[SOLVED] OC or Turbo Boost?

[types_s]

I've recently gotten an i7-9700k with a Hyper 212 Evo air cooler. Does the turbo boost mode do everything I will need, or does it only work on a few cores? Should I try overclocking so that it affects all cores? (Trying to get high FPS in games even if they don't use a super high amount of my CPU)

 

[jojesa]

The i7-9700k automatically turbo up to 4.6GHz on all cores if there is adequate cooling and boost up to 4.9 GHz on one single-core.
If you want it to run it faster than 4.6GHz on all cores all the time, then overclock it.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Turbo boost provides a temporary boost to SOME but not all cores.

If you have a motherboard and the cooling capacity to do it, overclocking will always yield better results. That said the Hyper 212 EVO isn't the best possible cooler so you may have an issue Overclocking it too much, but you should get something out of it.

Keep in mind overclocking your CPU will not affect the FPS in games that don't push the processor at all, and in fact only some CPU bound games will see noticeable bumps in FPS. Also keep in mind the 9700k can pretty much crush any game on the market these days, so the FPS gains to be had when overclocking are NOT huge.

 

[mdd1963]

Exact behavior will largely depend on mainboard BIOS settings...; most enthusiasts will likely wish to disable the automated downclocking that occurs at the 30 second timeframe in a half-hearted nod to TDP limits...

A recent 9700K /Asus Z390=A Prime build for a friend did have the CPU hit 4.9 GHz on a core or two, and a few 4.8 GHz showings, but, under a steady all core load such as even CPU-Z/CPU stress test, I noticed it running all-core clocks at only 3.6 GHz or so, possibly some sort of power saving/limiting feature. (MCE was enabled, and temps were only 53C at this speed, so, not sure why it did not boost at least 1 GHz higher on all cores.)

In any event, a few clicks in Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility, and I had it running as I thought it should, where 1-2 cores run at 4.9 GHz, 3-4 cores at 4.8 GHz, etc., where the all core clock speed was 4.6 GHz, which showed temps of about 64C, more than reasonable for an NH-D15... More than fast enough for his Facebook , Fishville/ Farmville and surfing needs!

 

[types_s]

Hyper 212 EVO isn't the best possible cooler so you may have an issue Overclocking it too much, but you should get something out of it.

Should I just let turbo boost do its thing then, and not overclock?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Should I just let turbo boost do its thing then, and not overclock?

Thats my suggestion.

If you're not familiar with overclocking just build it and play your games and see how you like it. The system will be stable, it will run everything today smoothly, and so on.

Over time if you decide you want to tweak and see if you can get some more performance out of it, sit down and LEARN overclocking. Too many people want to jump in and OC everything immediately. They end up doing it completely wrong and make an unstable mess. Or they just waste hours, days, weeks, of their lives getting it working right for what? 2 fps that you can't see? Who cares.

Enjoy your system first, see how it goes.