Who do you think makes the best AMD graphics cards?

[angel.ael17]

Who do you think makes the best AMD graphics cards?

Thanks for voting!

 

[wand3r3r]

MSI
(due to warranty too)

Then it's a tossup. I think Gigabyte has the next best warranty.

Asus last due to terrible warranty service. They make good cards but suck for warranties. The DCII cards are excellent otherwise.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Glad to hear MSI warranty is good.
I was about to say MSI also, even though I have 660. But TwinFrozr on this card is so quiet and cool, that I suppose it's similar on AMD cards as well.

 

[Stuka87]

MSI and Sapphire are tops for me. Although I have had very good experiences with PowerColor cards (Probably installed 30 or so of them over the years).

 

[Imouto]

What about all of them are bad?

Sapphire was busted for cheapening their cards using under spec components.
MSI has a hideous cooler less efficient and noisier than any other brand. If you ignore this then they're cool.
Gigabyte is locking the voltage in about all its lineup.
ASUS has a terribad customer service and had mounting issues in some cards.
XFX made the worst 7970/50 to date the rest of its cards are average at best.
Powercolor makes cards with the PCS+ cooler that seems a good performer with low acoustics.
Club3D makes average at best stuff. At least they're cheap often.
HIS makes the IceQ x2 cooler and it's fairly good but it's pretty expensive. The rest are average at best.

I only included warranty info for ASUS because they have a legendary bad rep really dunno about the others or their CS.

 

[nwo]

I have:
Asus 7790s
MSI 7870
XFX 7870 Double D
XFX 7850 Core
Sapphire 7870

I like MSI the best. Yes, they have hideous coolers which are very loud at higher RPM, but they seem to have the most efficient cooling. My MSI card is the most silent and the coolest of the bunch.

XFX on the other hand has the best warranty (Double D version has lifetime warranty) but their cards run extremely hot at stock speeds which is a shame because they seem to be great overclockers (both 7870 and 7850). I have mine cranked at 100% fan speed and I can hardly hear it over my other fans. Also have an XFX 7850 Core edition. Card overclocks great at stock voltage, runs hot, fan is not very loud.

Sapphire 7870 seems like a cheap build to me, it is in between XFX and MSI as far as cooling is concerned but it seems to make a lot of noise at certain fan speed %.

I love my Asus 7790s. They run cool and silent and the build quality seems to be pretty decent.

Temps are big for me, and if XFX started putting better coolers on their cards, they would be a #1 contender for me. In the meantime, MSI gets my vote because I know they have great customer service/warranty because I have RMAd a bunch of motherboards about a decade ago. Hopefully their service has not changed.

I have not tried Gigabyte although I am looking forward to trying them out, looks like they have really good coolers.

 

[Racan]

IMO any of the big three (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI).

 

[PliotronX]

Never have had a problem with Sapphire cards dating back to my 9700 Pro. This 7850 will be my first and last Gigabyte video card however...

My friends like MSI and Asus.

 

[nwo]

This 7850 will be my first and last Gigabyte video card however...

Why?

 

[Jimzz]

I try and avoid Asus. Their ERMA service was horrible. Took almost a month to get a video card back from them.

 

[Stuka87]

IMO any of the big three (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI).

Gigabyte is not one of the big three.

Sapphire is the #1 AMD AIB manufacturer (PC Partner whom owns Sapphire is #2 for all GPU's behind Palit)

ASUS is in 3rd position, MSI is in 4th, Gigabyte is in 5th, and TUL (PowerColor here) is in 6th. This is across nVidia and AMD based cards.

 

[PliotronX]

Why?

The BIOS is locked, it's a shoddy non-reference design, doesn't OC for crap; the dynamic clocks don't react well with videos particularly flash videos north of 50MHz on the core and sometimes clocks don't apply right (overdrive/ulps disabled). I put an Accelero S1 with two 12cm fans on it that keep it below 50 degrees. I don't have time or a backup card (Q6600 w/o APU) to RMA and a conscience because poor OC is not the manufacturers fault but man worst overclocking GPU I've ever had. This cheap GTX 650 I got for a different system by comparison OC's like a demon and no flickering or crashing.

 

[Firestorm007]

MSI, hands down...

 

[ChuckFx]

I never owned an Asus GPU yet (2 R9 270X DC2T on the way) but all they build in tech is usally very solid. We have to highlight the Lifetime warranty XFX provide for their Dual D cards which is exceptional so they have to be good or they would loose money. I often read good comments from MSI as well.

 

[hjalti8]

MSI was the only AIB that I know of that did not voltage lock ANY of their 7950/7970 cards.
Plus their custom cards are usually among the best.

Though buying blindly is always a bad idea since every AIB makes mistakes.

 

[Silverforce11]

Powercolor and HIS custom board are IMO, the best balance in cooling/noise. PCS+ never had any voltage lock as some other AIBs did.

Both uses 92mm fan designs and lots of heatpipes/fins. Great even with an OC as they run relatively quiet.

 

[Attic]

MSI's newer generations stuff uses larger fans than most of the other guys. Makes for quieter cards.

Though MSI does sometimes have useless plastic overhanging ends of cards that makes for frustration in tight fitting cases.

 

[Jacky60]

My 6990's were Asus, mediocre overclockers and their oc utility was turgid, had plenty of Sapphire in the past and they were generally good, only ever had a problem with XFX who sold me a card that they had surgically removed the silicon testicles from to give themselves $3 more profit. An XFX '5870' voltage locked and core GPU speed locked 50mhz above reference, s**t overclocker with uber cheap caps. Will never buy any XFX product again and slightly annoyed the cheap f**kers haven't gone bust yet. Voted MSI as both my 290s whizz along at 1050 at 75C consistently.

 

[Arkadrel]

I like sapphire for its quality components and decentish cooling, while haveing good prices.

If you want the absolute best cooling ect,... then probably Asus or MSI.

 

[geokilla]

I voted XFX simply for its lifetime warranty. Yes the coolers aren't that good, but their warranty makes up for it imo. It's also very modder friendly, which makes me playing around with VDCC a bit easier as there's "less risk" involved. Unless something has changed, having lifetime warranty with my XFX 7950 basically means a free GPU when it craps out in the future. Contacting XFX seems to be next to impossible though..

It was the same reason why I went with BFG for my 9600GT a long time ago.

I'm biased btw. This is my first AMD GPU... I'd probably be happy going with MSI or ASUS as well.

 

[Arkadrel]

I dislike Xfx simply because their Cooling solutions are always horrible, and their cost saveings come from useing the cheapest possible solutions for components they can (usually at the cost of quality).

Your much more likely to get a card that ll die on you if you buy Xfx, because of its build.

That to me counters the life time warranty. I rather have something that doesnt break down, than knowing I can get it replaced when it happends.

 

[geokilla]

I dislike Xfx simply because their Cooling solutions are always horrible, and their cost saveings come from useing the cheapest possible solutions for components they can (usually at the cost of quality).

Your much more likely to get a card that ll die on you if you buy Xfx, because of its build.

That to me counters the life time warranty. I rather have something that doesnt break down, than knowing I can get it replaced when it happends.

Any reviews on such cost cutting? I use Hardware Canucks which is well respected, and the 7950 that they tested was excellent iirc. I'd have to read it again to make sure..

 

[blastingcap]

Believe it or not, XFX seems to have learned its lesson after the 7000-series. The 280X DD is voltage unlocked and its cooler is pretty decent, plus it has lifetime warranty--something that very few cards can say these days.

 

[Headfoot]

Avoid ASUS like the plague. Absolute crap RMA service. I literally have never once gotten them to actually fix anything and I've sent in 4 different things (laptop, 3 mobos). They just held on to my stuff for a month then sent it back unfixed with absolutely no note or email or anything saying what happened or why

 

[blackened23]

edit: nvm