overclocking

Hi everybody. I see that the overclocking is very popular on the sims community. Can I expect a significant FSX performance overclocking my i7 3.5 moving to 4.3/4.5?

Yes, significant not as in double your framerates, but more bang for your buck as compared to upgrading video cards.

The CPU is the bottleneck in this program.

There's nothing wrong with performing a moderate overclock to say, around 4ghz however, Your goal should be smoothness, not frames. You have a very capable base platform. I have lower system specs than you and run my 3770k locked at 3.9 Ghz. I'm able to stay above 20 FPS in almost any scenario with my frames locked at 30. Any more, and you're really wasting resources. FSX is a fickle enough beast without adding an unstable overclock to the mix. Regards

You want a real time temperature monitor like Core Temp and/or Real Temp. I use both concurrently.

 

IntelBurnTest(IBT) v2.54, using 10-20 passes, set on "High" should give you enough stress to verify max temp and basic stability.

 

Run Prime 95 64bit for an hour or, so, with "In place large FFTs" and another hour with the "Blend" should verify 24/7/365 stability and temperature.

 

CPUz(CPUID) will monitor the OC and provide actual real time Vcore.

 

I don't recommend using the motherboard's automatic OC function.

It has been my experience, and, I read reviews that also state that the voltage is too high.

It is an excellent reference though. Run a baseline of your stock system using the above tools.

IBT v2.54 should push it into Turbo Mode. Record the voltage and Multiplier.

Try the Auto Overclock at 4.4GHz. Test it. Record the voltage and Multiplier. Monitor "TEMP" closely.

Don't leave the Auto OC in place unless the Voltage is less than stock +0.025v and stressed temp is 85C or less.

Some folks say less, some say more. 15C under TDP has always been safe for me.

 

From what I've read, many 4770Ks will go over 4.3GHz with little or no added voltage.

ASUS BIOS is usually pretty intuitive, so, you shouldn't have too much trouble setting up a purely manual OC. Most chipset functions can be left on auto.

Base Clock(Bclk), Multiplier, and Core Voltage(Vcore) are the primary controls you'll want manual control over.

 

AnandTech has a pretty good OC guide for the i5-4690K and i7-4790K.

The 4790K charts compare the 4770K so you'll have an idea of voltage vs temp.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/2

 

Ian suggests POV-Ray and OCCT in his procedure(scroll down).

IMO, IBT v2.54 is fine to get the basics down. Long FSX sessions prompt me to do Prime95.

 

From their results and others I've seen, 4.4GHz with stock voltage + a tick @ 80-85C is common.

Good Luck....Don

Thank you for your replays... I will try to push it up and see how it feel

Regards

You have a Haswell Chip (as do I). This is the guide you want: http://www.overclock.net/t/1411077/haswell-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

And I wouldn't recommend IBT. I use Prime 95 v27.9 for 5 passes, and the x264 stress test for longer (I think I was doing 20 passes overnight) while also running 5 Chrome Tabs open with some 1080p YouTube videos. Much less heat with the x264 benchmark. You're not looking to see what it takes before you fry the chip, but what keeps it stable under CPU stress/load.

Thank you for the overclock link, I have it more clear now.

Be careful with running ANY stress tests overnight. x264 included.

If you are not going to monitor temperature yourself, use the overheat protection / shutdown function on CoreTemp. Frankly, I consider unattended stress tests careless.

 

I've tried pretty much every stress test around. Including most of the ones in that chart.

A quickie with IBT and a couple of hours on Prime will not fry your CPU if you don't allow it.

Stress testing the FPU(floating point unit) and Memory is much closer to reality(FSX), than testing it's Audio/Video transcoding capability(x264).

Make no bones about it, FSX will drive a single core to a near constant 100%.

I follow my own advice and I still get a BSOD, once or so a month. Acceptable to me...Don

Be careful with running ANY stress tests overnight. x264 included.

If you are not going to monitor temperature yourself, use the overheat protection / shutdown function on CoreTemp. Frankly, I consider unattended stress tests careless.

 

I've tried pretty much every stress test around. Including most of the ones in that chart.

A quickie with IBT and a couple of hours on Prime will not fry your CPU if you don't allow it.

Stress testing the FPU(floating point unit) and Memory is much closer to reality(FSX), than testing it's Audio/Video transcoding capability(x264).

Make no bones about it, FSX will drive a single core to a near constant 100%.

I follow my own advice and I still get a BSOD, once or so a month. Acceptable to me...Don

 

You might also want to use a version of Prime from 10 years ago if you want "reality". No point in stress testing AVX and FMA.