How to choose a 7900gt?

[Jaepheth]

A few questions.

First off, what are the good (reliable) brands of video card.

Second, I notice some cards have heat sinks that extend over the memory chips while others do not. Is this a crucial point to look for?

 

[Zebo]

They are all the same- look at PCB, caps..locations type etc. Nvidia tells them what they are allowed to use and where they can use them making them vitually identical. I'd get the one with best cooling..or favorite color or decent stock OC or cheapest or whatever floats your boat...

I got the XFX 7900GT because I like black. Cooling was not a factor since I water cool. Price was only $228 AR.

 

[scroller52]

basically all the brands r the same...but i would go with a stock oc'd version just cuz its faster and it wont void warranty, but will cost a lil more...i got the xfx extreme for 250AR

as for cooling, i went with a zalman fatal1ty cooler, which is same as vf-700

 

[Captante]

As has been stated, the cards themselves are pretty much the same except for clock/memory speed & warranty ... I'd go for one of the EVGA KO models because they offer pretty high factory overclocks, EVGA tech support is very good & also changing the cooling solution on the card will not void your warranty.

 

[yacoub]

eVGA N584 model. 7900GT KO. Heatsink actually covers the RAM chips too. Slightly better fan as well. No contest.