Overclockability of Asus OC vs TOP vs normal (NON OC and NON TOP) gfx card versions...

Jose

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I need you guys to confirm if this reasoning is still correct nowadays, cause I'm getting old for this stuff ;)
One thing that I'm wary of when it comes to good brands is that although their factory granted overclocked versions, in Asus case the OC and TOP versions, mean guaranteed overclockability it probably means the "normal" versions are probably granted to not overclock well. Why ? Because they choose the best GPUs for the OC and TOP versions so they have to do something with the remaining ones right ? So that means it's probably best to get a reference version. Regarding the cooling solution one can get a 3rd party cooler that could be used with even upcoming cards..

Right ? Or one can get lucky and get a normal version that overclocks well ?

Reason I'm asking is because I just bid highly on an Asus GTX 680 normal version that occupies 2 slots, because I don't want 3 slots occupied and I'm now thinking I should've saved the money for a TOP version with 4GB (these only occupy 2 slots). Ignore the memory on these, it's just that their 4 GB OC version occupied 2 slots and the 2GB 3, go figure..
Thanks as allways....

 
Solution
Sometimes, it's luck of the draw and you get an amazing chip. Sometimes you don't.

One thing to consider as well, is say a company makes 1,000,000 chips and they all have good yield and could be sold as higher clock cpu's or gpu's. The problem is they only have enough orders for 200,000 highend overlocked chips. Those other 800,000 can either sit there for more high end orders OR, be downclocked and sold off for cheaper orders.

The AMD 8350 CPU is a 4ghz 8 core CPU. The 8320 CPU is a 3.5ghz 8 core CPU. They don't make 2 fully different CPU's. Ones that either don't pass the 4ghz test according to AMD's testing are then marked as 8320 and downclocked OR, they have a surplus of 8350 CPU's but no demand and a high demand for...

nsaylor95

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The product name of cards doesn't mean they will or won't overclock well. The difference between the OC and TOP model is that the TOP is just clocked a little bit higher. If you got the OC version, you could clock it higher than the TOP. It just depends on your luck in the silicon lottery (if your chip is a good overclocker or not). Don't waste your money on a 4GB card if you are going to be using 1080P. It will run out of power before it runs out of VRAM to use.
 
Sometimes, it's luck of the draw and you get an amazing chip. Sometimes you don't.

One thing to consider as well, is say a company makes 1,000,000 chips and they all have good yield and could be sold as higher clock cpu's or gpu's. The problem is they only have enough orders for 200,000 highend overlocked chips. Those other 800,000 can either sit there for more high end orders OR, be downclocked and sold off for cheaper orders.

The AMD 8350 CPU is a 4ghz 8 core CPU. The 8320 CPU is a 3.5ghz 8 core CPU. They don't make 2 fully different CPU's. Ones that either don't pass the 4ghz test according to AMD's testing are then marked as 8320 and downclocked OR, they have a surplus of 8350 CPU's but no demand and a high demand for 8320's, so they downclock them and sell them off. I know my 8320 can run at 4ghz no problem, even 4.2ghz stable.

CPU's today are very good at overclocking, and come unlocked from AMD and Intel. For me to take a 3.5ghz chip and run it at 4.2ghz, that's a 700mhz increase, almost 40% more speed for nothing. That is worth it and you'll see the difference.

When it comes to GPU overclocking, I find it can improve a bit, but you don't get 40% increase type of numbers from overclocking a video card. I know they don't quite scale in a linear fashion, but they sort of do. Lets say your video card comes at 1000mhz and you get 100fps in your favourite game. Then if you can overclock it to 1100mhz, you should get roughly maybe 10fps faster. Now a 100mhz jump in GPU's is a lot to overclock by, most overclock less, so less of an increase.

Don't worry about being too old for it, I just build my new rig and I'm learning overclocking all over again. Last time I overclocked anything, it was Celeron 300's in to 450's. lol.
 
Solution

Jose

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@nsaylor95

I guess the bottom of the question is how do they choose the GPUs. If they choose the best for the TOP and OC versions then the normal versions end up with worse GPUS.
 


They still are picked, but probably by AMD and not Asus and then sold off that way, and whatever the company decides to do with, it's up to them. I'm sure the SuperVideoClub no-name video cards don't get the best chips from AMD where Asus will.

Making fewer different products for the company, speed things up. It's probably even more advanced than just picking the faster chips. Ones that say don't have all the shader cores fully working, the bad cores get disabled and a 670 becomes a 650 or 7870 becomes a 7850 instead. 8 core cpu with 2 shady cores, disable 2, becomes a 6 core chip, sell it off. There is probably only a few products that are made, and then things disabled at the factory just to sell lower models without making them. Easier and most cost effective.