I am slightly confused...

[neavissa]

Hi,

I am trying to pick a graphics card for my new PC. After doing some research and looking at this link, I got all confused?!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2512/geforce-gtx-780-ti.html

I always thought there is just "one" GTX 780Ti card, but apparently not?! From my understanding, NVIDIA is the company that came up with the "card" and everyone else is just licencing it out, correct?! If so, does that mean all the "different" cards are pretty much the same, or are there any differences worth mentioning?!

Also, can I "down-clock" an overclocked card?!

So how do I pick the "right" GTX780Ti?!?!

thanks

 

[TheDoctorXI]

Hi,

I am trying to pick a graphics card for my new PC. After doing some research and looking at this link, I got all confused?!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2512/geforce-gtx-780-ti.html

I always thought there is just "one" GTX 780Ti card, but apparently not?! From my understanding, NVIDIA is the company that came up with the "card" and everyone else is just licencing it out, correct?! If so, does that mean all the "different" cards are pretty much the same, or are there any differences worth mentioning?!

Also, can I "down-clock" an overclocked card?!

So how do I pick the "right" GTX780Ti?!?!

thanks

The cards should be fairly similar and there are few differences worth mentioning. You can also "down-clock" a card whenever you like. But, the Gigabyte version of the card may have better cooling.

 

[Welshstig]

Nvidia and Amd makes and develops the gpus and they then send them out to asus and sapphire and etc ... where they sell them, if asus or MSI or etc... has not changed this means they are reference cards and have amd/nvidia cooling solution and Amd/Nvidia clock speed. But if they have changed the in any way they are called non reference. Most people prefer non reference cards since they run cooler and quiter, higher clock speed and the look better

 

[hypergon]

Nvidia designs the core and a reference layout of the graphics cards, vendors like asus, evga etc. either use this reference layout of the card or design a custom pcb layout with the nvidia core. There are models with reference layout+reference coolers (not recommended), reference layout+custom cooler (zotac does this) and custom PCB+custom cooler (eg. Asus Mars 760, not sure with 780ti)

Just don't get a card with reference cooler!

Differences are just the cooling solution and clock speed, sometimes vrm design (Asus uses their own, not sure if they use it on their gtx780ti), performance is nearly the same (some fps).

Yes you can under clock/undervolt a card

 

[Quakemz]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

 

[hypergon]

Only benefit would be saving some watts, but getting a 780ti then wouldn't make sense

 

[Quakemz]

Only benefit would be saving some watts, but getting a 780ti then wouldn't make sense

That's what I'm saying though...there is no point lol
If you were trying to save wattage, then buy a weaker card.

 

[neavissa]

Hi,

I am trying to pick a graphics card for my new PC. After doing some research and looking at this link, I got all confused?!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2512/geforce-gtx-780-ti.html

I always thought there is just "one" GTX 780Ti card, but apparently not?! From my understanding, NVIDIA is the company that came up with the "card" and everyone else is just licencing it out, correct?! If so, does that mean all the "different" cards are pretty much the same, or are there any differences worth mentioning?!

Also, can I "down-clock" an overclocked card?!

So how do I pick the "right" GTX780Ti?!?!

thanks

The cards should be fairly similar and there are few differences worth mentioning. You can also "down-clock" a card whenever you like. But, the Gigabyte version of the card may have better cooling.

Good to know! Thanks for the input!

 

[neavissa]

Nvidia and Amd makes and develops the gpus and they then send them out to asus and sapphire and etc ... where they sell them, if asus or MSI or etc... has not changed this means they are reference cards and have amd/nvidia cooling solution and Amd/Nvidia clock speed. But if they have changed the in any way they are called non reference. Most people prefer non reference cards since they run cooler and quieter, higher clock speed and the look better

I have seen the "reference" and "non-reference" before, but did not know what it meant! Thanks for clarifying!

 

[neavissa]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

Why not?! I am not sure how exactly a graphics cards works, but I would think, that being able to bring it down to factory or standard settings, will increase its lifespan?! Do you go full throttle on your car, at all times?!

 

[Quakemz]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

Why not?! I am not sure how exactly a graphics cards works, but I would think, that being able to bring it down to factory or standard settings, will increase its lifespan?! Do you go full throttle on your car, at all times?!

Factory OC are often rather small and very safe, they will not hurt your lifespan at all. If you try to do a MAJOR OC then maybe you can hurt it if you do it wrong or unsafely. My 7970 has a factory OC, and has ran amazing since I got it about 8 months ago. And I'm sure it will go another 8 months, and probably another 8 months after that, and so on.

The point is, why would you spend over $700 on the BEST GPU on the market right now, just so you can make it weaker? That makes no sense. If you want less performance, then spend A LOT less on a weaker card.

 

[Quakemz]

ALSO, almost every single non-reference card on the market has an OC done to it. lol

 

[BlankInsanity]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

Why not?! I am not sure how exactly a graphics cards works, but I would think, that being able to bring it down to factory or standard settings, will increase its lifespan?! Do you go full throttle on your car, at all times?!

Hoenestly if you ask me.. a non-reference card will last longer than the reference card, even if it's overclocked I still think it'll last longer than a reference card.

First of all Nvidia reference coolers are terrible, the fan is at the end of the card where the GPU is infact nearer to the front where the HDMI, VGA etc. ports are. This creates a large are for heat to generate under the cooler and with the tiny fan Nvidia has placed it can't get air out that fast. The same goes for AMD reference cards aswell.

Reference cards however, the producers put though into it. Let's use MSI's Twin Frozr coolers for example.
Firstly they are 4 10mm copper heatpipes that make contact with the GPU dissipating heat from the GPU, then ontop of that spread out from one end to the card to the other is a large heatsink(thin metal sheets stuck together like a car radiator) this conducts the heat from the heatpipes into the heatsink and then it goes to two 10cm fans which have a much larger CFM than the Nvidia reference cooler fan and there's two of these. So these fans which are spread about 80% of the fan dissipate all of the heat collected by the heatsink. Decreasing load and idle temperatures by up to 40-70% depending on your environment. I live in the carribbean where it's hot 85-92F during the day however my GPU(MSI Twin Frozr cooler) wont go past 65C under load and still have been overclocked.
My previous card a stock AMD 5770 however, at stock clocks under load goes up to 85-90C.

So what would you conclude to last longer? Reference or non-reference coolers?

oh and non-reference companies put goodies like 8-phase power alloys and back plates and LED lights to indicate things like connection and some companies even go to unlocked the voltage to allow extreme OCers to overclock to unimaginable clocks.

For example the MSI N760 Hawk, someone took it and overclocked it to 1.4Ghz...

 

[Quakemz]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

Why not?! I am not sure how exactly a graphics cards works, but I would think, that being able to bring it down to factory or standard settings, will increase its lifespan?! Do you go full throttle on your car, at all times?!

Hoenestly if you ask me.. a non-reference card will last longer than the reference card, even if it's overclocked I still think it'll last longer than a reference card.

First of all Nvidia reference coolers are terrible, the fan is at the end of the card where the GPU is infact nearer to the front where the HDMI, VGA etc. ports are. This creates a large are for heat to generate under the cooler and with the tiny fan Nvidia has placed it can't get air out that fast. The same goes for AMD reference cards aswell.

Reference cards however, the producers put though into it. Let's use MSI's Twin Frozr coolers for example.
Firstly they are 4 10mm copper heatpipes that make contact with the GPU dissipating heat from the GPU, then ontop of that spread out from one end to the card to the other is a large heatsink(thin metal sheets stuck together like a car radiator) this conducts the heat from the heatpipes into the heatsink and then it goes to two 10cm fans which have a much larger CFM than the Nvidia reference cooler fan and there's two of these. So these fans which are spread about 80% of the fan dissipate all of the heat collected by the heatsink. Decreasing load and idle temperatures by up to 40-70% depending on your environment. I live in the carribbean where it's hot 85-92F during the day however my GPU(MSI Twin Frozr cooler) wont go past 65C under load and still have been overclocked.
My previous card a stock AMD 5770 however, at stock clocks under load goes up to 85-90C.

So what would you conclude to last longer? Reference or non-reference coolers?

oh and non-reference companies put goodies like 8-phase power alloys and back plates and LED lights to indicate things like connection and some companies even go to unlocked the voltage to allow extreme OCers to overclock to unimaginable clocks.

For example the MSI N760 Hawk, someone took it and overclocked it to 1.4Ghz...

+1 for the backup...I honestly believe that the OP might just not understand what he is saying.

 

[hypergon]

Under clock could also make sense if you lock the card away in a dark, bad airflow case
But clocking down a 780ti to 770 levels (if that's possible) is a waste of money

 

[neavissa]

Factory OC are often rather small and very safe, they will not hurt your lifespan at all.

Good to know.

If you try to do a MAJOR OC then maybe you can hurt it if you do it wrong or unsafely.

That makes sense...

The point is, why would you spend over $700 on the BEST GPU on the market right now, just so you can make it weaker? That makes no sense. If you want less performance, then spend A LOT less on a weaker card.

You read to much in to it! I simply wanted to know, if you can change the clock speed of a card, that has been factory overclocked?! That's it.
The other thing that you got a bit wrong is, that I am not planning on running the card at 200MHz, LOL. That being said, I hope this clarified it a little bit better to you?!

thanks

 

[neavissa]

Why would you ever want to down-clock a GPUs performance?

Why not?! I am not sure how exactly a graphics cards works, but I would think, that being able to bring it down to factory or standard settings, will increase its lifespan?! Do you go full throttle on your car, at all times?!

Hoenestly if you ask me.. a non-reference card will last longer than the reference card, even if it's overclocked I still think it'll last longer than a reference card.

First of all Nvidia reference coolers are terrible, the fan is at the end of the card where the GPU is infact nearer to the front where the HDMI, VGA etc. ports are. This creates a large are for heat to generate under the cooler and with the tiny fan Nvidia has placed it can't get air out that fast. The same goes for AMD reference cards aswell.

Reference cards however, the producers put though into it. Let's use MSI's Twin Frozr coolers for example.
Firstly they are 4 10mm copper heatpipes that make contact with the GPU dissipating heat from the GPU, then ontop of that spread out from one end to the card to the other is a large heatsink(thin metal sheets stuck together like a car radiator) this conducts the heat from the heatpipes into the heatsink and then it goes to two 10cm fans which have a much larger CFM than the Nvidia reference cooler fan and there's two of these. So these fans which are spread about 80% of the fan dissipate all of the heat collected by the heatsink. Decreasing load and idle temperatures by up to 40-70% depending on your environment. I live in the carribbean where it's hot 85-92F during the day however my GPU(MSI Twin Frozr cooler) wont go past 65C under load and still have been overclocked.
My previous card a stock AMD 5770 however, at stock clocks under load goes up to 85-90C.

So what would you conclude to last longer? Reference or non-reference coolers?

oh and non-reference companies put goodies like 8-phase power alloys and back plates and LED lights to indicate things like connection and some companies even go to unlocked the voltage to allow extreme OCers to overclock to unimaginable clocks.

For example the MSI N760 Hawk, someone took it and overclocked it to 1.4Ghz...

Good points! Thanks for the info!

 

[Quakemz]

Factory OC are often rather small and very safe, they will not hurt your lifespan at all.

Good to know.

If you try to do a MAJOR OC then maybe you can hurt it if you do it wrong or unsafely.

That makes sense...

The point is, why would you spend over $700 on the BEST GPU on the market right now, just so you can make it weaker? That makes no sense. If you want less performance, then spend A LOT less on a weaker card.

You read to much in to it! I simply wanted to know, if you can change the clock speed of a card, that has been factory overclocked?! That's it.
The other thing that you got a bit wrong is, that I am not planning on running the card at 200MHz, LOL. That being said, I hope this clarified it a little bit better to you?!

thanks

I understand that, what I don't understand is how you could even consider buying a 780ti and reduce the performance. Yes you can alter it if you choose to, but why? Why not buy a weaker card that will get the job done, use less power, AND save you $200-$400? Just know that if you buy a non-reference card of any type, it will most likely have an OC on it courtesy of the factory. It is perfectly normal and will not kill your lifespan like you think it might. Most cards will easily run for a few years even with a factory OC.

 

[neavissa]

Under clock could also make sense if you lock the card away in a dark, bad airflow case
But clocking down a 780ti to 770 levels (if that's possible) is a waste of money

Who is down clocking a 780Ti to 770 levels?!

 

[Welshstig]

Don't under clock the card, even if your case has bad airflow it doesn't matter; why pay so much money for nothing. And if your case I'd that bad get a new one since your spending slot already

 

[MapRef41N93W]

OP as long as you don't do something really stupid to try and purposely damage your card, you generally don't have to worry about damaging the lifespan via OCing. OCing will lower the lifespan of a card, but the amount it reduces by is pretty much negligible (unless you are trying to get more than 5 years lifespan out of a card).

 

[neavissa]

Factory OC are often rather small and very safe, they will not hurt your lifespan at all.

Good to know.

If you try to do a MAJOR OC then maybe you can hurt it if you do it wrong or unsafely.

That makes sense...

The point is, why would you spend over $700 on the BEST GPU on the market right now, just so you can make it weaker? That makes no sense. If you want less performance, then spend A LOT less on a weaker card.

You read to much in to it! I simply wanted to know, if you can change the clock speed of a card, that has been factory overclocked?! That's it.
The other thing that you got a bit wrong is, that I am not planning on running the card at 200MHz, LOL. That being said, I hope this clarified it a little bit better to you?!

thanks

I understand that, what I don't understand is how you could even consider buying a 780ti and reduce the performance. Yes you can alter it if you choose to, but why? Why not buy a weaker card that will get the job done, use less power, AND save you $200-$400? Just know that if you buy a non-reference card of any type, it will most likely have an OC on it courtesy of the factory. It is perfectly normal and will not kill your lifespan like you think it might. Most cards will easily run for a few years even with a factory OC.

Well, once again, when I started this thread, I was under the assumption, that overclocking a card is going to take a toll on its lifespan. Apparently that is not true. So NO, there is no real reason for me, to make a card "slower". Is everyone happy now?!

thanks again for all the help!

 

[neavissa]

OP as long as you don't do something really stupid to try and purposely damage your card, you generally don't have to worry about damaging the lifespan via OCing. OCing will lower the lifespan of a card, but the amount it reduces by is pretty much negligible (unless you are trying to get more than 5 years lifespan out of a card).

We posted at the same time, ha ha. Like I said in my last post; when I started this thread, I knew NOTHING about GPU's and overclocking such... Now I know an little bit more, thanks to all of you!

G

 

[daffa-apriza34]

Hi,

I am trying to pick a graphics card for my new PC. After doing some research and looking at this link, I got all confused?!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2512/geforce-gtx-780-ti.html

I always thought there is just "one" GTX 780Ti card, but apparently not?! From my understanding, NVIDIA is the company that came up with the "card" and everyone else is just licencing it out, correct?! If so, does that mean all the "different" cards are pretty much the same, or are there any differences worth mentioning?!

Also, can I "down-clock" an overclocked card?!

So how do I pick the "right" GTX780Ti?!?!

thanks

You can down clock a GPU but I don't see any reason why you should do it because each company already tweak the GPU to it's full potential. If you want to pick the right GTX 780Ti it's all back to your the budget because each manufactures give different prices, so it's all about finding the best deal.

 

[Quakemz]

Factory OC are often rather small and very safe, they will not hurt your lifespan at all.

Good to know.

If you try to do a MAJOR OC then maybe you can hurt it if you do it wrong or unsafely.

That makes sense...

The point is, why would you spend over $700 on the BEST GPU on the market right now, just so you can make it weaker? That makes no sense. If you want less performance, then spend A LOT less on a weaker card.

You read to much in to it! I simply wanted to know, if you can change the clock speed of a card, that has been factory overclocked?! That's it.
The other thing that you got a bit wrong is, that I am not planning on running the card at 200MHz, LOL. That being said, I hope this clarified it a little bit better to you?!

thanks

I understand that, what I don't understand is how you could even consider buying a 780ti and reduce the performance. Yes you can alter it if you choose to, but why? Why not buy a weaker card that will get the job done, use less power, AND save you $200-$400? Just know that if you buy a non-reference card of any type, it will most likely have an OC on it courtesy of the factory. It is perfectly normal and will not kill your lifespan like you think it might. Most cards will easily run for a few years even with a factory OC.

Well, once again, when I started this thread, I was under the assumption, that overclocking a card is going to take a toll on its lifespan. Apparently that is not true. So NO, there is no real reason for me, to make a card "slower". Is everyone happy now?!

thanks again for all the help!

I apologize for blowing up at you. I was just so confused and frustrated at the same time. I'm just glad this is all cleared up and you understand now.