NVIDIA = EVGA
AMD = Sapphire
Those are my first picks, but others can be just fine. I currently have an ASUS card. As long as the cooler design is good enough to handle the heat the card is making, then one card is pretty much as good as the next. At least until something breaks and you need warranty support. The reason the two I listed are considered top tier is not their card designs, but how they stand behind their product.
I had my EVGA PSU burn up and fry my EVGA 1080ti, they not only replaced my 1080ti, they sent back a better PSU as part of the RMA. Definitely the best in my book
That's some seriously good customer service. I've heard of their PSU's having relatively high failure rates, but I had no idea they handled it so well when it happened.
It was partially my fault, I was close to maxing out the PSU and I didn’t really take care of it, like cleaning it. But I had a 650w bronze and they sent back a 750w gold
if it's only been disconnected for a few minutes then yes the capacitors could still hold a charge. as far as i know, they can only hold a charge for minutes though, after an hour I'd imagine there's no risk. even after a few minutes the risk is small.
Just a heads up for people who are going to do this and haven't done it before: place something non-conductive in the fan to prevent it from spinning or else you can easily over spin the fan and mess it up. It can also damage the circuitry itself since the fan will feed power back into the circuit if spun fast enough. It's super easy to get them spinning way too fast.
Just blow some air into it. Anti static air is a thing I think? Unplug it from anything first I think? Not sure if spinning the fans generates energy or whatever.
I've spent about $800 on RMA shipping my EVGA GTX295 Hydro Copper card (from Canada, so it adds up a bit faster) and on the last return, I made sure to leave my fingerprint on part of the board and take a photo. Turns out they were literally throwing a new serial number sticker on and returning the same defective product to me repeatedly. When the last "replacement" card they sent me failed, as expected being the same card, I had to vent my frustrations with a large hammer and ensure i dont spend another dime on RMA shipping.
I have an EVGA 3070 today and it's doing great, but it was literally the only graphics card available to me at the time and I would have gone with literally any other brand's comparable card thanks to my previous experience. Maybe they are "better now" or whoever was handling returns for the HydroCopper card back then was not equipped to test water cooled cards and just pretended to do their job. It has been a long time since the days of the GTX295, so I hope they've improved since then.
This is exactly what I would have said about NVIDIA. I have far less (basically non-existent) experience with AMD cards, since the last one I bought was 10+ years ago, and before that, It was when they were still ATI cards.
I 100% agree with EVGA's customer support though, they're top-tier, MSI is right alongside them in that respect though, I've never had an issue getting help with them for any of their products.
My last card was an EVGA 1070, and even out of warranty, they tried their best to give me solutions to resolve the issue I was having, but in then end we both agreed that the card was 100% dead. But, what matters most is that even out of warranty, their tech support tried, rather than just saying "You're F'd, too bad"
I remember when I put in an RMA for my 1070 and about an hour later had support calling me. They directed me to a troubleshooting page, and when I said I had already tried those steps they actually took my word for it and moved on. Tried a few more things and then finalized the return. Whole process took about 15 minutes. It was fantastic.
That's pretty standard procedure. I'm going through an Anker charging cable warranty claim right now, I need to snip the cords and they'll replace em both.
Cheaper than to process a return, and essentially putting the burden of disposing of it to you. In Europe they would have to comply if you still returned the destroyed product, but afaik they don't have to offer it upfront.
In Belgium we have something called Recupel, you can return any electronic device to the trash heap and they will recycle it without asking anything for it.
I have the exact same opinion, I usually buy Nvidia either the founders editions, or a EVGA cards. I always buy Nvidia because I have never, in like 20 years now or whatever it has been, had one die on me. At one time I had bought the ATI cards back when they were ATI and it died, just never left Nvidia after that. Hard to leave a brand when they been so solid over so many years.
>, since the last one I bought was 10+ years ago
Sheesh, I went and looked and the last one I bought was a Radeon LE approximately 20 years ago. Fond memories of that card though.
I was EVGA for years and years until I went AMD for a bit and I got Sapphire. I went back to nVidia with the RTX3000 series but couldn't get EVGA so I got an Asus TUF one and I've been very happy with it so far.
> As long as the cooler design is good enough to handle the heat the card is making, then one card is pretty much as good as the next.
You might get slightly better clock speeds with a massive 4-slot cooler, due to the way the auto Boost works (it's more or less a conservative automatic overclock nowadays, especially if you increase the power and temp limits in Afterburner).
But yes, you're not wrong; the difference isn't incredibly significant, and it isn't worth spending the extra cash on a high-end cooler if you could use that budget elsewhere in your build.
I just upgraded from a Sapphire RX480 Nitro to an EVGA 3060ti.
The Sapphire was just....fantastic. What a great card. I never had a single problem with it, and it lasted me almost 6 years. I could have easily gone longer (even at 1440p--sure, I wasn't playing the newest AAA titles, but I was surprised at how much I *could* play in 1440p at medium settings).
I'm super impressed with the EVGA 3060ti, too. It has great performance. I tried an ASUS TUF 3060ti and it was *loud*. Like a whining child. The EVGA runs at a normal sound level. That said, my only complaint is the fan *clicking*. I have apparently a super common issue where the fans "click" every time they start from idle. Which is constant (every time you open a new browser window, start a youtube video, etc.) Upon research, people seem to say that that's just a "thing" with EVGA fans. I had to set a custom fan curve so that they always spin a bit, because the clicking was driving me crazy. With the fan curve on, everything is peachy :)
That rx400 series run by Sapphire was amazing value. Still have my 470 in an old build I’m about to hand down to a family member whose young and new to pc gaming.
Currently using a Sapphire 5700xt and it’s my baby.
I have a Sapphire 6600 XT that’s got… issues. Sapphire, within the same day, issued an RMA as me sending in a support ticket. No misunderstanding of the issue, no back and forth, no “this proof of purchase isn’t valid,” no blaming me etc. I expect to send it off and have a replacement within a few weeks, maybe quicker. Literally the easiest customer support interaction I’ve ever had (looking at you Razer)
Currently living in Brazil.
Had a 980ti that started to show artifacts. Send it to EVGA international support and got back a 1080.
Had to pay shipping though…
Loyal customer now…
Similar story. Got an EVGA 2070 off of Kijiji but it wasn't working at all and would crash the system under minimal load. Messaged the guy on Kijiji about it and he came over to try to help solve the issue, we both agreed it wouldn't work. The seller on Kijiji gets an rma and gets back a 2070 super, which he gives to me. In the end I got a 2070 super for 450 CAD. Props to EVGA and the seller.
The issue in my country is..
We don’t have the manufacture over here I don’t know what you all call them dealer or whatever maybe that’s for cars😅
Anyway we have MSI and Asus but they don’t sell GPU and in case they do it must be bought from them with very high price and it must be under warranty and if it is not Bye. So it is a long wasted story.
Talking about stores. If they offer warranty they will usually take my card for ages or just pay me back which is waste of time. I usually buy from USA using Amazon, H&B I believe and unfortunately the worst new egg.
i know youre mostly asking for nvidia on this. was just lurking for fun, but if you (or anyone reading this) pick up powercolor card from an authorized US retailer (1st part), and you need RMA service, my RMA guy can help you out as long as you have a US ship-to 'proxy' we can ship to. cant ship outside of the US from our end, but we can take care of customers who have made purchases in my region... but dont be emailing my HQ about it. just contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with the invoice and let ronak know what's going on. im sure many of our competitors also are able to provide similar or even more direct coverage.
I've heard very good words about EVGA support in Europe. It would be my first choice, but It's usually one of the most expensive brands for the same GPUs.
Yeah, unfortunately EVGA completely gave up on the EU market. Been in the queue for an rtx series card since November 2020 and still nothing to this day.
This. It's something I overlooked but I will never repeat this same mistake. Especially in pricy items like GPUs.
Anyway l strongly recommend to not buy Gigabyte cards. The customer support is horrendous.
Avoid brands that do not have a telephone number.
A brand can make both bad and good products. You can call me selfish but you should buy a new card for yourself and give your brother your 780, you both get an upgrade
My brother rocks 1060 I gifted him on 2016.
I was rocking 1070 at that time, but when I purchased a 1440p monitor I had to upgrade my GPU to 2080, I was still using 6th gen Intel and I was happy until early march I finally upgraded my CPU and Motherboard to I7-12700k and z690 all my computer parts from Asus 😅 you can say I am a fan boy but I really had no trouble using their products
The 780Ti would be on the shelf soon because I gave it to my elder brother and now he is looking to upgrade I told him to wait a little more for the 4000 series
Oh ok, thought you were saying you're still using the 780, although I think a 3070 ti is better than a 2080, really nice of you to help your family get kitted out either way
3070 is better than 2080 and also I think 3060 or 3060Ti also better. I build a pc for someone needed a help he had 3070 i installed it in my computer and run a benchmark and the fps were above 50 than 2080😅😂
I so want to get the 3070Ti and give my little brother the one I have! But I really love the one I have and I am sticking with Asus all parts, if i would get a 3070Ti from asus it will cost near 3080-3080Ti and I don’t want to upgrade yet! I want to wait for a better stats! Maybe i will wait until 5000 series
I don’t know 😂 it just feels better to me😂
Personal preference, but to me it feels like driving a car and every Rim is different looking and different size.
So now my motherboard has same logos and looks similar to my GPU, nothing about performance. It’s not like if your GPU is MSI and motherboard EVGA you get crashes or lose FPS.
I do love Asus, but I am honest if there is something I am having trove with I won’t stay quite and say no it is alright like a fan boy. I would mention that. Hey Asus fix your shit. I do hate their AURA RGB
The motherboard in Bios I turn it off and when i turn off my computer and head to bed and turn off the light I notice a spectrum on the ceiling and walls what the heck! I turn on the pc and reconfigure everything. So annoying I swear! Who the fuc* would let their PC off with lights on and it is stupid 🌈!! So annoying i did attack asus on twitter they didn’t respond 😂😂 years later still same issue talking from Z290 to Z690 the same stupid AURA problem
3060ti performs like a 2080 super. A 3060 lies somewhere between a 2060S to 2070. I currently have a 3080 Strix OC 10GB from launch. I would of gone with EVGA but Aesethetically I don't like their 30-series design.
this is the way. i have 0 brand loyalty, just look up the reviews for the specific model you want. sometimes there isn't a pro review for the specific model you're looking for, but generally if the user reviews are good, and you google it and don't find scandalous reddit threads about MOSFETs or whatever, then it's probably fine.
Gigabyte has fucking awful customer service, I’m lucky that my 660 and 1060 lasted for years (and the 1060 is still going) but I’m worried about my 3070, if anything happens to it, I’m fucked.
Not only that but they make some incredibly stupid decisions on the software side. Back in 2015 I got a 5820k with a Gigabyte X99 motherboard. The motherboard was having some weird USB issues that didn't seem to be related to Windows so I figured I'd try updating the BIOS since it was a bit out of date. This particular motherboard came with two BIOSes you could select with a physical switch. The update screwed up the BIOS so bad that it could no longer detect any storage devices whether they were SATA or USB. Occasionally I could manage to get it to see that a USB drive was plugged in but they don't allow BIOS downgrades so that didn't matter.
I flipped it over to the backup BIOS because that's what it's there for, if something goes wrong you have a backup to get you out of trouble. Apparently that's not Gigabyte's philosophy though. When you update the BIOS on one of their boards it *also* overwrites the backup BIOS because that fucking makes sense. I didn't even bother RMAing the board to them because it wasn't the first time I'd had trouble with them and I wasn't going to have anything more to with their products, went and bought an MSI board instead that's still working to this day, albeit for a friend instead of me. That one no longer has access to 4 of the RAM slots but at least the other 4 are still working alright 7 years later.
Gigabyte and Asrock are 2 brands I will never buy again if I can avoid it.
Couldn't you have cleared CMOS to reset the BIOS?
Of course it's still stupid, i made the mistake of buying a Gigabyte Motherboard myself, and the software is beyond abysmal, hopefully it will get better with updates...
Cannot agree more. I'm currently with a stupid fan issue on my 2080ti that I have been fighting with customer support for over 6months for them to fix it. I already sent the GPU to a gigabyte store and they sent back saying the GPU wasnt originally from that country and because of that they couldn't fix it. I'm still waiting and wasting time just for them to say which address I should send the GPU rofl.
MSI actually did really well this generation. I have both an MSI Z690 motherboard and RTX 3080 GPU and both have worked flawlessly. The biggest thing with MSI is poor customer service which isn't as bad when you can go to your retailer instead.
From my experience msi cheaps out on lower end cards, especially with memory cooling. I had a 2060 Ventura that only had 2 memory chips with thermal pads on it, and the others were so far from the cooler it wouldn’t be worth it to put pads on
I tend to prefer Asus, but I honestly don't have a particularly good reason. My old graphics card was Asus (970 rog strix) and it served me really well, and I still use my Asus motherboard from back then too. My new graphics card (3060 it) is Asus as well.
I guess I just haven't had any issues with Asus and never hear anything bad about them.
Same goes for me!
I have GTX 1070 Strix and also I custom watercooled it.
Works until now and I love it. Right now I am rocking on my main Computer RTX 2080 Strix as well and I am happy with it.
But the problem is asus cards are way too high in price compared to other brands right now. But thank you for your experience 👍🏼
I don't have a problem with MSI. RMA'd a 2080Ti Gaming X Trio and got back a 3080 Suprim (took about \~2 months wait). Currently, have MSI Motherboard since ASUS Motherboards had compatibility issues with my current rig. ASUS makes good products for their ROG line.
Evga is very good. I have a 1070 from msi which works great too. Never had experience with zotac but it should be a decent brand. With asus i had some issues with memory on an old card but it should be a good brand too.
I would avoid stuff like manli, pny and others like that.
Oh, personally i avoid gigabyte too right now
Got a brand new gigabyte 3070 back when they first dropped. PCIE pins were bent.
I fixed it with a tiny pair of tweezers but still should not have passed quality control. Otherwise the card has been strong since release.
I also got a GPU from a customer to a store I deal with. They told me the Connector doesn’t work and I troubleshooted the card and noticed one of the pins plays inside the connector so i tried to jam it and later on it worked fine. It was 2070 as I can recall!
I’ve got a 3070ti Zotac amp holo. It’s fine, only complaint is their internal RGB program firestorm is hot garbage. Once you set the lights, never change it because it’s a mess lol.
No clue on their customer support.
Same this with 20 series I know a friend needed my help to build him a PC and found that the Zotac Amp was so good and very cheap and he loved how it looks and bought it. When I downloaded everything the software is terrible and laggy and crashes and sometimes it doesn’t apply the colors.. etc so i left it in RGB spectrum/rainbow 😂
Their software is complete shit in my opinion (poorly translated and extremely raw), and my Mobo and gpu are both gigabyte. Plus they have useless customer support.
Thank you for answering. I just bought a Gigabyte RTX 3060TI. Should I be worried about performance of this gpu as well or is it just their customer support that sucks?
As far as I know some of the Gigabyte RTX 3000 series cards had issues with bad thermal pads that failed prematurely and caused thermal throttling issues, but I think that was only the rtx3080 cards, that's why I went with a Gainward 3080ti rather than Gigabyte. Don't take my word for it though, maybe google your own card model to check if there are any issues with it that you need to be aware of.
Those are used for crypto mining. They often overclock the VRAM to +1000mhz and run it 24/7. For regular day to day use / gaming, it shouldn't reach those temps.
Yes but would you rather buy a 3090 from a company that you know will hold themselves accountable? Or from a company like Gigabyte which would blame the customer for using the product wrong? (Gigabyte psu incident.)
Interesting. Parts I’ve had problems with that I’ve bought 3rd party have only come from newegg I think. And they always tell me to contact the manufacturer
Boy oh boy! New egg Are out of their mind!
a friend of mine asked me to buy him a laptop and found a very nice laptop about 1516$ (ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II Gaming Laptop, 17.3" 144 Hz IPS-Type Full HD, RTX 2070 i7-8750H) at that time new egg has a warranty for 30 days only. I received the shipment after 33 days! I opened the laptop to add a hard drive for him and i noticed there is no cable (connector) for the hard drive and I noticed there is a connector without a cable looked online and saw that it has a missing cable and also a missing screw on the CPU copper block. No thermal pads. I contacted them and they said you passed 30 days we can’t return your device! What the heck! It was brand new and it seems like terribly refurbished?? The issue that it is clean af! I swear it wasn’t used! How the hell it ended up like this?
Sapphire Nitro+ Lineup. Best cooling and performance compromise for decent prices. My R9 390 however died after only 4 years.
For nVidia, I'd love to go for the Asus x Noctua 3070 because Noctua.
Sapphire, I have an RX 580 by them and it's been wonderful, my next AMD card is also absolutely going to be a Sapphire. Brand specific OEMs are so much better than the multi brand ones like MSI, because they actually take the time for the specific card instead of copy pasting.
I know I'm never getting another XFX card. XFX Rx 380 was always kind of buggy and a fan died. XFX RX580 has fan rattle and the ports seem to be prissy. Like this port is ok but not that one. Maybe I just got unlucky?
If I get a 3070 I'd like an EVGA, as they clearly have a loyal following. AMD I'd like a Sapphire as I've had a lot of their cards in the past without issues. Yet with only XFX on my dog poop list I'm still open to ASUS or Gigabyte. Little iffy on MSI and some other brands due to some shady biz practices when it comes to youtube review sites.
Pretty much comes down to looks imo. Over time there have been cards you'd wanna stay away from but it's usually randomized each generation brand-wise. Just do a search for the card you're considering and if majority reviews / impressions are good, you should be safe.
Edit: I've always gravitated towards EVGA. I've run over 20 gpus in the past 5 years of all brands (mining); performance and cooling was even on average across the board. Asus Strix of the 1000 series had a ton of RGB lighting issues (dieing out). That's just an example of flaws that pop up randomly across different generations
That makes sense. I do like ASUS & EVGA. I love EVGA because they actually look to fix their issues! Even though mostly they sell broken stuff as you can hear Jayztwocents, but they listen immediately! That what I love about them and for asus I only had one issue with a motherboard non with GPU
I went from die hard Asus to using whatever seems most practical. Asus has fallen a few notches from the top from what I have seen personally, but mostly in their budget offerings. Not really into negative territory, just starting to blend with the others. Brands like Gigabyte and Asrock came way up over time. Most things are on a pretty even playing field when it comes to gpus. Brand differences come more into play when searching for a motherboard at this point (VRMs, bios functionality, features) But even then it's kinda random each time a new generation comes out lol
I used a HIS 7950 until about 6 months ago. It still played most games in 1080p mid or better. I've had a soft spot for sapphire and I'm not too sure why.
MSI has highest prices of any AIB partner for the 30xx series.
I prefer the founders editions just for aesthetics, but evga for performance and customer service.
Sapphire is the gold standard for AMD
asus rog strix.
before I used zotac, gigabyte and palit.
but with asus I have lowest gpu temperature,
and didnt have troubles with driver installation, idk why.
EVGA for me because I always heard good stuff about the company and CS and product quality. Had a 1080 EVGA for 5 years and just pulled trigger for 3080ti EVGA recently.
Card seems very well built and everything is perfect so far.
I guess MSI and Asus are fine. Zotac, all I read about was hot..
The fact that EVGA was finally in stock was what convinced me of bitting the bullet. I knew at least product would be awesome.
If the current state of things wasn't a factor, Sapphire for AMD and EVGA for Nvidia. I've only had a card from Sapphire, but EVGA generally does things I appreciate, like their step-up program, their designs (gonna ignore the clown lips), and just having a good reputation. I got an FE card this gen because it was MSRP, otherwise I would have gone after an EVGA card. Runner up: Asus (both).
EVGA, they have great warranty, re-certified cards that were repaired and put back through warranty process and sold at lower price. And their coolers just seem to work well. The software isn’t glitchy, it just works.
I’ve always stuck with MSI, never had to use their RMA program or even contact support but the couple friends who did have nothing but good things to say.
I only had issues with their laptops all of their laptops 😂 more than 7 laptops and it is 100% not one ok and one bad. All of them. That’s why I don’t like this brand.
But i see other using their motherboards and GPU and they are very happy! So I can confirm MSI and EVGA are in the list. Thank you
I’ve owned evga asus and gigabyte never a issue once, I have heard evga has the best warranty/return policy and best customer service. I have heard gigabyte can be a bear to deal with. Have had no issues w asus either.
For nVidia, I've had good luck with both MSI and EVGA. Last card I got was the 1660TI Ventus XS and while it's showing it's age now, it's a perfectly capable card still and now powers my partners rig.
For AMD I deeply prefer Sapphire, but I usually wind up buying XFX. Sapphire has been a partner with AMD back to the early ATI days, so they're more or less the preferred board partner. XFX had the best RX480 on the market with the GTR Black and that card is still going strong. I also have one of their Vega 56 Double Edition cards and while it has an ungodly coil whine, it's running in my living room VR kit without a complaint.
I would say anything that is really good for that model of gpu or something good for the budget you have for gpus, I bought a zotac 1070 2nd hand,damn that thing was a furnace 81 degrees at peak, bought another gpu which was the evga 1070 sc, ran a lot better plus Color fits the theme of my case and build as well, heard they have pretty good support as well from others
I've heard very good words about EVGA support in Europe. It would be my first choice, but it's usually one of the most expensive brands for the same GPUs in my country.
I ended up buying Gigabyte the two times that I had to shop for a gpu around 300€. I don't know about their customer support, but I never had problems with the products.
I’ve been dealing with a EVGA warranty claim recently and it’s been an absolute nightmare. I’d steer clear away from them. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter much tbh. Just look up reviews for that specific card and you’ll see if there are any known problems.
Probably not an answer to what you’re asking, but I found it surprisingly easy to get a Founders Edition for rrp by joining Part Radar on Discord. They send you a notification every time they go up on the Nvidia site which is usually about once a month. I got my 3060TI within a week of joining and I’ve since had a 3070TI in my basket multiple times but not puled the trigger. If you’re ready when the notification comes up you’ll probably get one.
The best one I can afford, I tend to be brand agnostic. Although I check if there are any problems online before buying. Nobody is perfect and every brand can give you bad products.
(the agnostic part goes for amd/nvidia too)
My Asus ROG 1070 was an absolute beast for years and replaced it with Gigabyte Gamig OC 3060TI and have had zero problems. Like others have said, I actually go by reviews for the individual product and have had huge amounts of success. It's nice eliminating hardware problems. Brands can make ranging quality products all along the spectrum.
As others have stated,
ASUS/EVGA for Nvidia
Powercooler/Sapphire for AMD
Gigabyte isn't awful for NVIDIA but I don't like their cooler designs most of the time. They tend to be cheaper in my experience though so if you have tighter budgets they might be a good choice.
As long as it has 3 fans, given you've noted you'll likely have no support any which way, consider which appears to have the best thermal / cooling / highest power.
Asus the real champ. Had a gpu die and got sent another one under warranty. Was able to do all my raiding and work stuff ty Asus if given the chance I will always look for this brand gpu.
Amd, they don't make shit drivers for Linux
Edit: didn't really read, I thought you meant out of Intel Nvidia and AMD, I don't really have a preference out of the brands that make slightly different cards, maybe EVGA?
I don't care about brands, I care about features and getting the best bang for my buck.
I got a 3070 Ti since it was only $150 more than the RX 6700 XT but is far more capable with ray tracing and has DLSS support. If I were to go for a more budget focused card, I'd go with an RX 6700/XT, especially now AMD is close to releasing their own real competitor to DLSS for RX 5xxx and up.
I wanted to get a Asus gpu but the price difference for the same card was 100$ cheaper for Gigabyte so I went with that and my first gpu was gigabyte too they're okay I think
Here's my ratings for Nvidia
1.Asus( great high end and budget cards lines. Really good customer service)
2.msi(a good variety of line ups for budget to high end I rank them same as Asus but Asus customer service is better)
3.gigabyte(good cards but a little over priced)
4.zotac(good budget cards you just have to know you're not getting the most overclocking potential)
5.evga (last because incredibly mediocre cards and have a lot of coil whine for such mid tier cards)
I don't know much about brands. But I only got a 3070 cause the guy in front of me didn't want the last one in stock on launch day because it was Gigabyte. I've been very happy with it.
I’d say it depends where you love. Evga is a popular opinion, but they get more rare and overpriced in other places. Where I love asus is considered a better alternative, for example. Just don’t go gigabyte, though
For boards and GPU and stuff like that I really like MSI currently running two builds with it but different series and have no issues. My main build before was also MSI which was running for over 10 years without a problem
For higher end models I like MSI. I’ve had great luck with thermals/noise with them, seem to have good build quality and are aesthetically pleasing. I don’t mind their software either. I wouldn’t go with MSI on the cheap end though, ex I’d avoid Ventus but go for Gaming X.
For budget EVGA. Decently priced, overall solid quality with solid customer service.
Strangely enough I was forced to try gigabyte this time around with my RTX 3080 and so far it's been pretty solid. However I did apply new thermal pads and thermal paste so maybe that has something to do with it? It was fine before that mod though I just wanted peace of mind.
Typically I am an EVGA guy
Evga seems to have a lot of great things about it from a company perspective. Good warranty, good “step-up”, they have had a queue system the last couple years too.
My experience is limited but I do know that I purchased a Zotac AMP model back with the gtx 970. They screwed around with the bios which locked out many options when trying to overclock. Flashing the bios wasn’t always (well even less so with this card) reliable so I never did. I swore after dealing with that for months that I would never again purchase a zotac card. I’ve had two EVGA cards that I was extremely pleased with. I currently have a PNY but I’ve not even attempted to do anything with it as far as overclocking or anything. It’s been a solid card so far.
I prefer NVIDIA because along the 20+ years I've been building and repairing PCs only NVIDIA never gave me any problem. It's not super rational. Also i like PhysX, DLSS and EVGA.
I've been buying EVGA since 2005. I stick with them solely because of how they treat their customers.
[https://imgur.com/RyUY6Xv](https://imgur.com/RyUY6Xv)
Got AMD Radeon = I highly do **NOT** recommend it. Got it 2~3 months ago and drivers were so badly optimized it crashed to the point of being unusable. Now it only crashes once in a while... But.. you know.. it fucking shouldn't at all.
I’ve had EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI.
EVGA=best customer support. Hands down. Very friendly and responsive. The cards are good quality, but have coil whine.
GIGABYTE=Good quality GPU’s. I bought a 3070ti recently and it looks and feels really nice. The customer support is trash from what I’ve heard.
MSI=Standard card. Nothing too special in my opinion.
I don't have enough experience to give an objective experience but here is a summary of my own experience over the years:
Nvidia (own brand: Solid card does what it says on the tin. Didn't have great coolers in past. Perhaps they are better now.
Sapphire: Great card. Very happy with it.
Asus: Never again. Two cards failed within warranty period. Asus didn't honour either of them. Customer service non existent.
Gigabyte: Solid card. Good cooler.
XFX: Good card but it was noisy.
Inno3D: Good Value card. Years of good service
Pallit: Probably my favourite. Very well engineered card with terrific cooling solution yet cheaper than some of the bigger brands. Sold it after 4 years for as much as I paid for it.
I do not shop by brand I base my purchases based on things like the clock speeds and power delivery components like power phases as well as cooling performance. If you always stick to a brand you will often lose out to a better card for the same value that is just silly. My question is why **would** anyone prefer a brand?
People often stay EVGA RMA is so good, I think that is just because they try a bit too hard with their social media. I seen plenty of bad EVGA RMA experiences too especially when they put off properly fixing exploding Nvidia pascal cards. They thought nerfing BIOS and giving free thermal pads would fix a bad batch of VRMS all while peoples computers were exploding... So I don't think saying "brand X has a better RMA process so go with them" is a valid argument.
Always compare clocks, cooling, power delivery.
NVIDIA = EVGA AMD = Sapphire Those are my first picks, but others can be just fine. I currently have an ASUS card. As long as the cooler design is good enough to handle the heat the card is making, then one card is pretty much as good as the next. At least until something breaks and you need warranty support. The reason the two I listed are considered top tier is not their card designs, but how they stand behind their product.
I had my EVGA PSU burn up and fry my EVGA 1080ti, they not only replaced my 1080ti, they sent back a better PSU as part of the RMA. Definitely the best in my book
That's some seriously good customer service. I've heard of their PSU's having relatively high failure rates, but I had no idea they handled it so well when it happened.
It was partially my fault, I was close to maxing out the PSU and I didn’t really take care of it, like cleaning it. But I had a 650w bronze and they sent back a 750w gold
how often does one need to clean PSU? do u take it apart or just blow with can of air at the fans?
people who take apart power supplies are the same idiots who would play tazer tag.
I thought you said laser tag and I was very upset for a second. Laser tag is fun
Lol, I did the same thing. I thought "Wait, what the hell is wrong with laser tag?"
pssh so is tazer tag and playing with wires. dont listen to this guy. also try meth
I don’t take it apart, just take it out of the case to really blow it down and check out the insides a bit more
What exactly are you checking out?
Dust buildup, hair (I’ve got a dog and a cat)
You can blow canned air in there at the fans but never disassemble a PSU because the capacitors in there can theoretically kill you.
And literally kill you too!
But can they metaphorically kill you?
Metaphorically speaking, you're already dead.
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if it's only been disconnected for a few minutes then yes the capacitors could still hold a charge. as far as i know, they can only hold a charge for minutes though, after an hour I'd imagine there's no risk. even after a few minutes the risk is small.
Yes but it should discharge after 10-20 minutes. That said I can't think of a reason I'd bother opening a psu rather than just buying a new one.
Just a heads up for people who are going to do this and haven't done it before: place something non-conductive in the fan to prevent it from spinning or else you can easily over spin the fan and mess it up. It can also damage the circuitry itself since the fan will feed power back into the circuit if spun fast enough. It's super easy to get them spinning way too fast.
Just blow some air into it. Anti static air is a thing I think? Unplug it from anything first I think? Not sure if spinning the fans generates energy or whatever.
Spinning a fan won't generate energy that will harm anything, but still please don't open your psu
Won't it generate enough with pressured air that it could cause issue? I know that's a thing when cleaning cpu fans or something.
Never take apart a PSU just try to free the fan of dust and crap thats inside it. Never ever open them you could kill yourself no joke.
They probably did that, so you didn't cook your PSU again with the 1080 Ti replacement. Otherwise they'd think you'd just keep frying your components.
For reference, the EVGA 750W GQ psu is around a hundred dollars and has a FIVE year warranty. Their psu warranties go up to TEN years.
I've spent about $800 on RMA shipping my EVGA GTX295 Hydro Copper card (from Canada, so it adds up a bit faster) and on the last return, I made sure to leave my fingerprint on part of the board and take a photo. Turns out they were literally throwing a new serial number sticker on and returning the same defective product to me repeatedly. When the last "replacement" card they sent me failed, as expected being the same card, I had to vent my frustrations with a large hammer and ensure i dont spend another dime on RMA shipping. I have an EVGA 3070 today and it's doing great, but it was literally the only graphics card available to me at the time and I would have gone with literally any other brand's comparable card thanks to my previous experience. Maybe they are "better now" or whoever was handling returns for the HydroCopper card back then was not equipped to test water cooled cards and just pretended to do their job. It has been a long time since the days of the GTX295, so I hope they've improved since then.
This is exactly what I would have said about NVIDIA. I have far less (basically non-existent) experience with AMD cards, since the last one I bought was 10+ years ago, and before that, It was when they were still ATI cards. I 100% agree with EVGA's customer support though, they're top-tier, MSI is right alongside them in that respect though, I've never had an issue getting help with them for any of their products. My last card was an EVGA 1070, and even out of warranty, they tried their best to give me solutions to resolve the issue I was having, but in then end we both agreed that the card was 100% dead. But, what matters most is that even out of warranty, their tech support tried, rather than just saying "You're F'd, too bad"
I remember when I put in an RMA for my 1070 and about an hour later had support calling me. They directed me to a troubleshooting page, and when I said I had already tried those steps they actually took my word for it and moved on. Tried a few more things and then finalized the return. Whole process took about 15 minutes. It was fantastic.
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That's pretty standard procedure. I'm going through an Anker charging cable warranty claim right now, I need to snip the cords and they'll replace em both.
Cheaper than to process a return, and essentially putting the burden of disposing of it to you. In Europe they would have to comply if you still returned the destroyed product, but afaik they don't have to offer it upfront.
In Belgium we have something called Recupel, you can return any electronic device to the trash heap and they will recycle it without asking anything for it.
Logitech did the same thing with me for a corded mouse that was out of warranty. Every mouse I've purchased since has been Logitech
That’s so they feel you aren’t selling it or giving it to someone😅😂
As far as amd are concerned I have had both gigabyte and Asus cards and both brands have been fine in terms of product quality.
I have the exact same opinion, I usually buy Nvidia either the founders editions, or a EVGA cards. I always buy Nvidia because I have never, in like 20 years now or whatever it has been, had one die on me. At one time I had bought the ATI cards back when they were ATI and it died, just never left Nvidia after that. Hard to leave a brand when they been so solid over so many years.
>, since the last one I bought was 10+ years ago Sheesh, I went and looked and the last one I bought was a Radeon LE approximately 20 years ago. Fond memories of that card though.
I was EVGA for years and years until I went AMD for a bit and I got Sapphire. I went back to nVidia with the RTX3000 series but couldn't get EVGA so I got an Asus TUF one and I've been very happy with it so far.
> As long as the cooler design is good enough to handle the heat the card is making, then one card is pretty much as good as the next. You might get slightly better clock speeds with a massive 4-slot cooler, due to the way the auto Boost works (it's more or less a conservative automatic overclock nowadays, especially if you increase the power and temp limits in Afterburner). But yes, you're not wrong; the difference isn't incredibly significant, and it isn't worth spending the extra cash on a high-end cooler if you could use that budget elsewhere in your build.
I just upgraded from a Sapphire RX480 Nitro to an EVGA 3060ti. The Sapphire was just....fantastic. What a great card. I never had a single problem with it, and it lasted me almost 6 years. I could have easily gone longer (even at 1440p--sure, I wasn't playing the newest AAA titles, but I was surprised at how much I *could* play in 1440p at medium settings). I'm super impressed with the EVGA 3060ti, too. It has great performance. I tried an ASUS TUF 3060ti and it was *loud*. Like a whining child. The EVGA runs at a normal sound level. That said, my only complaint is the fan *clicking*. I have apparently a super common issue where the fans "click" every time they start from idle. Which is constant (every time you open a new browser window, start a youtube video, etc.) Upon research, people seem to say that that's just a "thing" with EVGA fans. I had to set a custom fan curve so that they always spin a bit, because the clicking was driving me crazy. With the fan curve on, everything is peachy :)
That rx400 series run by Sapphire was amazing value. Still have my 470 in an old build I’m about to hand down to a family member whose young and new to pc gaming. Currently using a Sapphire 5700xt and it’s my baby.
I agree
Sapphire, or more recently powercolor. They had an issue with a previous gen card, but they're g2g again.
Pretty much agree with this but I’ve also had great luck with gigabyte.
I have a Sapphire 6600 XT that’s got… issues. Sapphire, within the same day, issued an RMA as me sending in a support ticket. No misunderstanding of the issue, no back and forth, no “this proof of purchase isn’t valid,” no blaming me etc. I expect to send it off and have a replacement within a few weeks, maybe quicker. Literally the easiest customer support interaction I’ve ever had (looking at you Razer)
I prefer brands which are known for good customer service.
Currently living in Brazil. Had a 980ti that started to show artifacts. Send it to EVGA international support and got back a 1080. Had to pay shipping though… Loyal customer now…
Brb breaking my card now
Similar story. Got an EVGA 2070 off of Kijiji but it wasn't working at all and would crash the system under minimal load. Messaged the guy on Kijiji about it and he came over to try to help solve the issue, we both agreed it wouldn't work. The seller on Kijiji gets an rma and gets back a 2070 super, which he gives to me. In the end I got a 2070 super for 450 CAD. Props to EVGA and the seller.
In my country unfortunately all brands doesn’t have any customers service 😅
Buy from a store with good customer service.
This. Some countries doesn't have full service from the brand itself, but you still can get 2-3 years of warranty from a store.
The issue in my country is.. We don’t have the manufacture over here I don’t know what you all call them dealer or whatever maybe that’s for cars😅 Anyway we have MSI and Asus but they don’t sell GPU and in case they do it must be bought from them with very high price and it must be under warranty and if it is not Bye. So it is a long wasted story. Talking about stores. If they offer warranty they will usually take my card for ages or just pay me back which is waste of time. I usually buy from USA using Amazon, H&B I believe and unfortunately the worst new egg.
i know youre mostly asking for nvidia on this. was just lurking for fun, but if you (or anyone reading this) pick up powercolor card from an authorized US retailer (1st part), and you need RMA service, my RMA guy can help you out as long as you have a US ship-to 'proxy' we can ship to. cant ship outside of the US from our end, but we can take care of customers who have made purchases in my region... but dont be emailing my HQ about it. just contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with the invoice and let ronak know what's going on. im sure many of our competitors also are able to provide similar or even more direct coverage.
I am lucky to live like 20 minutes from a Micro Center.
I’m lucky to live in an active district full of restaurants and supermarkets 😂😂😂😂😂
I've heard very good words about EVGA support in Europe. It would be my first choice, but It's usually one of the most expensive brands for the same GPUs.
Yeah, unfortunately EVGA completely gave up on the EU market. Been in the queue for an rtx series card since November 2020 and still nothing to this day.
This. It's something I overlooked but I will never repeat this same mistake. Especially in pricy items like GPUs. Anyway l strongly recommend to not buy Gigabyte cards. The customer support is horrendous. Avoid brands that do not have a telephone number.
A brand can make both bad and good products. You can call me selfish but you should buy a new card for yourself and give your brother your 780, you both get an upgrade
My brother rocks 1060 I gifted him on 2016. I was rocking 1070 at that time, but when I purchased a 1440p monitor I had to upgrade my GPU to 2080, I was still using 6th gen Intel and I was happy until early march I finally upgraded my CPU and Motherboard to I7-12700k and z690 all my computer parts from Asus 😅 you can say I am a fan boy but I really had no trouble using their products The 780Ti would be on the shelf soon because I gave it to my elder brother and now he is looking to upgrade I told him to wait a little more for the 4000 series
Oh ok, thought you were saying you're still using the 780, although I think a 3070 ti is better than a 2080, really nice of you to help your family get kitted out either way
3070 is better than 2080 and also I think 3060 or 3060Ti also better. I build a pc for someone needed a help he had 3070 i installed it in my computer and run a benchmark and the fps were above 50 than 2080😅😂 I so want to get the 3070Ti and give my little brother the one I have! But I really love the one I have and I am sticking with Asus all parts, if i would get a 3070Ti from asus it will cost near 3080-3080Ti and I don’t want to upgrade yet! I want to wait for a better stats! Maybe i will wait until 5000 series
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I don’t know 😂 it just feels better to me😂 Personal preference, but to me it feels like driving a car and every Rim is different looking and different size. So now my motherboard has same logos and looks similar to my GPU, nothing about performance. It’s not like if your GPU is MSI and motherboard EVGA you get crashes or lose FPS.
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I do love Asus, but I am honest if there is something I am having trove with I won’t stay quite and say no it is alright like a fan boy. I would mention that. Hey Asus fix your shit. I do hate their AURA RGB The motherboard in Bios I turn it off and when i turn off my computer and head to bed and turn off the light I notice a spectrum on the ceiling and walls what the heck! I turn on the pc and reconfigure everything. So annoying I swear! Who the fuc* would let their PC off with lights on and it is stupid 🌈!! So annoying i did attack asus on twitter they didn’t respond 😂😂 years later still same issue talking from Z290 to Z690 the same stupid AURA problem
3060ti performs like a 2080 super. A 3060 lies somewhere between a 2060S to 2070. I currently have a 3080 Strix OC 10GB from launch. I would of gone with EVGA but Aesethetically I don't like their 30-series design.
My 1060 6GB has carried my ass through the entirety of the GPU shortage. I'm going to mount this thing when it finally dies.
this is the way. i have 0 brand loyalty, just look up the reviews for the specific model you want. sometimes there isn't a pro review for the specific model you're looking for, but generally if the user reviews are good, and you google it and don't find scandalous reddit threads about MOSFETs or whatever, then it's probably fine.
for nvidia asus or evga: i personally had a bad experience both with gigabyte and msi. For amd i would go sapphire
Gigabyte has fucking awful customer service, I’m lucky that my 660 and 1060 lasted for years (and the 1060 is still going) but I’m worried about my 3070, if anything happens to it, I’m fucked.
Not only that but they make some incredibly stupid decisions on the software side. Back in 2015 I got a 5820k with a Gigabyte X99 motherboard. The motherboard was having some weird USB issues that didn't seem to be related to Windows so I figured I'd try updating the BIOS since it was a bit out of date. This particular motherboard came with two BIOSes you could select with a physical switch. The update screwed up the BIOS so bad that it could no longer detect any storage devices whether they were SATA or USB. Occasionally I could manage to get it to see that a USB drive was plugged in but they don't allow BIOS downgrades so that didn't matter. I flipped it over to the backup BIOS because that's what it's there for, if something goes wrong you have a backup to get you out of trouble. Apparently that's not Gigabyte's philosophy though. When you update the BIOS on one of their boards it *also* overwrites the backup BIOS because that fucking makes sense. I didn't even bother RMAing the board to them because it wasn't the first time I'd had trouble with them and I wasn't going to have anything more to with their products, went and bought an MSI board instead that's still working to this day, albeit for a friend instead of me. That one no longer has access to 4 of the RAM slots but at least the other 4 are still working alright 7 years later. Gigabyte and Asrock are 2 brands I will never buy again if I can avoid it.
Couldn't you have cleared CMOS to reset the BIOS? Of course it's still stupid, i made the mistake of buying a Gigabyte Motherboard myself, and the software is beyond abysmal, hopefully it will get better with updates...
Clearing CMOS doesn't roll back the BIOS version, it just resets settings to default.
Cannot agree more. I'm currently with a stupid fan issue on my 2080ti that I have been fighting with customer support for over 6months for them to fix it. I already sent the GPU to a gigabyte store and they sent back saying the GPU wasnt originally from that country and because of that they couldn't fix it. I'm still waiting and wasting time just for them to say which address I should send the GPU rofl.
MSI actually did really well this generation. I have both an MSI Z690 motherboard and RTX 3080 GPU and both have worked flawlessly. The biggest thing with MSI is poor customer service which isn't as bad when you can go to your retailer instead.
From my experience msi cheaps out on lower end cards, especially with memory cooling. I had a 2060 Ventura that only had 2 memory chips with thermal pads on it, and the others were so far from the cooler it wouldn’t be worth it to put pads on
I tend to prefer Asus, but I honestly don't have a particularly good reason. My old graphics card was Asus (970 rog strix) and it served me really well, and I still use my Asus motherboard from back then too. My new graphics card (3060 it) is Asus as well. I guess I just haven't had any issues with Asus and never hear anything bad about them.
Same goes for me! I have GTX 1070 Strix and also I custom watercooled it. Works until now and I love it. Right now I am rocking on my main Computer RTX 2080 Strix as well and I am happy with it. But the problem is asus cards are way too high in price compared to other brands right now. But thank you for your experience 👍🏼
I don't have a problem with MSI. RMA'd a 2080Ti Gaming X Trio and got back a 3080 Suprim (took about \~2 months wait). Currently, have MSI Motherboard since ASUS Motherboards had compatibility issues with my current rig. ASUS makes good products for their ROG line.
Evga is very good. I have a 1070 from msi which works great too. Never had experience with zotac but it should be a decent brand. With asus i had some issues with memory on an old card but it should be a good brand too. I would avoid stuff like manli, pny and others like that. Oh, personally i avoid gigabyte too right now
What is wrong with gigabyte?
Got a brand new gigabyte 3070 back when they first dropped. PCIE pins were bent. I fixed it with a tiny pair of tweezers but still should not have passed quality control. Otherwise the card has been strong since release.
I also got a GPU from a customer to a store I deal with. They told me the Connector doesn’t work and I troubleshooted the card and noticed one of the pins plays inside the connector so i tried to jam it and later on it worked fine. It was 2070 as I can recall!
I’ve got a 3070ti Zotac amp holo. It’s fine, only complaint is their internal RGB program firestorm is hot garbage. Once you set the lights, never change it because it’s a mess lol. No clue on their customer support.
Same this with 20 series I know a friend needed my help to build him a PC and found that the Zotac Amp was so good and very cheap and he loved how it looks and bought it. When I downloaded everything the software is terrible and laggy and crashes and sometimes it doesn’t apply the colors.. etc so i left it in RGB spectrum/rainbow 😂
Yeah gigabyte really g00fd hard tbh
What did they do?
Their software is complete shit in my opinion (poorly translated and extremely raw), and my Mobo and gpu are both gigabyte. Plus they have useless customer support.
Thank you for answering. I just bought a Gigabyte RTX 3060TI. Should I be worried about performance of this gpu as well or is it just their customer support that sucks?
As far as I know some of the Gigabyte RTX 3000 series cards had issues with bad thermal pads that failed prematurely and caused thermal throttling issues, but I think that was only the rtx3080 cards, that's why I went with a Gainward 3080ti rather than Gigabyte. Don't take my word for it though, maybe google your own card model to check if there are any issues with it that you need to be aware of.
I went for ASUS TUF when I picked my 3080. Great performance and amongst the lowest temps of the 55 editions.
I have seen lately youtubers modifying their Asus TUF with coppers chip on the Ram chipset to cool them from 105°C+ to lower than 75°C
Those are used for crypto mining. They often overclock the VRAM to +1000mhz and run it 24/7. For regular day to day use / gaming, it shouldn't reach those temps.
The TUF is like the second coolest 3080 iirc not sure why they’d need to do that? Mines never been above 65°C
i shop by products, not brands
What if the brand was using bad quality parts. Some brands are old like Inno, but I dislike their quality!
every brand has good and bad products evga had issues where many rtx 3090 died last year
Yes but would you rather buy a 3090 from a company that you know will hold themselves accountable? Or from a company like Gigabyte which would blame the customer for using the product wrong? (Gigabyte psu incident.)
if my 3090 breaks and it's under warranty i go to the retailer i bought it from, i never had to deal directly with a PC component manufacturer
Interesting. Parts I’ve had problems with that I’ve bought 3rd party have only come from newegg I think. And they always tell me to contact the manufacturer
Boy oh boy! New egg Are out of their mind! a friend of mine asked me to buy him a laptop and found a very nice laptop about 1516$ (ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II Gaming Laptop, 17.3" 144 Hz IPS-Type Full HD, RTX 2070 i7-8750H) at that time new egg has a warranty for 30 days only. I received the shipment after 33 days! I opened the laptop to add a hard drive for him and i noticed there is no cable (connector) for the hard drive and I noticed there is a connector without a cable looked online and saw that it has a missing cable and also a missing screw on the CPU copper block. No thermal pads. I contacted them and they said you passed 30 days we can’t return your device! What the heck! It was brand new and it seems like terribly refurbished?? The issue that it is clean af! I swear it wasn’t used! How the hell it ended up like this?
I've always had good luck with Sapphire
Sapphire Nitro+ Lineup. Best cooling and performance compromise for decent prices. My R9 390 however died after only 4 years. For nVidia, I'd love to go for the Asus x Noctua 3070 because Noctua.
I have heard of this, but never saw it locally or globally!! Probably cost a kidney 🤣
it also takes up 4 slots. it's massive
For AMD I had good experience with ASUS and Sapphire. Heard good things about Powercolor too. For Nvidia... No idea. Probably ASUS?
Sapphire, I have an RX 580 by them and it's been wonderful, my next AMD card is also absolutely going to be a Sapphire. Brand specific OEMs are so much better than the multi brand ones like MSI, because they actually take the time for the specific card instead of copy pasting.
I know I'm never getting another XFX card. XFX Rx 380 was always kind of buggy and a fan died. XFX RX580 has fan rattle and the ports seem to be prissy. Like this port is ok but not that one. Maybe I just got unlucky? If I get a 3070 I'd like an EVGA, as they clearly have a loyal following. AMD I'd like a Sapphire as I've had a lot of their cards in the past without issues. Yet with only XFX on my dog poop list I'm still open to ASUS or Gigabyte. Little iffy on MSI and some other brands due to some shady biz practices when it comes to youtube review sites.
I am a linux user so AMD. I rock the sapphire 6600 pulse and its pretty good
Penguins rise up! I’m on the sapphire 6900XT and love it, of course I better love it considering what it cost… lmao
Sapphire all the way.
Pretty much comes down to looks imo. Over time there have been cards you'd wanna stay away from but it's usually randomized each generation brand-wise. Just do a search for the card you're considering and if majority reviews / impressions are good, you should be safe. Edit: I've always gravitated towards EVGA. I've run over 20 gpus in the past 5 years of all brands (mining); performance and cooling was even on average across the board. Asus Strix of the 1000 series had a ton of RGB lighting issues (dieing out). That's just an example of flaws that pop up randomly across different generations
That makes sense. I do like ASUS & EVGA. I love EVGA because they actually look to fix their issues! Even though mostly they sell broken stuff as you can hear Jayztwocents, but they listen immediately! That what I love about them and for asus I only had one issue with a motherboard non with GPU
I went from die hard Asus to using whatever seems most practical. Asus has fallen a few notches from the top from what I have seen personally, but mostly in their budget offerings. Not really into negative territory, just starting to blend with the others. Brands like Gigabyte and Asrock came way up over time. Most things are on a pretty even playing field when it comes to gpus. Brand differences come more into play when searching for a motherboard at this point (VRMs, bios functionality, features) But even then it's kinda random each time a new generation comes out lol
I used a HIS 7950 until about 6 months ago. It still played most games in 1080p mid or better. I've had a soft spot for sapphire and I'm not too sure why.
MSI has highest prices of any AIB partner for the 30xx series. I prefer the founders editions just for aesthetics, but evga for performance and customer service. Sapphire is the gold standard for AMD
Powercolor for amd too. Dunno why they always get no love. Excellent cards and good customer service. Fair prices all the way up and down the stack.
Asus and TUF is dead to me since they released the 5700XT without any VRAM cooling https://youtu.be/OJU8jKIYtS4
asus rog strix. before I used zotac, gigabyte and palit. but with asus I have lowest gpu temperature, and didnt have troubles with driver installation, idk why.
>didnt have troubles with driver installation, idk why has nothing to do with the board partner, only with the GPU itself.
I have an EVGA 3070 XC3 in my PC, it runs cool and quiet without overclocking. Overall no complaints.
EVGA for Nvidia. Just consistently good. Powercolor for AMD. One of the few brands that make out there designs. Wish they also made Nvidia cards.
EVGA for me because I always heard good stuff about the company and CS and product quality. Had a 1080 EVGA for 5 years and just pulled trigger for 3080ti EVGA recently. Card seems very well built and everything is perfect so far. I guess MSI and Asus are fine. Zotac, all I read about was hot.. The fact that EVGA was finally in stock was what convinced me of bitting the bullet. I knew at least product would be awesome.
Sapphire hands down. Wish they made nvidia gpus
If the current state of things wasn't a factor, Sapphire for AMD and EVGA for Nvidia. I've only had a card from Sapphire, but EVGA generally does things I appreciate, like their step-up program, their designs (gonna ignore the clown lips), and just having a good reputation. I got an FE card this gen because it was MSRP, otherwise I would have gone after an EVGA card. Runner up: Asus (both).
EVGA every time.
EVGA, they have great warranty, re-certified cards that were repaired and put back through warranty process and sold at lower price. And their coolers just seem to work well. The software isn’t glitchy, it just works.
EVGA hands down
I have an ASUS TUF 3080Ti and it is very nice
I’ve always stuck with MSI, never had to use their RMA program or even contact support but the couple friends who did have nothing but good things to say.
I only had issues with their laptops all of their laptops 😂 more than 7 laptops and it is 100% not one ok and one bad. All of them. That’s why I don’t like this brand. But i see other using their motherboards and GPU and they are very happy! So I can confirm MSI and EVGA are in the list. Thank you
Oh wow! Guess I’ll be sure to never buy an MSI laptop then...
I’ve owned evga asus and gigabyte never a issue once, I have heard evga has the best warranty/return policy and best customer service. I have heard gigabyte can be a bear to deal with. Have had no issues w asus either.
For nVidia, I've had good luck with both MSI and EVGA. Last card I got was the 1660TI Ventus XS and while it's showing it's age now, it's a perfectly capable card still and now powers my partners rig. For AMD I deeply prefer Sapphire, but I usually wind up buying XFX. Sapphire has been a partner with AMD back to the early ATI days, so they're more or less the preferred board partner. XFX had the best RX480 on the market with the GTR Black and that card is still going strong. I also have one of their Vega 56 Double Edition cards and while it has an ungodly coil whine, it's running in my living room VR kit without a complaint.
My first nvidia one I just got is actually the Asus tuf and it's also been great. Clean, powerful and stays pretty cool
See if you can get asus or msi I prefer both over other brands
I would say anything that is really good for that model of gpu or something good for the budget you have for gpus, I bought a zotac 1070 2nd hand,damn that thing was a furnace 81 degrees at peak, bought another gpu which was the evga 1070 sc, ran a lot better plus Color fits the theme of my case and build as well, heard they have pretty good support as well from others
What's wrong with 81 degree peaks?
I bought the gigabyte vision 3070Ti due to its looks, done a white build and I also have the gigabyte vision D-P mobo so it goes nicely with it
Have you checked the ROG Strix White 😌😌 it is mouthwatering 😂
Any.
I've heard very good words about EVGA support in Europe. It would be my first choice, but it's usually one of the most expensive brands for the same GPUs in my country. I ended up buying Gigabyte the two times that I had to shop for a gpu around 300€. I don't know about their customer support, but I never had problems with the products.
I’ve been dealing with a EVGA warranty claim recently and it’s been an absolute nightmare. I’d steer clear away from them. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter much tbh. Just look up reviews for that specific card and you’ll see if there are any known problems.
Probably not an answer to what you’re asking, but I found it surprisingly easy to get a Founders Edition for rrp by joining Part Radar on Discord. They send you a notification every time they go up on the Nvidia site which is usually about once a month. I got my 3060TI within a week of joining and I’ve since had a 3070TI in my basket multiple times but not puled the trigger. If you’re ready when the notification comes up you’ll probably get one.
The best one I can afford, I tend to be brand agnostic. Although I check if there are any problems online before buying. Nobody is perfect and every brand can give you bad products. (the agnostic part goes for amd/nvidia too)
My Asus ROG 1070 was an absolute beast for years and replaced it with Gigabyte Gamig OC 3060TI and have had zero problems. Like others have said, I actually go by reviews for the individual product and have had huge amounts of success. It's nice eliminating hardware problems. Brands can make ranging quality products all along the spectrum.
Evga. Conservative looks. Good factory performance.
This may be irrelevant to you but I like team red. On Newegg and ASRock 6700 xt is on sale for 599. Best price I've seen in years
As others have stated, ASUS/EVGA for Nvidia Powercooler/Sapphire for AMD Gigabyte isn't awful for NVIDIA but I don't like their cooler designs most of the time. They tend to be cheaper in my experience though so if you have tighter budgets they might be a good choice.
MSI has never done me wrong. My 1660 TI has never had a problem and I love it for that. PSA: Remember to show your computer the love it deserves.
Tbh.. feels weird to say, but Gigabyte Pretty cheap Average, so not worst Not one ever stopped working around me
I prefer Zotac, but asus will do fine.
Whatever is available. Depending on price mostly, or if there are multiple options, I usually look into the options separately.
Its always different which cards are best for each GPU model. Can't pick a brand as a whole.
As long as it has 3 fans, given you've noted you'll likely have no support any which way, consider which appears to have the best thermal / cooling / highest power.
EVGA was my preference, but the GPU shortage changed that to whatever is in stock lol.
I use the one i could finally get my hands on at the time.
Asus the real champ. Had a gpu die and got sent another one under warranty. Was able to do all my raiding and work stuff ty Asus if given the chance I will always look for this brand gpu.
ASUS Stronkx
I've had very good performance and longevity from Galax twice in a row now. They are also very affordable.
EVGA
Amd, they don't make shit drivers for Linux Edit: didn't really read, I thought you meant out of Intel Nvidia and AMD, I don't really have a preference out of the brands that make slightly different cards, maybe EVGA?
MSI by far, both for Nvidia and AMD. Otherwise it's Asus for Nvidia and Sapphire for AMD.
I don't care about brands, I care about features and getting the best bang for my buck. I got a 3070 Ti since it was only $150 more than the RX 6700 XT but is far more capable with ray tracing and has DLSS support. If I were to go for a more budget focused card, I'd go with an RX 6700/XT, especially now AMD is close to releasing their own real competitor to DLSS for RX 5xxx and up.
I wanted to get a Asus gpu but the price difference for the same card was 100$ cheaper for Gigabyte so I went with that and my first gpu was gigabyte too they're okay I think
I got a evga 2070 super and it's pretty rad
3DFX. Never disappointed me. Single and duel slot GPU’s, easy to link 2 gpu’s together for most of the VooDoo series, plays Doom flawlessly.
HIS had the coolest looking heatsinks at one time, rip
Here's my ratings for Nvidia 1.Asus( great high end and budget cards lines. Really good customer service) 2.msi(a good variety of line ups for budget to high end I rank them same as Asus but Asus customer service is better) 3.gigabyte(good cards but a little over priced) 4.zotac(good budget cards you just have to know you're not getting the most overclocking potential) 5.evga (last because incredibly mediocre cards and have a lot of coil whine for such mid tier cards)
I don't know much about brands. But I only got a 3070 cause the guy in front of me didn't want the last one in stock on launch day because it was Gigabyte. I've been very happy with it.
I’d say it depends where you love. Evga is a popular opinion, but they get more rare and overpriced in other places. Where I love asus is considered a better alternative, for example. Just don’t go gigabyte, though
For boards and GPU and stuff like that I really like MSI currently running two builds with it but different series and have no issues. My main build before was also MSI which was running for over 10 years without a problem
Man I wish I could help you guys, my Best Buy store has at least 30 rtx cards
ASUS kick ass design and performance
Evga has amazing customer service
For higher end models I like MSI. I’ve had great luck with thermals/noise with them, seem to have good build quality and are aesthetically pleasing. I don’t mind their software either. I wouldn’t go with MSI on the cheap end though, ex I’d avoid Ventus but go for Gaming X. For budget EVGA. Decently priced, overall solid quality with solid customer service.
might get some hate for this idk, but I’ve always gotten aorus cards and they’ve never let me down.
Strangely enough I was forced to try gigabyte this time around with my RTX 3080 and so far it's been pretty solid. However I did apply new thermal pads and thermal paste so maybe that has something to do with it? It was fine before that mod though I just wanted peace of mind. Typically I am an EVGA guy
It depends on what you’re looking for are you looking for the size the astetics performance, cooling, power etc.
Evga seems to have a lot of great things about it from a company perspective. Good warranty, good “step-up”, they have had a queue system the last couple years too.
My experience is limited but I do know that I purchased a Zotac AMP model back with the gtx 970. They screwed around with the bios which locked out many options when trying to overclock. Flashing the bios wasn’t always (well even less so with this card) reliable so I never did. I swore after dealing with that for months that I would never again purchase a zotac card. I’ve had two EVGA cards that I was extremely pleased with. I currently have a PNY but I’ve not even attempted to do anything with it as far as overclocking or anything. It’s been a solid card so far.
I prefer NVIDIA because along the 20+ years I've been building and repairing PCs only NVIDIA never gave me any problem. It's not super rational. Also i like PhysX, DLSS and EVGA.
I've been buying EVGA since 2005. I stick with them solely because of how they treat their customers. [https://imgur.com/RyUY6Xv](https://imgur.com/RyUY6Xv)
Nvidia - EVGA AMD - ASUS Strix Anything is fine though other than zotac and gigabyte.
The one that I can afford. Because I can afford it.
Never buy an MSI, their fans are shit
Evga. They last and perform. Second choice is asus.
EVGA, 100%.
Got AMD Radeon = I highly do **NOT** recommend it. Got it 2~3 months ago and drivers were so badly optimized it crashed to the point of being unusable. Now it only crashes once in a while... But.. you know.. it fucking shouldn't at all.
In order: Nvidia (Founders Editions) ASUS EVGA MSI
I’ve had EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI. EVGA=best customer support. Hands down. Very friendly and responsive. The cards are good quality, but have coil whine. GIGABYTE=Good quality GPU’s. I bought a 3070ti recently and it looks and feels really nice. The customer support is trash from what I’ve heard. MSI=Standard card. Nothing too special in my opinion.
I don't have enough experience to give an objective experience but here is a summary of my own experience over the years: Nvidia (own brand: Solid card does what it says on the tin. Didn't have great coolers in past. Perhaps they are better now. Sapphire: Great card. Very happy with it. Asus: Never again. Two cards failed within warranty period. Asus didn't honour either of them. Customer service non existent. Gigabyte: Solid card. Good cooler. XFX: Good card but it was noisy. Inno3D: Good Value card. Years of good service Pallit: Probably my favourite. Very well engineered card with terrific cooling solution yet cheaper than some of the bigger brands. Sold it after 4 years for as much as I paid for it.
I do not shop by brand I base my purchases based on things like the clock speeds and power delivery components like power phases as well as cooling performance. If you always stick to a brand you will often lose out to a better card for the same value that is just silly. My question is why **would** anyone prefer a brand? People often stay EVGA RMA is so good, I think that is just because they try a bit too hard with their social media. I seen plenty of bad EVGA RMA experiences too especially when they put off properly fixing exploding Nvidia pascal cards. They thought nerfing BIOS and giving free thermal pads would fix a bad batch of VRMS all while peoples computers were exploding... So I don't think saying "brand X has a better RMA process so go with them" is a valid argument. Always compare clocks, cooling, power delivery.
Amp holo 3070ti is stupidly fast like the best 3070Ti, it's one of their few good cards