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The wait is over the GTX 460 is here but I am stuck on whether to go for a stock 1GB card, and do the OC myself, or a factory overclocked card with the warranty.
Why do people buy factory overclocked cards? Is it just on the grounds that they won't invalidate their warranty by overclocking, as they already have an OC version? Is the chip selection for the factory OC a factor? Do manufacturers give lower grade chips to non OC stock clocked versions?
Opinions/answers please :)
Dunno but I am really tempted by the gainward goes like hell 460 over at scan, Not sure if it would be much of an Upgrade from a gtx280 though, besides Dx11 support
Well, I assume some do that to be safe and have the warranty (given that the OC is worth the price premium, which is always there).
Others may do it with the assumption that the OC'ed GPUs are cherry picked, and so may go even higher. Manufacturers themselves still choose safe overclocks so as to not fuss with multiple RMAs. Additionally, factory OC'ed GPUs may have higher voltage set in BIOS, so that would allow for a higher overclock as well.
Supposedly some companies bin the chips on their OC cards. On the 460 that should be easy as Nvidia program each chip with the voltage required to get it to do default factory clocks, so low voltage ID should be the best silicon both for speed and heat (and have the most over-volt headroom if the car maker decides to bump the voltage a notch to improve overclocking).
It depends, if you do not like oc that much, I think a pre-oc one is enough, like myself....