As we well know, CPUs have an interesting factor that many companies have been taking advantage of for years to meet a need for certain users. We are talking about processor bundling, something we already covered in its day, but are there binned GPUs? It is a great question that has a simple base and at the same time somewhat complex. Can we buy a bined GPU? And if so, where?
The world of bined chips is such a specific sector that it is even more selective than overclocking. Few users know what is important when selecting a bined CPU and even within this if it is worth paying for what we are offered. GPUs is another world apart and very different, since we are talking about products in other price ranges that also have their own cooling system. That is why we ask the following question.
Are there binned GPUs?
The answer is yes and no. The combination of GPUs is already done selectively by each manufacturer, where unlike Intel and AMD, it is NVIDIA that first sets the guidelines on the upstream potential and voltage of each chip in a MHz / joule ratio that goes with each of them. Afterwards, each manufacturer assigns under its tests which models it goes to in particular, that is why there are series with different models and different prices.
In other words, binned GPUs have existed for a long time and also undergo very exhaustive controls to achieve the highest performance with the lowest power consumption and therefore the lowest voltage, but apart from this, is there someone who bines each GPU with full overclock?
The chip business turned down
The truth is that the company that has had the most recognition over time in this has been SiliconLottery and is about to close. We are talking about a group of people who bought processors (at one time they also did it with GPUs) in an industrial way and after different stress tests with overclock they guaranteed a frequency, voltages and performance under a specific temperature and almost 100% stable.
What happen? Well, very simple, the time of testing, tests and sale costs money, and the surcharge that each CPU has is high in percentage terms, which has made this sector at the same time known, but not very attractive. That is, you encourage the purchase of this type of “guaranteed” processors to develop more performance with overclock, but the number of units sold has been decreasing and the COVID crisis has ended up killing it.
So is there a place to buy hand-bined GPUs? Not that we know, today it is rather a utopia due to several factors. The first is logically the surcharge, where not even the stores sell with laughing margins per unit.
The problem of almost zero overclocking and its limitations
The second is logically the stock, minimal and inconsistent as to guarantee a delivery of a bined GPU and the third of course is the sales volume. How many users would pay for 13-26 or 39 MHz more for the same stock cooling system for each GPU? Very few probably and more when you charge for the binning service provided.
This could make “certain” sense in models unlocked by hardware and software for extreme overclocking, but we are currently talking about 3 models, so the possible market is tiny, negligible and not profitable. In short, and seeing how tight the standard GPUs are currently, it is a business that would not be profitable if it existed, but ask the guys at SiliconLottery who are about to close …
