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What GPU brands do you rely on?

trollolo

trollolo

Senior member
Opinions thread go! I've never custom built a PC, nor have i ever owned a desktop. Right now i'm trying to get a feel for which brands are accepted as quality, opinions are wanted, anal frustration resulting from fanboyism would be appreciated as well.

MSI? EVGA? what brands are most reliable for you? Which ones are best on keeping the promises on their warranties?
 
Well, they're not really GPU brands. They're sub-vendors; AMD and NVIDIA manufacture the GPUs themselves.

Having said that, I think you can't go wrong with EVGA, Sapphire, MSI, or ASUS. HIS, PowerColor, and Gigabyte are pretty good. XFX is meh, as is PNY and Zotac.

That would be my overall assessment.
 
only AMD and Nvidia make GPUs. are you talking about Graphics Cards? the GPU is just that chip in the middle of Graphics Cards

For Nvidia, I've always gone with eVGA
For AMD/ATI, I've tried all kinds but it seems that MSI overclocks better
 
After paying $650 for an 8800GTX From eVGA and getting screwed over because I forgot to register the card within 30 days, I will never buy from them again. The card never worked right, but it was kind of hard to tell with nVidia's awful Vista drivers. It's not like the registration date even matters when they give you a lifetime warranty anyway. :\

I usually buy XFX now as they're one of the few companies that provides a decent warranty and it's transferable to a second party. I've got a 5870, 6950 and a low-end 5450 from XFX, and all of them work rather well.
 
I'm a pretty big XFX fan. I've seen their double lifetime warranty first hand, they make good on it. Im also a fan of everything ASUS, though I cant justify this with any real facts.
 
ok so now i have a few good examples for reliability. what about heat management? i don't want to have to replace a 1st party heatsink with my own
 
Having had quite a few gfx cards die at the 3-4 year mark I am only buying ones with lifetime warranties now, evga or xfx depending on the gpu brand I'm going for.
 
I only tend to stay away from two brands: Evga and XFX, just because they sort of pissed me off. The cards I bought from them both worked fine.

In case you're wondering -

Evga tried to rip me off on a step-up ($50 to step up from a 7600 GT to another 7600 GT, and it was pretty nebulous).

After buying a new XFX card and trying to register it for the lifetime warranty it kept on coming back that the serial number was already registered. Mulitple calls to XFX support didn't solve anything. The card still works to this day, so I just let it go.
 
If you're worried about Cooling/Noise, then you'll definitely want some non-reference exotic Cooling Cards. MSI, Gigabyte, and a few others offer such Cards.
 
nardz84 said:
Having had quite a few gfx cards die at the 3-4 year mark I am only buying ones with lifetime warranties now, evga or xfx depending on the gpu brand I'm going for.
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3-4 year is the longest i could imagine staying with a GPU anyways. that card will be so outdated by then.

sandorski said:
If you're worried about Cooling/Noise, then you'll definitely want some non-reference exotic Cooling Cards. MSI, Gigabyte, and a few others offer such Cards.
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does reference refer to using the design that AMD/Nvidia came up with? and are they more expensive if they deviate from the stock form?
 
trollolo said:
3-4 year is the longest i could imagine staying with a GPU anyways. that card will be so outdated by then.



does reference refer to using the design that AMD/Nvidia came up with? and are they more expensive if they deviate from the stock form?
Click to expand...

Yes and Yes. Usually not much more expensive.
 
XFX used to be good. Now a lot of people are having problems with their 'lifetime' warranties not being honored, not to mention they use lower-quality components than reference at times to cut costs while not telling anyone about it. I think they're a dishonest company; therefore, I wouldn't recommend them (for now). In any case, there's few companies that have used these practices.
 
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It depends and changes depending on focus on a GPU company -- gamed on ATI high-end machines from 2001-2007 and nVidia for 2008 to current for high-end machines, but had AMD and nVidia sku's on mid-range machines through all the years. Both have offered amazing gaming impressions and memories.

Right now for an AIB -- really like the build quality of MSI Twin Frozr sku's. This may change though!
 
nardz84 said:
Having had quite a few gfx cards die at the 3-4 year mark I am only buying ones with lifetime warranties now, evga or xfx depending on the gpu brand I'm going for.
Click to expand...

Didn't eVGA get rid of their lifetime warranty? I know my 8800GTX qualified for it, but I believe it got axed shortly after that (early 2007).
 
Asus is my brand of choice, just what I'm familiar with. My laptop is Asus, my current 5770 is Asus, and the 5670 that I put in my brothers' PC is Asus. I did help a friend order Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 for his low-profile PC. I've also owned an EVGA Geforce 7300 GT and a EVGA Geforce 9800 GT.
 
I think EVGA and Asus are the top ones for products and customer service wise. Id say gigabyte and XFX are one tier below them. I always thought were good. XFX is one of the last left with lifetime warranties. Id never buy saphire, his, powercolor or msi. Just check some different forums for feedback on RMA's with those companies and youll see why.
 
Had been buying XFX last couple of years until I acutally needed warranty work. Took 2 weeks to get them to approve an rma and that only happened when I googled up a telephone number the rep I spoke with seemed bothered to be speaking with me and When I asked why it took so long he said they were busy. Im not sure If I will ever get my defective card fixed and returned. Just been unplesant dealing with them so far. Bought a EVGA to replace it and so far so good. They offer an advance rma process ($$$ extra) that could be useful though I agree the register within 30 days or lose the warranty is very cheesy of them. But after looking at the vendors without lifetime warranty they all seem to have massive issues.
 
Been having multiple brands of cards.
BFG 6600GT
MSI 7600GT
Palit 9600GT
Sapphire HD 4850
Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X
XFX HD 6850
ASUS GTX 560 Ti now

All those cards I kept them for 1 to 2 years and all went really well with them. Didn't had any troubles registering and passing the warraty to a second person with XFX.

But I prefer ASUS, MSI and Sapphire for the overall quality of their products.
 
Aikouka said:
Didn't eVGA get rid of their lifetime warranty? I know my 8800GTX qualified for it, but I believe it got axed shortly after that (early 2007).
Click to expand...

No. You do have to check the model numbers of the cards you buy though. Ones that end with "AR" have the lifetime warranty. Ones that end with "KR" have a 3 year warranty, and you have to pay an extra fee to get it extended to lifetime.

I've had good luck with cards from most brands, even PNY, but I trust eVGA and Asus the most. The only brand I've learned to avoid is MSI, after suffering from bad vid cards and mobos from them.
 
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