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View Full Version : Overclocked/Superclocked cards


bighoo93
04-13-2008, 09:24 PM
I notice that evga sells a number of their cards in a superclocked version. For example:
8600 GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130085
8600 GT SC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130311

Or

8600 GTS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130084
8600 GTS SC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130298

My question is, can you not overclock the base card yourself?
Amosmoses33
04-17-2008, 02:29 PM
you could but it would void the warranty if you mess it up. The mfgr overclock is proven to be stable.
Just a gamble i guess.
RickyTick
04-17-2008, 06:09 PM
Overclocking does not void the warranty.

http://evga.com/support/knowledgebase/

Do a search for "Warranty"
The Wise Monkey
04-18-2008, 06:21 AM
Overclocking is really easy to do, especially with nTune:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

Its up to you really. Pre-overclocked cards are guaranteed to be stable, so it depends on whether you want to trade price for stability.
bighoo93
04-18-2008, 06:53 AM
Overclocking is really easy to do, especially with nTune:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

Its up to you really. Pre-overclocked cards are guaranteed to be stable, so it depends on whether you want to trade price for stability.

Isn't the overclocked card the same exact hardware, only with different pre-set defaults? If so, then the settings would be stable and you could just use them for overclocking the regular card yourself. Or is there something else?

I doubt I will overclock, but I am just curious.
The Wise Monkey
04-18-2008, 10:30 AM
Actually, the overclocked card usually has an increased memory bandwidth as well as clock/memory speeds, which you cannot do by yourself.

So although it is essentially the same hardware, and you can almost match the clock speeds, you won't be able to match the overall performance of the pre-overclocked version.

Stability wise, it depends on how close to the limit you are willing to push your card. You could probably install some watercooling and take it past the pre-overclocked cards, but there's really not much point. You'd only gain 1-2% performance anyway.