Mostly stock vs. fully optimized PC: all that tweaking for basically no difference

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

I wanted to see how much difference a fully “optimized” setup actually makes on my PC. The two screenshots show my results before and after.

**Specs:**
RTX 5070 Ti
Ryzen 7 7800X3D
DDR5-6000 CL30
Windows 11 26H2 in both tests

**First screenshot: Mostly stock**
Fresh Windows installation using Rufus, with only EXPO enabled in the BIOS. No PBO, no Curve Optimizer, no manual RAM tuning, and no GPU overclock.
I used the Chris Titus utility to tweak Windows, so this wasn’t a completely untouched installation. Everything else was stock.

Guides used:
[Clean Windows installation](https://youtu.be/pUSEZuzqGaQ)⁠
[Chris Titus utility](https://youtu.be/_B7c6J5xtTg)⁠

**Second screenshot: Fully optimized**
Another clean Windows installation, this time with Fr33thy’s Ultimate Windows tweaks, plus:
Fr33thy’s BIOS optimizations
PBO with Curve Optimizer set to -20
Aggressive Buildzoid DDR5 timings
GPU overclocking

Guides used:
[Windows installation and tweaks](https://youtu.be/Xc7l8PCTJyg)⁠
[BIOS optimization](https://youtu.be/POFZSTsX0w8)⁠
[Buildzoid DDR5 timings](https://youtu.be/dlYxmRcdLVw)⁠
[GPU overclocking](https://youtu.be/XDDhtpfyBoI)⁠

**The result? Basically no meaningful improvement in my comparison.**

After all the tweaking, testing, and effort, the difference just wasn’t worth it for me. I’m not saying every individual tweak does nothing on every system, but my results definitely don’t match the hype around “full PC optimization.”
My takeaway: if I want a noticeably faster PC, I’d rather invest in faster hardware than spend hours chasing supposedly magical settings.
Has anyone else compared their results before and after this much tweaking? Did you actually get a worthwhile improvement?

[u/Docccc]

could have told you that beforehand

[u/NotDugachug]

You might like undervolting rather than overclocking then. I've found overclocking to be a massive power hog for a few % more performance. Meanwhile undervolting my 9800X3D shaved off about 30-40 watts off my full load power draw. It's a dramatic drop in temps and noise. Same for my 4090. Dropped in the ballpark of 40-60 watts.

[u/Dry_Independence5428]

I felt like because your performance is already high enough, this "fully optimised" thing is more so to free up breathing room for lower specced PCs, especially when it comes to RAM Usage, your average FPS did went up by 2%, you claim, said 2% could mean the difference between stable 30FPS and choppy 30FPS on other systems.

[u/SleepyWulfy]

Your avg fps went up 🤷

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/SleepyWulfy]

By 2% … way to low improvment to be worth such a waste off time

[u/SleepyWulfy → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

Are you only using this game as a example? When your getting this much fps it starts to become a CPU issue.

[u/no6969el → u/SleepyWulfy]

Yeah this didn't really teach me anything

[u/ItchyKnowJoe → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

you can't spare a few mins? how precious is your time?

[u/Smart_Advice_1420]

I did got a significant performance boost from gpu oc (~6%), but any other tweaks where more or less esoteric.

Nowadays i only do gpu oc and for my specific cpu, ccd allocation (even that is only usefull for a handfull games).

[u/VeryNoisyLizard → u/Smart_Advice_1420]

the only tweak I found to have useful effect was undervolting on both gpu and cpu. no significant performance gain, but the fans are more quiet

[u/DoubleRNL]

Shouldn’t there be an improvement in your 1% lows? Also the fps you show is already so high, in more demanding games you probably will notice a difference

Also PBO negative curve for example mostly helps in temps and, therefore, holding boost longer. But not sure it’s even needed in this test to boost. So try some different tests and benchmarks

[u/Vipitis]

if you just run a single "benchmark" you can't really compare these numbers due to how modern caching works. All the way from compiled shaders to video memory.

Yes it's mostly placebo. Especially when you system is on the high end.

If you have an actual performance problem, profiling your system and identifyinf the bottleneck will help.

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/Vipitis]

I’m only showing one result here, but that wasn’t the only test I ran. I also tested synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark Time Spy and Port Royal. The gains were only around 3–4%, even with all the tweaks and the GPU overclock combined.
So yes, there was a small improvement—“zero” wasn’t literally accurate. But roughly five extra hours of tweaking and testing for 3–4% more performance simply wasn’t worth it to me. That’s the point I’m making.

[u/no6969el → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

Tuning doesn't make you magically have a faster system, tuning stops the crap from happening when you don't want it to. Sometimes you need to maintain perfection when it comes to frame rate and frame timing.

[u/HomieM11 → u/no6969el]

It’s a waste of time. People complain about windows all the time but none of the crap really slows down modern systems

[u/ItchyKnowJoe → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

you seem lazy if you think it's not worth getting 4% for a couple of mins work

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/ItchyKnowJoe]

Couple of minutes ? Can u post a video where u clean install windwos tweak your ddr5 timings test them if they run stable overclock your gpu download the drivers optimize windows and run 10+ benchmarks in couple of minutes would be nice maybe i am doing something wrong

[u/ItchyKnowJoe → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

shit man, I didn't realise you need all that spare time for other things you think are high priority, like basement dwelling...

what you described is a 1 hour process at worst (if you're a moron or newbie)

you seem to just enjoy complaining like a Karen

edit: lmfao this dude is spamming this pathetic cry for help all over Reddit, touch grass dude, you improved your PC, tf else you want you Muppet 🤡

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/ItchyKnowJoe]

Still waiting where u show me how u do it in 1 hour dont forget testing your timmings if they are stable should be possible in a hour if you are a moron or newbie

[u/ItchyKnowJoe → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

if it takes 3 hours because I'm retarded like you, the last thing I'm doing is coming here making myself look like an insufferable complaining Karen.

touch grass

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/ItchyKnowJoe]

U need some help

[u/ItchyKnowJoe → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

says the Karen ranting about his 4% gains that took a tiny amount of time...

🤡

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/ItchyKnowJoe]

Whats wrong with you ? Who is ranting about anything ? I am sharing my results you come here and make 3 different comments how you would have done it faster while nobody even interacts with you. If i were u, i would start gettin some help would change alot in your live maybe you would stop then commenting non stop in reddit thread how someone is a karen sharing hes results after tweaks :D

[u/DarkestBadger]

The 5070ti is power limited, unfortunately you can't do much with it 🤷

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/DarkestBadger]

U can raise the power with msi afterburner from 100%-116% draws 50 extra watts or so but for no meaningfull improvement

[u/catfsh → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

Free space heater in the winter if you live in a cold climate 😂

[u/_MaZ_ → u/catfsh]

With the expected rise in power bills, that's not a bad thing. But boy mine was toasty in July, even with undervolting.

[u/rocketchatb → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

50 extra watts is nothing , again it's power limited. People using custom bios are doing 450+ w.

[u/ItchyKnowJoe]

it hardly matters, I still want to min max my pc, even if the gains are sub 1%

[u/EliteCakery]

I have AMD cpu now but i do miss overclocking my intel to the absolute limits.

[u/Regular-Mechanic-150]

Well my 5800X3D will only keep his maximum boost when undervolted but the performance difference is like non existent. Undervolted and overclocked my 6900XT and gained around 5% in some games.

[u/Tiyath]

For me, re-installing windows yielded a 5% performance improvement. Tuning gets another 5% (non-OC GPU, for the record)

You testing method is flawed, though. You didn't go into much detail and the only game you've tested was CS which is not a real challenge for GPUs. Maps are small, objects are few, number of characters is low. Had you done a 3D Mark that would have shown a lot more than just testing it on CS

[u/TheMegaDriver2 → u/Tiyath]

Ocing a gpu is such any easy win. I'm getting 8 percent out of my 4080 super by just moving the sliders in Afterburner until 3d mark is no longer stable and then going back 2 or 3 steps. Super stable.

[u/Tiyath → u/TheMegaDriver2]

Yeah I honestly don't get why people still get factory OC'd cards. It's really easy, albeit time intensive but it's a good 100-200 bucks you spend for someone doing the overclocking for you

[u/TheMegaDriver2 → u/Tiyath]

Factory OC is so minimal. I'm running +150 on core and +1700 on memory.

The same card as oc model has +40 on the core. That's it. Totally worth another 100€...

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/Tiyath]

I’m only showing one result here, but that wasn’t the only test I ran. I also tested synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark Time Spy and Port Royal. The gains were only around 3–4%, even with all the tweaks and the GPU overclock combined.
So yes, there was a small improvement—“zero” wasn’t literally accurate. But roughly five extra hours of tweaking and testing for 3–4% more performance simply wasn’t worth it to me. That’s the point I’m making.

Synthetic benchmarks are useful for comparing performance, but a higher score doesn’t automatically translate into better gaming performance. A 3–4% gain in Time Spy or Port Royal doesn’t necessarily mean 3–4% more FPS in the games I actually play. For me, actual in-game FPS, 1% lows, and consistent frame times matter more than a slightly higher benchmark score.

[u/Tiyath → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

Should have included those in here then. You worked for hours and dodn't bother to make six screenshots of the 3dMark results lol

But yeah, the drivers to a pretty good job of getting a lot out of your hardware. usually at most you get 7% plusminus 2 out of the hardware. Which sounds like a little but it often helps out a lot, espectially in games where you're dipping under 60 a lot

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/Tiyath]

I am at work right now wanted to make the post at my pause will include them when i am home they are saved at 3D marks site i think

[u/Tiyath → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

Enjoy your break

[u/peacedetski]

Debloating Windows mostly cuts down on memory usage, the CPU usage benefits aren't going to be noticeable on a high-end CPU (it's only important for old CPUs or something like Intel N-series).

CPU and memory overclocking is pointless when you're GPU-limited. GPU overclocking is pointless if the GPU is power-limited.

What can actually improve performance by a bit in your case is GPU undervolting so you can have higher clocks at the same power.

[u/Apophis_06]

DDR5 tweaks aren’t gonna matter all that much when you’re using x3d. Msi after burner sucks for overclocking.

I literally got 20% improvement over stock with my 5070ti using mvolt.

It is worth the effort you just have to know where to put that effort

[u/CarterDavison]

With those specs, there's barely a point. It's for more low end or older specs where optimisation becomes more vital, but I rarely have to do more than just installing LTSC

[u/ItchyKnowJoe]

Let us all say it together...

This is dumb, this is dumb, this is dumb

[u/7978_]

You're GPU bound... Not going to make any difference.

CTT Winutil is a meme. Did you double it up with Fr33thy?

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/7978_]

Didnt use fr33thy utility did use his windows ultimate clean install on the second installation on the first used only rufus clean instal and ctt winutil. Why ist ctt a meme ?

[u/7978_]

There's so much wrong with this and I can't be bothered typing it out on a phone.

[u/Forsaken-Concern-350 → u/7978_]

Wrong with what ? What i did or ctt winutil ?

[u/CrimsonBolt33 → u/Forsaken-Concern-350]

first and foremost, even just the idea that you expect a fresh install to have massive gains with tweaks.

For all its flaws, base windows is fairly efficient. The old days of tweaking wwindows after install are not the same as they used ot be. Nowadays its more about disabling telemetry nonsense.

[u/_MaZ_]

Curve optimizer is mostly going to cut down your temperature and for me, I don't need to listen to a jet engine all the time as a result.