Would you leave an i7-9700K overclocked at 5Ghz or drop it down some?

[Doomaga]

I have bought a pre-overclocked bundle from scan (I'm in the UK) its an i7-9700k, Asus Maximus XI Hero, 16GB 3000Mhz Corsair RAM and a Dark Rock 4 Pro.

I'm pairing it with a 2080 msi Gaming Trio, 1TB 970 Evo M2 SSD, EVGA Supernove G3 850W and going inside a Thermaltake View 37 RGB.

Would you guys leave that CPU at such an overclock, given that base is 3.6Ghz? They overnight testing they do on each overclocked bundle failed twice, they changed out the processor for a different one and this one passed first time. But it tells me that this is running right on the limit of what is possible.

Looking for advise as this is the first Build I'm doing. Have always bought pre-built before.

Thanks.

[monjessenstein]

As long as the temps are fine, and you don't mind the power usage/extra sound form the fans from a high overclock, then why not? Worst case scenario is that it won't be stable and you'll havr to drop it down maybe a couple hundred megahertz at most, but even then it should be minimal.

[Doomaga]

Reasons I'm thinking for turning it down would be increased stability, increased longevity of the processor, and potentially the last few hundred Mhz dont add much to the system? Is the bottleneck on my system going to be the clock speed of the processor?

[monjessenstein]

1 minute ago, Doomaga said:

Reasons I'm thinking for turning it down would be increased stability, increased longevity of the processor, and potentially the last few hundred Mhz dont add much to the system? Is the bottleneck on my system going to be the clock speed of the processor?

Bottleneck would depend on what you're doing with your system to be honest, whether you'll be running more cpu or gpu heavy tasks. As for stability, well if it isn't stable you'll notice ;). And lastly longevity, whilst oveclocking does affect the longevity of a cpu, you're really not going to notice it. Most cpu's could last 10,20, maybe even 30 years comfortably at stock speeds, and an overclock isn't even going to cut that in half. And even if your cpu does get somewhat damaged (before you sell it), it'll only mean that you'll end up having to use a few more volts for the same clock speeds.

[porina]

Personally I'd just run it at stock for the power saving, until such point you know you need the extra power, then look at OC again.

[Doomaga]

3 minutes ago, monjessenstein said:

Bottleneck would depend on what you're doing with your system to be honest, whether you'll be running more cpu or gpu heavy tasks. As for stability, well if it isn't stable you'll notice ;). And lastly longevity, whilst oveclocking does affect the longevity of a cpu, you're really not going to notice it. Most cpu's could last 10,20, maybe even 30 years comfortably at stock speeds, and an overclock isn't even going to cut that in half. And even if your cpu does get somewhat damaged (before you sell it), it'll only mean that you'll end up having to use a few more volts for the same clock speeds.

Gaming main purpose, but I also stream on occasion and edit/render videos. Not doing nay sort of photoshop work etc. I have bought a 144hz monitor for this new rig, and would like to be hitting as clsoe to 144FPS as possible, if the overclocked CPU gets me even a few more frames I'd say its worth for me.

[OttoVonBismarck]

1 hour ago, Doomaga said:

Gaming main purpose, but I also stream on occasion and edit/render videos. Not doing nay sort of photoshop work etc. I have bought a 144hz monitor for this new rig, and would like to be hitting as clsoe to 144FPS as possible, if the overclocked CPU gets me even a few more frames I'd say its worth for me.

the 9700k is basically made for overclocking, as far as that matters... which doesnt seem to be much. AFAIK its basically a 8700k thats been "factory delidded". You will get a couple of extra frames out of it, but as far as i can tell "a couple of extra" means literally, a few more frames. i checked some reviews and in this one here: Tom's hardware 9700k review  they only ever managed to squeeze a handful of frames extra with a 5.1 ghz overclock. Although all their testing was at 1080p, but as far as i can tell 1080p is the most "CPU bound" resolution for games - always the biggest swings in 1080p frame rates. i think someone explained it to me once as "the GPU gets everything done quicker so the CPU has to be faster to keep up". 

 

Rendering / editing videos is where i'd assume you'd see the real benefit of the overclock. but as far as i can see the benchmarks seem to indicate overclocking barely does anything. Although someone please correct me if i'm wrong