Ref or Overclocked

[vormicia]

So we know mfg's offer different cards some ref some overclocked with branding...

My question and for this hypothetical scenario we are taking the silicon roulette out and say all components are matching

Card A ref card with following specs
1607MHz Base Clock
1733MHz Boost Clock
257.1GT/s Texture Fill Rate
8192MB GDDR5X Memory
10000MHz Memory Clock
320GB/s Memory Bandwidth

Card B their oc'ed version
1721MHz Base Clock
1860MHz Boost Clock
275.3GT/s Texture Fill Rate
8192MB GDDR5X Memory
10000MHz Memory Clock
320GB/s Memory Bandwidth

Now lets say i have 1 of ea i strip them waterblock them both and find Card A "g spot" at 2000MHz

there is no expectation that card B will go any higher just cause its base is higher? i'm guessing they offer these cards to people that don't want to take the time to OC them their selves or do they have some special testing to look though ea GPU and weed out the good ones LOL or are they able to add different stepping methods which will allow you to OC more

all in all is it worth buying a higher base gpu card even though your going to strip it water block and take the time to OC it your self

Thanks in advance

 

[RobCrezz]

Depends on many factors outside of the specs you list:

1) Some OC versions are "binned" by the card maker, to use their best chips.
2) Some OC versions have better power delivery systems on the cards, more power phases, additional pci-e power connectors - All of these factors can have an effect on the max oc possible.

The single biggest factor is the silicon lottery and the luck of the draw (hence the binning).