How good is Powercolor?

[Asphodelus]

I've never had a Powercolor card before. I usually go with with EVGA for Nvidia and XFX for AMD, but in this case only Powercolor makes the card I want...

Still, before I buy, I'd like to hear what everybody's thoughts on Powercolor are, especially in terms of product quality and warranty/support.

 

[Gloomy]

Can't be worse than XFX :awe:

 

[Techhog]

I haven't had mine for long, but I'm loving it so far! Near-silent and low 60s under load.

 

[Demoralized]

Good question, I've been thinking about PowerColor 7950s. Never used their cards before.

 

[OCGuy]

For a reference card they are no different than anyone else, other than warranty length/support.

I would give them a shot if I had to.

 

[Dankk]

Can't be worse than XFX :awe:

Pretty much this. XFX is the one company I will not buy from.

PowerColor should be fine, just make sure it has a good manufacturer's warranty, and look at user reviews if there are any.

 

[lehtv]

Can't be worse than XFX :awe:

Pretty much this. XFX is the one company I will not buy from.

To be fair, XFX's warranty is lifetime - similar to EVGA. It's just that their coolers for the 7000 series were terribad. I'm not sure about the Rx 200 cards though, maybe they've improved their design... in Kitguru's review of the 280X Black OC, the card was quieter than a Sapphire 280X Vapor-X with a gaming load temperature of 75C which is acceptable. What I like about the cooler design is that it exhausts much of the air through the back of the case, a bit like EVGA ACX coolers. Great for dual card setups.

 

[3DVagabond]

I've never had a Powercolor card before. I usually go with with EVGA for Nvidia and XFX for AMD, but in this case only Powercolor makes the card I want...

Still, before I buy, I'd like to hear what everybody's thoughts on Powercolor are, especially in terms of product quality and warranty/support.

Exactly which model are you thinking of getting. Some of their cards are really nice, IMO. Some are designed though only to be cheaper than reference cards.

 

[OCGuy]

To be fair, XFX's warranty is lifetime - similar to EVGA. It's just that their coolers for the 7000 series were terribad. I'm not sure about the Rx 200 cards though, maybe they've improved their design... in Kitguru's review of the 280X Black OC, the card was quieter than a Sapphire 280X Vapor-X with a gaming load temperature of 75C which is acceptable. What I like about the cooler design is that it exhausts much of the air through the back of the case, a bit like EVGA ACX coolers. Great for dual card setups.

Check before you buy, it isn't automatically a lifetime warranty. I think they are doing 2 or 3 for 290x.

 

[lehtv]

Check before you buy, it isn't automatically a lifetime warranty. I think they are doing 2 or 3 for 290x.

True, their reference 290X is 2 years. Will see if they will still offer lifetime warranty with custom cooled cards.

 

[Black Octagon]

Had a Sapphire 7970 then a year later bought a Powercolour 7970 to keep it company. The Powercolour felt like it had lower quality parts compared to the more rugged Sapphire. It also didn't OC as far, but that's almost certainly due to the chip lottery.

Despite that, the Powercolour stayed noticeably cooler and quieter at load...

That's just two separate models. Who knows what differences there might be across the range of Powercolour cards

 

[Will Robinson]

I've had a couple of Powercolour cards over the years and have had no issues with them.

 

[Arkadrel]

Can't be worse than XFX :awe:

^ what i think.


Powercolor does alot of neat things design wise.
They dont skimp too much on components or cooling solutions, which XFX does to "afford" to offer something like that lifetime warrenty (or Xfx just likes bigger margins).

Sometimes haveing a solid built card, that runs cooler > knowing you can always get it replaced.

If you plan on useing your card for like 5-10years, go Xfx for the lifetime warrenty, if not dont bother.

I actually think Powercolor have some very talented design guys, since they come up with some crazy solutions sometimes for cards. Their usually first to make passive cooled cards, and at higher levels than most others do (that speaks of good cooling design work).

 

[XiandreX]

I love my Powercolor 7950. Its one of the newer ones with great cooling and performance.
Mine runs 1150 Core no problem, havent overclocked the memory too much.

 

[tulx]

I have two XFX 5870ies, one of which I bought on launch day, so I'm perfectly satisfied with the durability.

 

[GaiaHunter]

The Powercolor PCS+ line of cards is quite good.

 

[brandonmatic]

The Powercolor PCS+ line of cards is quite good.

Yeah, the PCS+ cards are great (judging by reviews). I'm not so sure about their lower-end ones though. Nobody seems to ever review them.

 

[Meghan54]

I've heard the PCS+ cards from them are good. But I've seen some of their lower priced editions cut corners, like using electrolytic caps instead of solid caps when other brands, like Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, etc., are using solids in the same price range. Guess it depends upon where in the lineup of gpu's you're looking and how much you're spending.

 

[Techhog]

Forget what I said. Avoid Powercolor at all costs. Pick a different card, since based on what people are saying here, Powercolor cards require hard-modding even if you don't OC.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Forget what I said. Avoid Powercolor at all costs. Pick a different card, since based on what people are saying here, Powercolor cards require hard-modding even if you don't OC.

Hmmm?

 

[Techhog]

Hmmm?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35657057&postcount=22

 

[GaiaHunter]

74*C VRM is nothing.

It is a bit on the cheap side that they aren't cooling it but from what I see it works ok.

 

[Stuka87]

Owned and installed many PowerColor's, and never had any issues. Power Color is (or was last time I checked) the number two AIB for AMD cards, as far as number of units produced goes. Sapphire being the number one.

As for the above post stating to avoid them due to the lack of VRM cooling, many cards have no VRM cooling. And tests have shown the PCS+ runs quite a bit cooler than XFX's (not that this is saying much as XFX runs extremely hot).

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Owned a couple powercolors and never had a problem. 5770 PCS+ was killed by a bad PSU but that's about it.

 

[hjalti8]

What I like about the cooler design is that it exhausts much of the air through the back of the case, a bit like EVGA ACX coolers. Great for dual card setups.

Look at the orientation of the aluminum fins on those heatsinks:

Now where does all the hot air go ?