Question Overlocking stock GPU vs buying an OC GPU vs Stock GPU?

[UKTone]

Is there a way to see a comparison of the three? Are they worth it? Is it complicated to overclock? From what i seen, you just use a program to overclock for free, so why not do it yourself? Does overclocking yourself void warranty or create issues? Can a 4070 ti oc beat a 4080?

This is something i know very little about so not even sure what questions to ask.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

[rgd1101]

Is it complicated to overclock?

sometime it works, sometime don't

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

I do not think 4070ti can beat 4080 since it has more cores and such and sometimes overclocking can be complicated because every person computer is different and kinda lottery to have good overclock very long time ago tried overclocking my gpu abit then started getting dots all over the screen so i know stright away that my gpu did not like to be overclocked. Safe to buy an OC GPU that way you dont have to worry about doing the overclock yourself and you can turn down overclock via msi afterburner!

How to Overclock Your Graphics Card | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

 

[Phaaze88]

Is there a way to see a comparison of the three? Are they worth it? Is it complicated to overclock? From what i seen, you just use a program to overclock for free, so why not do it yourself? Does overclocking yourself void warranty or create issues? Can a 4070 ti oc beat a 4080?

1)Yes: have both on hand to test, otherwise it's not a fair comparison. Please be aware that these cards overclock themselves, so they're all technically overclocked.
2)'Worth' varies between users - that does include you, so there is no direct answer to this question.
3)It doesn't need to be. They overclock themselves, there's the option of using OC Scanner, or using one of the more complex methods out there.
4)Why not DIY-OC:
-more power and heat, neither of which Gpu Boost is a fan of and can potentially offset or nullify any real gains. Gpu Boost is built in and can't be disabled.
-GDDR6X memory has an error correction function, and if one goes too far on the memory clock, it'll actually worsen performance.
-the user's current psu might not be up to the task.
5)Technically, it does, but the manufacturer can't prove it. Issues? Yes: it's harder on the gpu's VRM and psu.
6)It physically can't.

 

[Zerk2012]

Is there a way to see a comparison of the three? Are they worth it? Is it complicated to overclock? From what i seen, you just use a program to overclock for free, so why not do it yourself? Does overclocking yourself void warranty or create issues? Can a 4070 ti oc beat a 4080?

This is something i know very little about so not even sure what questions to ask.

Thanks for any help on this.

Buy the factory overclocked card and leave it alone.

Never bothered overclocking a video card it's just not worth it.

If you could overclock it 10% and it scaled 100% with FPS and you were already getting 100 FPS you would now get 110 FPS it's just not worth it.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

If you could overclock it 10% and it scaled 100% with FPS and you were already getting 100 FPS you would now get 110 FPS it's just not worth it.

Yes, but conversely if the max FPS is 50, and the OC gets you to 60FPS, then that can be a huge difference.

But, I totally agree with you and @Phaaze88 , for the 5-10% boost translates to just 2-3 fps, then it's not worth it. Running it at stock, will get the most of the GPU down to the algorithm for boosting.

 

[Zerk2012]

Yes, but conversely if the max FPS is 50, and the OC gets you to 60FPS, then that can be a huge difference.

But, I totally agree with you and @Phaaze88 , for the 5-10% boost translates to just 2-3 fps, then it's not worth it. Running it at stock, will get the most of the GPU down to the algorithm for boosting.

I've also seen posts on here from people that bricked their card overclocking it. The OP already stated he had no clue.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Is there a way to see a comparison of the three?

No, because few, if anyone, really cares about the reference implementation. You can sort of guess by taking the GPU's clock speeds and taking the percentage difference between them, but this isn't really accurate.

Are they worth it?

Depends if you think it's worth the time and effort to do so.

Is it complicated to overclock?

It's not complicated, just tedious. It requires bumping up the clock settings a tiny bit, running a battery of tests to see if it passes, then repeating the last two steps until it crashes.

From what i seen, you just use a program to overclock for free, so why not do it yourself?

See the previous answer

Does overclocking yourself void warranty or create issues?

I haven't seen stipulation against overclocking in the warranty, but otherwise overclocking generates more heat and can cause software stability issues. Just because it seems fine in one series of tests or application doesn't mean it's fine in another.

Can a 4070 ti oc beat a 4080?

No. The first hurdle is the 4080 has ~25% more shaders than the 4070 Ti, so at the minimum the clock speed needs to be bumped up by that much... which you can't really get.

As mentioned, the cards basically self overclock anyway and all you're doing with these tools is raising the limit at which the card can overclock. And even then, the card only takes these as suggestions, so it may not even honor what you're asking of it.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Overclocking a GPU is rarely worth the risk or the effort because you'd be looking at maybe a 10% increase in performance unless you got a water block and went nuts with it. However, in either case, you'd be voiding your warranty and cards are far too expensive these days to play with fire like that.

If you want to have an OC card, I would recommend buying one with a factory OC. If you want to OC your own card, wait until you actually need to. There's no point in overclocking a card that already does what you want at stock settings. It's far better to save overclocking for when the card is old and you want to extend its life for a bit. By then the risk of killing it is also lower and there's no warranty that you can void.

If a card can't do what you want at stock settings, then you bought the wrong card to begin with. I say the same thing to people who want to buy a CPU and overclock it immediately. It just makes no sense unless overclocking is what you do for a hobby.

 

[hotaru.hino]

On another note, I'd also argue that factory overclocked cards are a marketing gimmick now. Sure their base clocks might be higher, but video cards, if properly cooled, rarely operate there and the advertised boost clock isn't a ceiling either. From what I can recall in recent memory, I had an EVGA RTX 2070 Super SC whose boost clock was advertised to be 1800 MHz. It routinely hit 1925-1950MHz. I currently have an MSI RTX 4070 Ti which is advertised to go up to 2745 MHz, but will go up to 2800MHz on its own.