[Explained] Does Overclocking CPU Increase FPS?

Everyone likes to play lag-free games. If the FPS of your computer is low, then you may experience a laggy or choppy screen while playing games. To increase FPS, you either need to get a more powerful CPU or you can overclock it to boost the performance.

One question that comes to everyone’s mind is whether overclocking the CPU increase FPS.

Well, the answer is – yes, overclocking the CPU slightly increases FPS than intended by the manufacturer. But you have to be careful not to overclock it for too long, or your CPU or other components may get damaged because of it.

But don’t worry, we will guide you on when overclocking increases FPS, how it affects your gaming performance, what hardware you need to increase FPS by overclocking, and much more in this article.

So, without any further ado, let’s read it quickly!

Does Overclocking CPU Increase FPS in Gaming?

It’s been a common question by gamers around the world how can they increase FPS in games? Should they overclock their CPU; or other components?

Generally, companies don’t recommend overclocking their products as overclocking for a long time may damage the hardware. However, they promote overclocking somehow.

You can get a performance boost and improve your gaming condition by overclocking your CPU in most cases. But before that, you need to follow some conditions –

1. You need a graphics card that is more powerful than your CPU; otherwise, the increase in performance won’t be noticeable.
2. You need to check if there is any bottleneck in your build or not. You can use Bottleneck Calculating Application in this case.

When Does Overclocking CPU increase FPS and When Doesn’t?

When your graphics card is more powerful than your CPU, then you will get the advantage of overclocking. Because, when the graphics card bottlenecks your processor, it limits the performance of your CPU.

In this case, overclocking the CPU will lower the bottlenecking and will increase FPS. For this, you will get a performance boost and can play games without any lag.

On the other hand, if your processor is more powerful than your graphics card, then you’ll get no advantage of overclocking your CPU as your graphics card will limit the performance of your processor.

In this case, you need to overclock your graphics card to get the performance boost and increase the FPS.

Hardware That You Need to Overclock Your CPU

Overclocking the CPU doesn’t always increase the FPS. It always depends on the other components of the computer such as the graphics card, motherboard, and processor.

Motherboard for Overclocking CPU

As you’ve already learned above that you need a powerful graphics card so that you can get benefit from overclocking your CPU, you also need a powerful motherboard too.

You need a Z-series motherboard to overclock your CPU. These types of motherboards are generally a little bit expensive. But you don’t have any choice as budget motherboards such as B-series or H-series don’t allow overclocking.

However, B550 motherboards are slightly cheaper and also allow overclocking of the CPU. In fact, almost all AMD motherboards allow overclocking depending on your CPU.

Processors That Allow Overclocking

You can’t overclock all processors. All the Intel processors aren’t overclockable. You can only overclock those Intel Processors that have “K” as a suffix in their name.

For example, you can overclock the “Intel Core i9 12900K” processor but you can’t overclock the “Intel Core i9 12900”.

On the contrary, almost all AMD processors are overclockable as all of them come with a factory-unlocked multiplier. But for this CPU, a powerful motherboard is mandatory.

What Gives More FPS – Overclocking CPU or GPU?

You can increase FPS by overclocking both your CPU and GPU. But the capacity of a GPU in processing 2D and 3D graphics, mapping texture, rendering polygons, etc. is more than a CPU. That’s why you’ll get more FPS by overclocking your GPU rather than CPU.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Much FPS Do I Gain by Overclocking CPU?

Overclocking the CPU slightly increases the FPS. But you can’t gain any FPS if your graphics card is less powerful than your CPU. If you have a powerful graphics card, then you can gain 10 to 20% of the FPS increase by overclocking your CPU.

Is Overclocking CPU Good for Gaming?

Yes, overclocking is good for gaming and you can play the latest games without any lag by overclocking your CPU. Even you can get the performance of a six-core processor from a quad-core processor by overclocking it.

Is It Safe to Overclock the CPU?

Yes, overclocking is totally safe. However, your CPU will start overheating after overclocking which might damage the CPU if your computer doesn’t have an efficient cooling system. Fortunately, today’s computers have built-in safeguards to turn off components automatically if it gets overheated.

How Can I Increase My FPS?

Here are 8 ways to increase the FPS of your computer:

1. By overclocking the CPU or GPU.
2. Using a monitor with a high refresh rate.
3. Using a processor with high FPS.
4. By enabling gaming mode.
5. By Updating the video driver.
6. By optimizing your game settings.
7. By reducing your screen resolution.
8. By upgrading your graphics card.

Conclusion

In a word, you can increase FPS by overclocking your CPU only if your CPU is less powerful than your graphics card. If your CPU is more powerful than your graphics card, then you should consider overclocking your graphics card instead of overclocking your processor. However, keep in your mind that you always need a powerful motherboard and a good cooling system before overclocking your CPU if you don’t want your hardware to get damaged.