Is getting an OC card worth the extra money?

[hoofhearted4]

so im still planning on a build. and in not sure if ill be able to afford the 7970, if it looks like i can when im ready to build this, then i will. if not, these are the two cards im debating between:

MSI Lightning 6970

Sapphire 6970

is the OC of the MSI worth the extra $40?

are their better 6970 models i should be looking at?

 

[S_I_N]

oc'd cards are normally the best binned chips so there oc potential is better than a vanilla model

 

[StreekG]

Well if you want to WC the card then you are better off with a reference design, if you are going to leave it as is, get a non reference OC design, from there you can tweak it a little bit more in Afterburner or something and you should be pretty happy i think.

 

[kilobravo]

Both gpu`s could hit 1000mhz on core and 1500mhz on the rams.The sapphire is maybe a little notch better.

 

[marsey99]

people like msi, asus and gigabyte tend to uprate other things as well as the cooling which help make the cards more stable than ref and aid in overclocking too.

 

[hoofhearted4]

so another question. i see it used everywhere, but didnt know what it meant...

what is a reference model?

 

[yassarikhan786]

so another question. i see it used everywhere, but didnt know what it meant...

what is a reference model?

It's just the bog standard cooler the manufacturers put on their cards.

 

[MaXiMiZe]

A reference model as mentioned above has a standard cooler. A non reference model like the two that you have linked to, has much better cooling and therefore can be pushed further in terms of the core and memory frequencies.

 

[S_I_N]

while most reference models have the plain Jane cooler on them that's not what reference model refers to reference model means its on the same designed PCB model as originally designed by the manufacturer. Some can carry a different cooler but still be reference design. Admittedly most with different coolers have non reference design, but not all. The reason to chose a reference design over a non reference design is water block availability as reference models will have blocks faster tan non if they bother to make for non ref's

 

[Master&Puppet]

Some reference models also have a voltage lock so it can be harder to tweak (or impossible).

M&P

 

[SieB]

If you like a cooler, quieter and faster card, then a non ref is worth it. Think of it like a car, a reference design is like a normal car strait from the dealers and a non ref card is like a car that has gone from the dealers, to a garage and had a bit of work done to it to make it a little faster and handle better.    

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

The way you can identify a reference card is looking right above the PCI slot, AMD GPUs will say "AMD" Nvidia will say "Nvidia." Non reference will either not say anything or will say the name of the company who produced it like msi or gigabyte.