Well the forums have definately changed not like you think. When was the day that people would buy a card ranked 6 or 7 from the top for 90% of the $$ and then overclock it not even beating a 1080ti stock let alone overclocked. Sure Opteron 165 that overclocked with less than stock volts was great, the gfx cards that could unlock shaders so great! I have never seen anyone buy hardware so far from the top and overclock 200% and still lose to most the main cards. whats the point other than to say its been done! The purpose of overclocking is extra performance for same price! when you have to up the volts so high that you need custom cooling and your hardware will degrade its just for the single time of doing it and not keeping those settings perm. What do i love even more than overclocking? lower watt higher performing parts! Why overclock the best if you are serious you buy the best and overclock that.
If there was a way to cool it for a low price then yes this might be a good deal.
First off I guess you weren’t around when people would buy x800GTOs unlock the extra pipes, OC, and get something in the neighborhood of the X800XL or X800XT for minimal price. It was still several cards back from the top end (X850XT/PE, X800XT PE, GTX 6800U)
Second performance brackets are nothing like they used to be. Top end used to be priced from $380-$450, then it was $650. Now:
- $3000 Titan Volta
- $1400 Titans
- $1000-1200 2080Tis
- $800-$900 2080s
Lastly and I’ve been saying this for while, AIB Vega 56s, Vega 64, 1070TI, 1080, and 2070s are ALL basically in the same performance bracket. That performance bracket is now 3-5 places from the top depending on how you want to count. So no one should be expecting a 56 to tie a card that costs 2-3 times as much.
The GN article is simply an interesting example of how far Vega can pushed and to me how well the boards are built that they can handle that power.