Video Card Manufacturer Suggestions

Technology and Gaming
#1

I’ve been looking around at PC components lately, as I’ll be building a new PC some time in the next few months. The graphics card I’ve basically settled on at this point is an nVidia GTX 580. It looks to be available for a pretty decent price, and I don’t need the insane-tier GTX 590.

The purpose of this thread is not for the lot of you to convince me that I would be better off with a different card/an ATI card/two cheaper cards in SLI, etc. Browsing newegg and cnet for the most inexpensive version of this card, I’ve found versions of the card by about nine manufacturers. I’d like to know whether any of you have had good/bad experiences with some of the major video card manufacturers, and what your recommendations might be. I’m leaning towards Asus or eVGA right now.

#2

I’ve got an ASUS GTX570 Direct CU II and I’m very happy with it.

I dont use the utilities that it ships with though.

#3

I’ve got a zotac geforce 9800, only it’s underclocked. I’m not sure if zotac make a gtx 580 though.

#4

EVGA is best for nvidia imo and I’ve heard that XFX is the best for ATi.

With that said, my next video card will most likely be an EVGA GTX 560 or possibly 580 if I can somehow manage to get the cash together, so I’d go with one of those if you want to be good on a video card for a while.

#5

EVGA(preferable) or ASUS. I’ve had issues with xfx mobos, but idk about graphics

#6

Honestly provided it is an extra value brand (a stores own brand) card you should be okay. Zotac, PNY, Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, Sapphire, EVGA, XFX should all be quality cards (provided they make your choice) so just go for the cheapest.

#7

I agree with this, their all basically the same.

Only slight difference sometimes is for instance XFX may increase the core clock speed a bit or maybe memory access time beyond the stock reference board. These can be slightly more expensive, but can give maybe 2-3 FPS more in some games, depends on engine. Though are you going to notice that difference??

Though if you want me to give an actual brand, I would say Asus is good. I have gone with Asus for both mainboard and graphics card quite a few times (because they were decent price) and have had no problems at all.

Then again I have had no problems with any brand what so ever.

#8

Sapphire makes their own heatsinks for the cards. I recommend them.

#9

Recently bought a new rig with 2x Asus Nvidia GTX 580 in SLI mode.
No complaints so far.

#10

I’ve been using EVGA since the 6800 series came out, and have had no problems. I’ve given away my old cards to friends when I upgraded, and the EVGAs are the only ones that are still working. I’ve also been using their motherboards for the last 3 upgrades I did (core2 duo system for a media center, core2 quad (for my previous gaming setup which is currently at a friends house 130 miles away. I hate traveling with mt PC.), and my current home/gaming/multimedia Core I7 950, which I’ve overclocked to 4 GHz on stock cooling with no issues.

The first machine is running a single 8600 GT and plays movies and audio with nor issues, and is good for light gaming (Minecraft, Magic the Gathering, online games).

The second machine is running dual 8800 GTX cards in SLI, which is still good for most games (some of the newer games can’t play at highest settings, or in native DX10 or 11).

The third machine is running dual GTS 450 FPB cards in SLI, and I haven’t found anything I can’t run at highghest settings yet. It’s been a while since I ran 3D Mark Vantage, but my current system was about double the score of my previous one.

I know this is all anecdotal, but I’ll stick with them until I have a bad experience which they won’t or can’t resolve. That’s how MSI and AMD/ATI lost my business, and Crucial is getting close to losing it (2 bad memory sticks in 4 months. At the very least, stay away from their Ballistix brand).

#11

This. This, and more this.

Both supply lifetime warranties (and I know XFX has double-lifetime, i.e. you can sell the card to someone and THEY get lifetime warranty too) and I believe eVGA supports overclocking (i.e. they will warrant your card if you blow it to hell with too much juice).

If you don’t care about warranty and product support, then I suggest you L2Google and try “nvidia 590 roundup” or “nvidia 590 review”.

#12

Looks like eVGA, then. I was leaning towards them anyway, as they seem to have the most inexpensive cards. Thanks for your opinions.

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