CPU Overclocking? GPU Overclocking? Is it worth looking into???

[MLGamer]

Hi Everyone!

I am a newbie in the world of serious gaming and wanted to know if overclocking is really worth looking into? I am about to have an Alienware R-4 ALX delivered with the following specs:

Intel Core i7-3960X (Six Core Extreme, 15MB Cache) Overclocked up to 4.0Ghz
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 7870
32GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Serial ATA III RAID 0 with Dual 2TB Hard Drives

I regret getting the Raid 0 configuration after doing a little research on hard drive failures. Other than that, I am pumped about my new system.

Thanks for all your help,

MLGamer

 

[discordian]

Why do people buy alienware? It's such a ripoff.

To your question: It's matter of personal opinion I guess. If you are doing heavy workloads with your CPU or have a wide array of video cards that will be easily bottlenecked , id say yes. As for your GPU, it can be, but honestly to me it isn't going to make an earth shattering difference in gaming, maybe more of a difference in GPU accelerated programs.

On a side note: I do find my video card overclock useful in situations where my FPS is under 45. There I can notice a major difference, but if its 45+, why bother imo

 

[MLGamer]

Why do people buy alienware? It's such a ripoff.

To your question: It's matter of personal opinion I guess. If you are doing heavy workloads with your CPU or have a wide array of video cards that will be easily bottlenecked , id say yes. As for your GPU, it can be, but honestly to me it isn't going to make an earth shattering difference in gaming, maybe more of a difference in GPU accelerated programs.

On a side note: I do find my video card overclock useful in situations where my FPS is under 45. There I can notice a major difference, but if its 45+, why bother imo

discordian: thanks for the response. I appreciate your insight. I will be using my system for a combination of games and musical composition. Is there a guide as to how much I should overclock wither my cpu or gpu? Thanks again!!!

 

[discordian]

This guide may be useful to you

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_hd_7870_overclock_guide,2.html

Personally, though I own a 7870, don't assume from the guide that you can necessarily reach an overclock that high with those settings (each chip is different). Also, they raise their 7870 to 1.3v, id recommend against it personally, 1.275v should be a good maximum.

As for the CPU, these two stickies may help you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274821-29-sandy-bridge-series-overclocking-cores-guide

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/265056-29-2600k-2500k-overclocking-guid
e

They're both geared to sandy bridge k, but they should be helpful.

 

[discordian]

Also, piece of advice, make sure your cooler is decent enough to handle the extra heat.
If not, buy a better one. Always remember one main rule: Heat is your worst enemy. Well, besides grizzly bears.