To Overclock or Not to Overclock?

[james_2k 36]

yeah from a 2700 it would be worth it. but not sure how it could be better stability and reliability. my 4770k is rock solid at 4.8 max temperatures about 50.

[G-YMML1 582]

I have the same processor with HT On and I'm not overclocking it so far. The issue is I'm getting over 35 fps, any scenery with airliners, so there is no reason to do that. Keeping the processor for a long life. I tried the overclock but only get and average of 5 more frames. Not really make a difference in smothness and performance.

 

 

Folk,

 

You're investing huge money into top-notch hardware and after all do not extract all the benefits from it. It's like skipping guaranteed dividends from preferred stock. Overclocking in 2016 is not longer a rocket-science. ASUS has a plenty of easy-to-read step-by-step tutorials how to OC properly and safely. You will not fry your CPU, worst case scenario - your PC would simply reboot. Hardware-wise, the only thing you need to seriously consider is a good cooling system to keep temperatures under control. 

[mdelacruzperu 6]

Folk,

 

You're investing huge money into top-notch hardware and after all do not extract all the benefits from it. It's like skipping guaranteed dividends from preferred stock. Overclocking in 2016 is not longer a rocket-science. ASUS has a plenty of easy-to-read step-by-step tutorials how to OC properly and safely. You will not fry your CPU, worst case scenario - your PC would simply reboot. Hardware-wise, the only thing you need to seriously consider is a good cooling system to keep temperatures under control.

 

Thank you for the advice my friend. I will do it for sure. I'm using Corsair H110i for cooling so I think am ready to. But my Corsair 760T and that cooler are a little noisy while overclocked.

[downscc 1,327]

completely not worth it

I have a 4790K sitting side by side with a 6700K and I can say without flinching that there is a difference. Some is due to the architecture but most is due to the faster DDR4, which can run at 3400 MHz stock depending on brand and model. That is a pretty big difference. Reviews on line support my observation.

[glider1 90]

Watch out when overclocking a 14nm chip like the i6700k. They might degrade quicker if they are not thoughtfully overclocked.

 

Main benefit of i6700k is DDR4 and optimisations intel made to the CPU. Unfortunately for us simmers, the main reason that intel goes to smaller dies is a marketing one. They want more area set aside for the benefits of the internal GPU which there is a significant demand for even though us simmers don't need it we have to accept the wasted chip area for that {expletive} internal GPU.

 

"Carefully" means if you buy the chip and on day one notice that it is unstable at a higher overclock using the motherboards built in overclock settings, it probably means you have lucked out in the silicon lottery.

 

If you then decide to take matters into your own hands and put on a bigger heat sink or customize the overclock yourself overriding the motherboard oc settings, you might get the high overclock you are after, but find out less than a year later that your chip has degraded.

 

Heat is not the only indicator of long term reliability. Cool chips can still degrade on higher voltages. Degrade means they might still work but need higher and higher voltages and lower and lower multipliers to remain stable.

 

I have seen an i6700k go from a 4.7 OC to 3.5 GHZ max (1.2GHZ drop) in under a year even when it's temps were kept below 65C. The chip took a lot of manual tweaking to get it to 4.7OC. It didn't get their easily but did get there after a big struggle but then degraded quickly anyway.

 

Be wary about LLC settings. Overriding the motherboards selection of LLC can be risky because of voltage overshoot. The calibration is tighter but overshoot on the leading and lagging edges of the clock can mean that with high LLC vcore degradation is higher than you would think. I think LLC is best kept at the motherboards preferred settings in most cases.

 

If the chip get's the OC effortlessly using built in motherboard oc settings, and you keep temps reasonable, I'd say no probs go with the OC.

 

The difference between a 3.5GHz chip and a 4.7GHz chip in P3D is you run less traffic and will see an increase in occasional long frames.

 

Latest P3D 3.4.9 is doable on a 3.5GHz chip, because it is the most optimized version yet.

 

High end stable overclocks are still worth doing if it comes easily.

 

These comments are just my own opinions based on experiences I've seen.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

My new system has a i6700k OCed 10% @ 4.4, just a hair over the turbo mode clock rate. It runs P3d 3.4 beautifully, even with the two "CPU killers" - building autogen maxed and AI Traffic set to 40% (My Traffic 6, with the Traffic Optimizer set @ 200 IFR AI aircraft in the user bubble). It matches up perfectly with the GTX 1080. The CPU cooler is  an Asetek 550LC dual 120mm (push/pull), so I'm sure that I could go at least to 4.6. My experience is that the performance gain is not all that noticeable with P3d.

 

On the other hand, if I opt for VR, the system might not be all that future-proof.

[james_2k 36]

I have a 4790K sitting side by side with a 6700K and I can say without flinching that there is a difference. Some is due to the architecture but most is due to the faster DDR4, which can run at 3400 MHz stock depending on brand and model. That is a pretty big difference. Reviews on line support my observation.

 

if you say so! clock for clock, the difference in games will be negligible.

[BamaKevin 8]

Kevin Humphryes, on 28 Sept 2016 - 10:33 AM, said:

Much difference in a 4790k and a 6700k? Looking at upgrading from a 4690k.

 

completely not worth it

 

 

 

So going from a i5 4690k to a 4790k would be a waste?

[james_2k 36]

not really worth it either for fsx/p3d. but with hyperthreading you will certainly see gains in other areas. depends on the price you can get it for!

[StewCal 12]

Still, I think it's pretty cool that we are at a point where not overclocking is an option.  Did a flight from KIAH to EDDF last night while I slept.  With my old system (granted it was a bit worn out) I'd have about a 50/50 chance that the flight would be paused and waiting for landing and not CTDed.

[james_2k 36]

never an option for me, need that power

[pegruder 65]

I find when I overclock to use a tool like Asus' Realbench to test stability.  Realbench does a good job at putting the system through a barrage of higher than normal use scenarios.  I find if I overclock and can run through Realbench a few times back to back, I'm usually 100% rock solid.  I'd tweak your OC and run through one of these tests and you'll probably be good to go in p3d.  Sounds like some voltages may need a tweak to stabilize.

[jose88 50]

I have an 6700k with an AsRock OC Formula MB. My plan is to overclock it to 4,5 what i think is a moderate oc. I had my 2600k overclocked to 4,6 for about 6 years with no problems at all, and sold it like new. My cooler is Noctua NH-D14.

[Johnny19 344]

I have 6700k ocd' 4,5Ghz with Gskill ripjaws V DDR4 oc to 3000MHz XMP on on Asus Maximus VIII Hero motherboard. No issues so far. Voltage on cpu is on 1.26V. System is totally stable, run a couple of benchmarks too right after i did the overclocking. Did i notice any difference between stock and OC? To be honest, no. Also having Asus overcloacked ROG GTX1060. Frames, unlocked, going from 34 and up on heavy airports like SFO, FRA, DXB to 80 in pmdg cockpits in flight and smaller airports. 

[RaptyrOne 1,398]

Running 6700K at 4.7Ghz, Hyper Threading active - simply using a standard overclock setting in the MSI BIOS - so no manual tweaking of voltages etc at all. Rock solid stable, never once seen a blue screen or shut down/reboot from a failed o/clock. RAM running at 3000MHZ XMP. MSI X-Power Titanium m/board. A huge factor of o/clocking potential is the quality of your motherboard and RAM. They all work together.

 

My GPU is not overclocked but as it is marked on the box as an "overclocked edition" 980Ti and these things get hot, figure that is best left alone for stabilities sake.

 

Benefit in overclocking FPS is marginal for sure, but it makes a difference, especially when battling lower FPS at with heavy settings, airports and aircraft. Intel made the "K" versions to be overclocked - the K means the CPU multiplier is unlocked for overclocking purposes. So why not max out your bang for buck? Rather opt for the locked multiplier (cheaper non "K") version if you do not intend to overclock.