Are OC/SC versions of graphics cards worth it if I'm overclocking?

[FullNuclearBreakfast]

Hi again peeps,

 

The real meat of the question is in the title, but I'll expand on it a little. Is there any point in spending the extra money on a factory overclocked card (what I've got in mind is something like the EVGA GTX 770 ACX SC), if I'm going to overclock it myself anyway? Would there perhaps be a slight OCing benefit, or would it just be a waste of money?

 

Cheers,

FullNuclearBreakfast

[SovietOnion]

It may not be worth it for the overclock itself, but some OC cards come with superior cooling units that will allow you to over clock them significantly more. 

[Egoist]

The SC cards are not binned in any way. Waste of money. 

[Guest Kloaked]

Yes and no.

 

From my understanding, the superclocked/factory overclocked models come with higher quality components to ensure better and more efficient power delivery in overclocks. However, if you're custom loop cooling, people tend to get the non-overclocked models since they can overclock way better than on air.

 

 

I may be completely wrong though because I haven't looked into video card overclocking in a long time.

[FullNuclearBreakfast]

From my understanding, the superclocked/factory overclocked models come with higher quality components to ensure better and more efficient power delivery in overclocks. However, if you're custom loop cooling, people tend to get the non-overclocked models since they can overclock way better than on air.

I won't be water cooling my card(/s), at least for a while (but I get what you're saying). Also, the price differences I'm seeing, at least for 770s, doesn't seem to be reflecting any kind of hardware difference other than the higher clock speed.

 

It may not be worth it for the overclock itself, but some OC cards come with superior cooling units that will allow you to over clock them significantly more. 

Well I won't be going with a blower-style cooler whatever I pick, it'll be something like an ACX cooler, which is the same (or at least it looks it) on the standard and overclocked versions.

[jaffacakes]

Hi again peeps,

 

The real meat of the question is in the title, but I'll expand on it a little. Is there any point in spending the extra money on a factory overclocked card (what I've got in mind is something like the EVGA GTX 770 ACX SC), if I'm going to overclock it myself anyway? Would there perhaps be a slight OCing benefit, or would it just be a waste of money?

 

Cheers,

FullNuclearBreakfast

It depends. Why spend more money on OCed cards when you are going to OC them? In the case they are SC then I would spend money on that since the coolers are usually great.

[VSG]

Hi again peeps,

 

The real meat of the question is in the title, but I'll expand on it a little. Is there any point in spending the extra money on a factory overclocked card (what I've got in mind is something like the EVGA GTX 770 ACX SC), if I'm going to overclock it myself anyway? Would there perhaps be a slight OCing benefit, or would it just be a waste of money?

 

Cheers,

FullNuclearBreakfast

 

The EVGA SC cards use the reference PCB and use the reference cooler or ACX cooler accordingly for a small factory overclock. Not worth the extra money if you are going to OC yourself.

[dragoon20005]

if you intend to OC yourself

 

get the normal non-OC version

 

but pick the one with a good cooler

[XzzDSA]

SOME very high tier of gpu's are binned.. (I'm not certain, and don't quote me, but I believe the MATRIX from ASUS are...)

 

If you are only going to have the card air-cooled, go for the card that have prooved to have the best cooling solution out of the box.
If you are going water-cooled, it might be worth looking into cards with a custom PCB layout, like the ASUS DirectCUII cards, they MAY result in more stable power delivery and MAY be able to be pushed further.

Other than that, every new gen of Nvidia cards have the GPU Boost 2.0, so the better the cooler, the better the card (in theory) if you are not going to OC yourself.

[dragoon20005]

Binned version of Geforce are like MSI's Lightning,  EVGA Classy or Kingpin, Asus Matrix, Galaxy HOF

 

 

Air cooled version look for the EVGA ACX coolers or the MSI Lightning Tri-Frozr cooler(applies to the 780 only)

 

Waterblocking you card, you will need to check if the card can support the waterblock you intend to buy

 

some custom PCB may not accept waterblocks

 

EVGA Classy and KingPin are made for watercooling/ liquid nitrogen cooling and comes with Dual BIOS for extreme OC