The question should not only be "am I CPU bottlenecked", but also "do I even need more frames". If I already get above 120fps why should I care about higher framerates? I would prefer a more silent fan and lower energy bill.

Great question Daniel, I've also thought about it, and given that you want to use your computer at low cost while at the same time maximizing sustainable gaming, it follows that overclocking is not a good idea. There are multiple reasons enough to just not overclock your hardware, but instead, optimize the default settings in your bios. For example, the only thing I changed was my DRAM voltage, as this was somehow not correctly done creating instability in the OS. Once that was set right, the machine worked very well and still performs well in all major tasks however not as good as the latest generation. Watching this video contributed to a total of 9 watt power consumption for the CPU alone whilst the temperature is around 24 degrees. This is my preference as I want to be also be able to use the machine in few years time. I am really positive by how well computer parts have been designed over the past 7 years.

To me, and this is coming from an engineer's perspective that loves to tinker with just about everything, no. I just buy quality GPUs/CPUs/MOBOs and components every time I build and it always exceeds my needs. If I made a living in e-sports, I would certainly have a different opinion.

I've been watching your videos for a while now and just now I've subscribed because you are providing answers to questions that regular users have and I find it very helpful. Keep up the good work.

I overclock because i think it's fun to do. To see where the limit is, and to get maximum performance out of my components. I oc Cpu(5800x), Gpu(2080ti) and ram. Gaming @ 1440p :) Love your vids Daniel, keep it up! :)

I feed my 9900K all the onions, with a 360 a.i.o. and 12 system fans she's quiet and lives @ 5ghz 24/7 without issue...so for me it's a definite yes, but with the right components.

Perfect. Just the video I was looking for.

ill take stability over a few frames and bad temps...i used to chase every frame but it just is not worth it these days. The last good OC chips was sandy bridge, both companies intel and amd are already giving you 95% of what the chip can do.

I underclocked my ryzen 5900x to 4Ghz at 1.075 volt and its basically silent at both idle and when gaming. Performs great aswell, temps are down to 60 ish from around 80-90 at max 1.4 volts at default settings :O

Over clocking should just be seen as a fun endeavor more than anything today, I’m convinced if you didn’t see the slight jump that the fps counter shows than you wouldn’t physically see a difference

I always overclock my Intel CPU before using my favorite program, Windows Media Player.

I won't touch my 11600k for 2 yrs. Only when I feel a real need for OC I'll do it, better for now that it runs colder than doing OC with insignificant gain. Good way to know if you are cpu bottlenecked is: lower the game graphics, if the fps stay same then you got a problem with cpu so that's where an OC can kick in... low medium or high game is running same. I had that problem in Battlefield 1 with 3570k and 8gb ram. And if the fps rises much then it's a more likely a gpu thing.

I have an FE 3080 that I undervolt, for very little loss of FPS but much better temps, it also removes the spiky behaviour of the card A 5800x that is undervolted using PBO & Curve Optimiser and runs up to 4.9GHz RAM I just run at XMP, which for me is 3200 CL16 I play at 3440x1440 and FPS is not that important to me, I like the eye candy and screenshots (though Cyberpunk gets 45-65 fps with things maxed out like RT)

I prefer complete system stability over

I've had a 2600x and a 3600x and I've found that for the most part they perform fine and in some cases better just letting them boost on their own as long as you keep temps under control.

If you win the silicon lottery you can both overclock and undervolt your CPU. Now that's the life.

Modern CPU’s definitely don’t really benefit from overclocking, and when they do, it’s usually only at resolutions-at 1080P or 1440P. CPU’s now are very strong compared to years ago, I wouldn’t recommend an overclock unless your GPU is very outdated. At 4K you won’t get any benefit from an OC, I tested my 4.80 OC compared to the default 3.80 on my 10700K at 4K, and had no improvement so now just stick to default settings. Runs cooler, and performs the exact same.

Nice to keep the room warm

*This topic gets answered backwards, leading to a lot of confusion:* In almost every case, overclocking does still result in increased framerates. And in almost every case, increasing to a more powerful GPU even while CPU-bottlenecked still increases FPS a little bit (with very diminishing returns). *The real question is, "Do you **_need_** extra framerate?* Is your game experience being negatively affected by stuttering/low famerates? Are you competitive fast response required gaming where input lag and framerates matter more? In your example, what you really showed was: 1. you have sufficient framerate to not experience problems with some wiggle room 2. GPU not being loaded much at lower settings 3. therefore = you can easily up gpu based settings with almost no penalty. When someone is at (or below) the fps limit where uneven gameplay occurring, gaining a few fps can be a very noticeable improvement. Overclocking the bottleneck-causing component gets the biggest gain. But with how the cpu and gpu interplay together, even overclocking the non-limiting component still usually gains a few fps. *1% lows tend to be significantly improved by cpu overclocking.* Reducing the frequency and severity of those occasional lurches is quite noticeable. If you already have 250+fps, what exactly are you hoping to gain other than bragging rights? You don't need an overclock for that game. What about the ability to improve gameplay aspects? *View distance* heavily affects games with lots of individual objects (ark, minecraft, etc are cpu heavy vs less cluttered games). Overclocking can be the difference of _keeping good framerates_ with 30% more view distance. That's often the difference between being able to climb up high, look around to see where you want to go - vs - running along... and suddenly a mountain pops into existence right in front of you. For other games, cpu may directly limit how many bots or players the game can handle.

Undervolting while trying to maintain clocks is where I stop. Frame chasing doesn't make sense in most cases.

I spend some time finding an optimal framerate limit for every game I play. Frame pacing is sometimes improved by overclocking, so the game feels smoother at the same framerate.

1 percent lows changed so much for me

Pretty much every Ubisoft game benefits from a cpu overclock. There’s proof of this in many videos and their benchmarks

Nicely explained. Thanks!

Will only overclock when there is a real reason to do it. My previous cpu was 2500K OCed to 4.5Ghz. And i think i keep it at stock for 3 to 4 years before the real need arise for much faster cpu clock. Same with my E7500 before that.

used to be 10 years ago, xeons would go from 2.4 ghz to almost 4 while giving you +50% fps in games like csgo

Depends on the engine of the game, so what games u play makes a real difference, and if you have an intel chip its most of the time worth more then amd, for amd its important to tune the ram what makes the difference.

Very good explanation. I also didn't know intel had that overclocking software. Thanks for sharing that.

My CPU is a Intel i9 9900k and it's overclocked to 5GHz. There is noticable improvement in games like RDR 2 amongst others but the fans are inclined to ramp up noticably even in a well ventilated case. Nice work Dan!

It’s worth it for the fun of doing it that’s for sure.

Hey Daniel, have you heard of 1usmus' (Yuri Bubliy) Hydra/CTR for Ryzen CPUs? I have gained nearly 250MHz on my gaming clocks while reducing the operating temperature of my 5900X. It's similar to Curve Optimiser only with much more fine tuning and better results.

My hardware is usally old enough that overclocking usally provides much more gains than newer stuff. Like a hd 7950 going from 950 core to 1200 core Or a i7 2700k from 3.6ghz to 4.5ghz+ X5660 from 3 ish to 4.5. These ocs are significant enough that i just keep them on all the time (even when the parts where new. ) Of coure they are tested to be relatively stable. 10 runs of intel burntest (linpack) very high as a mininum for cpus. Gpus are harder. Usally a few runs of looped firestrike including intro then a long run of superposition benchmark.

I miss the days of overclocking my Q6600 from 2.4ghz to 3.8ghz. It was fun finding just how far you could push the CPU to its limits before it wouldn't post. It also allowed me to get MASSIVE FPS boosts in games. I mean we were talking like 20-30% increased FPS... Nowadays CPUS are so tightly clocked that I don't really see any point in doing it anymore other than novelty. Kinda sad that overclocking only really gives you what? 2-5% increases now? Gone are the days of just melting the CPU to reach 4ghz+

i used to overclock my intel chips but i tried not to push the voltage too much, sometimes undervolt, my 3770k did 4.4ghz @ 1.15v. I'm guessing the 9600k can do all cores at 4.6 with stock voltage and you wont see much difference in temps.

something about your videos makes you seem like a math teacher, i don’t know what it is.

A 10700k stock is 4.7 ghz all cores. Overclocked to 5.0 ghz all cores is 6% faster but only 3% higher fps and will cause it to run 10C hotter. So for me, I would not want the extra 3% fps and more heat. So at 60 fps you would gain 2 fps. At 120fps you wuld gain 6 fps. Overclocking a gpu get WAY BETTER results.

I 've overclocked my ryzen cpu, but capped the base clock to 4.2 G and the core voltage 1.4 V. My Asus Mobo would push my 3800 XT to 1.46 by default! Edit: I removed the "Asus OC" because I found out everything was stuck on 4.2G while playing games lol 😂. I removed that "Asus OC" and all the 16 threads, while gaming to to 4.5 or even 4.6G. Temprature is 1-2 degrees hotter at Max, since I've capped the both Voltages. SOC at 1.075 instead on 1.025 and core at 1.4V instead of automatically going to 1.46V!

Try over clocking theough the bios plz

don't you think a CPU over clock will be more useful while testing the 1% lows? like in an intense combat scene or a dense area with a lot of chaos happening

I thought Vulkan was less cpu over head. So you wouldn't notice a big of a difference inside vulkan as the games api...or I am I wrong. I thought that was the point of it actually.

I just leave my i7-8700k overclocked for non-gaming purposes. I love the video btw!

ayy great vid i live ur content especially ur battlefield 2042 video keep up to good work!

not usually, but my 2700 overclock made playing vr games with my crappy oculus quest 2 with terrible oculus software a bit more beraable at the expense of noise from my stock fan now, it's slightly worth it IMO if you know what you're doing and stay below the numbers others recommend (because lifespan)

My girlfriend overclocked her vibrator, then she broke up with me

In general its a waste of time to overclock. Great for feel good benchmarks but not a WOW in games. Can't think of any game that went from unplayable to WOW this is so smooth. Put your money into a better GPU for the WOW.

No issues with OC-ing a Ryzen 3600 to 4.4Ghz. I have better fan noise and thermals than stock because it have it at lower voltage than stock. The fan noise/thermals issues for OC-in mostly present for intel CPUs, much less for AMD.

I’m only half way through the video but in my opinion. You don’t need to overclock for gaming because you don’t even use 75% of your cpu as it was stock. So there really isn’t a reason to ask your cpu for more

5700g already gives 4.6 GHz power i play valorant if i overclock it don't matter much

Obviously when you are GPU limited overclocking your cpu does nothing or not much and the same is true for overclocking your GPU when you are cpu limited.

I would just like to know which settings you would recommend for overclocking an Amd Ryzen 5 2400G (voltages, clockspeed etc.) I do have an RTX 2060 Super which means I have a cpu botlleneck and I think I the performance gain would be worth it since I play competitive games like Valorant for example. Great video btw :)

RDR2 is a GPU intensive game, so overclocking your CPU won't net you any improvement. OC your GPU, and you might just see some noticeable performance boost. Best way to test CPU OC is to test with games like CSGO, Valorant and other eSports titles, where having high FPS is the norm, not good visuals.

Overclocking AND downvolting at the same time is what makes sense.

Running a 3600, I personally have no need to OC. I just slapped on a decent air cooler and let the CPU do it's thing. The bit of extra performance isn't worth the extra heat and instability IMO.

Thank you from Brasil 🇧🇷, i dont overclock but i like to see the Benchmarks, 💻 im changing my computer pieces, that interesting to see.. 🤖😅

the reason why nothing happend is bc his gpu was already being used 100% if you try cpu intensive games or a workload it would df help a bit with a overclock

I gained 40FPS avg in Warzone low settings from my RAM and CPU tuning.. Depends if you want frames to scale at lower setting higher fps situations (MIN FPS gains are decent) IF GPU Bound settings are used its kinda pointless to OC CPU unless truly CPUBound. RAM tuning, again mainly matters when not GPUBound.

for me, only undervolting and underclocking or atleast keeping the voltage while overclocking is the only rewarding thing to do. Overclocking and bumping the temps just for the sake of it doesent make sense. Even Esports dont matter on a modern system, as everything above 200fps will be indistinguisheable from each other.

For me I find undervolting to have more benefits than overclocking in general. But then again I don't play esports/competitive games.

A better test would be load times of cpu intensive renders like loading in something in game or a game level/map

Running my 3900x at 4.15ghz at 1.2v right now. I was expected some frame increase but it really stayed the same. My pc just runs smoother.

Overclocking the Cpu worked on an array of games while I was using the 5700xt. It doesn't do squat now that I'm 5120 × 2880/3840 x 2160 based. No point in upgrading from a Zen2.

Per core overclocking so that you can give each core the voltages that it needs. your chip will run a little cooler that way and use a little less power.

Sorry to say but using XTU is not overclocking it's software overclocking which is tricking the system. True overclocking and tuning will have temperatures pretty tame it's the torture testing for stability is what brings the heat also a good cooler helps too. Bios overclocking will have your system matching up to 10th gen low end builds

How are you only using 2.6GB of memory playing RDR2?????

For some reason, my CPU fan sounds a lot when I stress the CPU (overclocked) when playing a game. Any advice?

i have a 3060ti and a i7 4790k so im cpu bottle necked so now that i know this i cant wait Xto attempt tofix XD

I allways tweak, sometimes overclock, sometimes undervolt, but allways tweak, and depending on context allways limit my overclock to be reasonable (for example, my 8700K can do 4.9 ghz at 1.44v but that's too high so i use it at 4.8 at 1.36v which is waay better for thermals and longevity of the CPU) also 100 mhz is 2% improvement so not much.

No point having 200+ fps if your monitor is only60/90/144mhz display as just waste of electricity and hot air. I guess OC’ing the cpu back in the days of 2500k meant something but the CPUs that came out the last few years has meant the need isn’t as great. I personally would rather have low latency smooth stable frame rates then high frames with spikes in frame drops in certain sections of a game.

If you are GPU bound, why overclock but this is also a game by game basis. Some games utilize more CPU

I have an ITX build I overclock both gpu and cpu and undervolt. I have better performance and thermals than stock. Its not balls to the wall eeking out every last frame but its best of both worlds.

does 9600k bottleneck 1440p for 6800 or 6800 XT? Considering upgrading from 1070 Ti to a more powerful GPU for 1440p 100-144hz experience.

If it's a game I care about frame rates then I'm probably GPU bound anyway so I don't overclock my CPU. Overclocking and undervolting my GPU however... absolutely

Overclocking isn't something i need in 2024 in my opinion. NVIDIA 40 series cards go up from 2-12Fps what depends on the game and is so inconsistent that it isnt worth the cost, the heat, the noise and probably the game stability and lifespan of your GPU and CPU. We have up to 40+ degrees C° in summertimes here and i don't need a heater running in my room than. Welcome to Undervolting😂

Man nice video! Are you using double channel memory? because it looks so heavy cpu bottleneck for 9600k even with 6800xt

once i have tried to overclock my i3 530 for more "FPS"😑

Strange my CPU is never working that hard in RDR2 it only spikes when i enter town but lowers once i am in town.

4070ti in 4K, +210 mhz core +1300 mhz mem. Temps great, never crashed once. Didn’t even try 2 seconds overclock. Though I have lian li with 9x fans and big GPU cooler stock with 4070 ti Aero. The downsides are almost nothing except extra power. The benefits are probably pretty small but in 4K I need everything I can get. Also rather then setting voltage I just up voltage limit to 115%. Also AMD is not worth overclocking. Some nvidia and depending on your luck can be. CPU almost useless to overclock

Just got my asus 6800 xt today in mail HUGE jump from my 5 year old 1080 😩 my 4K tv now getting its full use

I have an i7 9700k and an RTX 2070 i have mine at 4.8ghz all cores at 1.325 volts but if i have 5ghz it takes 1.39 volts so i don't see any need for me to use anything but 4.8ghz that's plenty for me

Try over clocking through the bios plz

The 8700K is the last cpu I would personally overclock. Processors that came out after 10600K no longer make sense to clock. Not even the new 12600K/12700K

I do play fortnite at 1080p, got a i3 10th + 3060ti Should I OC my cpu? Thought i understood that, idont speak eng btw:/

Bro is it okay to Overclock my watch?

The short answer: YES

bro is the goat

i would only oc if i couldnt get stable 50 -60 fps, but ye on 4k it doesnt matter much what part of pc u oc

How do I reverse it

Does Vulkan work better than DirectX at RDR2?

Ive got a i9 9900kf I run it at 4.8 and on planetside 2 in 1440p the cpu run at 30% .the GPU cun run up to 80% at times

Yes i always overclock everything as much as i can, on some games you are CPU bottleneck and others GPU.. but atm i am running with Ryzen 5900x/3733mhz cl14 b-die/RTX 3080 so not much bottlenecking going on @ 1440p.

try a cpu focused game like rainbow six or counter strike, you might see a difference

Always overclock in bios to avoid bluescreen

Why the ram usage is very low ?

It used to be more worthwile, these days just put a decent cooler on and leave the chips to boost as they see fit.

Currently stress testing a 11900k at 5ghz with prime 95

If you're having to overclock in order to raise framerates due to a CPU bottleneck in gaming, it's time for a new CPU. CPU bottlenecks in gaming have much worse frame times than a GPU bottleneck. You probably also have a CPU that won't overclock because you had no idea what that meant when you bought your prebuilt.

my bro sounds like linus lmao

I can play Roblox at 15 FPS There isn't a single game I can play well I have no GPU My CPU is 1.90 GHz Should I overclock?

ofc my cpu is 12 years old i made from 2.8 to 3.9 stable i can play games now normaly

I traded a laptop for a crappy computer (this was a steal, because the laptop was also worth $25). It came with an i5 3570k and you would have to think im crazy if I didn’t OC that baby to the maximum