Is my i5-660 bottlenecking my GTX 680?

What power supply do you have?

Have you tried overclocking your 660?

You may be getting some bottlenecking , overclocking your cpu will help elleviate it.

I have a cooler master 550 W supply, it came with a case I purchased a while back. And I have tried OCing the 660 actually, though I think I undid that recently. I'll have to attempt to fix that.

Ok that psu could be the limiting factor, the coolermaster psu's are not the best to be honest, some are overated too.
You are also borderline for the recomended requirement for the 680, so my guess is that psu may be holding you back.

Could you tell me the model number of your psu?

Checking, I'll edit this post once I have it, should be a few seconds.

EDIT: It's RS-550-PCAR-E3

I also re-OC'd my 660 to 4.2 Ghz, which gave me a modest, albeit noticeable performance gain.

Pull your overclock back to default for now as it may put some strain on your psu.

Wow, I had no idea, thank you! I'm going to see if Fry's has that PSU (wanna get this rectified ASAP) I can go up to about 150. Do you have any other recommendations? Or one that you'd say is better?

Of course you could go modular, more efficient too and also go higher wattage in case you wish to go SLI later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Once you purchase the psu you choose and install it , you will see your 680 perform very well , overclock your cpu again and watch it fly.

I like all of these, but I can't find any of them at Fry's (sorry, it's Friday and I'm impatient) do you have any recommendations that I might be able to find locally?

Best answer selected by RyoHUmar.

Can you get them via the website?

http://www.frys.com/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&...

Are you trying to find one right away ASAP?

I'm in Australia so not sure what other places you can get them there locally.

If anyone reading this could help with suggestions of retailers that are local, and stock Corsair PSU's ?

Thanks, I'm trying to get one before the weekend starts here in sunny California. But if push comes to shove I'll just wait it out until mid next week when one can be put on my door step, I'm pretty much sold on that ~149 power supply. The modular design would clear some of my case's clutter.

AH! Looks like they have the 850w version! I'll be picking that up tomorrow, especially since I plan to buy a second gtx 680 and run SLI later down the line. Thank you SO much. I'll let you know what comes of my power supply purchase!

Thats great man , I'm glad I could be of help and that the PSU you have didnt do damage to your system. Definately let me know how you go , that 850Watt PSU will last you a long time and keep your system and SLI happy.
Goodluck!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. So I bought the AX850 and had no luck with that, but I'm glad I replaced it, given the information you provided me.

I ended up replacing the i5 660 with a new i5 3570K and am now getting scores comparable to benchmarks online. I'm really happy with the hardware now! My specs are the following:

Mainboard: MSI Z77A-G45
CPU: Core i5 3570K
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance (4x4GB, 1600)
GPU: Galaxy GTX 680 2GB
PSU: Corsair AX850
Chassis: NZXT Phantom (White)

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey