Does BFG actually use better chips in their cards?

[Paktu]

Does BFG actually use better chips in their "OC" line of video cards? What I am really wondering is, will an average BFG card overclock better than a normally clocked eVGA or Leadtek card?

 

[mwmorph]

No. Gainward used to when they solde Golden Sample cards but they no longfer are selling in N.America. Europe and Asia only.
BFG has only small stock ocs which is why all their cards can be oced from factory. All the same in the end.

 

[fstime]

Almost ANY card you buy will reac BFG's overclocked speeds,

Its around a 25 mhz oc which is nothing, its more of a marketing trick rather than performance boost.

There is no extra Vcore or anything like that going on, they just set their clock speeds in the bios.

BTW, on the 6800U, most companies oced them to 425 mhz on the core, PNY, EVGA, probably Leadtek but i'm not sure.

I know, its random.

 

[Paktu]

I'm not even sure if Gainward actually used special chips on their Golden Sample cards; they could OC them much further because they had integrated water cooling on these cards.

 

[fstime]

I believe Gainward added +.1 volts to their GPU's.

Their 6800GT had 1.4V instead of stock 1.3

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: Paktu
I'm not even sure if Gainward actually used special chips on their Golden Sample cards; they could OC them much further because they had integrated water cooling on these cards.

Not all Golden Samples used WaterCooling like they do now. Back in the old days with the GF3 Ti200 Golden Samples, they were overclocking kings and they were air cooled. Whether or not they were special chips, who knows. I think they used faster memory than standard though.

I highly doubt BFG uses special chips for their GPUs. Most GPUs can overclock to BFG's specs with no issues at all. Whether or not you think the factory overclock is a marketing gimmick or not is up to you, but faster clock speeds has never hurt performance. I recommend BFG for their Lifetime Warranty. I hope I never have to use it, but I have peace of mind incase something goes wrong.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Paktu
I'm not even sure if Gainward actually used special chips on their Golden Sample cards; they could OC them much further because they had integrated water cooling on these cards.

Nope. Only a few of their cards were water cooled.
The "Golden Sample" ones, at least for the 5900U and 6800U, were not. They called those "CoolFX"

 

[mwmorph]

Golden Sample chips were just standard Gainward cards that passed their standard oc tests at higher speeds. They would test at say, 25mhz oc, 50mhz oc and 75mhz oc. The best ocers would be paskaged and sold as Golden Samples. The rest would just be sold as normal Gainward cards.