Factory heatsink vs liquid?

[wadifok]

alright so im planning on building a gaming rig some time in the next few months and i was wondering if there was a major difference between the factory heatsink and a custom liquid setup on the gpu. Im most likely going to go with a 7970 (Not sure which one of them yet, will take suggestions) and i will probably be overclocking it so there will be a increase in heat. Also, is there a major difference when overclocking? If i gain like 5fps i wont bother to struggle with the heat so essentially im wondering should i do some major overclocking and use liquid or leave it stock with some minor overclocking.

[TechFan@ic]

If you can afford it and have the time, liquid cooling is awesome !

[wadifok]

i dont mind spending a bit more, but i dont want that money to go to waste, i wanna know if its worth it

[mgsstar]

i dont mind spending a bit more, but i dont want that money to go to waste, i wanna know if its worth it

It would keep your GPU cooler and it would get you better performance once you overclock. You could overclock your GPU more because it is liquid cooled and you can get better FPS on your games.

[iRandomize]

From a performance/price point of view, it does not make sense at all to invest in liquid cooling. The overclock gains from liquid cooling are not massive.