Clock rates do matter ... because the boost over them is within a fixed range. The whole thing about clock rates is manufacturers have to guarantee that the card meets them .... that's *every card*. In order to not lose their proverbial shirt doing that, they set the clocks at a rate appropriate for the cooling and componentry on the card. If the card doesn't throttle, then the componentry and silicon lottery are the only remaining differences. And when the results are always consistent, then the lottery is not a factor.
This is no different than any other component.
-System builders looking for the best possible performance via CPU / GPU overclocking, will buy a higher end motherboard because the better componentry and better VRM provides more stable and cleaner voltage which oft results in observable increase in CPU / GPU OC
-System builders looking for the best possible performance via CPU / GPU overclocking, will buy a higher end PSU because the better componentry and better VRM provides more stable and cleaner voltage which could otherwise nix increases in CPU / GPU performance.
-System builders looking for the best possible performance via GPU overclocking, will buy a higher end card because the better componentry and better VRM provides more stable and cleaner voltage which oft results in an extra 0.1 GHz or more increase in CPU OC. This was never more obvious than with the GTX570 where overclockers were frying their VRMs left and right on reference (incl. EVGA SC) cards
Over the years, nVidia has tried to limit what their AIB partners can do, both legally and with design as they don't like that an overclocked 970 gives more performance than a 980 at twice the price. That's why they have artificially gimped their cards with low throttling points ... 980 Ti said max temp was 98C, but throttled at 85C .... with 10xx they lowered it further to 82C. But to create space between the 970 and 980, they dropped the 970 to 80C.
This has marginalized the real high end cards like the Classy, Matrix and Lightning as they only brought 1-2% improvement over the gamer cards. And those that quote benchmarks seem to miss the fact that most report max boost clock .... so when the card is bouncing up and down due to thermal or power limits, the max rather than min clock is reported. Look at the min clocks and we see awhile 'nother story.
Now of course, any given manufacturer can choose to provide a high factory overclock to induce sales knowing that a certain % of those sold will not be able to maintain that OC. Then they rely on:
1. Most won't notice
2. TS can wear down many of those that do by continually putting them thru long drawn out troubleshooting routines and blaming other components
3. The few who persevere thru that is a minimal cost compared with the sales increase from users attracted by the higher OC
Lots of 980 Tis had great and effective coolers
Asus Matrix managed 137.7 FPS in BF3
Asus Stix manages 131.7
MSI Lightning Managed 138.6
MSI Lightning Managed 130.5
Colorful's 980 Ti didn't throttle and yet it's OC maxed out at 126.5
Clearly, as all cards have coolers that do not result in throttling, the componentry must be making something happen.
So while it may not matter **to an individual** because you don't overclock or because you don't care if your card throttles, by all means those folks are just fine with a reference card. Those who want more, will spend more because there **is** a performance difference between the cards because of the componentry used.
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