Are premium graphics cards worth it?

I'll gladly pay a bit more for the slight overclock and whisper quiet coolers most manufacturers install.

Obviously if that "bit more" is actually "a lot more" then I won't.
 
Can't really comment on this, I just recently got MSI HD6870 and wow, this thing is dead quiet..not sure mine is factory OC'ed or just standard /* let me check *\

*edit - standard it seems.. but very silent, don't think any other fans will beat it though
 
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Read reviews of the reference design cards & cards with better cooling first before going and buying one with a better cooler!

If you can get your hands on one with an awesome cooler for the same price as the reference design cards - like we've seen a few times with like the MSI HD6870 Hawk / MSI GTX560Ti Twin Frozr II - then by all means go for the one with the better cooler!

In many cases you might actually be better off by buying a better model graphics card, rather than an overclocked card with a better cooler, or by spending your money on other components - like this review said.

Sometimes these big coolers are just a marketing gimmick - like the massive cooler on the Asus HD6970 DirectCU II. Sure it can cool the card a lot, but in the case of that Asus card it wasn't supported well enough mechanically, so it vibrated a lot and it also put the PCB under a lot of strain (visibly bent).
 
I wouldn't buy for the OC itself. Bought my GTX460 (MSI) for the cyclone cooler. Overclocks like a beast while remaining silent enough.
 
Depends.

To me the MSI Lightning, MSI Hawks and Gigabyte SOC's are worth every penny. They OC Like mad the GTX 580 lightning was able to go under LN2 at 1655 MHZ on the core, a standard GTX 580 is 800, which gives you an Idea of what they are capable off.


If you do not Overclock then NO, also how long you intend on using a card is a Factor for me. I usually buy a cards with a 3 year warranty cause I give them to my Brother or Mom for their PC's so the warranty help if the card fails after 2.5 years.

The only reason some of the Asus/MSI/Gigabyte/etc, manufacturers put on aftermarket coolers is they become cheaper then reference designs that perform worse.
The Nvidia 600 and Radeon 7000 series will release begin2012 and end 2011 respectively, you will notice that you can currently only(mostly) buy cards with aftermarket coolers.
 
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A good cooler is well worth the extra money, i find the stock cooler on a 6970 is horrid, temps are high unless you run the fan at 70% which obviously sounds like like a plane :D
 
High end cards aren't worth it. Games never fully use them and by the time the software catches up you get better performance from that years mid range card than the 2 year old high end one.
 
Praeses said:
I wouldn't buy for the OC itself. Bought my GTX460 (MSI) for the cyclone cooler. Overclocks like a beast while remaining silent enough.
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I have the 450GTX Cyclone - also dead quiet and gives me enough performance for under R1000. More than I need for World of Tanks and LOTRO anyway.
 
Stevewarren said:
High end cards aren't worth it. Games never fully use them and by the time the software catches up you get better performance from that years mid range card than the 2 year old high end one.
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Games like Metro 2033 disagree with you :D

Although, that game is not very optimised by the looks of things
 
Well I purchased an XFX 8800 GT like 4 years ago.. paying a premium price..and I can say I still play latest games easily at high detail setting.
 
Stevewarren said:
High end cards aren't worth it. Games never fully use them and by the time the software catches up you get better performance from that years mid range card than the 2 year old high end one.
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I would also disagree with you. Try playing BF:BC2 on 2560x1600 @ 16xAA + 16xAF on a mid range graphics card :D
 
Ono'rach said:
Games like Metro 2033 disagree with you :D

Although, that game is not very optimised by the looks of things
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And more recently the Witcher 2.

I'd say it depends on how they did with their original reference design. for example GTX 480, definitely get a special edition. GTX 580 has such a good cooler I don't see the point in a special edition.
 
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Stevewarren said:
High end cards aren't worth it. Games never fully use them and by the time the software catches up you get better performance from that years mid range card than the 2 year old high end one.
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Got to agree, I always felt the whole idea of building a system was being cost effective and making it balanced at that price point.
 
MightyMuffinMan said:
Got to agree, I always felt the whole idea of building a system was being cost effective and making it balanced at that price point.
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I get 30 frames in the witcher 2, less than 60 in crysis 2 with DX11 and high res texture pack... I'd say today's hardware perfectly balances todays games... some of which require 6990's, 590's and SLI setups to run at decent frames on maximum settings.
 
doobyscoo said:
And more recently the Witcher 2.

I'd say it depends on how they did with their original reference design. for example GTX 480, definitely get a special edition. GTX 580 has such a good cooler I don't see the point in a special edition.
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That's a good point. The real noise and heat kings needed special editions if you wanted to get any OCing out of them.
 
These days there isn't really much of a premium placed on custom cooler cards. A Twin Frozr gtx560ti is the same price as the reference and is cooler and overclocks better. Buying a card because of an overclock is stupid though. It's the easiest thing on earth to do yourself.
 
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