Reference cards use an Nvidia approved design, they usually have a shroud and the blower dumps hot air out the back of the case. They're potentially better for SLI setups as the cards will exchange less hot air. These cards usually ship with stock clocks as the cooling is achieved by a relatively small single fan with a high RPM.
Nvidia's partners are usually allowed to develop their own versions of the cards and push the limits. By developing their own heatsinks, fan configurations, backplates, beefed up components and PSU connections they can deliver more power, increase the clocks and keep temperatures down. This also helps prevent thermal throttling which lowers clock speeds and frame rates. They may also use cherry-pick boards with a high ASIC rating which can deliver higher speeds using less voltage.
The non-reference cards employ dual or triple fan solutions which are far larger and cover more of the card, they can spin at lower speeds which reduces the noise and improves airflow.
A reference card can hit the same clock speeds, but often for shorter periods. This might drop you below your target frame rate (e.g. 60Hz) which will cause temporary stuttering. With the non-reference design you get a higher guaranteed boost and a greater chance to maintain those clock speeds.
sam0
11 Sep 163#4
Bear in mind the ASUS has an extra year warranty, and only 99p more.
All comments (30)
dbx125
11 Sep 16#1
Is there any reason these cards are much cheaper than the MSI 1060?
catbeans to dbx125
11 Sep 161#3
Blower coolers arent great compared to aftermarket heatsinks/coolers and if you want to get the most out of a 10 series card you want the best tempature as possible. The blower style coolers are fine but you will need to jack up the fan which will be very noisy.
Glacc to dbx125
11 Sep 161#16
Back with the GTX 9xx series, the MSI "Gaming" models were arguably the best out of all the non-ref designs, yet still incredibly competitive in price.
I guess they've decided they should charge more for their quality now, but have gone way overboard and landed on the other end of the spectrum. Close to £300 for a midrange card is just ridiculous.
garbageguy
11 Sep 16#2
Probably made cheaper ?
sam0
11 Sep 163#4
Bear in mind the ASUS has an extra year warranty, and only 99p more.
sgtbarton to sam0
11 Sep 16#8
Where is this please.
gw42
11 Sep 16#5
clicking through to the overclockers' site, it's showing a custom cooler rather than a blower. no idea whether it's any good, but presumably it's better than the reference cooler.
thelagmonster
11 Sep 161#6
Great price for a non-reference design. Very tempting!
siz111
11 Sep 16#7
Looks good but only 1 display port, would mean second screen would have to be dvi/hdmi
sgtbarton
11 Sep 16#9
I see now - reference v non reference - think I would rather take a years less warranty over reference-
I am told reference better for getting air out of case which is what I kind of need but not at the cost of noise - want silent when not gaming and low send when gaming.
pukenukem
11 Sep 16#10
What's the real world difference between this card and say a better cooled card, other than noise? I'm asking with ignorance, not as a troll baiter. I paid extra for the MSI card, and I do sometimes question what would have happened if I'd gone cheaper. Are we taking big fps differences?
MBeeching to pukenukem
11 Sep 167#11
Reference cards use an Nvidia approved design, they usually have a shroud and the blower dumps hot air out the back of the case. They're potentially better for SLI setups as the cards will exchange less hot air. These cards usually ship with stock clocks as the cooling is achieved by a relatively small single fan with a high RPM.
Nvidia's partners are usually allowed to develop their own versions of the cards and push the limits. By developing their own heatsinks, fan configurations, backplates, beefed up components and PSU connections they can deliver more power, increase the clocks and keep temperatures down. This also helps prevent thermal throttling which lowers clock speeds and frame rates. They may also use cherry-pick boards with a high ASIC rating which can deliver higher speeds using less voltage.
The non-reference cards employ dual or triple fan solutions which are far larger and cover more of the card, they can spin at lower speeds which reduces the noise and improves airflow.
A reference card can hit the same clock speeds, but often for shorter periods. This might drop you below your target frame rate (e.g. 60Hz) which will cause temporary stuttering. With the non-reference design you get a higher guaranteed boost and a greater chance to maintain those clock speeds.
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
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Opening post
60NRH7DSL90K
Core Clock: 1518MHz
Boost Clock: 1733MHz
Memory: 6144MB 8008MHz GDDR5
Stream Processors: 1280
VR Ready
PhysX/CUDA Enabled
2 Years Warranty.
Top comments
Nvidia's partners are usually allowed to develop their own versions of the cards and push the limits. By developing their own heatsinks, fan configurations, backplates, beefed up components and PSU connections they can deliver more power, increase the clocks and keep temperatures down. This also helps prevent thermal throttling which lowers clock speeds and frame rates. They may also use cherry-pick boards with a high ASIC rating which can deliver higher speeds using less voltage.
The non-reference cards employ dual or triple fan solutions which are far larger and cover more of the card, they can spin at lower speeds which reduces the noise and improves airflow.
A reference card can hit the same clock speeds, but often for shorter periods. This might drop you below your target frame rate (e.g. 60Hz) which will cause temporary stuttering. With the non-reference design you get a higher guaranteed boost and a greater chance to maintain those clock speeds.
All comments (30)
I guess they've decided they should charge more for their quality now, but have gone way overboard and landed on the other end of the spectrum. Close to £300 for a midrange card is just ridiculous.
I am told reference better for getting air out of case which is what I kind of need but not at the cost of noise - want silent when not gaming and low send when gaming.
Nvidia's partners are usually allowed to develop their own versions of the cards and push the limits. By developing their own heatsinks, fan configurations, backplates, beefed up components and PSU connections they can deliver more power, increase the clocks and keep temperatures down. This also helps prevent thermal throttling which lowers clock speeds and frame rates. They may also use cherry-pick boards with a high ASIC rating which can deliver higher speeds using less voltage.
The non-reference cards employ dual or triple fan solutions which are far larger and cover more of the card, they can spin at lower speeds which reduces the noise and improves airflow.
A reference card can hit the same clock speeds, but often for shorter periods. This might drop you below your target frame rate (e.g. 60Hz) which will cause temporary stuttering. With the non-reference design you get a higher guaranteed boost and a greater chance to maintain those clock speeds.