I5 2500k overclock not getting much of a performance boost.

[chaosblade02]

Overclocked my I5 2500k from stock 3.3ghz to 4.2ghz. I know its stable from a 12 hr prime 95 test, and I also ran LinX for 2 hours, using all memory and I get 115 Gflops average, when its about 89 @ stock.

I tried some benchmarks in Last story, and the FPS minimums didn't improve any in some of the problem areas. I still got dips as low as 20fps in some areas. In fact I used a save state in one spot where I was sitting on 20fps @ 3.3ghz, and rebooted, OC'd, then reloaded the save state and its still 20fps in the same spot. I was expecting at least a 2-3 FPS boost on the minimum side, what gives? Is there something more going on here than just CPU power?

And its not quite as bad as I'm making it out to be, the game runs 30+ FPS 95% of the time, but there are some problem areas where the FPS just tanks in this game.

I benchmarked Skyrim, and I got a noticeable FPS increase in Skyrim, about 6fps on the minimum.

Full specs:

I5 2500k @ 4.2ghz
Cooler master hyper 212+ CPU cooler.
MB: Gigabyte Z68x UD4 B3
Ram: 16gb Gskill ripsaws 1600mhz
GPU/s x2 Radeon 6970s
PSU: Corsair 1000w.

[NaturalViolence]

Check for cpu and gpu throttling.

[chaosblade02]

GPU usage stays pretty low in dolphin. Temps never go above 64C even in 12 hrs of prime 95 on my CPU. I don't think its a throttling problem.

Could it maybe be an AMD driver issue? Catalyst 13.9 drivers.

This spot here in particular is a FPS tank:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/835/2rdz.png

Its 20 FPS in that spot @ 3.3ghz or 4.2ghz. GPU usage in the same spot is under 30%. What is causing the FPS dip here? I was told OCing your CPU helps, but the reason I even did it to begin with was to improve the FPS in spots just like this, which it doesn't seem to have any effect at all on.

[NaturalViolence]

GPU usage and temperature are not used to indicate throttling. Check your clock rates.

[chaosblade02]

According to realtemp, which also monitors clock rate and CPU load. I'm @ 4.2ghz with 50% CPU load in that spot.

[NaturalViolence]

And the gpu?

[chaosblade02]

The GPU is under 30% usage. Dolphin barely even uses my GPU even running in HD. It uses more of my GPU in Xenoblade Chronicles honestly. But Xenoblade runs 30fps all the time.

I can run the game at native resolution, and I get no FPS increase at all in Last story, the graphics options that are GPU dependent have no effect on FPS one way or the other for me. I can make Dolphin actually use my GPU if I turn the settings up a bunch, but I don't see any reason to torture my GPU running dolphin only for miniscule graphics improvements.

**Edit, I posted my Dolphin CPU benchmark in the other topic:

https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-new-dolphin-cpu-benchmark-no-game-required?pid=309102#pid309102

And my time was similar to someone else with the same CPU & clock rate.

I'll try one of the latest builds, and some of the older ones to see if the FPS is any better in that spot. I'm using 4.0.2 atm.

[NaturalViolence]

Again: GPU clock rate. Not GPU usage. GPU usage has nothing to do with throttling.

[chaosblade02]

According to MSI afterburner, GPU core clock is 900mhz, and its a steady 900mhz, with no dips at all when dolphin is running. Which is stock for my GPU.

I just now noticed something odd. I turned the FPS limit to 60 just to see what it would do, and its telling me speed is 122% when my FPS is only 21:

http://imageshack.com/a/img812/5636/fwes.png

With the FPS limit to 60, my FPS is more like 35-45 in most areas outside of the super FPS tank areas like in the castle entryway.

Did this game have FPS issues when running on an actual Wii?

[Nerrel]

Usually when I see discrepancies between the speed % and the framerate it's because V-sync or the vbeam hack is on. It's also the case that some games are just weird at certain parts and the speeds don't seem to respond to any changes you make, either on the GPU or CPU side.

You should try some different games out. I generally see an increase of around 10-15fps when my i5-2500k is overclocked; SMG2 gets as much as a 22fps increase. It should be easily noticeable.