During my career I have probably made this statement over a thousand times. ?Motherboard and video card partners take the hand they are dealt with and from there make improvements.? These improvements are usually contained in aftermarket cooling, changes in power delivery or a non-reference layout. Video cards seem to get the most attention from the consumer since reference cooling is usually the greatest concern. We have seen video card partners take a reference setup and simply place and aftermarket cooler on it, while there are some who also change the power delivery system and finally some who change the entire design completely just using the GPU as the only constant. It doesn't matter which way it is done as long as the end result enhances the ability of the core. If you are a video card enthusiast you?re aware that even these changes may not produce the greatest results since the core may have certain deficiencies.