TheOverclocker Issue 32 | Page 20

very same graphics card, mount a cooling pot on it, make all necessary modifications and then overclock it. That entire exercise costs many times more than the retail price of the graphics card, thus the endeavor is largely exclusionary. No, that isn’t quite what is needed. As it is, the recent change in what qualifies as a world record and what doesn’t is a change that has been needed for years on end. It’ll take a while for “world record” to mean anything again. The term at present is devoid of substance and if anything has negative connotations. This isn’t hard to pick up on as the various tech sites that post these press releases attest to this very point. The replies in those forums range from indifference to outright disapproval. Yes, the tendency of forums or any medium of social communication towards negativity is noted. However, there is little to no pessimism when it comes to a regular press release or announcement of a new motherboard or GPU. Yet a showing of what said motherboard or GPU can achieve under the capable hands of competitive overclockers, has anything but the desired effect on potential buyers. This is where I would propose many more competitions, which are by structure, familiar to us but impose limits that are not exclusionary of most people. As stated earlier, no LN2, no pots, just regular, all in one units, and air coolers. No chilled water or anything of the sort. Indeed, this would be very boring for veteran overclockers, but the odds are. Those that do well there are likely to move on to the more challenging competitions, where the competitors are fewer as well as a result. We all appreciate a graphics card that is ready out the box for Liquid Nitrogen, but what does that mean exactly to the tens of thousands of people who are potential buyers of said graphics card? That it’s ready for the day they have gathered all required knowledge and supplementary hardware is not meaningful at all. This can’t be a viable strategy as it gains the customer nothing at all. However, can you imagine a situation where, by way of purchasing a graphics card, you gain ticket entry to a competiti