Why do some evga 970's have more MHz than others even when they have the same cooler?

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TheLizardWizard

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Sep 26, 2015
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This question has been troubling me for a while. If you look at the basic evga gtx 970 with a base clock of 1050MHz and a boost of 1178MHz and at the ftw version (not ftw+) which has a base of 1216MHz and a boost of 1367MHz does that mean I can overlock the basic evga 970 to 1367MHz with the only risk of losing my warrenty? Will it be safe because the card has the same cooler? I understand they have higher clocks because they are clocked out of the box but I just want to know if I can clock the basic one just as high without hardware failure. Thanks
 
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Basic problem with overclocking is that not all GPU/CPU/any component even if its same model are really same.
There may be various causes of this for example tiny errors in manufacturing process, random faults in material, ...

If you buy multiple exactly same GPUs with base frequency of 1000MHz. One may overclock to 1050 other may overclock to 1100 some may not move from 1000MHz at all.
Because of this manufacturers do "binning" that mean they test these products and those capable of for example 1000MHz only goes to one group, other who can go up to 1100 MHz goes to group 2 and so on...
I'm not sure if they do this with all GPU/CPU/..., probably no. Maybe they bin them only until they get enough for those higher groups and after that...
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pm4

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Apr 28, 2014
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Basic problem with overclocking is that not all GPU/CPU/any component even if its same model are really same.
There may be various causes of this for example tiny errors in manufacturing process, random faults in material, ...

If you buy multiple exactly same GPUs with base frequency of 1000MHz. One may overclock to 1050 other may overclock to 1100 some may not move from 1000MHz at all.
Because of this manufacturers do "binning" that mean they test these products and those capable of for example 1000MHz only goes to one group, other who can go up to 1100 MHz goes to group 2 and so on...
I'm not sure if they do this with all GPU/CPU/..., probably no. Maybe they bin them only until they get enough for those higher groups and after that they just throw rest to "random" group which are sold as basic models. In this case you may get lucky for some exceptional piece.

What it mean is that those overclock from manufacturer are from group which they tested for higher frequency and you are sure they can work on that higher frequency. Those others may or may not overclock to such frequency. Maybe you will be lucky and you will overclock even higher but you can never be sure until you actually test it.
 
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Unolocogringo

Unolocogringo

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Dec 31, 2007
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Maybe , maybe not.
We call it the silicone lottery.As you never know how far a chip will overclock until you try.
Evga uses a binning process.
The better quality chips, The ones that will run at higher speeds with lower voltage, go onto their Higher end cards.
The lower quality chips go onto their regular non-overclocked cards.
The lower quality chips might reach the same speed as the higher quality ones with a voltage increase. B ut a voltage increase means much higher heat output that the cooler has to dissipate.
So you might get the same speed but a much hotter card.
 
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TheLizardWizard

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Thanks a lot. I didn't know GPUs has the same overclock properties as a CPU. So if I want to try to max the performance of my card and I run into stability issues, is a GPU going to be more sensative with instabilities than a CPU. Will the GPU have problems if I tamper with it? My goal will be to reach around 1250-1300MHz which isn't massive but it's all I want. Thanks
 
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pm4

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Its not only about cpu/gpu its about any component, ram, psu, motherboards, ...
In fact its about anything you can buy not only electronics but all kind of things.
Just in most cases those differences does not matter, but in case of overclocking those tiny differences can be noticeable.

To matter of your overclocking, its impossible to say in advance you have to try. Best would be to use some overclocking feature designed by manufacturer and do small steps. There is ofc always risk that it can go very bad as with any overclocking but generally you should be fine. Minimal overclocking it should be able to hande should be that at rate of boost frequency. Question is only if it will handle it in long term, mainly temperature wise.
 
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