszaszyn]

Ok so I'll try to oc processor and nb and tell you how it works

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Just watch the temps. If you're using a stock cooler 3.8/2.4 is probably going to be pushing things depending on voltages and case airflow. Good luck.

 

[Hubb1e]

3.4 pushes things on the stock cooling on my 965. You'll want to go with some aftermarket cooling. You may not notice 10% increase in performance. Here's what you need to do. Turn on a tool to measure framerate. Some games have them built in. Play for awhile and note your FPS or use a tool to measure it like FRAPS. Then set your graphics settings to low on any game that you think you're getting framerate limited and see if that improves your framerates. If yes, then you are CPU limited. This is an easy thing to measure. There is no need to rely on opinions.

 

[haszaszyn]

I think that I will leave my cpu on stock clock, because the lowest stable voltage on 3.8ghz is somethink about 1.45v and then at stress it has ~63 degrees celsius even on aftermarket coolling. I'll have to change my case ;d

 

[codyray10]

I run the same CPU as you @ 4ghz with 1.5v, and have similar graphics performance as your 660 with a 7850 OC. As others have mentioned, you can indeed get 10-15% performance boost with a mild overclock to your CPU/NB. Try and set your multiplier to 18 (giving you 3.6ghz) and NB to 2200mhz. Assuming you have relatively decent airflow and power supply, this should be doable with stock cooling/voltage

 

[Ketchup]

haszaszyn, are you happy with your 660 so far? Mine is doing great, pretty quiet as well.

 

[haszaszyn]

Of course I'm happy, why not^^? I'm only curious if oc'ing my cpu to 3.8ghz with pretty high temperature is worth it :>

 

[rgallant]

is 63c high?

 

[VirtualLarry]

is 63c high?

For AMD, that's pretty warm. It's roughly equivalent to 85C for Intel.

 

[tweakboy]

Nothing honestly.

 

[Blastman]

This review at legionhardware has some crossfire scaling for a Phenom II X4 at different clock rates .