[SOLVED] Is it worth it?

jon0111

Commendable
Mar 29, 2019
24
0
1,510
I don't have a "serious" gaming rig, but it's pretty good. I have an RTX 2060 Super and play on a 1080p 144GHz monitor. I need some advice.

So, this is my first time overclocking. I was able to get a 10600k pretty cheap. The consensus seems to be that if I have the K version, it would be a waste to not overclock, right? I have a Noctua nh-d15s and MSI Gaming Plus. I didn't really expect to get too far with air cooling. The jump from stock up to an all-core 4.8 Ghz OC has produced tremendous results. I can easily stay sub 80 degrees with stress tests like Prime95, OCCT with AVX, etc. I believe my Vcore is set to 1.24, so things are nice and cool.

Moving past a 48 multiplier is getting very hot and not paying off they way I had hoped. Getting to 4.9 raises temps 10 degrees, but I don't see much difference in benchmarks. It's possible to get to 5.0 and see better results--like blowing past a 10900--but temps are very high and I'm thermal throttling during any kind of AVX stress test within a few seconds. I have clearly reached the limits of air cooling.

So my question is, do I:
A. Stop where I am. 4.8 is more than enough for what I'm doing. I'm already GPU bound, so let it go.
B. Invest in a good AIO (280 or 360) and see if I can reach a stable 5.0. You never know when I'll step up to 1440p gaming and I'll be ready for that 3070 card when they start selling them again in two years.
C. Keep my Noctua fans turned up and don't worry about the crazy unrealistic stress tests. As long as I can game and keep things under 80 degrees, all is good. (This seems to be the least likely, as most folks on the interwebs tell me that it's not overclocking unless I torture the bujeezus out of my CPU in order to prove it's "stable.")

Any advice is appreciated. (No, I don't want to scrap it all and go Ryzen.)
 
Solution
Yep, Nvidia and Intel have really taken the fun out of overclocking the last few generations.

Better to leave the default settings alone almost, let the fast cores boost up when possible, and the rest reach their rated boost. Mostly just adding cooling will be more effective than manually overclocking.

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Yep, Nvidia and Intel have really taken the fun out of overclocking the last few generations.

Better to leave the default settings alone almost, let the fast cores boost up when possible, and the rest reach their rated boost. Mostly just adding cooling will be more effective than manually overclocking.
 
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Solution

jon0111

Commendable
Mar 29, 2019
24
0
1,510
Yep, Nvidia and Intel have really taken the fun out of overclocking the last few generations.

Better to leave the default settings alone almost, let the fast cores boost up when possible, and the rest reach their rated boost. Mostly just adding cooling will be more effective than manually overclocking.
Got it. Thanks for all the advice, folks!