Don't buy 'Superclocked' Cards: Proof

O

oozish

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 27, 2003
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My card is a EVGA gtx280. It isn't a superclocked card; but the CARD is clocked as a superclocked card (at 620 core etc.). I'm wondering, did someone return this and flash the bios or something (I doubt it as the box wasn't tampered with, but still...) so I called EVGA.

"occasionally the cards will be flashed with a different bios" is what they told me, as I was worried about the warranty etc. if my card was supposed to be a normal gtx and was found to be a superclocked card.

So they shipped it as a normal gtx with the bios flashed as a superclock? Sounds random to me, and this card could just as well have been shipped as a ssc card or something I'm sure as it's completely normal temps/stable at 670 core at 1250 mem.

Just a warning that all these different cards may be binned or not, but this makes me think they just crank the bios to whatever they want to make a profit on all the cards.
 
so you got a card clocked faster than you expect, and between that and it being a one off case, thats "proof" no one should buy superclocked cards. Did I miss anything?
 
ZOMG! WTFBBQ THIS CARD IS OVERCLOCKED WITHOUT ME DOING IT!


On a serious note, I have a 7950 GT KO SC somewhere and reason they can sell it like that its been tested to overclock better than stock ones, and EVGA does the BIOS flashing since there's no need to do it yourself if you're overclocking it from stock settings.
 
you must of gotten the OC version of the card in which is already pre-overclocked via the bios.
 
i used to have an EVGA 7950GT SC KO and it was fine, they really OC the cards within a safe limits.
and anyway most the the OC cards are well below the OC level reached when people OC by themselves.
 
bfellow said:
reason they can sell it like that its been tested to overclock better than stock ones, and EVGA does the BIOS flashing since there's no need to do it yourself if you're overclocking it from stock settings.
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Yup. I don't mind paying a premium for a good, guaranteed factory overclock (the FTW edition of the GTX 280 comes clocked at 670 MHz vs. stock 602 MHz). I like having that extra 11% guaranteed. Others may not want to pay the extra money; that's fine.
 
MADNOD said:
i used to have an EVGA 7950GT SC KO and it was fine, they really OC the cards within a safe limits.
and anyway most the the OC cards are well below the OC level reached when people OC by themselves.
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This is also true; many manual overclocks exceed the factory OCs. I pushed my GTX 280 FTW cards well past the factory OC on core and memory, but I couldn't push the shader clock past its factory setting of 1458MHz. Since many people hit a wall with the shader clocks on the GTX 280, it's nice knowing that I can RMA the cards if they can't maintain the 1458MHz setting.
 
Most cards are binned these days.

Please, go ahead and try to tell me this card isn't binned: ~700 Mhz Watercooled 280

Because they are binned you are 1) sure it will run that high. and 2) Will probably still have some head room left to OC with.

I didn't buy mine OC'ed. I havn't OC'ed mine either. Why? Because I get between 90-200 FPS depending on the map on CoD4 all settings maxed. Why would I bother to OC them?
 
This makes me believe that there is at least one box out there without a superclocked card.
 
This happened to me to, but through EVGA's step-up.

For my step up, I received a box labelled "8800GT". Thats it. It had the KO bios (between SC and SSC), and has always run at those speeds natively. I used to be able to run it at SSC speeds, but now its artifacting at those speeds. I think because it wasn't labelled superclocked, I do just have a normal card at higher clocks, and it binned badly.
 
What does binned mean? Is that where they go through and hand pick better overclocking cores to put on the higher clocked cards?

 
Not to be off-topic, but when will EVGA release different versions of their GFX cards in 1MHz increments. Seems like 5 models is not enough. :rolleyes:
 
Wheresatom said:
What does binned mean? Is that where they go through and hand pick better overclocking cores to put on the higher clocked cards?

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Basically, yeah. I don't think its by hand, but that is the general idea.
 
michael1284 said:
Definitely worth the extra few $ to pay for a card that is guaranteed to hit those speeds.
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This is how I feel, and why I was very sad that you can't step up to superclocked cards. I really ate it on my step-up, I went to a card with a $50 less MSRP that performed higher than my 8800GTS320.

My next card purchase will definitely be a factory overclock, this means that if it can't really do those speeds you can RMA it. :p
 
Now that I have a water cooling loop, ill always look at the per clocked h2o cards. Why?

First of all the card comes with the block, sealed, tested and warrented.

Second, they have some of the highest clocks on them. IMO 5 percent oc doesn't change the ability of the card, but 10 to 15 percent can make a large enough impact to warrent a higher setting.

Lastly, I hate overclocking or flashing gpus. I've found if I flash at the highest avail oc, ill eventually find a new game and ill get hard locks. I hate overclocking because I always forget to turn on the program, set it, and I hate leaving it running so My oc stays on.
 
What if its cheaper than the vanilla card? Obvious, I know...and did...and the sucker artifacts at stock...vanilla would probably have been better!
 
Kluden said:
What if its cheaper than the vanilla card? Obvious, I know...and did...and the sucker artifacts at stock...vanilla would probably have been better!
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If its artifacting at stock, they gave you a defective product! Steps to take: Turn up the fan, then talk to EVGA and RMA that thing!
 
Waffletron said:
This is how I feel, and why I was very sad that you can't step up to superclocked cards. I really ate it on my step-up, I went to a card with a $50 less MSRP that performed higher than my 8800GTS320.

My next card purchase will definitely be a factory overclock, this means that if it can't really do those speeds you can RMA it. :p
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Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't BFG allow the stepup program for stock OCed cards? I am asking because I bought a BFG GTX 280 OC because it was the only one in stock at the egg and also had a pretty decent price with a mail in rebate. Sorry to jack the thread. :)

EDIT: I just found the answer to my own question on BFG's website. For some reason I couldn't find it before...
 
Oh I definitely am in the middle of a cross shipped RMA with them...reported 1 hour after it was installed...very annoying to go through, but evga's pretty cool about it.
 
I always buy a card based off of what I know its going to do with what I want it to do. So to me, buying OC cards really isn't nessasary as Ive never seen where one would really do anything well above what say a stock card could do, that is again, for me.
 
I have a superclocked 8800 Ultra, and it runs higher than most Ultras could ever hope, even with good cooling.

If you buy a sc card you are for sure going to get that speed and maybe higher in my case.
 
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