Overclocking CPU & RAM

[SK-D007]

I use to be a gamer and use to upgrade comp every 2 years but for last 3 or 4 years, i have not upgraded by CUP, Memory but recently i upgraded Graphics card as my 5770 got burned and had to buy a 280X Viper 3GB.

My current setup and issue background.

Phenom II 955BE - C2
CPU Cooler - H100i Corsair
Graphics card - 280X Viper 3GB
M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3
Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 4GB x2 8GB 1333MHz CL9 DDR3 - Slot 1/3
Cooler Master CM 690 III

I am yet to overclock CPU. i heard, C3 can do 4+Ghz by c2 gets stuck at 3.8Ghz.. Is that true ?

I don't want to buy FX-8320 at the moment as i need to upgrade RAM, CUP and MOBO all at once and sine AMD Carrizo comes with DDR4 and new Intel DDR4 is coming.. i want to wait and get a decent setup as i am worried about Dx12 as well.

I am planning to play The Division, GTA V, FC3 and already playing FC3, Watch dogs and BF4..

My main problem is CPU. 955BE at 3.2Ghz not able to help me play at 1080p.. GTA IV, i get like 17FPS and ya its completely modded version and not stock GTA IV config. but its smooth as VGA is able to handle and CPU not able to.

Now the questions is... Overclocking AMD 955BE will do the trick ?? Can i overclock my RAM 1333 to 1600Mhz ??

Thanks Guys..

 

[SPBHM]

how far can you overclock the PII 25%?

that's not enough to drastically improve 17FPS,


why would you wait for DDR4 if you already have 8GB of DDR3?
also Carrizo is some new APU, probably not worth the wait if you are not going to use just the IGP.

 

[SK-D007]

how far can you overclock the PII 25%?

that's not enough to drastically improve 17FPS,


why would you wait for DDR4 if you already have 8GB of DDR3?
also Carrizo is some new APU, probably not worth the wait if you are not going to use just the IGP.

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried 3.6Ghz and 3.8Ghz.. on air.. Cooler master air cooler

3.6Ghz was stable and 3.8ghz i had couple of restarts and was not stable. but have not tried any with my new H100i but i am sure i can do 3.8ghz as AC is on all the time and temp of room will be 22 - 24dig..

but will that be enough ?

1333Mhz ram cant be overclocked to 1600Mhz or do i have to run it at 800 when overclocking using bus 230 and 17x ? let me know.

I need next gen processor/ram/mobo.. that is why i am ready to waiting for DDR4.

Ya i know APU is not good but with DX12, that will be solved as it wont use 4+ cores and most of the work will be assigned to GPU.. all this news is confusing me..

And do you mean to say, GTA IV will still be slow if i run my Phenom at 3.8Ghz ? will it bottleneck 280x ?

About Ram, ya i have DDR3 but its 1333Mhz and was thinking i will get 3 or 4 FPS extra if i upgrade speed.. and may be up NB from 2Ghz to 2.4Ghz with 1.27V. will that help ?

if i am asking too many questions in one post.. really sorry about that.. and what do you think about H100i ?? can it really help my CPU 955BE ?

 

[BUnit1701]

What motherboard do you have?

EDIT: Sorry, saw the Evo and took it as an SSD.

 

[ctk1981]

Not too many instances where we are limited in performance by memory bandwidth/speed. The only instance I am aware of is with iGPU/APU etc. So DDR4 isn't that appealing to most and certainly not something I would wait around for, especially given the higher initial cost to adopt.

Upping the NB speed on the phenom processors does indeed help with performance. I ran a 1100t at 3.8Ghz with NB set to 3Ghz and there was a measurable increase in performance. Nothing earth shattering, but hey it was free.

Same with going from 1333mhz to 1600mhz....you might see a slight bump in performance assuming your memory will clock that high. Might have to feed it more voltage to make it a possibility. Again, not a huge bump in performance but its free if you can achieve that OC stable.

With regards to GTA: IV that was a poorly ported game to PC. Just a cursory search on google turned up this little tid bit you can try: http://gtaforums.com/topic/384473-ultimate-gtaiv-performance-fix/

All the above should help a little, but your setup is getting a little long in the tooth. I would think now would be a great time to upgrade the rest of your system. DDR4 is not going be a monumental increase over DDR3 and the higher initial cost will make it even less worthy of waiting.

 

[DrMrLordX]

HSA/Mantle aside, one reason to want Carrizo is IF it turns out to be an Excavator product (or a Steamroller product that can clock higher than Kaveri). If all you need is four cores, then the best four cores you can get from AMD will be in Carrizo (unless there is an Athlon II equivalent with disabled iGPU. There are no Steamroller Athlon IIs to date).

 

[SK-D007]

HSA/Mantle aside, one reason to want Carrizo is IF it turns out to be an Excavator product (or a Steamroller product that can clock higher than Kaveri). If all you need is four cores, then the best four cores you can get from AMD will be in Carrizo (unless there is an Athlon II equivalent with disabled iGPU. There are no Steamroller Athlon IIs to date).

Thanks ctk1981. I will try GTA patch but ya. so you mean to say 955BE is good for now till i see new processor from INTEL or AMD ?

All my worries is, can i play all games at 1920x1080 with my 280x + 955BE.. even if 3.7Ghz will help, then i will hold on till 2015 first quarter to upgrade.

I want to make sure i get the right processor & RAM that lasts longer. (Not a filthy rich guy you see)

DX12 is what i am looking at and worries me the most.

Since Dx12 will improve processor effeminacy and multi-threading, will Intel still have the edge over AMD because of their HT?

Intel HT is better for single thread thanks to SMT but will that help in DX12 as well or DX12 will favor, FX with 8 core ??..

if someone can technically explain and make me understand, i will get FX8350 today with 2400mhz G-s 32 or 16GB ram with MSI 990FX board.. or can go for i7 4770 with Asus Z97-K :/ but this processor is shining at the moment and what happens once DX12 is out ?

I use comp for gaming, watching HD movies and browsing.. no office work etc...

HSA/Mantle aside, one reason to want Carrizo is IF it turns out to be an Excavator product (or a Steamroller product that can clock higher than Kaveri). If all you need is four cores, then the best four cores you can get from AMD will be in Carrizo (unless there is an Athlon II equivalent with disabled iGPU. There are no Steamroller Athlon IIs to date).

Even i am confused about the same.. want to see what Excavator core can do and if i get a processor and board that support PCI-E3 as my 280 supports.. now, we may have not fully used PCI_E2.0 but i am sure DX12 will and is going to make our hardware run for its money.. :/ seriously why can AMD leak some info for us to decide :/

 

[Erenhardt]

dx12 may do what mantle did. Your CPU could suddenly become enough for very CPU demanding games - just like BF4 and mantle.

If you played FC3 on stock 955 without problems I think you should OC it to 3.8-4.0 and sit on it a little longer.

 

[SK-D007]

dx12 may do what mantle did. Your CPU could suddenly become enough for very CPU demanding games - just like BF4 and mantle.

If you played FC3 on stock 955 without problems I think you should OC it to 3.8-4.0 and sit on it a little longer.

Thanks my friend, Exactly what i was thinking. but was not sure. i am confident on 4core part and ya at 3.8Ghz. Phenom II is better than Fx in single thread and single core performance.

so if Dx12 is mantle or even if DX12 is not mantle, it should fix the core problem and now i need to know if Dx12 can also run old games same way since the code can be directly run using CGN even if it is DX10 11 or 11.2 game.

Am i right ? so i can keep the money for now and look for a better CPU 2015 1 quarter ?

Do you have any idea about DX12 ? like, processor support or is it going to delegate work to CPU irrespective of which processor is used.. ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[DrMrLordX]

If you want to take full advantage of DX12 features, having iGPU cores available would be a good thing. I do not expect that support for DX12 in hardware will help games that were not coded for DX12 unless there are patches released to provide that support.

Honestly I'd be looking at Kaveri, Carrizo, or SkyLake if I cared a lot about DX12.

 

[SK-D007]

If you want to take full advantage of DX12 features, having iGPU cores available would be a good thing. I do not expect that support for DX12 in hardware will help games that were not coded for DX12 unless there are patches released to provide that support.

Honestly I'd be looking at Kaveri, Carrizo, or SkyLake if I cared a lot about DX12.

exactly what i had in mind. I am worried about DX12 as my PC is only for gaming and 7850k is not a 8core.. so i think its better off overclocking now and get a good one once Carrizo and SkyLake release.

Thanks and i am hoping GCN 1.0 280x will work in sync with processor once Dx12 is out :/ GCN comparability wont be a issue right ?

 

[DrMrLordX]

I'm not sure that an octal-core chip will be especially desirable if your target is Mantle/DX12/HSA/etc. If someone told me I had the chance to run a DX12 app on a Kaveri with a 290x or an 8320 with a 290x, I might take the Kaveri. Carrizo should also be a quad.

By CNG, I take it you mean GCN? I'm not sure how well GCN 1.0 cores from AMD will work out with DX12. They do work under Mantle, just not as well as GCN 1.1/2.0 cores do.

 

[SK-D007]

I'm not sure that an octal-core chip will be especially desirable if your target is Mantle/DX12/HSA/etc. If someone told me I had the chance to run a DX12 app on a Kaveri with a 290x or an 8320 with a 290x, I might take the Kaveri. Carrizo should also be a quad.

By CNG, I take it you mean GCN? I'm not sure how well GCN 1.0 cores from AMD will work out with DX12. They do work under Mantle, just not as well as GCN 1.1/2.0 cores do.

Sorry.. i edited it to GCN.. finger played tricks on me

Yes.. I see 8c will be better as both consoles are 8c and games will be made to use 8c and 4c wont cut it. do you feel the same ? since all consoles are 8c and Dx12 is mainly going to make it easy for core optimization, i think all games will be coded for 8c or more.. what you think ?

 

[DrMrLordX]

I'm not so sure that octal core will become the wave of the future anytime soon. Some studios are struggling to utilize more than two cores consistently on the PC (console ports included). The movement to offload compute tasks to GPU cores will only make the games less dependent on general-purpose CPU cores (look at the Mantle benchmarks in the Anandtech article I linked). If I had a choice between more general purpose cores and some extra GCN cores, especially GCN cores located on the die, I'm going with the GCN cores if I know my apps will take advantage of them, such as DX12 apps.

 

[SK-D007]

I'm not so sure that octal core will become the wave of the future anytime soon. Some studios are struggling to utilize more than two cores consistently on the PC (console ports included). The movement to offload compute tasks to GPU cores will only make the games less dependent on general-purpose CPU cores (look at the Mantle benchmarks in the Anandtech article I linked). If I had a choice between more general purpose cores and some extra GCN cores, especially GCN cores located on the die, I'm going with the GCN cores if I know my apps will take advantage of them, such as DX12 apps.

Thanks man

 

[saikamaldoss]

i have a problem. i am not able to use H100i on my M4A88TD-M mobo.. the socket mount point is rectangle but the H100i base is squire.. which mobo supports H100i ?

 

[SK-D007]

Thanks guys. went for 1100T and finally tested. GTA IV = 58 - 60FPS ultra high with ENB 1080P

FAR CRY 3 = 45 to 68 to 78FPS

Crysis3 = 42 to 55

1100T slightly overclocked to 3.8ghz and she did 4.2 and 4.4 easy very happy with it.

idle temp 26 to 28 and top while crysis and gta iv was 42 with my H100i and room temp was around 24 - 26

with my 955BE at 3.4ghz :/

GTA IV = 18 - 22 FPS
FAR CRY 3 = 25 to 28 FPS
Crysis3 = 12 to 21 FPS

 

[SK-D007]

Screenshots

System idle

Crysis3 maxed out minimized

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's a nice improvement. It ought to hold you over for awhile yet, at least until Carrizo and Skylake show up.

 

[netxzero64]

processor bottlenecked for the 280x

 

[SK-D007]

That's a nice improvement. It ought to hold you over for awhile yet, at least until Carrizo and Skylake show up.

Yes DrMrLordX that was the idea. Dont want to waste money on FX and want something really powerful but no intel as i am waiting for Dx12 and as you know, AMD will have edge over actual game processing even if not in benchmarks

hoping to see 12core or 16core processors which can server well for long.. may be then i can get another 280x and CF it for best results or i will have to wait till 4k monitor price goes down.

In U.S, they get 4k for like 600$ but there, ASUS is like 70k :/ that too for a 24inch or 28 :/

Any news ??

 

[SK-D007]

processor bottlenecked for the 280x

there is not bottleneck because of 1105T that i am running now. I tested FPS at low res high detail and particle etc.

My previous processor was a bottleneck.. 955BE and since it was stepping 0 it did not go past 3.8 and it does not have turbo core as well..

I have monitored all the games i play using MSI after burn checking gpu, ram and cpu usage along with CPU( core usage) and have created smart profile to compensate and push few cores based on requirements and man it works like a charm

I even tested downclocking and overclocking GPU and i can see i am getting more fps with slight oC on my 280x(1175 core and 6400 mem)

Next up is Motherboard... i removed both heat sink and used Z9 compound and now i can see, heat is really transferred to heat sink and now sink heats up keeping NB and SB cooler than before.

NB 2.6 and max temp is at 42 - 46 or 48 depending on room temp.

I keep room temp at 24 or at times 22..

Is there a aftermarket cooler for NB ? i saw few U.S sites but non have for the board i have. I think i will have to get old Intel SB sink and customize it to get better results..

 

[Jovec]

Is there a aftermarket cooler for NB ? i saw few U.S sites but non have for the board i have. I think i will have to get old Intel SB sink and customize it to get better results..

Phenom II CPU-NB (the one you OC) is on the CPU itself. The motherboard NB is not what you OC.

 

[netxzero64]

Yes no bottleneck as what you can see and really you can see a 100% gpu usage. I had that also during my 1090t days overclocked to 4.5ghz with 480s in SLI. But when i got the i7 930, i got more performance out of it than the 1090t and my i7 was just 4ghz

 

[SK-D007]

Phenom II CPU-NB (the one you OC) is on the CPU itself. The motherboard NB is not what you OC.

Not a expert like you guys but not sure what you mean. i actually see good performance boost overclocking NB to 2.6 from stock 2. and heat sink on MB i removed and using Z9 and holding up well. Nb is not going above 48dig.. previously operating temp was 64 :/

and ram i have is 1333 and oce'd it to 1489 or something.. will take a CPUZ shot to post.

Yes no bottleneck as what you can see and really you can see a 100% gpu usage. I had that also during my 1090t days overclocked to 4.5ghz with 480s in SLI. But when i got the i7 930, i got more performance out of it than the 1090t and my i7 was just 4ghz

oh ok i am just waiting for Carizzo hoping the desktop version will have at least 8 to 12 modules and under 30k INR. Man that would be sweet..

All i need is 1920x1080 ultra graphics capability in below mentioned games..

1. The Division
2. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare PC
3. The Crew PC
4. Far Cry 4 PC
5. Metro: Redux PC
6. Assassin's Creed Unity PC
7. Grand Theft Auto V PC
8. Risen 3 Titan Lords
9. Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age PC
10. Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor PC
11. Alien: Isolation PC
12. Dragon Age: Inquisition PC