TechPowerUp Readers: Will Pay for Premium OC Graphics Cards, in Large Part for Better Cooling

[btarunr]

TechPowerUp over the past 50-odd days surveyed our readers to understand if they're willing to pay premium for high-end factory overclocked graphics cards. This is especially important to know in the wake of GPU manufacturer MSRPs turning largely irrelevant, pushing even inexpensive non-OC cards with simpler designs way above the MSRP. We have also seen scenarios where certain GPUs are only sporadically available, and in some cases, only their premium factory-OC cards are. This would tell us if buyers are willing to pick up a premium OC graphics card if it's the only option available versus waiting for non-OC cards to become available at relatively lower prices.

Our survey gathered close to 21,000 responses. 46.4% of the responses (9,738 votes) say that they choose premium OC graphics cards, however, they do so only for the better cooling. Board partners tend to give their products premium cooling solutions to not just deal with the added heat from the OC, power-limits, and boost headroom; but also to offer low noise as a feature, besides other aesthetic touches such as RGB lighting or a premium appearance. The "Yes" option, which means that buyers want premium OC graphics cards for their superior performance, gathered an interesting 28.2% of the vote (5,908 votes). Lastly, only 25.4% (5,335 votes) say that they are not willing to pay for premium OC cards, and prefer cards either at or close to the MSRP.



The survey points to the possibility that the majority of buyers do not like what's on offer at or close to MSRP, and custom-design boards tend to offer too little value on top of the GPU. They are unsatisfied by the cooling solutions on offer, which has an impact on other important factors, such as boost frequency residency, and fan noise.

A combined 71.8% of our readers are willing to stretch their budgets for premium overclocked graphics cards, however, nearly two-thirds of this group only does so for better cooling and its related factors—better boost residency, lower noise, manual overclocking headroom, and aesthetics; only one third actually chooses a premium board design for the factory overclock on offer.

Quite a few board partners tend to know this nuance, and create variants of their premium board designs, where the "OC" variant comes with a higher factory overclock, while there tends to be an identical-looking product that either has a modest factory-OC, or lacks it, while retaining the rest of the hard product (same cooler, PCB, etc). These "non-OC" products tend to be around 3-5% cheaper than the OC products, letting buyers save a bit.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[TheDeeGee]

I got the PNY 4070 Ti XLR8 because of it's giant cooler.

 

[MrDweezil]

You're all nuts, always buy whatever model is cheapest.

 

[Onasi]

Yeah, it’s all about the cooling. The factory OC is basically an irrelevant factor, could not care less. But having a cool and quiet card is a massive selling point. Though I see no reason to go overboard on this as well - if there’s a model that’s quiet ENOUGH and cool ENOUGH I wouldn’t even consider spending more on something that is somewhat better on paper, but irrelevant in practice (say 26 versus 22 decibels on TPU measurements).

 

[FreedomEclipse]

You're all nuts, always buy whatever model is cheapest.

This is an enthusiast forum m8. You dont go to a car forum and ask why they arent all driving toyota prius's

 

[huggi]

I've been watercooling for the last decade so my choices are more decided by what blocks are available and which cards they're compatible with... For the most part, I tend to try aim towards the cheaper end since those premium air coolers have no use to me.

 

[Ruru]

The cooling matters most after the pricing if I'm comparing different SKUs of the same card. The factory OC is just a bonus.

 

[DarbyOGill]

I always go for the cheapest version of a given model that I can get a compatible waterblock for.

Why would I pay the 'ASUS tax' for an Astral or STRIX when I'm just going to tear it down and bin their cooler and replace it with something from Alphacool OR EK?

 

[Noci]

I'm with @huggi & @DarbyOGill on this one, but understand other decision-making aspects when you want to use it as bought with aircooling.
Other reasons mentioned here also make perfect sense and depend on personal preferences.

The remark of @MrDweezil is a little bit unsubtantiated, but understandable if budget is the main decision factor. I would add to that: the cheapests that performs within a few percent of the other models and have a cooling and or noise solution that is acceptable to the buyer.

I personally would even be tempted to add the aestetics of the product as a decision factor, however that is quite a rabbit hole is this context and very subjective.

 

[Kohl Baas]

You're all nuts, always buy whatever model is cheapest.

Guilty as charged, I use custom loop watercooling. I personally don't care about stock cooling. What I care is the size of PCB, quality of the VRM (coil whine), max TDP-limit. Things you mostly find on OC models.

 

[MrDweezil]

The remark of @MrDweezil is a little bit unsubtantiated

It was admittedly a flippant remark, but I'll add to it by saying I'm not willing to pay for anything besides performance. Sure, spend $800 on a GPU, but I'm not spending $805 for the same chip with a nicer hat.

 

[AsRock]

You're all nuts, always buy whatever model is cheapest.

There's many reason why and why not, Like the @TheDeeGee said and i am the same as it gets really hot here there fore better have a good cooler to cope with it than not and this normally pushing you to pay extra.

Funny thought though with my RX6950 AMD software overclocks the card by default, mwere 2368 on the core is boost the amd software default/s to over 2600+.

But anyways there are plenty of reasons and mine would be extra cooling for when it's 30c +.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

You're all nuts, always buy whatever model is cheapest.

Yeah no, I prefer better power delivery and cooling.

 

[Event Horizon]

Decently effective and quiet cooling for the card's TDP. Sometimes that's achievable on the cheapest model and sometimes only the more premium models can deliver. The reviews on TPU really help.

 

[_roman_]

I sold my msi radeon 6800 z trio (3 months in use) because of bad cooling and noise for the quiet, decent cooling powercolor 7800xt hellhound.

the radeon 9070 series have a lot of decent cards.

 

[OneMoar]

more important then cooling (especially on the mid range models) is the power limit, power limit is everything

 

[Vader]

I voted in the poll and selected the option in the majority. However, that applies IF I'm buying a premium card; doesn't mean that I always do. The base cards have been very good recently, there almost isn't any reason to buy the premium models today. It wasn't like that 8-10 years ago

 

[user556]

Sound level is the only factor I compare on between cards with the same GPU model.

 

[Caring1]

Wouldn't need better cooling if they pulled their finger out and designed less power hungry cards.

 

[Hyderz]

Those factory oc are usually 50mhz bump resulting in 0fps or 2fps for demanding titles

 

[chrcoluk]

I used to try and get one many generations back, largely for the better cooling but also because I mistakenly believed they were better binned.

But after getting burned multiple times with cards that were not stable in the factory configured OC mode, I now deliberately seek out cards with stock clocks which I know will be stable. Of course also that AIB price premium over FE cards can be much bigger now as well.

 

[DaemonForce]

These days it's a ludicrous statement. You're not winning any pts with giganto coolers on cards plagued with downclocking and UNboost issues.
Unless you're doing things that defeat these problems, like physically dealing with the circuitry in some way to prevent this, there's no benefit.
A case can be made for those with good ears and a desire for lower temps through undervolting but that's an imaginary percentage in this place.
Ayo REAL AHOC HOURS! Where you at?