My CPU is bottlenecking games, does overclocking help?

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atibingler

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Oct 2, 2015
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Hey,

I've got a 980Ti and an i5-2500k and 2560x1440 monitor. I have never overclocked because I have never had the skills/need. Until recently, when playing Witcher 3/Crysis 3 in Ultra settings. I know that overclocking your CPU normally doesn't improve performance in video games. But what about now, in this case, when my CPU is actually being the bottleneck. Would overclocking make a difference in this case?

Regards,
Alex
 
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It will in certain games, my 4690K bottlenecks my 980 in BF4 at Ultra 1080p. The GPU is around 70% usage and the CPU is causing the fps dips down from 144.
Overclocking the CPU when it is bottlenecking will help bring your minimum fps up a bit, assuming you have a cooler that can keep up with the overclock.
That CPU shouldn't give you dips under 60 fps though, so unless you are using a 120/144hz monitor, you shouldn't need to overclock yet.
 
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I'm not saying I'm correct, as a bit of a hardware enthusiast I'm always interested. However on the subject of bottlenecking I think the word gets thrown around a lot these days and I'm not always convinced. If you take Sergeants machine from his spec...

So the 4690k has a dual channel memory controller, he's got 12gb RAM. As you can't buy 6gb modules then we assume he is using 3x4gb modules. So he has two modules on one channel and one module on another channel at 1333mhz. So what's the timing on his RAM, there is going to be a latency increase on the one channel that has 2 modules on. Does he have more than one card on his PCI bus? He's got a 16 lane bus on a 4690k but is it all dedicated to the 980Ti? Has he got a page file? How big is it? Is it on an SSD, it doesn't specify he has one. If it's on a standard hard disk then you could maybe identify that as factor that is most likely causing an FPS dip.

I'm interested why you would say the CPU specifically is your bottleneck? I don't agree that any powerful GPU will be hamstrung by any processor, there are many other factors to take into consideration that contribute to machine performance way beyond simple numbers.
 
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Hello again, thanks for your answers so far

Well I run MSI Afterburner when I play and it shows my GPU is running at 70-80% when my CPU is running at 100% and when CPU is at 100% i get stutters and stupid lag.

So I am assuming it's my base-clocked i5-2500k that is bottlenecking Witcher 3 at Ultra and 1440p? Sounds reasonable?

So, back to my original question - would overclocking my CPU help?
 
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I get dips under 60 FPS whenever my CPU is running at 100%. I am running 2560x1440 monitor and Witcher 3 at Ultra. So you're saying overclocking my i5-2500k would raise the threshold when the dips/stutters begin?

 
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Yes definitely but what monitor are you actually running ??
Assuming it's 1440p 60htz then running anything past 60fpsfps vsynced is pointless anyway.

& a stock 2500k is entirely capable of a solid 60fps on any game apart from the arma series & maybe GTA v.
 
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It could help, though I would look at background processes on your machine that may be tying up your cpu resources. Any cpu can become the weak link given a powerful enough gpu setup (sli,single) in a NON VSYNC SCENARIO. That does not mean you are CPU bound in the classical sense, it only means that the GPU's "max" performance is defined by the cpu and not the other way around, and in this case an overclock would help. If you are getting a constant (insert monitor refresh rate here)fps don't sweat it and move on.

(edit for clarity)
 
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See this is what intrigues me, so if monitoring software is reporting that the CPU is at 100% load is this across all 4 cores? What's your CPU temperature when it's @ 100% load?

What's your complete system spec, I'm genuinely interested as if your processor is the limiting factor then yes overclocking could help but I would rule out other factors first.
 
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Ive got a water cooler for CPU hahah, i think temps are about 60 degrees at 100% load. And yes the monitoring software says 100% usage on ALL 4 CORES when I am getting stutters at otherwise stable 60 fps. Only when CPU usage is 100% it dips. GPU has not ever been 100% load.

my system specs:
i5-2500k
980 ti
8gb ram
2560x1440 60 hz monitor
im using HDD 7200rpm (dont know if matters)

 
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Toss on a mild OC and call in the morning?
 
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Yea i think ill try a little overclock. be back here when i have tried, thx dude
 
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I think the order I would look at things is this:

1. Is some other software hogging CPU cycles? Check task manager, is something else running?
2. Run malware, virus scan if you don't already regularly (My HTPC recently had a lightcoin mining bot on it using 75% CPU cycles!)
3. How much RAM is free, is something hogging resources causing excessive page file swaps?
4. Is the machine accessing the page file when the CPU is at 100%, maybe the CPU isn't processing 100% but it's actually waiting for resources? i.e. swapping data from page file into RAM to process (major slow down). Check your hard disk activity light.
5. If everything checks out and it's still your CPU, I would be mildly surprised but I'm not saying it's not possible. Overclocking will give you a performance increase but I've found the increases to be small. I do overclock my hardware but more for the enjoyment of it rather than the perceived performance increase but you can squeeze a few extra % out of it for sure. <-- Either way it's free and fun so why the hell not?
 
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I suggested some of this before, so I agree. It appears to be an older system so there could be some trash going on there, an OC will help even so but best to take the garbage out. Agreed on the OC reason...my i5 DC is @ i7 DC settings....really more because Jabba want...
 
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I have 12GB RAM but in a 2x4, 2x2 layout, running in dual channel, I had 8 and see no performance difference so left the extra in just to have it. I only have 1 card in and I have disabled my page file now, but I have had it on until very recently, no change. I don't have an SSD no, but my HDD usage while in game is no where near maxed. The reason I see my CPU as a bottleneck is because my GPU is running at 70% with a cap of 120 fps, and the only time it dips is when the CPU usage comes very close to max, when lots of things are happening. GTA 5 is also a CPU bottleneck for me, but not by so much with everything pretty much maxed out.
 
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Greatly depends on where you are in that game. If you're in the cities of Novigrad or Oxenfurt, you could very well get close to 100% CPU usage going on an i5. Even on my Skylake i5 I get pretty close to 100% CPU usage in those areas, though I still seem to be GPU bound with my GTX 970. Witcher 3 is probably one of the games where an overclock would help on the older Intel chips, at least in those specific parts of the game.
 
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