Zotac cards, AMP vs Normal

[Platinum Era]

Most of the Zotac cards all come with the same cooler (duel silencer), seeing that the only difference between a normal (for exmaple) 660 ti and 660 ti amp are the gpu and memory clocks, could one not just buy the regular editon and overclock it themselves?

 

[Jaxem]

Yes, but your mileage will vary, you're not guaranteed to be able to get any overclock, it's luck of the draw on a card-by-card basis. So you may be able to OC past the AMP! card performance, but may not quite get there. You're just paying the extra to know the card will operate at the OC they've given it (and to keep your warranty in some cases).