Question Advice on overclocking an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB ?

[ShiroTheWolf]

Good day!
I am trying to overclock my GPU as displayed in the title.
I have downloaded MSI afterburner to try and tweak my overclocking but I am afraid of damaging the card, I have watched some videos on the matter but they seem to beat around the bush a lot so I figured I'd come here to get some tips.

I tried using the 'OC scanner' on the MSI afterburner application but it always ends with the message "Results are considered unstable".
I just want to know the best way to find a stable overclocking speed that is efficient and up to date if at all possible.
Really appreciate any advice here, thank you.



Current Specs:
PSU: Corsair RMx Series 1000w
MOBO: MSI B450M Gaming Plus
Drives: x2---1TB Samsung SSD, X1--256GB Kingston SSD
Fans: x5--120mm fans
RAM: x2--16GB (32GB total) Corsair Vengeance 3600MHz DDR4
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600x 3.80GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti 6GB
Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64 bit

 

[hotaru.hino]

With regards to the risk of damaging the card, you can't really do that because there's a hard voltage limit in the firmware, in addition to a "soft" voltage limit that's comfortably below the hard one and a power limiter. In addition, any parameters you set in MSI Afterburner are treated as suggestions, the video card can and will not honor them if you're pushing it too hard and the settings are only in effect while MSI Afterburner is running. So once you close MSI Afterburner, the card reverts back to default behavior.

From what I can gather with the OC scanner, apparently the thing hasn't been working for a while in that it always reports "results considered unstable." I've encountered this but still used the clock speed adjustment it last used anyway and for the most part it was fine. If you really want to make sure it's fine, run a benchmark like 3DMark Time Spy or Unigine Superposition. At the very least, if the application doesn't crash, it's fine for further testing. And if there's any further crashing, just dial down the clock speeds a bit.

Just don't expect amazing results, video cards made in the last 6-7 years basically clock themselves to their near limit anyway.

 

[ShiroTheWolf]

With regards to the risk of damaging the card, you can't really do that because there's a hard voltage limit in the firmware, in addition to a "soft" voltage limit that's comfortably below the hard one and a power limiter. In addition, any parameters you set in MSI Afterburner are treated as suggestions, the video card can and will not honor them if you're pushing it too hard and the settings are only in effect while MSI Afterburner is running. So once you close MSI Afterburner, the card reverts back to default behavior.

From what I can gather with the OC scanner, apparently the thing hasn't been working for a while in that it always reports "results considered unstable." I've encountered this but still used the clock speed adjustment it last used anyway and for the most part it was fine. If you really want to make sure it's fine, run a benchmark like 3DMark Time Spy or Unigine Superposition. At the very least, if the application doesn't crash, it's fine for further testing. And if there's any further crashing, just dial down the clock speeds a bit.

Just don't expect amazing results, video cards made in the last 6-7 years basically clock themselves to their near limit anyway.

This adds a lot of security to my thoughts on damaging my hardware
I really appreciate the info here

Im gonna give 3dmark a try since i havent heard of that one i think.
Although im sure the GPU is doing as you said its just at its near limit while gaming anyway.
Is there any way to find out why my hardware shows that its hardly being used in task manager when running a game like RDR2 in 1440p?
Its still been an issue of mine.
Thank you for you replies

 

[hotaru.hino]

Is there any way to find out why my hardware shows that its hardly being used in task manager when running a game like RDR2 in 1440p?

Click on the graph header and select something else. I had "3D" and "Graphics" on my 2070 Super, and only one or the other would trigger.

You could also use GPU-z or HWiNFO.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is there any way to find out why my hardware shows that its hardly being used in task manager when running a game like RDR2 in 1440p?

Can you show a screenshot?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you have frame limiting set up or vsync enabled, gpu may not work at full utilization.

 

[ShiroTheWolf]

Can you show a screenshot?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you have frame limiting set up or vsync enabled, gpu may not work at full utilization.

Sorry about the wait ill post a screenshot in a moment here

 

[ShiroTheWolf]

Can you show a screenshot?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you have frame limiting set up or vsync enabled, gpu may not work at full utilization.

https://imgur.com/KGYN5NE

View: https://imgur.com/KGYN5NE

 

[SkyNetRising]

It's hitting power limit.
You can check it with GPU-Z - sensors/perfcap reason.

 

[ShiroTheWolf]

It's hitting power limit.
You can check it with GPU-Z - sensors/perfcap reason.

Ah I see, what should I do then when its hitting the power limit?
Do I then use MSI aftwrburner to increase it?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Do I then use MSI aftwrburner to increase it?

You can try.
But do not expect any major improvements.
~10-15% fps increase is about max you can get.

And you pay with increased temperatures and possible stability issues.
Prolonged exposure to high temperatures will cause artifacts and in time also hardware degradation.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

You should read this: https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforc...peed adjustment,in each and every application.

OC Nvidia GPU's are not worth it anymore. The GPU has algorithms that boost to the highest clocks available within certain thermal/voltage limits. The GPU is always pushing it's best clockspeed, without the need to OC.

As pointed out, manual OC GPU's brings little overall improvement, and it's totally game dependant.

 

[ShiroTheWolf]

You can try.
But do not expect any major improvements.
~10-15% fps increase is about max you can get.

And you pay with increased temperatures and possible stability issues.
Prolonged exposure to high temperatures will cause artifacts and in time also hardware degradation.

Appreciated
Thank you
I think ive got some things to try now

 

[MeeLee]

I wouldn't touch the power limit on those cards. Anywhere from the GT1030 to 1050 you can gain performance by cutting power and overclock.

The 1660 I would keep stock power, overclock the memory by 500Mhz (some programs can do 1000Mhz), and the GPU by 25Mhz increments, usually under 100-200Mhz

 

[thestryker]

Which model of 1660 Ti is it specifically? I was using a MSI Ventus that I swapped the BIOS to the Gaming version because it had 5W higher power and fan stop. Realistically speaking with the 1660 Ti the best you can do to improve the performance is see how high you can OC the VRAM. On mine I was able to run it at 14gbps like the 1660 Super came with (default for 1660 Ti is 12gbps).