Overclocking Extravaganza: GTX 275's Complex Characteristics

Final Words

When it comes to overclocking, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 275 is a capable part. Other people out there have gotten higher core speeds than we did but we achieved a very high shader clock. Our memory speed was also decent. And with this test the overclocked GTX 275 shows it can compete with an overclocked Radeon HD 4890: the GTX 275 never trailed NVIDIA's own GTX 285 while the Radeon HD 4890 fell behind in a couple instances.

At the same time, while the 4890 doesn't always lead the GTX 285, when the 4890 does lead it also typically leads the fully overclocked GTX 275 as well. These parts trade blows, and it is difficult to say that one is hands down better than the other. It really depends on the game and what you need out of the hardware.

We did find the AMD hardware easier to quickly and efficiently tweak. Some of that may have to do with the fact that we only had two sliders to worry about, but the built in stress test is a nice plus. Of course, NVIDIA automatically tests the clocks when you try and set them, but it seemed like it would sometimes arbitrarily decide not to let us set a clock speed we had set before. Setting three different clocks can give us more control over the overclocking process, but that can be tough when we still don't know exactly the best way to balance these.

Our suggestion is to start with the core and get it as high as you can. After that, crank up your shader. Last would be memory. But you will definitely want to make sure you've got all three turned up at least a little to get the amplifying benefit these hardware resources have on each other.

Those hoping we would definitively recommend either NVIDIA or AMD for overclocking will be disappointed, as this just isn't the blowout necessary for that. Both camps have pluses and minuses, and readers should take that into account when making a purchasing decision. Additionally, we do want to stress that every retail card is different; there may be some AMD parts that can overclock higher than the one we tested, and there may be NVIDIA hardware that can achieve better results as well.

Regardless of what else comes into play, overclocking looks good on both the Radeon HD 4890 and the GeForce GTX 275.