advantages to buying OC'd cards?

[Scrif]

Besides the convienance of having the manufacture OC your card, is there any advantage to buying an OC card, cant you just do it yourself?

[cloned]

Yes you can do most of the OCs that OCed cards have can be done by yourself. It is really a marketing thing and for the people that are uncomfortable with overclocking can get the same speed as we that risk out parts for a few extra FPS :D.

[Jakalwarrior]

ask the average person what overclocking is and they will either tell you they dont know.. or its dangerous and not worth the risk.

[SoulsCollective]

Two main ones, although whether they're worth the premium you get charged is up to you.
Guaranteed higher clocks. This should be pretty much self-explanatory. With OCing your mileage will always vary; factory-OCs take the guesswork and luck out of the equation.
Better binning. Buying a card with a factory OC increases the chance that your card has a higher ceiling for OCing than a card without a factory OC. If it'll do the extra 25/50/100MHz that it's clocked at the chances are than when combined with aftermarket cooling it's capable of doing that little bit more.

[Talonman]

I also favor the OC cards, and buy into the thinking that not all GPU's like CPU's, can OC the same. The OC GPU's are as close to a Cherry Picked card as us commoners can get. I also think that there is actually a testing process that takes the cards that wouldn't take the OC, and sets them back down to stock speed. That is the one I don't want. The OC'ed cards also might have better cooling installed. I like that allot! :)

You also dont have to mess with Rivatuner making me hit accept twice on boot-up with Vista Ultimate, to allow my OC to engage. I would rather just have the card set to run about as fast as it can when I power up.

[KoHaN69]

Better binning. Buying a card with a factory OC increases the chance that your card has a higher ceiling for OCing than a card without a factory OC. If it'll do the extra 25/50/100MHz that it's clocked at the chances are than when combined with aftermarket cooling it's capable of doing that little bit more.[/list]

While I want to agree with you, statistically, it does not make sense.

[SoulsCollective]

While I want to agree with you, statistically, it does not make sense.
Oh?

Manufacturers speed bin their cards. They don't just decide to send out random cards with a simple BIOS fiddle. Those than can do higher clocks are sold as OC'd versions for a premium. Those that can't, aren't. While this process is not fool-proof because there is an element of demand dictating how many cards are binned, this still ensures that a factory OC'd card has been binned.

Overclocking is never certain, but you're usually guaranteed at least a minimal increase over stock (or stock OC) clocks if you provide the chip with more favourable circumstances - better cooling, higher volts, etc. Thus, assuming that both the factory OC and the factory standard card cannot clock any higher on stock cooling, it's more likely for the factory OC'd card to be able to clock higher on, say, an after-market cooler than the factory stock - the baseline over which we have a % increase is higher. The same would apply for voltage.

[Lekko]

Keep in mind maturity and how long they have been in production takes a HUGE role. When a processor first comes out, they have low yields so getting a great chip is hard to do, so paying for a better binned card is worth it. For something that has been around for a while, they typically have the kinks all worked out, and pretty much all the chips come out the same.

[MadDias]

Oh?
Manufacturers speed bin their cards. They don't just decide to send out random cards with a simple BIOS fiddle. Those than can do higher clocks are sold as OC'd versions for a premium. Those that can't, aren't. While this process is not fool-proof because there is an element of demand dictating how many cards are binned, this still ensures that a factory OC'd card has been binned.

Overclocking is never certain, but you're usually guaranteed at least a minimal increase over stock (or stock OC) clocks if you provide the chip with more favourable circumstances - better cooling, higher volts, etc. Thus, assuming that both the factory OC and the factory standard card cannot clock any higher on stock cooling, it's more likely for the factory OC'd card to be able to clock higher on, say, an after-market cooler than the factory stock - the baseline over which we have a % increase is higher. The same would apply for voltage.

that´s the same bs i read about the hd2900pro when it came out.
"lower binned chips that can´t do xt speeds" (take a look in my sig and then tell me that they don´t do that speed)
why don´t u people want to believe that it is all about money? they just take more of ur money when they sell u a fancy oc card.
in fact it´s exactly the same card as a non-oc card just with another bios. factory oc cards that would have been hand picked would be twice as much in price than ordinary cards.
the only advantage of a factory oc card is the warranty, which u obviously void if u oc ur standard card.

[SoulsCollective]

No, it's not. Speed binning occurs. Google eVGA Black Pearl series, for one, and observe. I'm not saying that default cards aren't sometimes capable of doing OC'd speeds - read my above post. But OC'd cards from reputable brands are binned before sale to do their rated speed.

[MadDias]

No, it's not. Speed binning occurs. Google eVGA Black Pearl series, for one, and observe. I'm not saying that default cards aren't sometimes capable of doing OC'd speeds - read my above post. But OC'd cards from reputable brands are binned before sale to do their rated speed.

well this card has a nice innovatek waterblock ;)
but on evga site there´s no word about those cards being anything special. they are only "tested" to run at the overclocked speed, which is done with every card no matter what clocks they run at. and afaik the overclock they are running at isn´t something a well cooled card isn´t capable of.
this black pearl is only interesting if a superclocked card + extra waterblock is more expensive. it´s something for overclockers that like to keep their warranty ;) cause adding a waterblock definetly voids the warranty.
but who here on this forum gives a damn about warranty??

EDIT: damn.. i just noticed the price of this thing on evga´s website.. it´s 899$... wtf??? i hope now u see what i mean with taking ur money by selling u a fancy factory oc card...

[adamsleath]

warranteed at a higher clock
apart from that...mostly no difference.

but i suppose most people who encounter problems with stuff after oc will lie and say they didnt oc it :rolleyes: