[SOLVED] Does overclocking a 12600k improve gaming performance?

[thecooldean]

I recently upgraded my PC with a 12600k, however I made the terrible decision of buying a H670 motherboard which doesn’t allow overclocking. I’m having a hard time figuring out why there isn’t much improvement in games after upgrading from a 4790k, and was wondering if it’s because the 12600k is running at stock speeds.

Is overclocking a 12600k really required to provide a better gaming performance? If so, is there any way I can tune my motherboard for a better cpu performance? (in the sense that I won’t be able to overclock it because of the H670 chipset). If it helps, I mostly play Rockstar titles GTA V and RDR 2, although performance in GTA V has improved, RDR 2 runs literally the same as my old 4790k.

My specs:
12600K
ASUS H670 Plus D4
1080 Ti
16 GB RAM 3200 MHz
750 watt PSU
Windows 11 and games running on SSD.

 

[mdd1963]

It's quite probable the 1080Ti might be saturated if at 4k, but, certainly there would be substantial differences in minimum FPS between the two CPUs even at 1080P in most games....(or if on a 60FPS monitor, you might notice next to no difference if you were already averaging above that, depending on the game)

In any event, did you do a full/fresh reinstall of games and OS prior to the comparisons? (Never a good idea to think one can just swap CPU , mainboard, and RAM, reboot, and start the same OS/games as installed last year; not saying you did, but, no real facts to go on yet.)

Just to make sure the CP is running at correct speeds for sustained play under load, you could run CPU-z/bench/stress CPU, and note clock speeds at start and after 4 min as measured on HWMonitor....(be sure to hit 'stop' within CPU-Z when done testing....; with normal 125W TDP limits, I'd expect at least 4.3 GHz sustained on the P-Cores (perhaps 3.3 GHz sustained on E-Cores?) after a few minutes, and, ideally, as high as 4.6 GHz...)

Here's a few comparisons (showing only average FPS, however) albeit with a 2080 Ti or 3080, so, your differences will be less at all resolutions with an older GPU...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMX4tLK5m9Y

 

[thecooldean]

It's quite probable the 1080Ti might be saturated if at 4k, but, certainly there would be substantial differences in minimum FPS between the two CPUs even at 1080P in most games....(or if on a 60FPS monitor, you might notice next to no difference if you were already averaging above that, depending on the game)

In any event, did you do a full/fresh reinstall of games and OS prior to the comparisons? (Never a good idea to think one can just swap CPU , mainboard, and RAM, reboot, and start the same OS/games as installed last year; not saying you did, but, no real facts to go on yet.)

Just to make sure the CP is running at correct speeds for sustained play under load, you could run CPU-z/bench/stress CPU, and note clock speeds at start and after 4 min as measured on HWMonitor....(be sure to hit 'stop' within CPU-Z when done testing....; with normal 125W TDP limits, I'd expect at least 4.3 GHz sustained on the P-Cores (perhaps 3.3 GHz sustained on E-Cores?) after a few minutes, and, ideally, as high as 4.6 GHz...)

Here's a few comparisons (showing only average FPS, however) albeit with a 2080 Ti or 3080, so, your differences will be less at all resolutions with an older GPU...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMX4tLK5m9Y

I did a clean install of Windows 11 however not the games since it was on another SSD.

I monitored the games using MSI Afterburner and Rivatuner and the P-cores run at a max speed of 4500 MHz across all six cores. Do I just leave it at this, or should I consider getting a new motherboard ?

 

[gamerk316]

The CPU is going to automatically clock up as long as it falls within thermal limits; you are going to be much more limited by the GPU in any case. Can't comment on RDR2's PC performance; it's possible even on a 4790k it was GPU limited.