Overclock Newbie - i5 4690k

[sam.wale]

Hello!

I'm very new to the world of PCs and overclocking, but recently bought a mini gaming rig from PCSpecialist. It's running great so far at the 3.5GHz base speed, but I'm looking to overclock slightly to boost the overall performance on certain games.

This will be my first ever attempt at overclocking, so aside from loading up the BIOS and entering certain numbers I'm pretty much in the dark. I've watched a few helpful videos on YouTube but could do with some advice specific to the hardware I'm using.

Here's my setup:

BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Case (Black)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690K (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
ASUS® MAXIMUS VI IMPACT: Mini-ITX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, WIFI
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 410MB/sW)
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
CoolerMaster Seidon 120M High Performance CPU Cooler

Can anyone give me some helpful pointers to get started with? I would be very grateful!

Many thanks in advance!


Sam

 

[keynes]

With turbo boost it should go up to 3.9 ghz without overclocking. You could contact PCS for recommended settings.

 

[mantadog]

That board supports auto overclocking if you just want performance and easy no hassle then use that. More info on the asus site.

Otherwise, you don't need overclocking for gaming as a rule. What games are you struggling in?

 

[sam.wale]

Thanks for this info, very much appreciated! It's Elder Scrolls Online that I'm struggling with, but only in certain areas of the game where frame rates drop from 90+ down to 30. I'm told this could be a problem with the game's optimisation rather than my system struggling.

I may leave it for now based on your feedback. Other games seem to run with no issues.

Thanks!

 

[mantadog]

90+ down to 30 is way too much for it to be a bottleneck with the CPU. Might be worth grabbing the latest GPU drivers before anything else.

 

[D1craig]

With turbo boost it should go up to 3.9 ghz without overclocking. You could contact PCS for recommended settings.

I read that turbo boost only works if the system is only using 2 cores. Or it works for all 4 cores but at a lot smaller boost.

Also you might want to check that boost is working/turned on. I was looking At overclocking mine and found that turbo boost never kicked it at all. I done something in msconfig can't remember exactly what but it made the boost start to work.

I used intels extreme tuning utility. That shows you if its boostig or not.

 

[mantadog]

Turbo boots is dynamic in that it looks at how hard the chip is working overall. So you get max boost with 1 core, dropping until all 4 are utilised.