CPU/GPU Overcocking woes
CPU/GPU Overcocking woes
Hey everyone. I just assembled my initial Intel PC (based on around ten AMD builds) and, as the name implies, I'm running into some problems.
The configuration includes an i5 6500 Skylake, Asrock Z170M Pro4s, 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 LPX, an Asus Strix GTX 970 (from a prior FX 8350 build), and an Antec Earthwatts D-500 power supply.
After setting everything up and installing all the essential software and games on my SSD, I performed some stress tests using Prime95 and Heaven 4.0. Everything functioned properly until I decided to overclock the GTX 970.
Initially, I managed to raise its performance from around 1304 to 1536 FPS for about half an hour. I then tried further adjustments using MSI Afterburner and ran Heaven multiple times, which improved my score to 1536 and kept it stable.
After another reboot, I encountered a freezing issue in the BIOS. After searching online, I updated the firmware and resolved the problem.
Next, I attempted CPU overclocking: I increased the BCLK to 125 and voltage to 1.325, based on other users' experiences. I rebooted and noticed a significant jump in Witcher 3 performance—from 57 to 60 FPS.
However, after restarting the GTX 970 back to default settings, its performance dropped to around 40 FPS, which was even worse than before.
TL;DR: Overclocking the i5 and GTX 970 didn’t improve my gaming experience; in fact, it hurt.
Any suggestions or advice would be really helpful.
What version of Prime95 are you using? Have you experimented with RealTemp or CoreTemp? Verify your drivers to ensure you have the latest one, and it would also be useful to know your CPU/GPU usage and clock speeds while playing Witcher 3.