Is it worth it?

[Venom84]

My current CPU runs at 3.8 but I'm considering overclocking it. I read that it can go as far as 5ghz. I'm just wondering if anyone knows if I'd see any gains in fps. I get a bit of lag in watch dogs and a small bit in tomb raider. I have a fx-4300 black edition and an evo 212 cooler. GPU is R9 270x.

I tried a few years ago on an old system to increase the clock speed but ended up blowing the PSU. Not sure if I want to risk it again if the framerate increase would be only minimal.

 

[PP Mguire]

First question would be, what is your current PSU? Second question would be, what case do you have? Finally, what settings in Watch Dogs and resolution are you using?

I could easily see the FX4300 holding you back in Watch Dogs depending on settings. A good OC should help that, although I wouldn't shoot for 5Ghz.

 

[Venom84]

The PSU is a corsair cx430 and I was running watch dogs at 1080 on high settings. I bumped it up to very high but the slow down was too frequent for my liking. The case is an old Packard Bell gaming case (I bought it second hand), mid tower so the air flow wouldn't be great.

I've 1 ssd and 3 hdd plus 4 usb peripherals plugged in.

Would me PSU suffice or would it need an upgrade before overclocking?

 

[PP Mguire]

Very high is too much for the graphics card and not enough VRAM (or power to push more VRAM). That wouldn't be an issue with the CPU, but if you're stuttering with high settings maybe. With a CX430 I would not overclock at all. Not to mention you would probably have heat issues.

 

[Venom84]

Cheers PP I'll leave it so. I thought me GPU would of exceeded me CPU and the stuttering would of been caused by this. I'll probably look at upgrading a few bits next year.

I thought the R9 was going to last me a couple of years before bottlenecking.

 

[PP Mguire]

The 270x is simply a last model rebrand and was a midrange chip then. The only new chips besides the 290s would be the 285 that just came out. Considering with 4GB of VRAM without having all settings maxed I have issues keeping a solid 60fps going with a 680. It shouldn't surprise you that with half the VRAM and slower GPU running high is giving you issues.

In that game the CPU would be holding you back to an extent but not as much as you might be thinking. Major stuttering would actually be VRAM but try doing a 4.2 or 4.3GHz OC to see what kind of FPS gain you get.

 

[DarkXearo]

Yes overclocking is very risky with hardware, however taking that chance depends on how good your cooling system is. Not only that overclocking also shortens the lifespan of the hardware that is overclocked, Hence the reason why I don't think it's worth the risk. Last time I checked only your GPU has the power to increase and decrease the FPS because FPS is all graphical and has nothing to do with the CPU. All the overclocking of the CPU will do is increase your PCs speed and make the hardware work twice as hard to maintain the speed you want it to run at and not long after you'll either be spending money on new hardware or buying a new computer all together and wishing you hadn't overclocked in the first place. In conclusion, I don't believe overclocking is worth any risk unless you have the funds to replace the hardware once it dies and you are able to replace it each and every time you overclock each CPU you buy.

 

[PP Mguire]

Pretty uninformed comment tbh. His CPU is causing a bottleneck in certain games that utilize a lot of CPU power for AI and other such elements like Watch Dogs. The FX series is known to have lower IPC and single threaded performance so they generally lack in games compared to Intel. The FX4300 being the worst culprit due to it essentially being a dual core. In this case overclocking would increase performance or at the very least reduce stuttering but the hardware around his CPU isn't up to par, more specifically his PSU.

Although games are very GPU dominant you still have the CPU feeding it information. Try to keep that in mind.

 

[Venom84]

Just to clarify PP, one post you mentioned I should try overclock to 4.2 or 4.3 but the last you said my PSU couldn't handle it. In your opinion would you think it would be safe to push it a little higher than stock speed?

 

[-RockMan-]

Just to clarify PP, one post you mentioned I should try overclock to 4.2 or 4.3 but the last you said my PSU couldn't handle it. In your opinion would you think it would be safe to push it a little higher than stock speed?

Sorry to butt in but I have some questions for you. :/

1.What heatsink do you have by chance is it stock or aftermarket ?
2.Can you download this and screenshot what it says about your cpu specs with tempature ?
Core Temp