Can my PSU handle overclocking?

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marviinn

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Aug 30, 2013
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Hey, I want to overclock my two GTX 460 in SLI, but I'm not sure if my PSU will handle that.

System:
i5 2500k @ 4,2GHz
2x GTX 460 SLI
8GB DDR3
Asus P8P67 Pro
Corsair TX650

Will my Corsair TX650 handle GPU overclocking since i'm already overclocking the CPU as well. I don't want anything crazy, maybe up the core from 715 to 830Mhz.

Thanks.
 
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nostall

nostall

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Nov 28, 2012
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You may be pushing the envelope if you start ocing the video cards along with the CPU.
For two GTX 460's in SLI Nvidia recommends a minimum 650 psu for the system with at least 42amps on the 12v rail. Your PSU is rated at either 53 or 54 depending upon exactly what model you have; this is plenty of power for your system at stock speeds and settings and leaves a little headroom. Depending on how much of an overclock you try on the cards and cpu, you may very well run out of power.
If you are serious about the OCing, then it might be time to consider a TX or HX 750 or 850 (in Corsair's line), or something from Seasonic, XFX, PCPower&Cooling, ANTEC, Enermax. or Rosewill CAPSTONE (made by SuperFlower).
That's a pretty nice system. I ran two 460's for a long time. If I may ask, why do you want to OC them?
My experience is that the cards ran hotter, the fans got louder, and in benchmarks and games I only gained 3-6 frames per second; Oh, and it voids the warranty.
 
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marviinn

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Aug 30, 2013
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Thank's for the answer. I would like to OC them because in games such as BF3 i'm at 56+ fps at most demanding situations. I would just want to squeeze a couple fps more. But i'd actually rather sacrifice a lower setting than to buy a new PSU. Do you know what graphics card the two GTX 460 in SLI would be equal to?
 
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nostall

nostall

Splendid
Nov 28, 2012
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When my 9800GT's passed away (well, one did; but that took care of any SLI) I did a lot of research into what set up and card(s) was the best-for-the-buck. This article pretty much made the decision for me:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694.html
I benchmarked my two cards agains a single 470 (in my computer) and my SLI setup just beat the crap out of the 470. As the article says, they run games as fast as or faster then a GTX480.
Early this year Best Buy had a heckofa deal on the GTX660; my friend had just installed an ASUS 660 in his machine, so I just had to have two of them. They run as fast as a single GTX680 according to my benchmark scores with FRAPS (BTW the benchmarks are real games and 3dmark).
So, to answer you question, my guess is you would need to upgrade to a GTX770 or an older GTX680. Tom's can help with this decision. Check out this monthly article paying attention to the hierarchy chart near the end. Figure your 460's run like a 480 or slightly better, move up 3 tiers and see if you can afford something up there for a single card solution. Or two 650s or 660s.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
Oh, just as a teaser, Maximum PC magazine reviewed the EVGA GTX780 ACX in their October issue and gave it a perfect 10: Now that would be a kick-ass single card solution for your machine. However, now we are back to the power supply issue; but if you didn't overclock, your PSU would meet the minimum requirements and you would surely find high frame rates in BF3 et al.
EDIT: Just to see what my 660's do in BF3 I looked at my FRAPs benchm. With everything maxed out, and I don't remember what section of the game I was playing, they averaged 114FPS. My 460's best was 74.
 
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ko888

ko888

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Feb 18, 2009
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The performance of two GeForce GTX 460 graphics cards in 2-way SLI mode is equivalent to the performance of a single Radeon HD 7870.

A single GeForce GTX 760 or GeForce GTX 660 Ti will handily beat two GeForce GTX 460 graphics cards in 2-way SLI mode.
 
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marviinn

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Aug 30, 2013
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Thanks. Since my cards are 3 generations old, i'm lookin into upgrading to a single and newer generation card. Would it be worth the upgrade if i sold my both GTX 460 and bought a GTX 760 or GTX 660 Ti?
 
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ko888

ko888

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Feb 18, 2009
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Yes, since you should notice the performance gain.
 
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