Now that Nvidia cards are both becoming a bit more available and with Founders Edition being priced comparable to aftermarket cards (not across the board but the two are kinda beginning to meet halfway in the middle), what are opinions on aftermarket cards vs FE cards? I know FE has inferior cooling solutions but they should have superior chips still, right? But is that actually the case? How are OCs on FE cards vs aftermarket/custom cards?
There's a LOT of both info and misinformation out there and I just haven't been able to dig through it all but I'm sure many of you have and I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Founders Edition are no special bin, so your overclocking results with FE cards are going to vary just as much as with aftermarket cards. Really nothing has changed, your still best off buying aftermarket cards.
I have heard reports that FE cards do tend to overclock higher but I'm not convinced this is true bottom line is a 1070 really won't run at much more than 2100 unless it's golden and a 1080 will only do about 2000Mhz unless it's golden given the average clocks I've seen are around 1950 for a 1070 and 1850 for the 1080 I think this generation doesn't actually overclock well at all the gpu boost is keyed in and basically gets these clocks on its own. Because the aftermarket cards have better cooling they boost higher out of the box the FE cooler does not boost as high but has the same overclock potential which is why I think people see them as overclocking better because on paper they boosted the core by 150Mhz to end up as the same clock as a aftermarkets boost clock.
It is literally just the reference model with a fancy name and a higher price tag.
You're better buying aftermarket. It is either cheaper, has better cooling or both. The FE is really just the "Fanboy Edition" and a way for nVidia to make more cash.
TBH from what I've seen all the Pascal GPUs overclock similarly regardless. Nearly all will hit a wall around 2000-2100 with lower and lower performance returns. The silicon lottery isn't in play as much this generation.
Aftermarket. Or do you want the next Nvidia GPUs to be priced at 700 passos and up? Every Fanboy Edition card sold will make that more likely. I am exaggerating a bit, or am I? I don´t know the future.
From an engineering stand point, I have to dislike the single connector on the FE when two give you no downside apart from not "looking as efficent". Since how long have we had two 8 pins on high end cards? Since when is efficency in high-end pcs any cool?
You do realize that there have been 1080's with a single 8 pin that have went far over 2000mhz, right? Like its not needed for that gpu, it doesn't need any more power than a single 8 pin can comfortably deliver...
The connector costs 90p a piece. The electronics after that cost a total of 20 bucks. Instead you stress 20.90 bucks with unnecessary load because you can save 21 bucks on your >500 buck component.
Imagine if Tesla was doing the same on the battery circuits. You would have a 2 tonne inferno bomb worth 90.000 bucks driving arround the streets. This is not about safety or specs, this is about 21 bucks!
But its never been shown that it actually has any impact on component degredation to have one 8 pin atx instead of 2 of them... Its not necessary, it means less cables, and really there has never been anything to prove that a single connector has a negative effect.
Really are you making this point just because its another dig at Nvidia or because its actually a valid point? There is nothing here to substantiate the claim that there is any adverse affect at all. The card will be long-obsoleted by the time there will be any adverse affect from a single 8 pin over 2.
Everyone is free to buy whatever he or she desires. I say this because I am usually the guy out of thousands to have one unlikely event cause a fatale crash. If I were to take sights at Nvidia doing bullshit, I would throw in dual RX 480s being the better overall option. I would bring up gameworks and Nvidia ruining games by that, probably doing the same shit they did on DX11 on DX12 and Vulkan again, ruinning VR in the process. Then I would rant about Nvidia crashing the brilliant idea that was PhysX. After that, I would bitch a little about the 970 having 3 and 1/2 wheels and the new Quadro being not what the company I work at was told it was going to be. Finally I would close this post by pulling the "you have your opinion, I have mine" and call this done.
I do not like the above approach for the reason of it being a one way street of the clif.
Instead I just said that I dislike the fact that for the sake of marketing, components worth 21 bucks are saved. The effect does not really matter, the costs on the other hand don´t matter either. The blower style coolers have their place, but not for a price premium.
What AMD did is worse as they could have put an 8-pin instead of the 6-pin and they would have been good. Exactly this excessive stress on the PCI-e could have been prevented in the first place. Reviewers could have wondered about the 8-pin but the technicall side would have looked good. As stated over and over again. I strongly dislike the fact companys prefer marketing over safety margins.