Nvidia reference cards. Worth it?

[max_headroom]

First of all, please don't suggest any AMD cards.  Thank you.

 

Second, I know the pros and cons of reference vs. after market.

 

Third, are the reference Nvidia cards worth the $50 premium they have over nearly everything else?  From what I read they usually have "better" yielded chips in them.  They over clock ok.  Ram chips are properly cooled.  Cooling housing which are made of metal helps in heat transfer.  Back plates are one of the best.

 

I've never bought one before so I'm interested to see what the opinions of those that have them are.  Unfortunately they're only available at Best Buy.  I was looking into the 970 or 980 and trying to see if the $50 premium is worth it.

 

[IAcKI]

basically I'd only go for one if it fit's the theme of your build. 

[Ryoutarou97]

You could always try an AMD card.

[Bhav]

They look decent, but custom ones from the likes of MSI, EVGA, Asus, Gigabyte etc have much better cooling and lower temperatures.

[WarWeeny]

2 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

You could always try an AMD card.

" First of all, please don't suggest any AMD cards.  Thank you. "

 

LITERALLY the first sentence in his topic...why do AMD fanboys ALWAYS force the cards upon others who choose Nvidia...

[Ryoutarou97]

Even if you get an amazingly binned chip, the better cooling probably will still get you better performance with an OEM card. They're good for liquid cooling, though.

 

Just now, WarWeeny said:

" First of all, please don't suggest any AMD cards.  Thank you. "

 

LITERALLY the first sentence in his topic...why do AMD fanboys ALWAYS force the cards upon others who choose Nvidia...

That's the joke.

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

I mean the $50 preiumem is only worth it for aesthetics 

 

other then that get something else from another company like Gigabyte MSI and EVGA

[max_headroom]

7 minutes ago, WarWeeny said:

" First of all, please don't suggest any AMD cards.  Thank you. "

 

LITERALLY the first sentence in his topic...why do AMD fanboys ALWAYS force the cards upon others who choose Nvidia...

I understand he was joking but there is a lot of truth to what you said.

I see countless posts here where someone would ask something like, "Which Nvidia card should I get, a 960 or a 970?  Is the upgrade to the 970 worth it?"

 

Then you would have AMD fanboys saying, "Well have you looked at the 380, 390, 290 190.... yada-yada-yada."  Facepalm.

Now let's look at the original question again.

[jasonvp]

 

1 hour ago, max_headroom said:

I've never bought one before so I'm interested to see what the opinions of those that have them are.  Unfortunately they're only available at Best Buy.  I was looking into the 970 or 980 and trying to see if the $50 premium is worth it.

I have 2 nVidia-branded Titan Xs in my rig.  I didn't buy them through nVidia (or Best Buy), but rather used through someone on the one of the overclocker's forums.  He already had them set up with EK's water blocks, which was one of the reasons I purchased them.

 

Thus far, they've overclocked mostly OK.  I have them both set to +240 core and +500 memory, and with a teeny bit of extra voltage (+6mv) I'm good for hours of gaming, benchmarking, etc without driver or app crashes.  If I try to push the core clock any higher... *SPLAT*.

 

I can't say whether their specific reference cards are worth it or not; they're likely charging the +$50 (which really isn't a lot of money) because they're not a fabrication and/or retail company.  Meaning they need to recover the costs somehow given that they likely won't be selling in any sort of volume like EVGA, Asus, et al.

[Guest]

no.

[Ryoutarou97]

14 minutes ago, max_headroom said:

I understand he was joking but there is a lot of truth to what you said.

I see countless posts here where someone would ask something like, "Which Nvidia card should I get, a 960 or a 970?  Is the upgrade to the 970 worth it?"

 

Then you would have AMD fanboys saying, "Well have you looked at the 380, 390, 290 190.... yada-yada-yada."  Facepalm.

Now let's look at the original question again.

I assumed OP had valid reason for going with an Nvidia card (needed CUDA accelleration, maybe) when he said not to suggest AMD cards, but I otherwise would suggest one. There is no 190 (unless you mean the old Sempron CPU?) but AMD sort of wins in the U.S. for 960 vs. 380 and 970 vs. 390.

[max_headroom]

3 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

I assumed OP had valid reason for going with an Nvidia card (needed CUDA accelleration, maybe) when he said not to suggest AMD cards, but I otherwise would suggest one. There is no 190 (unless you mean the old Sempron CPU?) but AMD sort of wins in the U.S. for 960 vs. 380 and 970 vs. 390.

Perfect example of the rampant foisting of AMD products on these boards.

[Ryoutarou97]

Just now, max_headroom said:

Perfect example of the rampant foisting of AMD products on these boards.

Imma PM you because I don't want to start a flame war but someone is wrong on the internet.