Is Over Clocking Worth It?

we currently run dual cored e750s and are looking at some new PCs and was wondering if OCing is worth it for FFXI - and what tangible improvements will be seen, or would it be better just investing in better gfx cards and non OCd machine's?

ideally looking for something that can improve both the handling of one toon with all effects on and high resolution or 5-6 toons per pc (low res) for mboxing.

Not necessary for FFXI

I used to run an E7500 dual core stock settings and found it bogged down badly even when only playing with one instance open.

I overclocked mine to a stable 4.0 GHz and was able to dual box quite well with my main set to max settings(2x oversampling, 3x mipmaps, ect) and the other character set to regular settings(1x sampling, 2 mipmaps, ect). But as soon as I tried triple boxing it would die off hard, even at lower resolutions. That'd be the downside of a dual core.
This overclock also required a more aggressive cpu cooler. I used a cooler master copper ducted radiator with two 120mm fans hooked up to it. Kept cpu temps well under 50 degrees C. With the stock cooler I was hitting temps of 105 :(
This was also with a gtx260 graphics card. Nothing overly fancy.

So in my opinion, a stable overclock can be worth it. It's hard to upgrade just for ffxi. I would, however, suggest an upgrade to a decent quad core if you are looking to box more than two characters at decent settings.

FFXI is a 10yr old game... My Laptop Envy 17 3270 dont even detect it to use the Radeon 7850. I play it using the HD4000 is more than enough lol.

And I Triplebox using max settings

I'm not sure if multiple instances of FFXI would run on separate processing threads (either automatically or through deliberate effort), but if they can be made to run that way you'd be much better off with a good quad core processor, preferably with hyper threading.

If all FFXI processes are relegated to 'core 1' no matter what, you might do better with an older processor with a high clock speed that can be reliably overclocked, but a newer processor (like the i7 3270 Aikawa mentioned) would probably still be better (even if it would be mostly unused by the game.

Overclocking for ffxi...lol. Good one OP

as long as the card will do direct3d well, XI doesn't care, it's CPU intensive.

also what is the cpu heat limit to stay under for best performance? currently running at 70 %C under load.

gfx card 90 %c

80c is about as hot as i'd go

Melt ALL the graphics cards!

lol, my laptop gets to about 100c, I've tried to cool it several times, I just can't get it to stop overheating.

heh, went to just check it and the whole computer is running at about 70c in idle...

You'll more likely than not see a performance decrease..

after some more research i have found these two options i like - both around same price range - i would appreciate any opinions please

Krypton Z68 TURBO Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-080-OE


Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 3550 - 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - Intel Z77 Chipset Motherboard

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/motherboardbundles/mbb-35504c.html

The second one isn't overclockable... if that is a word.

I would personally go with the 2500k, ivy bridge wasn't a very big increase, and diminishes more after OC'ing.

ok - seems the only AMD alternative in the same price range (maybe little cheaper) as the Intel's is the FX8120-8 cores(dont think it's OCd) - anyone use this if so how does it perform?

anyone else have any comments? (lets not get into Intel vs AMD either please!) wouldn't the 8 cores help multibox better?

FX series was a major disappointment. It's performance doesn't even touch the 2500k at all. It matches the performance of the AMD 1090T about. It's really not worth buying. Major new design flaw. You can OC the FX series but it's meh considering the CPU itself overclocks if needed on its own. Depending on the situation it overclocks itself to 3.9 and 4.4.

2500k definitely gets my vote. Or if you want a bit of added performance boost for media applications get the 2600k. 2500k is perfect for any gaming situation atm though. Don't forget to get a matching LGA1155 motherboard and compatible GPU.

I use an 8120 and they OC very well (but like all AMDs, take a little more finesse then just cranking the voltage). I run mine at a stable 24/7 OC of 4.44GHz at a 240 BUS. Biggest problem is they get hot quickly and have a relatively low max temp (61 C), so a decent aftermarket cooler is a must.

In real world use, OC'ed at the same speed, I would say they 8120 is about on par with a 2500k.

As for the 8-core question. No, multiple cores or threads wont help FFXI. As far as I know you can't assign specific FFXI instances to different cores, so in essence you would be booting all instances off a single core. Your thoughts of 5~6 instances per PC seems a little high honestly.

I usually have three instances of FFXI open, and I typically separate them by core (4 cores). I'll also isolate my browsers to one core as well to prevent FFXI from lagging them or vice versa (It's not unusual for me to have 50+ tabs open at one time between Chrome and Firefox in a varying number of windows).

As to the overclocking question, it's never been worth the risk to my hardware to overclock. (I understand there are varying degrees of risk in overclocking, some of which are very minimal.)

mmm we usually play at-least 3 toons per PC on the current dual core systems - i thought by changing/setting affinity this assigned POL to run on certain cores.

mules each run at 5-15 % cpu while mains run at 22-30 % cpu

All you need for ffxi

i suppose my question for the intel vs amd route is what would be better for multi boxing - more cores or a higher clock speed with less cores

For cores, 4 should be plenty to multi-box XI. When comparing CPUs, I couldn't personally justify the price to bump up to additional cores.

This is the CPU I currently use:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Hmmm how do you separate them by cores?

EDIT... NVM.. google'd >.> .. but.. I cant assign it to pol.exe.. says Operation Could not be completed. access denied. with others programs works.

Task Manager. In the processes tab, right click on the process, choose 'set affinity'.

I forgot to mention that I've never tested this in XP (the option is still there). I run Windows 7.

ok decided on Intel Core i5 3570K - Overclocked to 4.5Ghz


as for gfx cards on a budget as need 2 PC build - so are these worth the money ? (also interested in setting up on 3 screens with eyefinity)

1GB XFX Radeon HD 7770 - 640 Cores, 1000MHz, 4500MHz GDDR5 (£76.77) add £76.77

or

2GB XFX Radeon HD 7850 - 1024 Cores, 975MHz, 5000MHz GDDR5 (£173.78) add £173.78


Even looking at gaming keyboards now .. hope in not being a sucker...

Tried out the Cyborg v7 and thought it seemed good value for money and i liked the key strokes but ive also read that Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Keyboard is a decent value and to also look at the Corsair (mechanical) keyboard - anyone use any of these and can comment?

I have the Razer Black Widow Ultimate. I regret nothing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823114012

lol i do too!!!! and i regret nothing but their headset the mic isn't working anymore so am dissapoint.... the mouse is decent the one i have of theirs i should have gone with the wireless/wired one they have but i was too broke at the time since i was spending alot on building my pc all together not piece by piece

also i had to buy 2 keyboards because i accidently bought the mac one and the led wouldnt get out of the strobe mode where it dims then lights back and slowly dims and keeps doing that.... so if anyone has a mac and needs a keyboard for gaming and other good uses and doesnt mind the clicking s mechanical kb has then let me know i just never shipped anything b4 so... i wud need help lol

edit: wanted to note the LED thing is not becsuse the KB was defective but because windows doesnt recognize the extra features

Windows or any other multi threaded os should take care of dividing the load evenly among cpu's

also each game instance use around 25-30 threades (how many are actually cpu intensive is another question)

so anyone used the keyboards or gfx cards i mentioned?