Puzzled after Overclocking i7 960 to 3,8ghz

[Seme 6]

Dear all,

 

First of all, let me say Im not an expert what comes to overclocking, just a newbie looking for some help. Any suggestions or comments are welcome and appreciated.

 

Hardware:

Asus Rampage III Extreme

Intel Core I7 960 3.20 GHz, Boxed, Excl. Videochip, Quad Core

Corsair Dominator-GT 6 GB, PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, 7, Non-ECC, Kit Of 3

Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536 MB

Cooler Master Cosmos 1000

Cooler Master Silent Pro M850 850 Watt, 20+24 Pins, 80 Plus Rating

Prolimatech Megahalems RevB

D Velociraptor 600 GB, 10.000 Rpm, 32 MB, Sata III/600

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300

 

Software (for testing):

FSX Acceleration, FS Global, REX for graphics, Active Sky 2012 for weather, Aerosoft Amsterdam (gate E19), PMDG MD-11 in VC mode, two monitors in use, one for VC other for FMC, PFD Overhead etc.

Settings in FSX are quite high, however, without any AI traffic, I can add details of those later.

 

Yesterday, I managed to OC my hardware to 3,8ghz, temps mainly between 70-80 c but going as high as 81 c in FSX, which is too high I would say. However, I wanted to do some testing. Without overclocking, loading the same scenery & setup, I had approx 22-23 FPS from the VC view. When overclocked, I got approx 22-25 FPS. This puzzles me a lot.

 

I thought always that FSX is CPU dependant and that some OC would at least give me 5-10 FPS more or let's say a steady 25 or 28 FPS. If I start to taxi, it will drop a bit ofcourse. In otherwords, so far I have been wrong in my thoughts:-)

 

What am I missing here? I understand that every system and setup is different, but I really thought I could OC a bit and get some more FPS. Now, I cant even OC my system to 3,8ghz as the temps go too high. I have read dozens of forums related to OC and got the impression that the MOBO, CPU and Cooler I have, I could easily get at least the 3,8ghz.

 

Would it make difference to buy and add 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1866Mhz CL9?

Do I need to change cooler?

What kind of FPS should I expect to get after OC to 3,8ghz?

 

I know this is a long shot and Im not an expert in any way, but I would love to see some comments.

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

Cheers

 

Thomas

[superglide17 11]

You need to get above 4.0, with that chip 4.2 or 4.3. To do that you will need a CPU cooler.

[SAAB340 28]

Would it make difference to buy and add 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1866Mhz CL9?

Do I need to change cooler?

What kind of FPS should I expect to get after OC to 3,8ghz?

Given that your CPU is 3.2GHz at stock you can expect maximum 19% FPS increase when overclocking to 3.8GHz in a fully CPU bound scenario. Thats about 4 extra FPS maximum improvement at the framerate you're talking about.

 

FSX can be restricted by the GPU as well. Especially if you use high AA settings. You can easily test your current scenario with your GPU downclocked to run at 75% of stock settings to see how that affects your FPS negativly.

 

Faster RAM only helps (a little) if you are CPU restricted, not when you are GPU restricted.

 

A better cooler might give you a better overclock. But if you say that you are not getting any good scaling by going to 3.8GHz you won't get any better scaling with a higher overclock.

[Seme 6]

You need to get above 4.0, with that chip 4.2 or 4.3. To do that you will need a CPU cooler.

 

Would an Corsair H80 or H100 liquid cooling give more chance to get at or above 4 ghz and still keep decent temps?

 

Thanks!

 

Given that your CPU is 3.2GHz at stock you can expect maximum 19% FPS increase when overclocking to 3.8GHz in a fully CPU bound scenario. Thats about 4 extra FPS maximum improvement at the framerate you're talking about.

 

FSX can be restricted by the GPU as well. Especially if you use high AA settings. You can easily test your current scenario with your GPU downclocked to run at 75% of stock settings to see how that affects your FPS negativly.

 

Faster RAM only helps (a little) if you are CPU restricted, not when you are GPU restricted.

 

A better cooler might give you a better overclock. But if you say that you are not getting any good scaling by going to 3.8GHz you won't get any better scaling with a higher overclock.

 

Thanks for the comments & suggestions! I really appreciate it! I need to go back and tweak a bit and come back with findings. It seems though I was too optimistic about the performance.... Or then I need to drop some addons, like FS Global...