Higher clock rates on cards worth it?

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internetlad

internetlad

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Specifically i'm looking at the 970's, but i'm curious about all cards.

The only card stocking right now is a 970 from Zotac with 1076 MHz base clock. The EVGA has a base clock nearly 100 MHz higher at 1150

disregarding the boost clocks (unless you want to go into a complex explanation about them), what does this actually mean for the games I play, the graphics the card can push and the framerate difference? The cost is about 30 bucks, about 8% of the card. Do you get an 8% framerate increase from that extra cost?
 
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Eximo
That would take some detailed benchmarking. Some decent reviews out there that compare them directly, but that is going to vary card by card and some of them may be hand picked press samples.

You can assume that almost all of the cards are pretty close to each other on the average. The advantage in buying a factory overclock is that it is already done for you and you know the chip can handle that frequency. It may be capable of more as well. They selected that GPU because it worked at that voltage and maintained temperature within their desired specs.



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Eximo

Eximo

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That would take some detailed benchmarking. Some decent reviews out there that compare them directly, but that is going to vary card by card and some of them may be hand picked press samples.

You can assume that almost all of the cards are pretty close to each other on the average. The advantage in buying a factory overclock is that it is already done for you and you know the chip can handle that frequency. It may be capable of more as well. They selected that GPU because it worked at that voltage and maintained temperature within their desired specs.



 
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oxiide

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Generally speaking I would not recommend paying much extra for factory overclocks. They're generally very gimmicky modest overclocks, only a fraction of what you should be able to achieve yourself.

The 970 and 980 in particular appear to be rather good overclockers. They seem to reach the 1300-1500 MHz range consistently, with memory clocks nearing 8 GHz.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/190652-overclocking-nvidias-gtx-970-gtx-980-performance-for-a-fraction-the-price
Here's an overclocking review, serendipitously featuring a Zotac GTX 970. They managed 1469 MHz.
 
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Taneras

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Just keep in mind that its not all about power and performance.

Aftermarket cars will have different cooling and noise levels, and also different inputs. With the GTX 970, also greatly different sizes which matters if you have a smaller case.

Just things to think about. But I do agree, factory overclocking isn't pushing a card to its safe limits (usually), there's almost always more room to do so on your own. But if you're going to go over the factory overclocks you might as well at least pay attention to the cooling abilities of these aftermarket cards. Overclocking = more heat.
 
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oxiide

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Its not that they don't matter, a good GPU overclock can yield some nice improvements. Its just that even the 1150 MHz on the EVGA card is negligible and far below what you could achieve yourself.

The Zotac card can easily be set to 1150 MHz simply by typing the number and pressing enter in MSI Afterburner. Such a modest overclock probably wouldn't even take more voltage. But you may be able to get into the 1400's if you're dedicated, though.

As stated above, its wiser to pick your card based on things you can't easily adjust: the cooler, I/O options, warranty, etc.
 
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