Custom designs worth it?

[PvP-ForLife]

Do custom designed video cards really bring a tangible benefit over the stock/reference ones?
It seems like most custom made/modified 7970 cards have speeds that could be reached easily by the reference ones. Might it be a shortcoming for the 28 nm architecture, and will this this perpetuate to the 680 GTX also?

 

[Tsumi]

Depends on what the purpose of the custom design is.

Custom heatsink designs with a reference PCB usually are just for more silent cooling, which is actually important to many users.

Custom PCB are for one of two purposes:

1. better overclocking due to better/extra hardware, and possibly better power consumption (in the case of many Asus and MSI designs, most notably the Asus DC II and MSI Lightnings)

2. to use cheaper hardware and increase profit margins (in the case of some lower end XFX, Sapphire, and others)

 

[PvP-ForLife]

Depends on what the purpose of the custom design is.

Custom heatsink designs with a reference PCB usually are just for more silent cooling, which is actually important to many users.

Custom PCB are for one of two purposes:

1. better overclocking due to better/extra hardware, and possibly better power consumption (in the case of many Asus and MSI designs, most notably the Asus DC II and MSI Lightnings)

2. to use cheaper hardware and increase profit margins (in the case of some lower end XFX, Sapphire, and others)

While I tend to agree with 2. I still have a question mark for point 1. Doing a lot of research on the 7970 Lightning lately, it seems that all the effort behind it (resulting in a heftier price), was pretty much in vain. The card could barely overclock (in the HReview +25 mem and +90 gpu) while the ref. design went +155/+155.

 

[limitedaccess]

There is always going to be variance in overclocking depending on luck of the draw.

Also it depends on how you are interpreting the results you see. For instance with the numbers you stated you are comparing how well the Lightning is overclocking compared to its stock values which are already above stock reference 7970s as opposed to directly versus stock reference 7970 numbers.

 

[Tsumi]

^^ this. You have to compare absolute numbers. The absolute max overclock of Lightning cards are generally higher than stock reference cards, sometimes significantly higher. Also, the Lightning cards are designed to be better in extreme scenarios such as LN2 overclocking.

 

[PvP-ForLife]

There is always going to be variance in overclocking depending on luck of the draw.

Also it depends on how you are interpreting the results you see. For instance with the numbers you stated you are comparing how well the Lightning is overclocking compared to its stock values which are already above stock reference 7970s as opposed to directly versus stock reference 7970 numbers.

You are right, I was just looking at the headroom which inadvertently becomes limited even with redesigned layouts/pcbs. This allows the gap between reference and modified to lessen even more.

 

[convexion]

Well, the one major disadvantage for those of us that water cool is that custom PCBs often don't fit full cover water blocks that are designed for reference cards. I always buy reference for my water cooled rig.