Is overclocking even worth it?

[Dubesta11]

I am considering getting an i5, and at microcenter the 4570 is $150, while the 4670k is $190. With the purpose of gaming at 1080p with a GTX 660ti, how much of a difference is there? I was also wanting to get an ASRock Z87 Killer, overclockable or not.

 

Any money saved would be great, this is what I was considering:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($150.00) 

Motherboard:  ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($124.02 @ Newegg) 

Memory:  G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $40.00) 

Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Case:  Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $40.00) 

Power Supply:  Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $50.00) 

Other: GTX 660 Ti 2048MB (Microcenter, Boston, Referb) ($160.00)

Total: $624.01

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-02 18:22 EDT-0400)

 

Things marked as purchased are purchased, everything else is up for consideration (I guess 600 dollar budget?)

 

 

[JLCitadel]

Not unless you're an enthusiast.

OC Is for Epeen and for people who need to push workstations for a little extra when putting it under heavy load.

[harrynowl]

Get a B85 Killer if the colour/features interest you from killer series.

 

Use the money you saved on an SSD.

 

Maybe bump to a 760 (670 rebrand I believe)

[Coombzy]

Get a B85 Killer if the colour/features interest you from killer series.

 

Use the money you saved on an SSD.

 

Maybe bump to a 760 (670 rebrand I believe)

760 TI OEM is a 670 rebrand not 760.

[harrynowl]

760 TI OEM is a 670 rebrand not 760.

Is 760 a 660ti then?

 

I'm more of a AMD GPU person so I don't follow CUDA core count or anything

[DoubleY]

Is 760 a 660ti then?

 

I'm more of a AMD GPU person so I don't follow CUDA core count or anything

GTX 760 is a GTX 660. Not 660ti

[VGuillV]

GTX 760 is a GTX 660. Not 660ti

Watch Linus' 760 video. It's essentially a 660 Ti with less cuda cores. 

 

But is overclocking worth it? I honestly don't know. I would say it's for those who strive to get the most performance, but clock speeds really aren't the only think that'll affect your performance. If you could, I'd drop the Z87 and adequate cooling money to buy something else. That's just me.

 

It depends on who you are. 

[Izaya Orihara]

It's free powa so yeah. 

[Dubesta11]

Get a B85 Killer if the colour/features interest you from killer series.

 

Use the money you saved on an SSD.

 

Maybe bump to a 760 (670 rebrand I believe)

 

Last time I knew, that motherboard didn't support SLI. An SSD is not critical for this budget, but I will wait and see if I can find one on sale before getting the HDD. 760 is about equal to a 660 ti.

 

 

Not unless you're an enthusiast.

OC Is for Epeen and for people who need to push workstations for a little extra when putting it under heavy load.

 

But would it make a difference, lets say 4 years from now, being able to overclock it.

 

 

GTX 760 is a GTX 660. Not 660ti

 

760 is similar to a 660ti.

 

 

Watch Linus' 760 video. It's essentially a 660 Ti with less cuda cores. 

 

But is overclocking worth it? I honestly don't know. I would say it's for those who strive to get the most performance, but clock speeds really aren't the only think that'll affect your performance. If you could, I'd drop the Z87 and adequate cooling money to buy something else. That's just me.

 

It depends on who you are. 

 

The motherboard is for possible SLI, also providing the ports necessary onboard and providing a good quality board that will last longer. (Also costing less in the long run, not needing additional cards.

[Dubesta11]

It's free powa so yeah. 

 

But for 40 dollars? That could mean an SSD instead of an HDD

[Glenwing]

The 760 is not a rebrand of anything.  It uses a configuration that was not used in the 600 series.

 

660: 960 cores, 192-bit bus

660 Ti: 1344 cores, 192-bit bus

760: 1152 cores, 256-bit bus

670: 1344 cores, 256-bit bus

 

Performance-wise the 760 is pretty similar to the 660 Ti.

 

As for the OP's question, overclocking can be worth it, but I don't think it will help here, you'll be limited by that graphics card's power before a stock i5.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Overclocking will be worth it in 3 years when you can't afford a new CPU and GPU, but you can afford a new GPU. Getting a non-OC chip now will probably get you bottlenecked when you need to upgrade your GPU. And GPUs, especially since you have a 660ti, require more frequent upgrading than CPUs.

[Ryan Leech]

Overclock is life.

[harrynowl]

1) Last time I knew, that motherboard didn't support SLI. An SSD is not critical for this budget, but I will wait and see if I can find one on sale before getting the HDD. 760 is about equal to a 660 ti.

 

 

2) But would it make a difference, lets say 4 years from now, being able to overclock it.

 

 

3) 760 is similar to a 660ti.

 

 

4) The motherboard is for possible SLI, also providing the ports necessary onboard and providing a good quality board that will last longer. (Also costing less in the long run, not needing additional cards.

1) Ah I didn't see mention of SLI so I assumed you weren't intending on that, consider that by the time the 660ti isn't providing a satisfactory 1080p gaming experience it will also be irrelevant to SLI them rather than buy a new card (e.g. Buying GTX460 SLI today).

 

2) Well we don't know what might come out in 4 years but if history repeats itself people who bought i7 920s and overclocked them to 4GHz or so are probably still finding them providing a good experience / performance compared to stock freq (I think it was high in the 2GHz range).

 

3) Fair enough, I assumed as the 760 and 670 offer pretty much identical benchmark performance they were very close relatives

 

4) You can get something like a B85 Vanguard(I think its called) and that is designed to last a while (ASUS TUF series, 5yr warranty etc).

 

SSD is also relevant on pretty much any budget now

[Jumper118]

But for 40 dollars? That could mean an SSD instead of an HDD

yes because it might last 20-30% longer. so if you might only have it for 2 years before needing to upgrade, if you overclock it is faster therefore it might last another gen of gpu's. its not about now unless you do benchmarks. its a long term investment.  

[Dubesta11]

The 760 is not a rebrand of anything.  It uses a configuration that was not used in the 600 series.

 

660: 960 cores, 192-bit bus

660 Ti: 1344 cores, 192-bit bus

760: 1152 cores, 256-bit bus

670: 1344 cores, 256-bit bus

 

Performance-wise the 760 is pretty similar to the 660 Ti.

 

As for the OP's question, overclocking can be worth it, but I don't think it will help here, you'll be limited by that graphics card's power before a stock i5.

 

This actually helps quite a lot, does having a smaller bus effect performance in this case, compared to a 760?

[Jumper118]

This actually helps quite a lot, does having a smaller bus effect performance in this case, compared to a 760?

not really until you get them at high res with sli, but then should should buy  a more expensive car with a bigger bus anyway

[Glenwing]

This actually helps quite a lot, does having a smaller bus effect performance in this case, compared to a 760?

 

Yeah, the 600 series did not have as much memory bandwidth as they should have, and it does become a problem.  The more cores on the 660 Ti balance out the performance difference though.