I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I have done a lot of googling and now come up with anything very helpful.

 

I am looking to overclock my i7 4790k to around 4.5, 4.6 GHZ. I want to do this without water cooling, but with an aftermarket cooler which I already have installed.

 

I have never done an overclock and this would be my first one and I don't know a lot about it, or how to do it on my specific system. I am comfortable making changes in BIOS when I know what to change. I have an MSI gaming 7 board. Any help is appreciated.

Doesn't the i7 4790K run at 4.4 GHz when using the turbo boost, I would try that first and see how it performs before trying to overclock....

Doesn't the i7 4790K run at 4.4 GHz when using the turbo boost, I would try that first and see how it performs before trying to overclock....

 

Yep it does.  However, just from an FPS perspective, I will say even a 200Mhz bump is noticeable.  I'm in the process of reinstalling FSX and addons now that that I just rebuilt my system with a 4790K and a GTX780.  Testing the default A321 parked at KSEA with a saved flight in spot view zoomed all the way out and facing Seattle I get a consistent drop of 5-6 (average) fps when I change my BIOS settings between one that for some inexplicable reason caps my speed at 4.2 and one that allows the 4.4 speed.  That's about a 5% difference in FPS when you actually break it down to a % vs. raw fps numbers.  

 

Running EVGA Precision which gives a more steady FPS reading than the constantly fluctuating internal FSX one shows around 91fps (some reboots 95-96 for some reason) but any time I change that BIOS setting it always ends up being mid-80's when at the lower 4.2Ghz speed.  I also noticed, for now at least, affinity mask which used to give me a boost on my old Lynnfield core cpu now actually gives an fps drop vs. no mask setting at all.

 

I would say if you're going to OC the 4790K definitely go for 4.6 minimum.  Oh and yes, I will eventually be locking my FPS at 30.  Just leaving it open for testing to see the impact of new scenery and aircraft and see how tuning sliders affects things.

I also took my affinity mask off and have FPS set at 30. I have hyperthreading off as well.

 

I know it has the turbo boost although I am not sure how to set that on/off. My board comes with a OC button but I have read not to use that.

 

I am looking for guidance on how to overclock this system as I never have overclocked.

Anyone?? just looking for a starting point.

Ya download an app called CPU-Z to monitor the temps, restart your computer go into BIOS by hitting delete on the bootup... I believe it is the second screen down says advanced configuration... what you are looking for is the Multiplier it will say something along the lines of multiplier.....(x34) change the to x44 = 4.4 ghz  that is a place to start.. reboot and monitor the temps while you play a taxing game

Testing the default A321 parked at KSEA with a saved flight in spot view zoomed all the way out and facing Seattle I get a consistent drop of 5-6 (average) fps when I change my BIOS settings between one that for some inexplicable reason caps my speed at 4.2 and one that allows the 4.4 speed.

 

A 4790K only runs at 4.4Ghz with turbo boost on one core and will drop to 4.2Ghz when all 4 are boosted, so it's normal to see numbers like 4.2 or .4.4 passing by.

 

 

That's about a 5% difference in FPS when you actually break it down to a % vs. raw fps numbers.

 

Every 1% increase in clock speed does not by definition result in a 1% FPS increase, that's just wishful thinking.

A 4790K only runs at 4.4Ghz with turbo boost on one core and will drop to 4.2Ghz when all 4 are boosted, so it's normal to see numbers like 4.2 or .4.4 passing by.

 

 

 

Every 1% increase in clock speed does not by definition result in a 1% FPS increase, that's just wishful thinking.

 

For some reason the Asus Maximus VII Formula runs my CPU at 4.4 on all cores when under load.  If I turn on Prime95 with 8 threads it jumps to 4.4 and stays there until shut off.  I haven't been able to figure out how to configure the BIOS for what I thought was the default of like you say boosting to only 4.2 when more than one core is in use.  Any other config for the core ratio controls results in a max of 4.2 no matter what I run (i.e. Prime95 with just one thread for instance).

 

Also, I never said a 1% increase in clock speed equaled a 1% increase in FPS.  I was just stating in my test results of 4.2 vs. 4.4Ghz I saw a solid 5+ fps gain when running at 4.4.  I was getting no more than 85fps on that saved testing flight at 4.2, 4.4 I was always registering 90+.  Of course, that was before installing ORBX PNW.  Now that same spot I cap out at about 40.

For some reason the Asus Maximus VII Formula runs my CPU at 4.4 on all cores when under load.

 

That's because it's overclocked by your motherboard by default. By design they're running at 4.2GHz when all 4 cores are boosted.

 

 

 

I was getting no more than 85fps on that saved testing flight at 4.2, 4.4 I was always registering 90+.

 

You can't trust those numbers. Start the same flight 5 times (restarting FSX between flights) with multipe add-ons and you'll always see different numbers, plus the numbers constantly vary during the flight, that's why it's often so hard to see the benefits of certain FSX.cfg tweaks.

 

Personally I think that people can achieve a much higher performance increase with a well tweaked computer and a well tweaked FSX and properly tweaked add-ons, than a 200Mhz increase in clock speed, heck....I know after 27 years of experience as an IT guy that a huge majority of the computer users are severely bottle-necking their systems on hard- and software level.

Ya download an app called CPU-Z to monitor the temps, restart your computer go into BIOS by hitting delete on the bootup... I believe it is the second screen down says advanced configuration... what you are looking for is the Multiplier it will say something along the lines of multiplier.....(x34) change the to x44 = 4.4 ghz  that is a place to start.. reboot and monitor the temps while you play a taxing game

 

What about voltages? I can't find a guide for OCing my system anywhere.

I highly recommend you go away and read this i have just completed my OC with Nick n guide

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/haswell-48ghz-on-air-building-a-haswell-system_topic46180_post288619.html#288619

What about voltages? I can't find a guide for OCing my system anywhere.

I have the 4790k on a MSI gaming 7 board like u. I got my 4790k OC'd at 4.5ghz  on 1.14V  vcore.

Some cautions first.

• Don't use the auto voltage settings they make it run a lot higher voltage than necessary and will only raise your temps
• Make sure you have good cooling the stock Intel fan sucks
• In case you don't know avoid voltages above 1.3 as that is the risk zone and never go above 1.4v as it will degrade the chip quickly.
• Set a max temp limit in the bios (I use 75C) so that if something happens to the cooler (in my case the water pump) the PC will shut down automatically vs melting down.

A video guide that shows how to OC on an MSI board different board and CPU but its all basically the same.

 

Also don't bother with a 24 hour stress test it just isn't necessary I ran mine for 5 minutes and I haven't had an issue. I use OCCT for my stress tests and it works great!

 

As a starting point

I started my CPU off at 1.0V and a multiplier of 45 and it booted but wasn't stable in OCCT. The CPU finally became stable in the test a 1.14v  which is where I left it. I don't see a reason to push it any higher as I get great FPS with it at 4.5ghz. Also by setting my voltage for my OC my CPU now runs at 1.14v at 4.5ghz and the stock turbo ran at 1.249v for 4.4ghz so basically my CPU is staying cooler even though I raised the clock speed as I'm using less voltage.

At 1.14v with a corsair H110 my temps never get above 48C in p3dv2 and FSX 

I have the 4790k on a MSI gaming 7 board like u. I got my 4790k OC'd at 4.5ghz  on 1.14V  vcore.

Some cautions first.

• Don't use the auto voltage settings they make it run a lot higher voltage than necessary and will only raise your temps
• Make sure you have good cooling the stock Intel fan sucks
• In case you don't know avoid voltages above 1.3 as that is the risk zone and never go above 1.4v as it will degrade the chip quickly.
• Set a max temp limit in the bios (I use 75C) so that if something happens to the cooler (in my case the water pump) the PC will shut down automatically vs melting down.

A video guide that shows how to OC on an MSI board different board and CPU but its all basically the same.

 

Also don't bother with a 24 hour stress test it just isn't necessary I ran mine for 5 minutes and I haven't had an issue. I use OCCT for my stress tests and it works great!

 

As a starting point

I started my CPU off at 1.0V and a multiplier of 45 and it booted but wasn't stable in OCCT. The CPU finally became stable in the test a 1.14v  which is where I left it. I don't see a reason to push it any higher as I get great FPS with it at 4.5ghz. Also by setting my voltage for my OC my CPU now runs at 1.14v at 4.5ghz and the stock turbo ran at 1.249v for 4.4ghz so basically my CPU is staying cooler even though I raised the clock speed as I'm using less voltage.

At 1.14v with a corsair H110 my temps never get above 48C in p3dv2 and FSX 

 

Thank you VERY much! Couldn't have been more helpful appreciate the details and video.

 

How is your system looking with the results compared to before? I hope it runs a bit smoother with PMDG NGX and Active Sky next with REX4 and FTX Global.

I highly recommend you go away and read this i have just completed my OC with Nick n guide

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/haswell-48ghz-on-air-building-a-haswell-system_topic46180_post288619.html#288619

 

I will look into this too thanks!

Thank you VERY much! Couldn't have been more helpful appreciate the details and video.

 

How is your system looking with the results compared to before? I hope it runs a bit smoother with PMDG NGX and Active Sky next with REX4 and FTX Global.

 

I will look into this too thanks!

At 4.5ghz I usally have 40-50 FPS. I was trying to show you how many FPS, I get in certain situations but the image compression messed up the photo's the top is 35 and the lower one is 38FPS

30-35fps is the lowest I see even with almost full settings and and mytraffic 2013 set at 40%, In the PMDG 777 at payware airports and heavy cloud cover

I Have a I7 4790K OC to 4.5 ghz on 4 cores hyperthreading off and i have a steady 60 degrees on all four cores even under load in testing with a stress test, Get a H105 liquid cooler u will get the best overclock results with that not just air u will have problems.