Factory overclocked GPUs - worth the premium?

Hi all,

I'm kind of new to OC'ing.. In fact, I'm completely new to it!

I'm building a new gaming PC and have decided on the HIS HD4890 GPU. Question: is it really worth paying the difference in price between the stock version and the Turbo version (the only difference being the clock speed) considering I can simply overclock the card myself? I believe ATI include a utility specifically for overclocking...??? (confirm please?)

I asume the idea is one can have an overclocked card and retain their warranty? That said, I've been reading lately that the manufacturers can't actually tell if a card has been overclocked anyway so the warranty usually holds in cases where (user) OC cards are fried.

Any advice?

I'm looking at:

HIS 4890 850/4000 for $335 AUD

or

HIS 4890 900/4000 for $362 AUD

Cheers

Doak.

P.S. I should point out - I plan to overclock even more than 900MHz with the 4890 since all benchmarks/ reviews state it handles speeds of up to 1000MHz + and this is part of why I'm going with the 4890.

I wouldn't pay the extra, not for such a small overclock. If it were a similar difference for a 1Ghz overclock or something, sure. Though, make sure the coolers are the same on both, often times factory OC cards have better coolers, and that is worth paying a difference for.

Not worth paying for a factory OC'ed card unless you get something other than a standard cooler.

Cool. I got +1's....

you actually can.

"bleeding edge" hardware does very seldom be very usefull as an economical aspect, but some new cooling solutions can actually reduce the heat and noice, so they can be guite usefull in that sence.

ohh and btw use unless there is a better cooler on the OC'ed one dont get it i read that this card (4890) runs really hot !