MSI 660ti PE Overclocking Tips?

nebulashadow

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Nov 6, 2012
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I know there are a ton of overclocking guides out there, but I didn't see that many on the 660ti PE by MSI. I recently picked up a 2nd card and am running them in SLI, which at 1080p is maxing all my games beautifully. Far Cry 3, however, when maxed out dips down to around 40fps, and I would like to achieve 60fps constant if possible. I have an overclock right now that seems to be doing okay, but I want more if possible. From what I understand the 660ti is memory limited, due to its 192 bit bus, so with stock voltage in EVGA Precision X I have the power limit at 114%, the core clock at +20mhz, and the memory clock at +620mhz for both cards. I know the memory offset seems pretty ridiculous, but testing with Furmark it increased my fps more than adjusting the core clock did. I don't really know much about overclocking GPUs though, so any advice is helpful. I would prefer not to overvolt too much though because I plan on keeping the cards for at least 3-4 more years. Thanks!
 
Solution
To be honest, that's a pretty good overclock and about the best you could hope for from a 660 Ti. However, Far Cry 3 is a dog with certain options on that barely do anything to increase visual fidelity. The biggest detractors to performance are Geometry and Post Processing effects. Changes to geometry are barely perceptible onscreen, but you can definitely feel the large increase in performance changing it from Ultra to High. Post Processing on Ultra is what gives the game its trademark soft/blurry look when in motion as it's responsible for adding the high-quality depth of field and motion blur that you see prominently displayed in screenshots of the game. It's mostly subjective whether or not this looks good to you, and I personally...

doubletake

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Sep 30, 2012
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To be honest, that's a pretty good overclock and about the best you could hope for from a 660 Ti. However, Far Cry 3 is a dog with certain options on that barely do anything to increase visual fidelity. The biggest detractors to performance are Geometry and Post Processing effects. Changes to geometry are barely perceptible onscreen, but you can definitely feel the large increase in performance changing it from Ultra to High. Post Processing on Ultra is what gives the game its trademark soft/blurry look when in motion as it's responsible for adding the high-quality depth of field and motion blur that you see prominently displayed in screenshots of the game. It's mostly subjective whether or not this looks good to you, and I personally recommend lowering it from Ultra to High/Very High or even Medium for a large increase in performance without greatly decreasing image quality.
 
Solution

doubletake

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Sep 30, 2012
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Yeah, I run 2x780s, and I'm only ok with leaving those on Ultra if I'm on one screen, otherwise when I'm on all three, those are the first things I turn down or I'll see dips into sub 50s when there's lots of action onscreen.
 

nebulashadow

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Nov 6, 2012
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As an update if anyone happens to see this with similar issues, I could max out the games no problem 1080p with this setup, but I ended up lowering the memory clock on the cards. The reason I was having performance issues is because I was using 8xMSAA, which is pretty taxing on the GPU. Taking that down to 4xMSAA, I was getting consistent 60fps. Thanks!