When NVIDIA and AMD only announce their graphics cards, they show the so-called standard models or Founders Editions.
These solutions have strictly set clocks that exactly match those specified by the manufacturer and standard cooling. Attempts to overclock these graphics cards are most often a waste of time, and gamers pay money to get access to a certain graphics chip at the recommended price. NVIDIA and AMD do not produce anything themselves, they order from one of their partners, which allows this partner to produce the cheapest graphics cards with a similar design.
As for the others, there are several different approaches to making graphics cards, each aimed at a specific target audience. A significant portion of gaming merchandise is intended for those who will never overclock anything. In fact, many PC gamers don't even use profiles to increase clock rates, so they may not use the full potential of the graphics card for many years.
There are also more powerful models on sale, the cooling of which is referred to as custom, and the clock frequencies of the graphics core can differ significantly from the standard. Unfortunately, you have to pay for everything, so these graphics cards cost more, but they attract attention because they give the false feeling that the gamer can get a little more performance out of the novelty. Unfortunately, a real chance to increase the clock frequency exists only with graphics cards with powerful cooling, but overpaying for such models is definitely not worth the investment. For example, on sale you can find a GeForce RTX 3060 with very solid cooling for CZK 15, while the GeForce RTX 000 Ti is available for CZK 3060. The difference between the two graphics chips is close to 12%.
Sometimes the manufacturer chooses the best graphics chips and installs liquid cooling or monster coolers on the graphics card, which are able to dissipate much more heat than standard models.
In this case, the surcharge will be even more staggering, and the point of such a purchase is difficult to find. In any case, if there is a merchant, so will the goods. But sometimes we come across completely nonsensical solutions, which is what the well-known overclocker Der8auer decided to tell the world about. According to him, other cooling systems have appeared on Aliexpress, which are attached to the back of the graphics card and are used to remove heat from the surface of the board. In other words, the standard coolers will remain in place, but some genius of Chinese engineering decided that the second cooling plate will allow to lower the temperature regime and stabilize the graphics card in general.
After installing the kit, the graphics cards look menacing and gamers may feel like they have a premium product in front of them. Der8auer got several models at his disposal and tested them carefully. As a guinea pig, he chose the flagship AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT from Gigabyte. The manufacturer obviously did not save money, because the cooling is made of copper and includes two fans. The 5 copper plates should dissipate the heat and there is a clip in the kit to allow the device to be attached to the back panel. Everything would be fine if it wasn't completely pointless because it didn't produce any obvious temperature reduction. Der8auer noted that all the main blocks are located on the front side, so the engineering solution fulfills only a visual function. Even more complex cooling was also tested, which is more reminiscent of a Lego kit. The latter has several components that even Der8auer at first got lost in fixing. After connecting all this, the overclocker achieved the same result.
