How would you rate different manufactures' quality, performance and reliability?

[Chicken76]

Brand and cooling solution examples:

• Gigabyte G1 Gaming / Windforce
• Asus STRIX
• Sapphire Nitro / Tri X
• MSI Gaming / Twin Frozr
• Club3D RoyalSeries

How would you rate the above according to criteria such as these:

• general build quality and quality of components used
• stock efficiency of the cooling solution (temps at default fan speeds)
• noise output (how noisy is it if fan speeds are adjusted to keep the same temperatures for cards from different vendors)

I'm not necessarily looking for a complete hierarchy, but informed advice more along the lines of:

• if gaming with the least amount of noise is your no. 1 priority, then brand X (with cooling solution X-X) is the best, with brand Y being a close second
• if keeping your GPU and VRMs cool is your top priority and you're willing to sacrifice quietness, then go with brand X
• if you're willing to pay more for something better built, with better components, go for brand X
• if you're looking for longevity in a 200W+ GPU (card will not cook itself in 3-4 years if case airflow is decent) then buy brand X

Also, a related question:

• is the extra space occupied by long (310mm+) triple fan card worth changing or modding your case? Is the cooling efficiency (of a Tri-X for example) significantly better than that of a dual fan card?

 

[Shmee]

I would put Sapphire nitro at the top, with the exception of the MSI lightning cards. I have heard mixed reviews of Gigabyte's and Asus AMD card coolers. Though I do not really know anything about the club3d cards, they could be good.

What series card are you looking at? 390? Get the nitro for sure IMO if this is the case.

 

[james1701]

My current card is the Sapphire Nitro, and my last card was a Gigabyte Windforce. The Sapphire Nitro is the quietest card I have ever had. The stock fan profile keeps it under the temp range set in the drivers. It has 0RPM idle mode, but when its running the stock profile, I still don't hear it. If I set the fans on manual mode at 50%, I can tell its barely running, but it will not break 57C.

The Gigabyte card is still a lot quieter than a reference fan. It's effective, but no where near as quiet as the Sapphire card. Both do a very good job at keeping the cards temps within specs.

 

[xthetenth]

I'd agree on the Sapphire coolers versus the Gigabyte. My system got quieter when I went from a 970 G1 Gaming with a Windforce on it to a Sapphire 290 Vapor-X. I hear the MSI cards are quite good as well, and I think they have a better warranty and reputation for support, so I'd take a look at comparisons.

 

[Seba]

My system got quieter when I went from a 970 G1 Gaming with a Windforce on it to a Sapphire 290 Vapor-X.

Anyone knows why they ditched Vapor-X (vapor chamber) coolers on R9 390 cards?

 

[xthetenth]

No idea. I'd expect cost. There's some things I wouldn't expect to see on a less than $400 card that I would on higher price ones, vapor chambers among them. I think that's mirrored by the differences between the reference 970 and 980.

 

[Chicken76]

Thank you guys for your recommendations.
I bought a Sapphire Nitro card (380X) and am very happy with it. It's clearly quieter than my previous card and the cooler keeps the temperatures pretty low.
At first I couldn't believe how quiet the card was during gaming, so I let the furry doughnut (a.k.a. Furmark) make it sweat a little, and to my surprise it kept the temperatures in the high sixties, and it was only slightly audible with the case closed.
I should also mention that this is a factory overclocked model.

So to conclude, very well done Sapphire, very well done indeed!

 

[Chicken76]

I wonder what the long three-fan cards with a power-hungry chip like Hawaii or Fiji underneath sound like.

 

[james1701]

Congrats on the new purchase. You are going to enjoy it.

If you want to put that card to good use, check out Uncle Gamer on Beam. That is Sapphire Ed's personal gaming channel with interactive nights. He also has Sapphire Nation on Sunday's where you can keep up on Sapphire updates.

 

[xthetenth]

I wonder what the long three-fan cards with a power-hungry chip like Hawaii or Fiji underneath sound like.

My case fans.

Even under Ashes' benchmark, my Vapor-X 290 only hits 80 and roughly 50% fans.

 

[Chicken76]

My case fans.

Even under Ashes' benchmark, my Vapor-X 290 only hits 80 and roughly 50% fans.

So the acoustics aren't much worse than those of 'regular' dual-fan cards?

 

[DigDog]

the G1 is a motherboard, and i personally try to use only gigabyte mobos, because of build quality and because Asus, their main contender, has horrible customer support, at least here in UK.

i have a 770 windforce, it performs very well, it's very quiet, cooler is easy to clean / not caked in gunk. have not really found a game that pushes it, so idk if it ever gets loud.

 

[3DVagabond]

So the acoustics aren't much worse than those of 'regular' dual-fan cards?

Triple fan is generally quieter because they can run slower and be as effective.

 

[Mercennarius]

I have a Sapphire Tri X 390X..very quiet, runs cool, awesome card.

 

[tential]

I've only bought sapphire cards. Their reviews are consistently the best in the metrics I cherish the most.

 

[thesmokingman]

They should all be the same if they are reference based. I've own ref based cards from powercolor, msi, xfx, and sapphire with similar silicon lottery results. It's in the customs that they finally start to separate themselves. Sapphire makes good quality cards but they are confused sometimes with what they want to be. They can make big ass cards liek the toxic but they are hamstrung with limitations defeating the point. MSI can make great cards like the lightning but at the sametime release turds liek the 4G gaming with parts dropped randomly all over the place losing reference format (no waterblocks) tradeoff for nothing. Powercolor and HSI are not really big players in the custom card overclocking race. Though Powercolor do have some design chops with their love of dual gpus.

 

[3DVagabond]

XFX is unbeatable in customer service. They make some great cards too.

 

[Mercennarius]

XFX is unbeatable in customer service. They make some great cards too.

XFX probably does have the best customer service.

 

[thesmokingman]

XFX has had to make great strides especially with them dropping their lifetime warranties. Remember just 5 years ago, that whole fiasco?

 

[4K_shmoorK]

XFX has had to make great strides especially with them dropping their lifetime warranties. Remember just 5 years ago, that whole fiasco?

Found the time you posted this and your name :biggrin:

AMD cards: Sapphire, for sure

Green cards: EVGA, MSI, or Gigabyte have all been decent for me. Only ever had a problem with ASUS's customer service.