The article in question is the one that compares factory OCed cards to reference models.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclocked-graphics-gpu-afterburner,2693.html
In it, it shows quite clearly that factory OCed cards are hardly worth the extra money.
Now I was shopping for a gtx 460 1gb on newegg.ca (it has the best prices that I can find for my location) and was instantly drawn to Gigabyte's card because it had many ratings and was highly rated. But the article confused me because it says how factory OCed cards are $100 more than the reference cards, yet the Gigabyte one isn't as more expensive as that. It's only $241 (Canadian dollars, mind you). So I looked for a card that was as close to the reference board as I could find and found this Zotac card. It is about $10 cheaper, so not much of a saving.
I am confused now because the article encourages me not to buy the factory OCed Gigabyte card, but instead to go for the as-close-as-possible-to-reference Zotac card. I've never used Zotac before and I've never even heard of them before now, but digging around a bit I found some gtx 460 reviews that used Zotac as their card and they've all reported quiet fan and cool temperatures.
So now I am torn between going for Gigabyte because I know them and have bought cards from them before and because they've got a nice heatsink and two fans on the card. Or go for the cheaper Zotac that also seems to have a good fan (it's one of those radial ones that blows the air out the back of the case, instead of into the case like Gigabyte's standard fans), and also comes with a free game. It's not a game I'm particularly interested in, but a free game is a free game.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclocked-graphics-gpu-afterburner,2693.html
In it, it shows quite clearly that factory OCed cards are hardly worth the extra money.
Now I was shopping for a gtx 460 1gb on newegg.ca (it has the best prices that I can find for my location) and was instantly drawn to Gigabyte's card because it had many ratings and was highly rated. But the article confused me because it says how factory OCed cards are $100 more than the reference cards, yet the Gigabyte one isn't as more expensive as that. It's only $241 (Canadian dollars, mind you). So I looked for a card that was as close to the reference board as I could find and found this Zotac card. It is about $10 cheaper, so not much of a saving.
I am confused now because the article encourages me not to buy the factory OCed Gigabyte card, but instead to go for the as-close-as-possible-to-reference Zotac card. I've never used Zotac before and I've never even heard of them before now, but digging around a bit I found some gtx 460 reviews that used Zotac as their card and they've all reported quiet fan and cool temperatures.
So now I am torn between going for Gigabyte because I know them and have bought cards from them before and because they've got a nice heatsink and two fans on the card. Or go for the cheaper Zotac that also seems to have a good fan (it's one of those radial ones that blows the air out the back of the case, instead of into the case like Gigabyte's standard fans), and also comes with a free game. It's not a game I'm particularly interested in, but a free game is a free game.