Overclocking

[Ovennamedheats]

Just curious but is overclocking just a more affordable option to get more power rather than just buying a faster processor? Kinda like NOS in an engine? Are there other reasons to do it where a faster processor couldn't provide a benefit? How does it affect gaming?

[TheMastersSon]

Games vary widely in cpu dependence, so some games benefit from cpu overclocking more than others. Typically you'll see as much and usually more of a benefit by overclocking the graphics card(s) rather than cpus.

 

If you want a 4GHz system, the two options are to buy a 4GHz cpu, or pay substantially less for a 3.5GHz cpu that you know is overclockable to 4GHz or higher. It's as simple as that, no need to spend extra money for no extra performance.

[FMod]

The overclocking limits today are pretty tight, and Intel prevents all but the most expensive parts from being oc'd.

 

So generally overclocking is a small cheap (free if you have a decent cooler) boost in performance, but only gets you so far. 10% is generally doable, 20% is restricted to a few select models, more is not doable.

[Ovennamedheats]

Thanks for the responses,

So if I want to mod games like Skyrim and Fallout NV, would those run best on an overclocked cpu and/or gpu or would it depend on the amount and types of mods I use?

 

How significantly does overclocking affect the life of the cpu and gpu?

[TheMastersSon]

From what I've read Gamebryo's engine is especially cpu dependent. From our limited testing with Skyrim, you'll see a substantial difference between a 3GHz and 4GHz cpu, a marginal difference between 3.5 and 4, and next to no benefit beyond 4GHz since the engine is no longer limited. So a 4GHz cpu and decent graphics card (e.g. 980 or better) will get you more than playable minimum framerates with that engine, at maximum eye candy and regardless of resolution (in Skyrim at least, not sure about FNV), including high-def landscape and other texture mods. Again at least from our testing which has been sparse with Skyrim and FNV. We've owned both for years and still primarily play Oblivion. :smile:

 

The answer to your other question is that, done properly, overclocking should not affect the lifespans of your cpu or gpu. But you need to learn what "properly" means, as it varies by chip model and sometimes even by revisions within models. E.g. never run an i5 at more than 1.3v, a Northwood P4 at more than 1.7v etc etc unless you're looking for premature failure. A bit of reading is all that's required.

Edited August 23, 2016 by TheMastersSon

[Ovennamedheats]

I don't mind reading at all, especially if it will save me some headaches. I think when it comes to PC games I don't think I'm going to play anything, I guess more demanding than Elder Scrolls Online or basically nothing that has been released since it. I'm not going to tackle Fallout 4. I'm 35 and I've reached the point where all the games that I want to play have already been released. I don't even really want to mod Skyrim that much. I'm not in to having a bunch of followers or having what I've heard some people say close to 200 mods. The only things I want to mod heavily are graphics, I would think no more than 50 mods at most maybe even less. That basically applies to Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind. So, knowing that, what would be a good processor to get. I'll probably end up getting this graphics card because I heard it's the last one that will work with XP or something and Oblivion works better on XP than 7. I would assume Morrowind is the same.

 

: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB FTW GAMING ACX 2.0+, Whisper Silent Cooling w/ Free Installed Backplate Graphics Card 04G-P4-3968-KR

[TheMastersSon]

I'm a big fan of Intel's unlocked (X and K models) i5's and i7's. They're great overclockers and due to the unlocked multipliers they're infinitely configurable. As mentioned earlier, from our limited testing, cpu speed makes more of a difference with Gamebryo's engine than number of cores or hyperthreading. So imo you should focus on getting to at least 4GHz with whatever cpu you choose.

 

A longstanding debate in our house is whether HT cpus cause microstuttering in Gamebryo's engine. There's no easy way to quantify this claim, but at least to me the difference is obvious: Skyrim, Oblivion and other Gamebryo-based titles run smoother on non-HT cpus than on HT cpus, regardless of the number of physical cores. So I opted for i5-4690K to run these older games. It's a 3.5GHz model and has been rock solid at 4.4GHz on practically silent air cooling (300 rpm fan) for over a year now, and never tops 54C during gameplay. It's a good example of why I love these chips. :smile:

Edited August 24, 2016 by TheMastersSon

[Ovennamedheats]

Right on, I'm building this thing from scratch and have never done it before. Most I've done is install ram, a sound card, and a hard drive. What do you guys think about running Oblivion and more than likely Morroblivion on XP vs. Windows 7? If I do need XP should it be set up as a Dual Boot or virtual machine?

[TheMastersSon]

I'd recommend Win 7 64-bit as a minimum, it's the current minimum spec in most game and other software titles. XP is becoming more and more problematic due to Microsoft's dropping of support for it, and the problem will only get worse not better over time.

 

Dedicating a separate computer (or boot partition on a multiboot system) to XP is always an option. Choice of SSD is important as XP doesn't (as far as i know) recognize NVMe. Pick a SSD with an AHCI/SATA interface if you want to run XP.

[FMod]

Morrowind and Oblivion run slightly better on XP, if you single-task. Don't try to alt-tab on them though, for me it was a certain crash (only crashes half the time on Win7). Only dual boot works. Virtual machines do not work acceptably for demanding games.

 

XP is currently extremely insecure and running it internet-connected with an admin account is begging to get your PC hijacked by automated tools.