Question on Overclocking

[DarkRogue]

Hello,

This is my first post here but I've read Anandtech for a few years now for their reviews. I'm looking up parts for a new PC and have waited a few months for good parts to come out. My PC is currently nearing its 5th birthday and it has served me very faithfully, and still runs well. The only problem is its age is showing when I try to run more recent games.

In any case, I am really looking forward to buying an 8800GT as it seems to be *the* card I've been waiting for. However, in the interest of saving some money in the new build, I was wondering what the advantages were of buying those pre-overclocked cards besides guaranteed stability at those speeds. For the extra speed you pay anywhere from a $20 to $50 premium. I was wondering "Wouldn't it be the same thing if I bought a card at stock speeds and overclocked it myself to those same levels?" I'm unable to answer that question though and hope you guys can shed some light on it. I have been looking at the XFX and eVGA cards because their warranties seem to cover overclocking.

Thanks in advance.
Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[gpse]

Hello and welcome!
You can buy a normal version and just overclock it yourself using RivaTuner, as with overclocking anything your results will vary. I would suggest buying a normal 8800 GT and OC it yourself to save money.

 

[DarkRogue]

Thanks for the response.

So, if I were to buy a stock 8800GT and overclock it moderately to 650/1900 from 600/1800 it should run perfectly fine? Why would they charge more for something you can easily do yourself, is where I'm puzzled really, unless they added something to keep it stable at those speeds..

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: DarkRogue
Thanks for the response.

So, if I were to buy a stock 8800GT and overclock it moderately to 650/1900 from 600/1800 it should run perfectly fine? Why would they charge more for something you can easily do yourself, is where I'm puzzled really, unless they added something to keep it stable at those speeds..

Factory overclocked cards command a price premium because the overclock is guaranteed; if the card is not stable, you can return or exchange it for that reason. Stock cards are only guaranteed to operate at stock speed -- anything beyond that rests squarely on your skill (and a bit of luck). Personally, I would get a stock card and an aftermarket cooler since the 8800 GT cards are said to be a bit loud/hot (depending on the fan setting). Note that modern aftermarket GPU coolers may block the slot below the video card.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: DarkRogue
Why would they charge more for something you can easily do yourself, is where I'm puzzled really, unless they added something to keep it stable at those speeds..

Because they make more money that way.

 

[DarkRogue]

All right, thanks a bunch for the info guys, I'll look into getting a cheaper stock speed card either from eVGA or XFX and just overclock it a little bit to match the more expensive models. By the way, which of those two companies would be better? XFX's warranty states that it is "modder friendly" but I have no idea what that means because they don't elaborate very much on it. eVGA supposedly offers a similar warranty but I find no mention of this on their pages..

 

[MegaVovaN]

Makes sense to buy stock card + good cooler + thermal paste and OC it higher than factory OC, all while keeping it cooler and quieter with aftermarket cooler of your choice.

Or just moderately OC with stock cooler.


edit: both eVGA and XFX are good.

Don't know about warranties, but eVGA offers Step-Up program, but it is not all it's hyped to be. Just google "EVGA Step Up Program".

 

[Tempered81]

You can oc it yourself. One intresting point is that some factory oc'd 8800gt's, like the bfg OC for example, come with an increased vGpu. the stock is 1.05 volts in 3dmode, while the oc models come with 1.1volts. 1.1 is the bios limited maximum for these cards without a volt-mod soldered on there.

at 1.05 volts you should be able to attain 650mhz core
at 1.10 you should get 700-750 core
with a modded card at 1.3-1.4 volts you can get between 850-900mhz core

i have a stock cooler, factory set, and im running at 740mhz core and 1790mhz shaders.

so from this you can see an interesting advantage of buying a factory oc'd card. Even though all you would have to do is buy any manufacturer's card based on a reference design, and flash to an oc bios and overclock with riva or ntune from that point. ive seen people hit 864mhz core on the stock cooler at 80% fan speed. heres a link - http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=163929

and on the new g92 8800gts - get this - 1080mhz core. (thats on aftermarket cooler however)

If you know how to do all of these things, which is what xfx or evga is doing, then save yourself the 50 bucks "