does overclocking really pay off

[MadTommy]

This is a post i made on the DSC forum...

I'd thought i'd share some info for anyone interested or doubting the performance a modest overclock can give you.

I'm running a modest overclock, a dual core E8400. Default it runs at 3Ghz, 18 months ago i overclocked it to 3.6Ghz. Very stable, no overheating, no fancy cooling.

A few days ago my BIOS reset itself without myself noticing, and set it back to factory default. (removed the overclock). This coincided with the latest Warthog patch release. Installed the patch and was getting terrible performance. My fps had reduced by 50%. Naturally i initially thought it was the patch. I reduced graphics setting but it made no difference. I was now getting 15 fps dropping to 5 every now and again, when i had been always been between 25 - 60 fps.

I noticed my overclock had been removed.. reinstated it through my BIOS save setting feature and my fps increased by about 70%!!! I went from getting 15 to 45fps on the exact same mission! From a 0.6 Ghz increase!!

My cpu is my bottelneck but i was amazed, i had, to be honest, never realise what a boost it was giving me in A10c.

My rig for reference.
E8400 stock 3Ghz - overclocked to 3.6 Ghz.
GTX 480 (1.5GB)
4 GB Ram (1066)
x-fi extreme music
SSD HD

All game settings on High except Water & Traffic on Medium.

Getting overclocking people!!!