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Video card manufacturers matter??

runzwithsizorz

runzwithsizorz

Diamond Member
I'm considering uprading video card in a few months for gaming. I usually buy MSI or Giabite. However, I notice Mfenn sometimes suggests "lesser"? brands such as Power Color, Zotec. Been gaming for awhile and in the "old days" cheaper video cards were terrible. Are these vid cards now acceptable or should I stick with MSI??

I don't mind spending extra $$$ for a higher quality card MSI, Gigabite...but are they still considered "better quality?"

The Wife
 
The brand only matters insofar as the cooler and warranty.

IMHO there's not really a systemic difference between the big multi-segment guys like Gigabyte, MSI, ASUS, and Zotac and the GPU-only guys like PowerColor and Sapphire. I have no qualms recommending cards from any of those brands (and a few others), there's certainly not a difference in overall "quality" beyond the capabilities of the coolers attached to specific cards (of which there may be several per manufacturer).
 
I'll just add one more thing - sometimes the brand to go with differs based on the GPU. For instance, Sapphire has one of the best coolers for the R9 290 series, whereas it doesn't have a stand-out cooler on the R9 270 series.

Likewise, Gigabyte has an excellent cooler for use on the GTX 970/980, but it also sells a 960 model with the same triple-fan cooler, which is simply not worth the price premium it demands given the low power draw of that GPU. And Asus had the best cooler among any GTX 780 models, which translated to the worst cooler available on the R9 290.

If I were to pick one brand that almost universally has excellent cooler designs regardless of the GPU brand or class of cards, it would be MSI. That does not mean, however, that there aren't equally good products in each GPU segment in which MSI competes.
 
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mfenn said:
The brand only matters insofar as the cooler and warranty.

IMHO there's not really a systemic difference between the big multi-segment guys like Gigabyte, MSI, ASUS, and Zotac and the GPU-only guys like PowerColor and Sapphire. I have no qualms recommending cards from any of those brands (and a few others), there's certainly not a difference in overall "quality" beyond the capabilities of the coolers attached to specific cards (of which there may be several per manufacturer).
Click to expand...
What about the higher end overclocking models, they don't use the reference design and have beefed up components.
 
Some brands are known to use better components, but "better" is obviously relative. In many case the "lower" components are just fine...
 
The only reason some like me say stay with OEM video card makers is that sometimes the third party companies that LIC the tech from ATI/AMD or NVIDIA will sometimes tweak the drivers just to work just right with their video card.

Not sure if they still tweak their drivers but I was a victim of buying such a card then went not to the manufaq of that video card but went to ATI and the OEM ati driver was cooking my video card. So I reverted back to the driver on the CD and everything was ok again.

I learned my lesson and refuse to accept any third party video card because I felt cheated. So now I only use pure ATI/AMD or pure NVIDIA cards.
 
The lil boy in me wishes the VooDoo line of video cards would still be made.
Man I really miss it when my voodoo card died.
 
inachu said:
The only reason some like me say stay with OEM video card makers is that sometimes the third party companies that LIC the tech from ATI/AMD or NVIDIA will sometimes tweak the drivers just to work just right with their video card.

Not sure if they still tweak their drivers but I was a victim of buying such a card then went not to the manufaq of that video card but went to ATI and the OEM ati driver was cooking my video card. So I reverted back to the driver on the CD and everything was ok again.

I learned my lesson and refuse to accept any third party video card because I felt cheated. So now I only use pure ATI/AMD or pure NVIDIA cards.
Click to expand...

This sounds like some experience from many years ago which isn't relevant today. None of the players in the desktop AIB space have custom drivers. Everyone uses the reference drivers. They may host them on their site, but they're just alternate download sites for the official ones.
 
Termie said:
I'll just add one more thing - sometimes the brand to go with differs based on the GPU. For instance, Sapphire has one of the best coolers for the R9 290 series, whereas it doesn't have a stand-out cooler on the R9 270 series.

Likewise, Gigabyte has an excellent cooler for use on the GTX 970/980, but it also sells a 960 model with the same triple-fan cooler, which is simply not worth the price premium it demands given the low power draw of that GPU. And Asus had the best cooler among any GTX 780 models, which translated to the worst cooler available on the R9 290.

If I were to pick one brand that almost universally has excellent cooler designs regardless of the GPU brand or class of cards, it would be MSI. That does not mean, however, that there aren't equally good products in each GPU segment in which MSI competes.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Excellent expansion. This is what I was getting at when I said, "capabilities of the coolers attached to specific cards," but you stated it much more eloquently.
 
I tend to be a hardware "follower." I watch when something new is released; I read the reviews for various brands; I then analyze customer reviews at reseller sites to sift out the incompetent malcontents from those with indications of common problems.

For instance, the ASUS Strix GTX 970 got a lot of customer reviews complaining about "coil whine." I may have had a bad experience with an MSI AGP card years back, and previously avoided them. This time, I picked the MSI over the ASUS or EVGA.

Is it quiet? Yes. Is it cool? Yes. Does it have 4GB of VRAM? Well . . . yes . . . and no . . . You know! Don't you?
 
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