I just got the evga gtx580 superclocked, and I was wondering if I could increase the clock further. It's now at 797 MHz factory overclock (I believe). If so, what would be the most reasonable estimate? GPU is around 39-41 idle and ~59 with fsx. fan is 40% (sound is not an issue to me). I would also like to oc my cpu further to 4.2 GHz. I've gone through a lot of oc'ing tutorials, but still finding it difficult. Overall temps for cpu (core i7-975 @ 4.14) is upper 30's to lower 40's idle and between 62 and 67 with fsx. (I think max load was at 68 average and stable last time I did stress test (prime95 and OCCT)I have 12 GB of 1333MHz (6 Modules) DDR3 RAM. With everything maxed including water, (light bloom unchecked, 8xSQ on inspector) I get around 16 - 19 fps at Aerosoft Palma de Mallorca, Boston Logan, Munich, Rotterdam, etc with PMDG 747-8. But 30 on other planes especially default cessna (FPS Limiter = 30fps). Could I get better than this (especially at these addon airports), and will my fps drop if I start flying online (VATSIM for instance)I was thinking of getting 4GB x 3 modules of 1600MHz RAM (Corsair Dominator with the fan) instead of 6 modules @ 2 GB 1333MHz (less voltage and heat?) Is it worth it? or should I keep what I have? Should I overclock the RAM?Check my sig for further questions about my setup.Please answer me as if you're answering a slow person.Thanks in advance

Ok, comments:1. You don't need to overclock the GTX580. That card is screaming fast in any game that actually uses the GPU. FSX is reliant much moreso on the CPU - you will see little to no benefit from overclocking the GPU.2. DDR-1333 is probably going to limit your overclock with a Bloomfield i7 - the chip OCs via the base clock and you OC your RAM automatically too when you do that. At 4.0GHz my RAM is already above 1333. This is why stuff like DDR3-1600 and 2000 exists - it's made to be clocked past the standard 1333. (note that this is not the case with Sandy Bridge i7s - they overclock via the CPU multiplier and cannot run the RAM higher than 1333)3. 12GB of RAM is complete overkill and you may have stability problems due to having 6 DIMMs installed - maxing out the number of DIMMs almost always results in a loss of stability when overclocking due to technical aspects of how the voltage regulation and timing/command rate works. I'd try running with 6GB in and see if that makes a difference. FSX can only address 4GB (it's a 32 bit app) and I've personally never even seen it get above around 2.5GB, even with the most complex addons.4. Once the above issues have been taken care of or ruled out, what is your Vcore voltage on the chip? More voltage = more stability, but it comes at the expense of more heat and potential for long term damage to the CPU. You don't want to go above 1.4v without really extreme cooling, which is stuff the average person does not have.5. It may be the case that 4.14 is as high as your personal CPU will go - overclocking is not a guaranteed thing, some chips have a lower tolerance for it than others. Anything 4.0 or above is considered good for a Bloomfield i7.Take a look at this article for more info on all of this:http://www.techreact...d-and-gulftown/

I find it also depends on your aa settings etc. Im finding that with orbx scenery at 1080x1920x32 along with rex, aa settings via nvidia inspector 16x supersampling im getting nice graphics and visual, but fps is a drag at 8-15fps at simple airports. I have a i7 2600k oced at 4.6ghz to!!! I dont really know whats up.....so I am thinking about overclocking my gtx580 also but after ryans comments, im not sure whether this will solve the issue. Hell, my visual settings in fsx arent even at max and I still get bad fps.

Ok, comments:1. You don't need to overclock the GTX580. That card is screaming fast in any game that actually uses the GPU. FSX is reliant much moreso on the CPU - you will see little to no benefit from overclocking the GPU.2. DDR-1333 is probably going to limit your overclock with a Bloomfield i7 - the chip OCs via the base clock and you OC your RAM automatically too when you do that. At 4.0GHz my RAM is already above 1333. This is why stuff like DDR3-1600 and 2000 exists - it's made to be clocked past the standard 1333. (note that this is not the case with Sandy Bridge i7s - they overclock via the CPU multiplier and cannot run the RAM higher than 1333)3. 12GB of RAM is complete overkill and you may have stability problems due to having 6 DIMMs installed - maxing out the number of DIMMs almost always results in a loss of stability when overclocking due to technical aspects of how the voltage regulation and timing/command rate works. I'd try running with 6GB in and see if that makes a difference. FSX can only address 4GB (it's a 32 bit app) and I've personally never even seen it get above around 2.5GB, even with the most complex addons.4. Once the above issues have been taken care of or ruled out, what is your Vcore voltage on the chip? More voltage = more stability, but it comes at the expense of more heat and potential for long term damage to the CPU. You don't want to go above 1.4v without really extreme cooling, which is stuff the average person does not have.5. It may be the case that 4.14 is as high as your personal CPU will go - overclocking is not a guaranteed thing, some chips have a lower tolerance for it than others. Anything 4.0 or above is considered good for a Bloomfield i7.Take a look at this article for more info on all of this:http://www.techreact...d-and-gulftown/

Thanks Ryan for your advice. I went through the article, and I must say, this is the best explanation I've seen. After following the guideline step by step, I arrived at these values (I replaced the 1333MHz DIMMs with 3 x 4GB 2000MHz Corsair Dominator-GT with airflow):BCLK: 188MHzCPU Clock Ratio: x23.0DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1884MHzUCLK Frequency: 3768MHzCPU Voltage: 1.45625QPI/DRAM Voltage: 1.65IOH Voltage: 1.1DRAM Bus Voltage: 1.66 (My modules require 1.65v but I have 1.64 and 1.66).I did several 1-hour stress test with OCCT (large data set), and then a 2-hour test, and the temps maxed at 82c average, then I did 3 10-lap runs and a 20-lap run of IBT (very high) (since he said to use (maximum) if you have HT enabled), and maxed at 93c average. But I've done a full flight from LEPA to KBOS (8 hours), everything on max except the scenery complexity and autogen density which I left at 'dense' with light bloom disable, and then at normal with light bloom enabled, and the max temp was 73c on Core 1, and 69c 70c 68c on the others. Would you consider these temps high? What do you think (especially with the voltages and temps)? FPS is between 14 and 19 in the VC, (at the airports) and 20 - 26 outside. Airborne is 30FPS (I use FPS Limiter)Thanks once again for the link.

Check out overclock.net if you want a good forum on how to get the most from your hardware!

(note that this is not the case with Sandy Bridge i7s - they overclock via the CPU multiplier and cannot run the RAM higher than 1333)

I'm going to take the I5 2500K, so you are saying now that I can stay at 1333 ram instead of 1600?

I'm going to take the I5 2500K, so you are saying now that I can stay at 1333 ram instead of 1600?

I think Tab's is only telling half the story. My experience is you'll see increased performance with faster memory.Be advised: "memory with X58/P55 XMP profiles will generally work but is not optimized for P67 and will usually cause problems when overclocking in several cases)". <----copied from below linkAsus tech supportKen Carlin

I'm going to take the I5 2500K, so you are saying now that I can stay at 1333 ram instead of 1600?

It's only H67 that is limited to 1333MHz. In P67 there is a memory multiplier.

note that this is not the case with Sandy Bridge i7s - they overclock via the CPU multiplier and cannot run the RAM higher than 1333

Sandy Bridge CAN run memory faster than 1333 Ryan! :(. I run it at 2133MHz myself

Ok I stand corrected on that then, I must have seen stuff relating to the H67 then. Good to know there's a multiplier. (I was half right then, the bclk is still locked)