Do you prefer factory overclocked GPUs?

[Solaris17]

The margins are so paper thin now adays; not to mention depending on how dialed you want it it can waste hours of the human factor. I used to get so deep it was almost like a second job to tune my bios and clocks like a harp. Now I install it; make sure XMP is enabled and my power limits arent restricted and let it do its thing. I stopped chasing HWbot trophies ages ago.

 

[Gigaherz]

Just because you use generic thermal paste doesn't mean they are good or recommended.

Just because you buy a branded and recommended product, you wont automatically have a better or even "good" result. In General.
Mercedes sells CR35 batteries for 20€ a pop, the 5 pack 3€ Package from the discounter does the same job. Same with the majority of thermal pastes. Main difference there is longevity tho, not performance.

 

[Enterprise24]

Totally worth it when it was $10-$30 more (not on top of $100-$200 gpu but a 980 Ti class with $650 msrp). e.g. $680 msi gaming, $670 evga sc. Even matrix was only $70 more ($720).

 

[Toss]

I wish they sell underclocked ones. The coil whine is terrible on those OC garbo

 

[TomWeng]

Manufacturers will deny warranty for any damage caused by overclocking.

 

[Onasi]

I would heavily prefer better coolers that aftermarket cards have paired with stock clocks. That way, the performance is easily predictable, power consumption is equal to reference/founders/MBA and, hopefully, the premium is lower. Unfortunately, such options are getting more and more rare. I can understand the appeal of the most extreme models like the Matrix that have equally extreme cooling and are fairly overclocked, but the nonsense of “lol, here’s +30-50Mhz to boost, that’s worth 100 bucks, right?” is just asinine. In a perfect world, every card variant would have an OC and stock versions, no matter how extreme. But this is not a perfect world.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Inconsequential, "OC" variants just come with a slightly boosted BIOS. If there's next to no price difference, i'll get it as it's easier to resell down the road. You can almost always flash the "OC" version's VBIOS onto the regular one with no negative side effects, anyway.

 

[Sithaer]

Nowadays most of the time the difference is so minimal that its just not worth it imo so I simply try to get the one with the best cooler within my budget range once I've decided on which card to get.
The last time I've went for an OC model that made a difference right out of the box was my Gigabyte Xtreme GTX 950 in 2015 that basically had the same performance as a stock GTX 960 while I've got it for cheaper so I was like why not. 'that and the cheapest 960 had a much worse cooler like some single fan crap while my 950 stayed cool and quiet all of the time for the ~3 years I was using it and now its my friend's emergency backup card'

 

[Gigaherz]

Manufacturers will deny warranty for any damage caused by overclocking.

So? How will they know?

 

[GamreCaleb]

Last year I payed $800 for a 7900xtx nitro+ used. Best deal ever. And, it never goes over 70c with the default fan curve. Once I struggle to run FH6 or something I'll OC it.

 

[Mr. Perfect]

Absolutely not.

The OEMs always charge a large premium for a measly overclock that blows up the power budget and pumps out way more heat.

Back in the day it was easier to get a basically free speed boost with a factory overclock, but AMD and Nvidia bin their parts so close to the max these days you basically need a golden sample, insane amounts of power, or both to get any noticeable uplift.

 

[GerKNG]

they have to justify their better PCB and bigger cooler with something. I buy a high end Model because of the cooler and noise alone.

 

[PixelTech]

I interpreted the question "Do you prefer factory overclocked GPUs?" as "Do you prefer to buy the non-OC Edition or the OC Edition of models?"
Because many Partners have non-OC and OC variants of their 3-4 models for one GPU die. Model examples are Astral, TUF, SUPRIM, Gaming, Ventus, Solid, Red Devil, Aorus, etc. But for these OC editions examples are;
5090 TUF
then
5090 TUF OC Edition
and
5090 Astral
vs
5090 Astral OC Edition
or
5090 Gaming
vs
5090 Gaming OC
and
4090 SUPRIM
vs
4090 SUPRIM X
Which when I look over the difference of these cards, I'm not seeing a difference in coolers, but only clock speeds. Now with the 50 Series getting, what?, 2% difference or a handful of avg FPS difference from non-OC models, the price this generation should still not be $100-250 USD, but by like $20-50 USD as it has been in the past.

 

[AleXXX666]

I prefer whichever is cheaper. The "better cooler" almost always means "more bling bling"=more overprice.
I don't need to OC hardware "to the limits"; only once, for fun. For 24/7 I prefer stability - I can "plus" some MHz even on cheapest trashy low-profile GPU

 

[AusWolf]

Factory OC means 1.5% better performance for a 10% higher power consumption and 20% higher price. No, thank you.

 

[MCJAxolotl7]

Yes, because i'm a linux user and it's basicially impossible to overclock Nvidia cards manually. Amd is fine with like CoreCtrl, but not NV.

 

[Deslok]

I think "don't care" was a missing option More often than not the form factor and the price are the determining issues when buying a card, 4 slot cooler? Not going to fit in that it's build. 200 dollars more for 50mhz? Pass.

 

[AusWolf]

I think "don't care" was a missing option More often than not the form factor and the price are the determining issues when buying a card, 4 slot cooler? Not going to fit in that it's build. 200 dollars more for 50mhz? Pass.

I think that's the "no" option.

 

[Deslok]

I think that's the "no" option.

I mean that's what I picked, but that implies that if a factory overclocked card was somehow cheaper than one running at reference clocks I would pick it which isn't inherently true.

 

[Ruru]

I always OC my GPUs myself, so I don't care is it factory overclocked or not.

I think "don't care" was a missing option More often than not the form factor and the price are the determining issues when buying a card, 4 slot cooler? Not going to fit in that it's build. 200 dollars more for 50mhz? Pass.

Voted for the better cooler myself. After few times cheaping out for the AIB card's cooler, that matters the most.

 

[AhmadMZ99]

previously i was preferring non-oc cards because it's lower price than oc, not huge performance difference and it's cooler and lower TDP with the same heatsink.
now don't really care about clock speed whatever it's stock clock or overclocked aslo have a good deal, quality, temp, warranty, etc.
i even forgot what's an average clock speed at current days

 

[AusWolf]

I mean that's what I picked, but that implies that if a factory overclocked card was somehow cheaper than one running at reference clocks I would pick it which isn't inherently true.

But then, you would pick it because it's cheaper, not because it's overclocked, right?

So you picked the right option for you.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

I voted yes, but not because of the "OC" they have made; but because somtimes, the PCB/cooler has a better layout/thermal headroom, and sometimes more robust components are used to help provide my own OC with more stable/more power delivery.

 

[Litzner]

I typically like getting a cheaper, but known to OC well model, with or without modifications.

Currently I am running a factory AMD 7900XTX on a custom loop with a Alphacool waterblock and the ASRock 7900XTX Aqua bios flashed on it, which increases its available powerlimit. I can get it to hold a pretty steady 2900-3000mhz boost clock. It typically beats a 4080 in Windows, and now that I am running Linux for gaming it really rocks, as the AMD cards seem to run the DX>Vulkan translation way better in Linux currently.

Cards you can do stuff like that to don't come up much any longer sadly.

 

[GamreCaleb]

I think "don't care" was a missing option More often than not the form factor and the price are the determining issues when buying a card, 4 slot cooler? Not going to fit in that it's build. 200 dollars more for 50mhz? Pass.

I agree, if there was an option for that, I'd have pressed it.

previously i was preferring non-oc cards because it's lower price than oc, not huge performance difference and it's cooler and lower TDP with the same heatsink.
now don't really care about clock speed whatever it's stock clock or overclocked aslo have a good deal, quality, temp, warranty, etc.
i even forgot what's an average clock speed at current days

When I bought my GPU, I was only looking for a non-overclocked 7900xtx, but then I found one (used) for $800. Since it was a top model for cheaper then lowest model XTs at the time, I had to take it.