Factory over-clock safe for beginner?

[funyunwolf]

Hey guys I've been searching around the 660ti market for the right fit. I prefer the back exhaust style over the dual fans and I noticed that EVGA had a FTW edition, is that considered factory overclocked or no? And if it is I imagine you can enable or disable the factory over-clock setting, but is it safe for someone who does not know anything about overclocking?

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Do you have a link to that card.

Why do you wanne undo a factory oc anyway ?

 

[funyunwolf]

Do you have a link to that card.

Why do you wanne undo a factory oc anyway ?

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-2048MB-Graphics-02G-P4-3667-KR/dp/B008WVWRLE
It's out of stock right now but there is the link. And I'm not sure why I would want to undo it or even use it? I really don't know much of anything about over-clocking other than it pushes better performance. Not to mention everywhere I read is seriously advocating the 660ti for overclocking to match the 670. So much so It's pushing me back to just getting a 670 -.-

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Well they are right, you can oc a 660ti to 670 performance. ( so why buy the 670 )

Yes, the ftw is oc'd.

So is this one ; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696

 

[funyunwolf]

Well they are right, you can oc a 660ti to 670 performance. ( so why buy the 670 )

Yes, the ftw is oc'd.

So is this one ; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696

Well I guess I just want extra muscle to push me through the next two years or so gaming wise. I figure if I am going to throw down this kind of money I might as well go big or go home, it's just the 680 is TOO big for one monitor. Also if my kind craps out because it is factory oc'd does the warranty cover that sort of stuff? Also I have no real intention to SLI ever, so a single beefy card seems the best route, or no?

 

[fastreaction]

You can't compare it like that. A GTX 670 could also get overclocked to GTX 680 performance. Is your CPU and power supply sufficient enough to handle these high end GPU's? Oh and by the way factory overclock are not always stable, in some cases you have to downclock it to get it stable. Better overclock it yourself imo.

- Fastreaction

 

[funyunwolf]

Well I guess I just want extra muscle to push me through the next two years or so gaming wise. I figure if I am going to throw down this kind of money I might as well go big or go home, it's just the 680 is TOO big for one monitor. Also if my kind craps out because it is factory oc'd does the warranty cover that sort of stuff? Also I have no real intention to SLI ever, so a single beefy card seems the best route, or no?

You can't compare it like that. A GTX 670 could also get overclocked to GTX 680 performance. Is your CPU and power supply sufficient enough to handle these high end GPU's? Oh and by the way factory overclock are not always stable, in some cases you have to downclock it to get it stable. Better overclock it yourself imo.

- Fastreaction

Good point, I already planned on buying a new power supply to support whatever card I choose and as for the cpu I'm not sure. I have an Intel i7 860 at 2.8ghz. (I have no idea if I can OC that but I really rather not.) I've heard that the 660ti and the 670 both come with very simple interfaces for manual overclocking. Thank you for the responses by the way, they're much appreciated considering the money that is on the line! Another important point I think is my Mobo supports 2.0 but I know 3.0 is compatible with 2.0

 

[fastreaction]

Correct a GTX 660TI or a GTX 670 with 3.0 are compatible with a 2.0 pci-e express slot on the motherboard. About your processor, I have the same one but I overclocked it to 3.80 GHz. That processor should be fine with a little bottlenecking with the GTX 670 on cpu dependent games (like Battlefield 3)but is like removed with a good overclock. I wouldn't recommend people to overclock right away. For overclocking you need to have good airflow and a good cooling system. It takes a lot of time. People who say that they are able to get a system stable in 5 minutes are just not overclockers with a stable system. Read more about overclocking and think about it before even doing it and also very important is know the risks. Yeah a lot of people just keep saying overclock blah blah but they have no clue what dangers the users are put into if done incorrectly. Anyway a long speech but a GTX 660TI or a GTX 670 should be able to run fine on that CPU . About manual overclocking, there is really no need to overclock it unless you are one of the geeks who want to put the most out of a card but I assume you are not one of them . Such high end cards run fine with the latest games without any overclock.

- Fastreaction

 

[funyunwolf]

Correct a GTX 660TI or a GTX 670 with 3.0 are compatible with a 2.0 pci-e express slot on the motherboard. About your processor, I have the same one but I overclocked it to 3.80 GHz. That processor should be fine with a little bottlenecking with the GTX 670 on cpu dependent games (like Battlefield 3)but is like removed with a good overclock. I wouldn't recommend people to overclock right away. For overclocking you need to have good airflow and a good cooling system. It takes a lot of time. People who say that they are able to get a system stable in 5 minutes are just not overclockers with a stable system. Read more about overclocking and think about it before even doing it and also very important is know the risks. Yeah a lot of people just keep saying overclock blah blah but they have no clue what dangers the users are put into if done incorrectly. Anyway a long speech but a GTX 660TI or a GTX 670 should be able to run fine on that CPU . About manual overclocking, there is really no need to overclock it unless you are one of the geeks who want to put the most out of a card but I assume you are not one of them . Such high end cards run fine with the latest games without any overclock.

- Fastreaction

Well I had plans to slowly implement upgrades, starting with a beefy single card and a good power supply. Speaking of power supplies what do you recommend? I was looking at something like these...
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2768082&CatId=2534
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&cm_re=TLC-_-Header%20Banner-_-PSU_ULT-LSP750

Both of those are on sale, but the issue is they aren't bronze rated or anything (Whatever that means. ) Not to mention I heard thermaltake is meh, but I mean what a deal!

 

[fastreaction]

1st one but it is an overkill for a single GTX 670 (if you buy that one). An corsair CX600v2 would be good enough. Could be even 500 but I would just get a 600 to be above the requirements while actually the requirements are a bit higher than needed.

- Fastreaction

 

[Guest]

I'd also suggest that you take a look at the HD 7870 cards.

Tomshardware reports the 660 ti to run within + or - 7% of the HD. So what's the main difference? AMD dropped their price down to ~230 AR on newegg.

It's about $70 (24%) cheaper for a very similar performance. The new Nvidia cards are fairly impressive but so are the HD 7xxx series. Definitely worth considering.

 

[fastreaction]

By the way get a corsair GS 600 instead of a CX600v2. It is to give yourself some room if you want to upgrade some things and it is better than a CX600v2.

edit: Won't be responding for a while. 1:41AM O_O. Time to sleep.

- Fastreaction