Th3-Trinity :
I just got rid of my 980 Boosted to 1241 MHz. In return, I bought the 980 Ti that was 1190 MHz. Is it really going to make much of a difference if I manually clock the new one to 1250 to match the old card's speed? Or is this going to cause some major issue? My understanding was that the old card was just OC'd in the factory higher than the new one. So I can just OC it myself correct? It really only is a small jump from where it is now.
As long as you don't get a bad card, as in bad silicon lottery, you should be able boost your base above whatever the factory overclocks are at. It will depend on your individual cards ability, as far as how high you can overclock.
What brand card did you end up getting? The 980 boosts really well and so does the 980 ti, but even if you weren't able to boost, the 980 ti reference stock clock speeds at 1000 is still faster than a heavily overclocked 980.