Hi there
now i am running a HD 3850 with an aftermarket cooler and a E6850 with a stock cooler on a Asrock 4core 1333 e-sata 2 (or something like that) motherboard.
and what i wanted to ask is, if it is neccesary to overclock my cpu and gpu. i mean, will i see any performance increases in games, i am especially interested in Crysis, I play that alot.
if you could give me any suggestions: should or should i not overclock and how far can i go without blowing something up.
would be very gratefull.

Quote from SpyDa-LV :

Hi there
now i am running a HD 3850 with an aftermarket cooler and a E6850 with a stock cooler on a Asrock 4core 1333 e-sata 2 (or something like that) motherboard.
and what i wanted to ask is, if it is neccesary to overclock my cpu and gpu. i mean, will i see any performance increases in games, i am especially interested in Crysis, I play that alot.
if you could give me any suggestions: should or should i not overclock and how far can i go without blowing something up.
would be very gratefull.

Well, when I try to overclock I only get glitches and 1FPS more. What clocks are you currently running? I think a HD 3850 will never play Crysis good. Even I get only 20fps with 8x AA at highest. I think the CPU is about safe under 4ghz. But you will have to look at the temps etc. And what is your PSU? how much and what make?

well i am really satisfied with my 3850, it plays crysis on 1280x720 on high with about 30fps. the cpu is at stock at 3.0ghz and the gpu is overclocked in catalyst to core:700 and the memory at 730. my psu is 650w without a brandname . it came with the case.

Overclocking the CPU wont get you anymore FPS is Crysis.

Tried Crysis with 2 different CPU's at different speeds with the same graphics card and the FPS was the same, it was the graphics card slowing things down.

Got a new card now and the FPS jumped up, don't worry about the CPU it's fast enough.

Stock cooler = dont overclock.
Videocard overclocking is bit pointless, atleast for me. It will just kill it more and the clocks ... u cant increase them much. Just agree with it or get something better.

my 4850 is about as fast as 2 3870's in crysis... so you shouldnt expect much from crysis w/ a 3850. w/ an Intel Dual core, you won't gain much fps once you are over 3ghz.

Maybe bump your cpu up to 3.5 ghz or whatever you feel comfortable w/ (higher voltage ages cpu faster) and get a new graphics card. or save up and build a new rig later?

GTA IV will give you some increase w/ higher cpu speeds, but not so much w/ Crysis.