Asus gtx 260 TOP, high binned?

[praesto]

Hey folks, I have a simple question: Do you believe that the TOP version of asus gtx 260 is high binned, or do all people actually seem to exceed 650 core, 1300 shader and 1150 memory on their standard gtx 260's?

Hardocp managed 720 core 1500 shaders and 1300 memory when they overclocked their asus gtx 260 TOP, but that seems to be only slightly more than what people usually clock their reference gtx 260 to.

 

[sticks435]

I think above 700 is the exception, but breaking 650 seems pretty easy. I my max is 689/1480/1200 @ 60% fan. As soon as I take the core over that, I start getting artifacts.

Remember, Nvidia uses a stepping sytem for the shader clocks, so even if you have it set to 1480 or so, if your core isn't high enough to push it to the next step, it'll stay at 1458.

 

[Pyrokinetic]

Hard to say for sure, but probably not. 700 core OCs seem fairly common with the GTX 260s from what I have read. The only cards rumored to be binned are the EVGA FTW edition with a 666 core from the factory, but you pay a premium.

I am looking to purchase one in about a month, and I am leaning toward the stock clocked Palit or MSI cards. I do not think I will OC them as the overclocked cards pick up at most only 5-10 fps over the regular cards in most games. If you play Crysis, maybe worth it -- but with my 22" LCD at 1680x1050, a stock card should be more than adequate for some time.