Do video card brand names matter?

[Griffmstr]

So back when I built this computer I didn't have a lot of budget to throw around so I put a decent but far from great card in it. An XFX R9 380. At the time that was a massive upgrade for me. However now days it is a bit old and I have some budget to use this time around so I figured I'd upgrade. Going to be getting the GTX 1070. I could get the 1080 but that is about a $100 difference and while it is an upgrade the 1070 is already a massive upgrade. I don't need to spend that money right at this moment.

However now I actually have to consider brand names. I'm basically torn between the Asus one that the build of the month suggests, and the EVGA one.

Both EVGA and Asus make good products in my experience. I had an Asus monitor forever before I upgraded to the one I use now, and my current motherboard is Asus. EVGA makes arguably some of the best power supplies out there.

I guess I'm just asking does it really matter? Or should I just go with whichever is cheaper or I am more comfortable with buying?

[pansertjald]

With Gigabyte, Asus and Evga, you wont go wrong

[SinR]

The Radeon 970 I bought from Gigabyte died in less than a year. Ended up getting an MSI Radeon 980 to replace it.

[potis]

Discussion about it is pointless.

Each company has its shenanigans every different revision, aka every few months, you cant know what "Brand is good".

The overly deep searching with the 970s as example pointed out a lot of things about it when they were relevant with the extreme overclockers, same cards, different chips, different capacitors on same revisions bla bla bla, same with 660s before and i think 480s before that? Dont remember well.

Aka, one card can be "THE BEST OUT THERE" and 3 months after they used something extra shitty like capacitors and RMAing like crazy.

Instead of going with which brand is better, its literally "Which brand has the most responsive RMA in my country", which is EVGA usually for the US side.

Simply go with whatever you can find cheaper or spend a bit more money on looks, or depending on your country, the better RMA.

As example for Greece, all GPU RMA happens in Athens--->Holland-->Back to Athens, which means whatever brand i buy, the RMA is the same.

[Katchii]

In short, yes. It's not about which brand is better per se, but about which brands are good.

ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte and PNY are generally solid choices. EVGA is usually at the top, though.

To @SinR , I would highly doubt the card died simply because it was a Gigabyte card. There are far too many factors involved. That said, every brand can make a dud every now and then, which sucks for the people who get them, but doesn't speak to the brand quality as a whole.

[Okacz]

From my experiance EVGA and ASUS are always the best you can get. Gigabytes would be up there too, but my last purchase had terrible coil whine. Shit happens, but still sour.

Anyway, you should always try to get the card from the 3 above, Sapphire or MSI usually aren't that much worse. Don't ever go for Zotac.

[Gilgallad]

Not that much, but there are some companies that are infamous for producing lower quality hardware.

From personal experience, I'd say that Powercolor is one of them. I've used Sapphire, Gigabyte and
Powercolor cards, and the first two, ignoring the occasional lame or defective cooler, were the most
trustworthy.

[Miyagie]

From my experiance EVGA and ASUS are always the best you can get. Gigabytes would be up there too, but my last purchase had terrible coil whine. Shit happens, but still sour.

Anyway, you should always try to get the card from the 3 above, Sapphire or MSI usually aren't that much worse. Don't ever go for Zotac.

Didnt Zotac improved massiv over the last years ? If i remember the Guru3D review right the 1080ti from Zotac was the fasted, coolest and quietest ti card.

[Okacz]

Didnt Zotac improved massiv over the last years ? If i remember the Guru3D review right the 1080ti from Zotac was the fasted, coolest and quietest ti card.

That's interesting to hear, I was mostly looking at Gigabyte and Asus Strix models of 1080 TI, I guess I must have completly overlooked the Zotac one. From quick read in the internet it does look like a great option, most likely better than Gigabytes.

[Deleted]

That's interesting to hear, I was mostly looking at Gigabyte and Asus Strix models of 1080 TI, I guess I must have completly overlooked the Zotac one. From quick read in the internet it does look like a great option, most likely better than Gigabytes.

Think buildzoid did a youtube review of the zotac 1080ti, I've not watched it and he was probably trying to shove(non-literal))450w into it, so bear that in mind.

[Shakadam]

EVGA more often than not tend to have a louder cooler than a comparable product from MSI, Asus, Palit, and occasionally some others.

[Lynarii]

For the most part, you should just peek at the reviews on a brand you don't recognize to make sure you're not getting a cheap knockoff, but the performance of the card is usually similar enough across all the major brands that you can't really bet on one or another being noticeably better very often. Once you get off the big name brands, you want to check out the specific quirks of the brand in a little more detail. For example, I use a Club 3D video card, which is amazing price/performance, but is noticeably louder than most other options. Definitely something worth knowing before you buy.

[ali725]

So back when I built this computer I didn't have a lot of budget to throw around so I put a decent but far from great card in it. An XFX R9 380. At the time that was a massive upgrade for me. However now days it is a bit old and I have some budget to use this time around so I figured I'd upgrade. Going to be getting the GTX 1070. I could get the 1080 but that is about a $100 difference and while it is an upgrade the 1070 is already a massive upgrade. I don't need to spend that money right at this moment.

However now I actually have to consider brand names. I'm basically torn between the Asus one that the build of the month suggests, and the EVGA one.

Both EVGA and Asus make good products in my experience. I had an Asus monitor forever before I upgraded to the one I use now, and my current motherboard is Asus. EVGA makes arguably some of the best power supplies out there.

I guess I'm just asking does it really matter? Or should I just go with whichever is cheaper or I am more comfortable with buying?

Some brands are more recognized and slightly powerful but mostly the same. Best known brands are usually Asus, Evga, MSI, Gigabyte.

I had lower name brands like Powercolor but honestly it lasted me years and never failed and was strong. So its mostly a luck draw sometimes and each of the brands have something they focus on improving on the chip set then others. Some have slightly more power, some better cooling. more inputs...etc

[DeltrusDisc]

The Radeon 970 I bought from Gigabyte died in less than a year. Ended up getting an MSI Radeon 980 to replace it.

Sad to hear. Gigabyte is pretty damned good when the card isn't a dud. Who knows...

[moremana]

The Radeon 970 I bought from Gigabyte died in less than a year. Ended up getting an MSI Radeon 980 to replace it.

AMD made a 970 and 980? I have never seen one. Pics please!

OT, most have their ups and downs, coil whine happens on all of them here and there, some not as bad. However Asus and EVGA seem to be less problem prone. I can say this. EVGAs warranty and returns department is stellar. Asus, and the others...not so much. You can get it done, its like a act of congress though.

[Tiberria]

My personal experience with Gigabyte is awful. The last two times I have done full upgrades, I initially bought a Gigabyte card and had to return it due to manufacturing specific issues. The first time was a Gigabyte R9 390. I could not get it to stop blue screening in games like GTA 5 due to some combination of hardware and driver failures. AMD blamed Gigabyte, and Gigabyte blamed AMD, and based on forum comments, non-Gigabyte R9 390's didn't have the issue, so I just ended up returning it and getting a 980 Ti. When I upgraded a few months ago, I went with a Gigabyte Aorus 1080 Ti. It basically arrived DOA - one of the fans didn't work, and the temperature sensing/fan control curve was completely messed up, causing the fans to spin up to 100% (and not be controllable/able to reduce through software) randomly even with the card at 40 C. That one also went back and I just stuck with a reference 1080 Ti. With 2 different major failures, Gigabyte is pretty much on my avoid list going forward.

Some things from my experience.
- Yes they may have higher temperatures an slightly lower clocks, but Nvidia reference cards seem to have higher standards/build quality/stability than aftermarket cards. I also don't find their current blower style reference cards noticably different from a noise perspective than aftermarket cards (my 1080 Ti Reference is quieter than my EVGA FTW 980 Ti was).
- AMD reference cards are awful, and AMD cards in general (from all manufacturers) seem to be a dodgier bet in terms of stability, etc. A lot of it is probably more drivers than hardware.
- I have had really good luck with MSI video cards/motherboards relative to other top manufacturers. I think their cooling system design for aftermarkets cards is one of the best in terms of performance but I also find it extremely ugly.
- EVGA cards tend to be louder/have a noisier base fan curve because they insist on using a 2 slot card design when everyone else is using 3 slots for aftermarket. They also have the reputation for extremely good customer service/returns relative to the Asian manufacturers, but that probably only holds if you are in the US.
- Like MSI, any Asus products I have had from video cards to motherboards to laptops and monitors have been rock solid/without significant issues. However, their video cards tend to carry a price premium - at least here in Canada - relative to MSI/Gigabyte/EVGA.

[Holofernes]

look for its noise levels in tests. stuff with low noise emission is a hint for high quality product in electronics. Its easy to slap on a card and make it loud. Its not so easy to make a card that runs fast and also keep it quiet. Its like the difference of driving a high class mercedes vs a chevrolet or ford. U just feel the difference in quality by starting the engine and feeling the vibration and the noise.

[Salty Maud]

With pascal (GTX 10XX) it matters little. Provided the cooling is adequate, it's the GPU (provided by nvidia) that limits the overclocking before the board does. GTX 1080 for example, whether you reach 2000 or 2100MHz is up to silicon lottery rather than having a cheap vs premium model.

If you want inexpensive cool+quiet, i definitely suggest you to take a look at palit jetstream/gamerock cards. They may be ugly and unpopular, but the cooler they have is a monster.

At this point i would also suggest you to wait for 1070ti, it should be a better buy (price to performance wise) than both the 1070 and 1080.

[pansertjald]

With pascal (GTX 10XX) it matters little. Provided the cooling is adequate, it's the GPU (provided by nvidia) that limits the overclocking before the board does. GTX 1080 for example, whether you reach 2000 or 2100MHz is up to silicon lottery rather than having a cheap vs premium model.

If you want inexpensive cool+quiet, i definitely suggest you to take a look at palit jetstream/gamerock cards. They may be ugly and unpopular, but the cooler they have is a monster.

At this point i would also suggest you to wait for 1070ti, it should be a better buy (price to performance wise) than both the 1070 and 1080.

The test i have seen this far, puts it between the 1070 and 1080, so i don't really get why they made the 1070ti

[apepi]

Some Video Card brands offer better warranties.