what i mean was that gpu boost 3.0 lets the clock increase a lot provided that power or tdp limit is not reached.
for example, gtx1080 reference clock is 1607mhz and boost clock is 1733mhz.
- founders edition gtx1080 cards (depending on temperature inside the case) generally average to little above the boost clock .
- aib gtx1080 with openair coolers (again, depending on case airflow, even more so than fe cards) will usually average considerably higher.
specific example - my gainward phoenix with its annoyingly huge 2.5slot cooler averages to around 1850mhz inside somewhat warm case and stays at 1885mhz outside a case. slapping a fullcover waterblock on the same card (with max 40-45c temperatures at full load) results in clock being stuck at 1885mhz at load. 1885mhz seems to be the highest bin for boost in this case.
all of this is at reference clocks, with cooling being the only difference.
tpu review of fe gtx 1080 had average clock of 1785mhz. 1885 is 5.6% over that and 8.7% over the 1733mhz boost clock. these are not negligible differences.
this behaviour is currently unique to pascal and gpu boost 3.0. yes, previous gen cards and amd cards have varying degrees of boost for clocks but not to this degree.
