Factory Overclocked Cards?

[MarcelKapono]

I was wondering, does it matter if I am buying a factory overclocked card (from EVGA specifically), does it matter if it is factory overclocked or not if I am planning on overclocking it myself at home?

 

On models like the FTW edition or SSC, are there features that allow the card to be a better overclocker and run more stable, and if so, is it practical to buy a factory overclocked card if I decide to do my own overclock anyways? If so, it more practical to go with a SSC or FTW?

[2FA]

The FTW has better components for overclocking while the SC and SSC are pretty much reference cards.

[TrifectaIII]

High end factory overclocked cards will sometimes have custom pcbs designed by the board partner specifically to allow for better power-delivery/overclocking,  will sometimes have better cooler designs, and will sometimes have better binned chips. Expect to pay significantly more for these features. Lower end factory overclocked cards (ones that cost about as much as a reference) are usually just reference cards with an average cooler and an average chip.

[MarcelKapono]

3 minutes ago, TrifectaIII said:

Expect to pay significantly more for these features.

Looking from a price to performance standpoint, is it practical to pay more for these features? I am looking at EVGA cards specifically.

[Energycore]

 

This video shows Luke tackling the topic 3 months ago. If you're not planning on overclocking, the factory overclocked card managed 10% better fps on crysis 3 4K.

 

Since you can easily overclock your card at home and the coolers weren't very different in performance, I don't recommend buying a factory overclocked card unless it's the super high end version described by @TrifectaIII

[MarcelKapono]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

Since you can easily overclock your card at home and the coolers weren't very different in performance, I don't recommend buying a factory overclocked card unless it's the super high end version described by @TrifectaIII

Just to clarify, so buying a card like a GTX 950 FTW over a normal EVGA GTX 950 would not be practical, right?

[TrifectaIII]

1 minute ago, MarcelKapono said:

Looking from a price to performance standpoint, is it practical to pay more for these features? I am looking at EVGA cards specifically.

For evga, I believe the only cards with significant OC-improving features are cards like the K|NGP|N cards, here or here. As you can see, these cards command a price tag of over $100 more than their reference counterparts, in particular the 980ti kingpin is $180 more than cheapest 980ti that evga has right now on amazon. These cards WILL overclock better, but not enough better to make up for the price tag, not even close. Therefore, these cards are for the people who do not care about price, and wish for the absolute best performance.

 

You'll notice that there is no card like this for the 970. This is because, by the time you design a kingpin-class 970 that costs $180 more, somebody could buy a reference 980 for the same price, and get much better performance, so there is no market at all for a card like that.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, MarcelKapono said:

snip

That's right. For your gaming build the normal 950 is better value once you put in some time to overclock it. Make sure it's properly cooled.

[TrifectaIII]

5 minutes ago, MarcelKapono said:

Just to clarify, so buying a card like a GTX 950 FTW over a normal EVGA GTX 950 would not be practical, right?

If you are looking at the 950, then for reasons stated in my above post (the thing about the 970 also applies to the 950) no "real" overclocking card exists. I'd advise that you just get the cheapest 950 that evga offers and overclock it. Beware though: while I believe that to be good advice, you are never guaranteed an overlock that isn't from the factory.

[Snadzies]

Factory overclocked cards often only have a 20-30mhz overclock vs the cheaper cards and those few mhz will make no difference in games.

Those numbers are so conservative that you would have to get the absolute worst card in history to not get a higher overclock on your own.

 

If you get one of the high end variants with better components for higher overclocks the price vs performance gain is usually just as bad, possibly worse.

You often pay upwards of 20% or more and don't get anywhere near 20% more performance.

 

Basically, it is usually better to not worry about overclocking and instead focus on warranty, cooling and even aesthetics first, paying more for that extra tiny overclock is not cost effective.

[danrey84]

They are all right what they say I went for a reference 980ti sc EVGA card ( for some reason it was cheaper than the standard reference model ) and I have managed to overclock that more than what comes out of there flagship 980ti and my temps never go above 72C. Plus as well if u get an older gpu there will be so many videos on how to OC it safely that u will end up getting some sort of OC out of it but as someone said above what OC works for me your card may not be able to do it.