"Underclocking" Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Dual-X OC 4 Gb

[Andrew_not_so_1337]

Greetings kind people! Yet again I find myself in need of your expertise. The inguiry is as follows: I saw the above stated model on a site for a price of 214,93 eu. Based on the price I am considering to buy it. BUT. There is something that bothers me, namely the "OC" bit - I know enough that this means that its overclocked - I am not fond of it, I hear that OC hardware wears out faster, wich is why I am asking this; can the specified model be "underclocled" or set back to normal (dont know the right jargon) or is that models OC state fixed?

Appreciation for any answer, with respect, an Andrew.

 

[envy14tpe]

If I were to buy a Overclocked model I'd be happy. It isn't the same as buying a GPU and you yourself overclocking it. What I mean is...the manufacturer overclocked the GPU and made it stable. So, you can buy it and run it as it is. The only difference is it isn't the same as the base model. Don't worry about buying a model that is already overclocked. It is probably done so and safely.

 

[Z1NONLY]

You can underclock/undervolt if your wish, but I would check your particular card once you install it.

The "kind" of overclock matters a lot. If your card is overclocked with the same voltage that slower (stock) cards run, the overclock should not hurt lifespan.

If however, you install the card and find out that it was overclocked with a lot of extra voltage, then you might consider underclocking and undervolting your card for longevity's sake.


Also consider how long you intend to keep the card. Even if you get an overvolted card, the manufacturer expects the card to last longer than the warranty they offer on the card.

If you plan to upgrade in two years and your card has a three year warranty, the manufacturer expects the card to last longer than you intend to keep it, so I would keep the overclock.

 

[StarBG]

First I would not bother to buy the 4GB version and buy a r9 270x toxic for less money which will be a bit faster. Second the GPU`s are made to run with OC and it`s not a problem. If you overclock it manual and also increase the volt a lot then your GPU could be damaged.

 

[Andrew_not_so_1337]

Thank you very much for all for the answers, they cleared up my ignorance sufficiently. Now before I pick the solution I was wondering if StarBG (or anyone else) would be kind enough to clear the following intrique:

StarBG recommended me to get the R9 270x Toxic edition on the grounds that its a bit faster despite the fact that it has 2gb vram less. What I am wondering is; would the recommendation still be worth following altough the most demanding game I intend to play is heavy texture moded Skyrim? "The higher the texture resolutions you install the more VRAM your card will need. 1GB to 1.5GB of VRAM will handle .5K and 1K textures fairly well. For 2K textures and above, you will want to have between 2GB and 4GB of VRAM." - taken from Skyrim STEP project site

Is the Toxic 2gb version still better than the 4gb version in that situation?

Appreciation again, with respect, an Andrew.

 

[Z1NONLY]

I am using a little over 2gb of vram for crysis 3 at max settings. (My 780 has 3gb of vram)

I don't know if you would notice a difference with a card that "only" has 2gb of vram, but for a game like that, you will be maxing out your Vram right out of the box, with no headroom.

There is a point where a given GPU doesn't have enough processing power to push the amount of data that more vram can hold onto your screen fast enough.

Imagine a really old, slow GPU with 12gb of vram. Sure it has a lot of vram, but it can't use a fraction of it because it's so weak.

Where the 270 falls on that scale I'm not sure.