Poll: Voltage locking the future?

[Gregster]

Having seen Nvidia kick the enthusiasts in the teeth with locking volts on all of its latest gen cards, I now noticed certain AMD AIBs following suit. Is this something we can expect for the future? I for one hope not and can say it is the overclocking potential that keeps me interested (especially the chance to push them further than other owners).

I know I shouldn't think like this but even in games, I want higher fps than others even though my eyes can't percieve the benefit.

I will ask a mod to do a poll on this.

Poll:

Would you buy a voltage locked card if the price was better than an unlocked volt card?

Yes

No

Depends on price

 

[Gregster]

Wouldn't be surprised to see something like the Intel K chips next generation on both sets of graphics cards.

What makes you think this? Any info or links mate?

 

[Gregster]

poll added and voted

There's always a limit as too how much something is really worth.. If the real world benefit of 5 extra frames is the difference to between a playable and non-playable frame rate, then yes. Otherwise no. It doesn't make sense to make sense to add 5 frames to an 80 frame rating with all the eye candy on. The benefit isn't realised.

Agreed but for me, I want that extra 5fps and if I have to pay more for it, I would (within reason of course). I guess it comes down to my continuing competitiveness. I like hitting a heavy spot of explosions and mayhem and something in my head tells me "good job you are overclocked or you would have seen big slowdowns" even though I may not have done.

Thanks for the poll

 

[Gregster]

The majority don't visit forums like this though, so they will be unaware.

I agree Thomas. As a wild guess, I would point to 90% of users don't care about overclocking or want to bother with the hassle. Forums are for problems and decisions for the most part.

And @ VoltageLockersUK.

 

[Gregster]

It is a very smart move to lock volts because of the less RMAs and I can't blame AIBs for doing it however for a premium price they could/should give us the choice of what we want.

For an example, a 680/7970 @ £400 volt locked or a 680/7970 @ £450 unlocked volts. This would be a reasonable surcharge for that ability.

 

[Gregster]

I wish all cards were voltage locked and partners couldn't create unstable cards.

On the other hand, I have seen a couple of unstable 6 series Nvidia cards with "The driver stopped responding and has recovered" error. 95% of the time, a small increase in core volts sorts this problem out but with the 6 series you can't do this. RMA time