Debate: Cards without backplates.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

They should. Then your cheap 2nd tier card wouldn't look more shitty. PowerColor has them on their 2nd tier cards though :B

[SteveGrabowski0]

I haven't noticed any difference in my memory overclock since putting a backplate on my 970. It still just depends exclusively on how high I have my 120mm fan turned up in front of it. It's pretty annoying that a backplate costs $20 as an add on accessory when it can't be more than $1 of metal and a couple of small thermal pads. If Intel's stock coolers cost them less than a dollar I can't see how these backplates can add much to the cost of a card. I think they should be on any $250+ card. Those cards are usually longer and often in windowed cases, so the backplate makes sense then.