Is it worth it to overclock my i7-2600k and buy more ram, or should i just replace it?

[blastfire580]

I never really tried overclocking and I honestly have no idea on how to proceed. I have a GTX 1060 6GB GPu, 8GB of Ram that I will upgrade to 16 or 24GB but I want to know what to do with my CPu.

 

[volkgren]

Overclocking depends on your motherboard (and CPU cooler *and power supply). Some motherboards don't allow overclocking. Do you know what motherboard you have?

 

[ilynjm112810]

2600k is an old chip, bare in mind that it will be obsolete for new games as they are released. Overclocking depends mostly on your motherboard and chipset, what chipset do you have or motherboard model? IF it will allow overclocking, will your CPU cooler keep the chip cool enough when overclocked? Lastly, will your motherboard support that much RAM? second gen i7's didn't use much past 1333mhz iirc, what speed is the RAM? Most newer games need RAM speed far beyond 1333mhz..... These are factors to consider.

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from blastfire580 : "Wanting to upgrade my rig (or not)"

CPU = Intel I7-2600k 3.40 gHZ

Motherboard= Asus p8z68 deluxe

GPU= NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 6GB
Ram= 8gb

Power Supply = EVGA 500w

I don´t know how to overclock my cpu, so i`d need advice on that. Also, should i buy more RAM, maybe 16GB so that can add up to 24GB? Or should I just sell my old set of RAM and buy a completely new one?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

2600k is an old chip, bare in mind that it will be obsolete for new games as they are released. Overclocking depends mostly on your motherboard and chipset, what chipset do you have or motherboard model? IF it will allow overclocking, will your CPU cooler keep the chip cool enough when overclocked? Lastly, will your motherboard support that much RAM? second gen i7's didn't use much past 1333mhz iirc, what speed is the RAM? Most newer games need RAM speed far beyond 1333mhz..... These are factors to consider.

Yeah none of that is really true. A 2600K would hit 5Ghz on a cheap cooler ( last of the Iridium soldered mainstream chips ) pretty easily with a good P67/Z68/Z77 board and the sweet spot for Sandy Bridge was DDR3 1600. With the later boards it would do 1866 and even 2133. A 2600K especially in the ~4.5Ghz range will not bottleneck a GTX1060.

You will need a an overclocking chipset board and aftermarket cooling. Don't bother with more than 16GB of RAM.

 

[10tacle]

^^That for two reasons:

1) I cracked 5.05 GHz stable on my old trusty i5 2500K with a Noctua NH-D14 on an ASUS P8P67-Pro (disclaimer: it was in the middle of winter and I dropped indoor ambient temps down to a chilly 14C/58F with the heat off. Oh and the old Antec Nine Hundred still is one of the highest air flowing cases to this day more than a decade after it was revealed).

2) Guru3D did a test review article of a 2600K earlier this year with the latest games (of the time) showing very little benefit of newer Intel chipsets, most notably above 1080p, when it came to FPS. Game developers are more and more drawing on GPU power demands as GPUs become more powerful relative to CPU power. This is one reason why it's still important to test a CPU's game power in benchmarks at lower than mainstream resolutions. Something to this day people still complain about at Tom's (and elsewhere). If you want a GPU bench, test at a higher game resolution... if you want a CPU game bench, test at a lower resolution.

 

[blastfire580]

2600k is an old chip, bare in mind that it will be obsolete for new games as they are released. Overclocking depends mostly on your motherboard and chipset, what chipset do you have or motherboard model? IF it will allow overclocking, will your CPU cooler keep the chip cool enough when overclocked? Lastly, will your motherboard support that much RAM? second gen i7's didn't use much past 1333mhz iirc, what speed is the RAM? Most newer games need RAM speed far beyond 1333mhz..... These are factors to consider.

Yeah none of that is really true. A 2600K would hit 5Ghz on a cheap cooler ( last of the Iridium soldered mainstream chips ) pretty easily with a good P67/Z68/Z77 board and the sweet spot for Sandy Bridge was DDR3 1600. With the later boards it would do 1866 and even 2133. A 2600K especially in the ~4.5Ghz range will not bottleneck a GTX1060.

You will need a an overclocking chipset board and aftermarket cooling. Don't bother with more than 16GB of RAM.

i have a Z68, so now i`ll need a cooler like say, the 212 EVo and another case with more airflow, since mine has pretty much none.

 

[ilynjm112810]

Clock speed alone won't get him where he needs to be in the future though.... If we could just stick with 7 year old chips, they wouldn't sell new ones. He can overclock it with a decent cooler, it will play mainly any game out right now but when will 1600Mhz RAM speeds become not enough? Especially when a $110 Ryzen 3 will spank it with far less heat.... I am hesitant on making the jump to DDR4 myself so I get where he is coming from but by the time he buys a nice Z77 board, a nice cooler and more DDR3, he could have got a nice Ryzen setup with much faster DDR4. That is just my $.02, if you can find a good board cheap or already have a good Z series board that can overclock, it may be worth it, for a little while. If you want to stay ahead of new games as they drop, get something newer.

 

[10tacle]

i have a Z68, so now i`ll need a cooler like say, the 212 EVo and another case with more airflow, since mine has pretty much none.

The Hyper 212 EVO is so yesterday's news as an entry level enthusiast category cooler. Look at Cryorig's H7 for not much more money which solidly defeats it, especially when overclocking with voltage increase at the level you'll need:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/dominic-moass/cryorig-h7-air-cooler-review/5/

That is of course depending on where you live. Last I heard from my EU nation friends, they can be hard to come by depending on nation. Here in North America/US we don't have an issue with availability.

 

[volkgren]

An aftermarket case with adequate airflow and CPU cooler height clearance is a good investment, as well is a good CPU cooler. As others mentioned it can do really well in modern gaming when overclocked. I'd rather have the 2600K at 4.5GHz over a Ryzen 3 any day to play those CPU intensive games like Battlefield multiplayer or Assassin's Creed.

 

[nobspls]

Here is my old 2600K with a mild overclock toe 4.2Ghz with Vcore set to 1.265v.

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/9730184

And in comparison here is my newer R5 1600 at stock clock:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/7741513

You can see the old venerable 2600K from 2011 is still plenty capable. Of course you have to overclock R5 1600 so it is not such an embarassment, and even with that it is still only doing on this at 4.0Ghz overclock:

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/7865794

And I haven't felt the need or ambition to try to get my old 2600K 5.0 Ghz. But 2600K is not obsolete and probably wouldn't be given that neither AMD or Intel is pushing the CPU advancement with any kind of urgency.

The reason you'd ditch the 2600K has not thing to do with the CPU, but rather you want newer features on the motherboard and/or the old one has flaked out.

 

[blastfire580]

i have a Z68, so now i`ll need a cooler like say, the 212 EVo and another case with more airflow, since mine has pretty much none.

The Hyper 212 EVO is so yesterday's news as an entry level enthusiast category cooler. Look at Cryorig's H7 for not much more money which solidly defeats it, especially when overclocking with voltage increase at the level you'll need:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/dominic-moass/cryorig-h7-air-cooler-review/5/

That is of course depending on where you live. Last I heard from my EU nation friends, they can be hard to come by depending on nation. Here in North America/US we don't have an issue with availability.

What about the Corsair H60? Cause that one I can´t find here in Argentina.

 

[boju]

with a Noctua NH-D14 on an ASUS P8P67-Pro Oh and the old Antec Nine Hundred

We're almost twin brothers lol. Similar specs, same case and cooler, just slightly different on mobo (p8p67 delux) and cpu. Have to agree on the case, very solid and excellent air flow. Have two actually for the 920 system and 2600k

---

Overclocking is well worth it. Have 2600k @ 4.5 my self (2x 8GB 1600 CL9 Ripjaws) with 1080Ti and im getting comparable frame rates (Within 10fps) in Ghost Recon to other later 7700k/8700k systems. Since you already have a board, just need a better cooler and 16GB (Agree 16GB ram is good level) and you'll still be good for the next couple of years.

When you think it's time to upgrade, might be around 2020 when Pci Express 4 or 5 and DDR5 platforms are rumored to be released.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Clock speed alone won't get him where he needs to be in the future though.... If we could just stick with 7 year old chips, they wouldn't sell new ones. He can overclock it with a decent cooler, it will play mainly any game out right now but when will 1600Mhz RAM speeds become not enough? Especially when a $110 Ryzen 3 will spank it with far less heat.... I am hesitant on making the jump to DDR4 myself so I get where he is coming from but by the time he buys a nice Z77 board, a nice cooler and more DDR3, he could have got a nice Ryzen setup with much faster DDR4. That is just my $.02, if you can find a good board cheap or already have a good Z series board that can overclock, it may be worth it, for a little while. If you want to stay ahead of new games as they drop, get something newer.

This is why we don't listen to marketing. The only reason I updated from a P67/2600k/DDR3 1600 system to a Z170/6700k/DDR4 3200 system was motherboard options. At 1440p I saw exactly 0 more frames per second at 1440p with the same 980 Ti used on both systems. Same games installs. I just moved my Steam drive to the new computer.

but when will 1600Mhz RAM speeds become not enough?

I know of exactly 2 games that scale with faster RAM. Arma 3 and Fallout 4. That's it.

At 1440p and up you are almost entirely dependent on the GPU. Once you reach a 'good enough' level with the CPU that won't bottleneck the graphics card there's no need for more.

Why do faster chips exist? 1) CPU manufacturers don't build CPUs for gamers. Productivity increases with generational improvements. 2) New architectures are more efficient. This matters very little to a home user. A company buying 10,000 computers will see real results in lower electricity bills though. 3) New instruction sets ( see number 1 ) and 4) To make money.

 

[10tacle]

What about the Corsair H60? Cause that one I can´t find here in Argentina.

If you are okay with your first AOI (all in one) water cooler then it may be worth a shot. But I've heard not so great things about their longevity, specifically under load when overclocking and the pump fails after a couple of years. Corsair support forums are full of those stories.

 

[ilynjm112810]

Clock speed alone won't get him where he needs to be in the future though.... If we could just stick with 7 year old chips, they wouldn't sell new ones. He can overclock it with a decent cooler, it will play mainly any game out right now but when will 1600Mhz RAM speeds become not enough? Especially when a $110 Ryzen 3 will spank it with far less heat.... I am hesitant on making the jump to DDR4 myself so I get where he is coming from but by the time he buys a nice Z77 board, a nice cooler and more DDR3, he could have got a nice Ryzen setup with much faster DDR4. That is just my $.02, if you can find a good board cheap or already have a good Z series board that can overclock, it may be worth it, for a little while. If you want to stay ahead of new games as they drop, get something newer.

This is why we don't listen to marketing. The only reason I updated from a P67/2600k/DDR3 1600 system to a Z170/6700k/DDR4 3200 system was motherboard options. At 1440p I saw exactly 0 more frames per second at 1440p with the same 980 Ti used on both systems. Same games installs. I just moved my Steam drive to the new computer.

but when will 1600Mhz RAM speeds become not enough?

I know of exactly 2 games that scale with faster RAM. Arma 3 and Fallout 4. That's it.

At 1440p and up you are almost entirely dependent on the GPU. Once you reach a 'good enough' level with the CPU that won't bottleneck the graphics card there's no need for more.

Why do faster chips exist? 1) CPU manufacturers don't build CPUs for gamers. Productivity increases with generational improvements. 2) New architectures are more efficient. This matters very little to a home user. A company buying 10,000 computers will see real results in lower electricity bills though. 3) New instruction sets ( see number 1 ) and 4) To make money.

I get all that, I do. As I said, I am as reluctant to upgrade as the next guy, I still run an AMD FX-4350 with 16GB DDR3-1866. All I am saying is there was a turning point where DDR2 became obsolete,. If not we would still be gaming on it, right? So it would stand to reason that DDR3 will soon be obsolete, sooner than later. I am coming into some money soon and am doing an entire new build, with DDR4-3600. I am basically doubling my RAM's speed. I do understand that DDR3 can mainly play any game right now, I play every game with my DDR3 system and an FX-4350 lol. Now that my RX570 went though and this PC is getting old, I am going to upgrade to DDR4. If the OP is trying to add RAM and overclock, he must have a reason. Not sure what his budget is but if he wants higher FPS on games that come out within the next 3 years, he may as well upgrade to DDR4.