Overclock FX6300 or Upgrade?

[andythegeek]

I've recently committed myself to going 100% PC for gaming and made some upgrades to my build just before Christmas, which included a GTX 970 GPU. My CPU at the time wasn't great so I upgraded to the FX6300 which was the highest my mobo was compatible with. I've just installed GTA 5 which I can play fine if I compromise on graphics but the bottlenecking of the 6300 is stopping me from getting the best out of my GPU to a point of frustration. Now I'd intended to overclock the 6300 from the start and I just need to get around to purchasing a new heatsink so I can do this, but I'm now wondering if I should not bother and just get a new mobo and CPU. I just can't make my mind up. It's a case of weighing up the benefits of £30 for a heatsink vs £200+ for upgrade (thinking 8350). How much can I reasonably expect from an overclocked 6300?

I know I'm not really asking a question and more sharing a quandary but I hoped the good people of the forums may have some useful tips and words of wisdom.

Many thanks

 

[coolcole01]

overclocking will surely get you more frames but if your looking to push that gtx 970 as far as it should be get an i5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117302&cm_re=i5_processor-_-19-117-302-_-Product

 

[skylord_]

You must really like Intel coolcoe.
I would probably overcook especially since when you do decide to upgrade you can use your new Heat sink with it. Later on when you do upgrade possibly look at the AMD FX 9370 it I'd a very good very fast processor but users a lot of power and creates a lot of heat.

 

[NightAntilli]

I'd stick with your CPU and overclock it to 4 GHz, which is the speed of the FX-8350. The two additional cores of the FX-8350 won't be giving you any benefit in running the game.

 

[coolcole01]

I am completely neutral to either company (look at my signature own both and build both)i go for best performance for the money no matter what and in the current way games are made the amd cpu can not match the weakest i3 in most games but at price to performance the lower cpus can really give you great bang for your buck just dont kid yourself by buying an enthusiast class card and then an entry level cpu. The fx 6300 overclocked to its capacity will never push the card to its limits the i5 will.

 

[coolcole01]

You must really like Intel coolcoe.
I would probably overcook especially since when you do decide to upgrade you can use your new Heat sink with it. Later on when you do upgrade possibly look at the AMD FX 9370 it I'd a very good very fast processor but users a lot of power and creates a lot of heat.

The 9370 is a joke plain and simple

 

[st3v30]

What motherboard do you have??

 

[andythegeek]

Thanks for your comments, I think this has helped me make up my mind and I'm going to overclock. My head was strangely in a mind set of I can only do one or the other because of budget. But a complete upgrade is going to have to wait until funds appear so may as well overclock in the meantime.

 

[andythegeek]

My mother board is one of these http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-970a-ds3rev_10

 

[RobCrezz]

My mother board is one of these http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-970a-ds3rev_10

Wouldnt even both overclocking on that board.

IMO, sell the fx 6300 and mobo and get a i5 (even a cheap H81 board would be fine).

 

[andythegeek]

My mother board is one of these http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-970a-ds3rev_10

Wouldnt even both overclocking on that board.

What's the reason for that? (I'm very new to this overclocking biz.)

 

[RobCrezz]

My mother board is one of these http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-970a-ds3rev_10

Wouldnt even both overclocking on that board.

What's the reason for that? (I'm very new to this overclocking biz.)

That board doesnt really have much in the way of voltage regulator (vrm) cooling and will just throttle the cpu if the vrms get too hot due to overclocking (which they tend to do). Bear in mind you can get some money back by selling your motherboard and cpu, so it might not cost you much to upgrade.

For £182 you could simply be running a i5 4460 which would get the most out of your gtx 970 straight out of the box.

The MSI board i choose recently got recommended by tomshardware in its price range:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/asrock-b85m-dgs-asrock-h81m-hds-asus-h81m-e-msi-h91m-e34,review-33170-9.html
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E34 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£38.17 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £182.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-17 23:44 BST+0100

 

[NightAntilli]

If you do decide to upgrade, make sure it's at least an i5. If you upgrade to an i3, I will pretty much guarantee that you will regret it when DX12 comes around.

 

[andythegeek]

This is all really helpful, thanks everyone. I do find a lot of this hard to get my head around at times, like how can a quad core intel at 3.5ghz be comparable to an 8 core amd at 4ghz? But somehow it is.

 

[coolcole01]

The easiest way to explain it is even though the amd is faster by the clock the intel is getting so much more done per clock the amd just can't keep up regardless of speed.

 

[andythegeek]

I see. Thanks again everyone, your comments have been invaluable. I've decided what I'm going to do. As I'm currently not in a position in which I can afford the CPU upgrade right now, I can at least afford a new mobo and cooler, which will allow me overclock my current 6300 until a time I can get an 8350 or similar.

 

[RobCrezz]

I see. Thanks again everyone, your comments have been invaluable. I've decided what I'm going to do. As I'm currently not in a position in which I can afford the CPU upgrade right now, I can at least afford a new mobo and cooler, which will allow me overclock my current 6300 until a time I can get an 8350 or similar.

If you do decide to do that, bear in mind a board which is good for overclocking (some kind of 990FX board would be best) will increase the cost. You may find its similar price to just get the H81+i5.

 

[Goku Kakkarot]

Overclock !!! Fx 6300 is safe when overcloking to 4Ghz worry. Ive mine overclocked too without any problem...... Even my stock cooler( which creates noise like hell but im okay with it) managed cpu temperature to57-58° max! Which is completely safe!

 

[NightAntilli]

I would say your current board should be able to reach 4 GHz with your current CPU. But not much higher than that. Its VRMs are not cooled, which means they'll overheat fairly quickly, making your overclock mute for anything higher than 4 GHz... It's a shame really because those CPUs are known to be able to reach 4.8 GHz on better boards with air cooling. The best but relatively cheap overclocking board for the AM3+ platform is the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P. You can find it for around £70. If you buy that with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, you'd be set back around £100.

If you upgrade to a relatively cheap i5, you'd be set back at least £190, with a relatively crappy motherboard, and over £200 for a good one. You'll notice the difference, but I personally don't think it's worth that price.

One more thing. What is your power supply? When you overclock, obviously things will be using more power, and we have to make sure that your current power supply can handle it. So... If that's already on its limit, the upgrading might still be the better choice.

 

[andythegeek]

Well I actually decided to give the overclock a go yesterday as a quick look showed it was running at 3.8ghz despite being set to 3.5 (is that normal). So I pushed it to 4ghz and a half hour stress test showed it to be stable and temps maxing around 50 degrees c on the stock cooler. It made GTA5 run a bit smoother on reasonable graphics but still lost frame rates in some of the denser areas of the game. I currently have around £100 to throw into this immediately which is why I'm thinking new mobo and cooler and overclocking until I can get new CPU. But the option of changing to Intel has also got me thinking. Really torn. I just want to be sure what I go for will be relatively "future proof" and not require another upgrade for as long as possible. But still affordable. I also want a flying unicorn powered by fairy dust.

 

[RobCrezz]

The most future proof for the money would be this IMO:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£201.54 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B85M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£43.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £245.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-19 12:29 BST+0100


Cheapest 8 thread Intel CPU, and a pretty cheap but good mobo. No overclocking, but the single thread performance is so good you dont need to, and having 8 threads would be great for the future.

 

[andythegeek]

After all this another option has presented itself. www.overclockers.co.uk offer finance and do some nice looking mobo and cpu bundles. I know I'll get screwed on the interest but I'm tempted. In which case I probably will go down the Intel route. Is there any benefit to an I7 over an I5, I have to spend over a certain amount to be able to get the finance so may as well get the best in the price bracket. Also my PSU is 600w, from reading other threads I get the impression that should be more than sufficient for most builds

 

[madmatt30]

After all this another option has presented itself. www.overclockers.co.uk offer finance and do some nice looking mobo and cpu bundles. I know I'll get screwed on the interest but I'm tempted. In which case I probably will go down the Intel route. Is there any benefit to an I7 over an I5, I have to spend over a certain amount to be able to get the finance so may as well get the best in the price bracket. Also my PSU is 600w, from reading other threads I get the impression that should be more than sufficient for most builds

buying pc components on finance is beyond stupid imo mate,some guys on this thread are really really good at spending other peoples money.

Im running a 6300 with a gtx 970 & gta v runs a flawless 60fps frame locked for me,couple of settings are down to high rather than very high but theyre gpu based & have nothing to do with the cpu.

you motherboard isnt the best but its certainly better or at the very least as good as the little asus im running at 4.3ghz on.

do yourself a favour,get a decent cooler that also offers vrm cooling like the pallas - your board is capable of running 125w phenoms which means its defintely capable of 4.2/4.3ghz on the 6300 that uses less voltage by miles.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAIJINTEK-0R100004-Raijintek-Pallas-Profile/dp/B00IAPTBCK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429462899&sr=8-1&keywords=raijintek+pallas

Overclock properly - I know you stated youve already had it at 4ghz on the stock cooler?? If you only hit 50c then you didnt overclock properly or the temps were wrong.
Did you disable turbo core & cl1e states (my bet is you didnt which means the chip will still throttle to below stock speeds on 4 of the 6 cores)

 

[Goku Kakkarot]

Yeah you should be around 59-61 with stock and what changes did you make in bios for overclocking?