Graphics Your Opinions on nVidia Graphics Card Manufacturers

So I'm looking at purchasing an nVidia card (I'm fed up of ATi and their lack of skill when it comes to drivers). I've not used nVidia for almost 7 years now, and I'm wondering how people rate the various card manufacturers.

I've been eyeing up MSI, Gainward and Zotac. Should I be considering any others? Zotac seem quite good, and they offer a 5 year warranty.

 

EVGA all the way.

 

Oh? Any reason? Or just a good, reliable brand?

 

What one are looking at a GTX460 or what ??

If its the 460 the gigabyte seems to in favor atm I've heard only good things about it.

 

Well at the moment I'm torn between buying 2 x 460's, or buying 1 x 480 and getting another 480 later on down the line.

 

This is the second XFX card I've had now, and both have been flawless.

 

Well 2 x 460's SLI will beat a 480.

And my 480's SLI setup runs flawlessly but you do need good air flow for the 480's.

A 480 SLI setup will want a decent PSU I had a corsair HX1000 and was fine with one 480 but with two it started to get really hot while gaming and didn't smell to good which is why I have the Enermax PSU.

 

Well this is all going into a Corsair 600T, so I don't imagine airflow will be a problem. It's all part of a project I'm going to be doing to get a tidy, good-looking case going.

I'm just wondering if it's worth getting a 480 and then perhaps 3-4 months down the line, grab another one.

Or have nVidia got something else coming out I should be looking at?

 

Well most people would say go with the 460's, But I'm not most people so if you've got the case and the PSU to handle the 480's I would go with them.

I'm playing game's on the highest settings @ 1920x1200 Metro etc and they run great.

 

What kind of PSU rating am I looking at here for SLI 480's? I'm running a 850w PSU at present. What brand of 480 are you running aswell?

 

i would go for a evga 480gtx as well if i had the money as you have the option to add another one later

also go for evga and you get unlimited warrenty on your graphics card and they offer excerlent service

 

I have a mate in the USA who's a reviewer on a forum and I was talking to him about PSU's for the 480's.

He said that Nvidia advised him to use 1200w for 2 way and 1500w for 3 way SLI those 480 need 42a on the 12v rail at peak.

I have the Point Of View GTX480's and I'm really happy with them I think the 480's are all reference cards, If not I would make sure it exhausted out of the back of the case.

As said my HX1000 wasn't up to it, It only had two 12v rails at 38a each I think.

But your 850w should be fine for one it depends on the 12v rail amps it seems.

 

Hmmm, that's the only problem I'm having. nVidia have always been easy-to-use but this current range is a huge energy draw, I'm not sure if I can justify a 1,200w PSU for 2-way SLI, as I'm currently running a Radeon 5970 just fine.

I wonder how far off the next batch of cards are from nVidia.

And thank you bagman for the recommendation. I didn't realise it was an unlimited warranty. Very tempting.

 

I had that dilemma myself but I dont regret it, I'm really glad I went for it.

 

just make sure that you renember to sign up for warrenty

 

BFG had a UK center, but they stopped selling them .

 

I'm not sure I can justify a 480 AND a new PSU just now (So I can get the cabling done first time), so I'm not sure.

If I go for a 480, I have to get a PSU now and cable the machine properly, as I don't want to then remove my current PSU and recable the whole thing again. I know a 1.2kW PSU is about £200, so add that to the price of a 480 and that's a bigger outlay than I was expecting.

I'm thinking 2 x 460, as that seems to be a pretty close par with a 5970 according to some reviews.

Do you think 2 x 460's would need more than a 850w PSU? Would you guys still go for EVGA if it was a 460?

 

Ph4zed runs 2 x GTX260's on a Corsair 620w iirc. Do the GTX 460's need more?

Edit: his sig...

"i7 920 @ 3.8GHz | Asus P6TD Deluxe | 6GB Corsair | Intel X-25M G2 | 260 GTX SLI | HX620 PSU | (NEW!) Corsair 800D | Titan Fenrir | Dell U2410 "

 

Ah, good to know! OK this is looking more and more like my solution then! Now to pick a brand...

 

See my edit, I typo'd the GPU model, he runs GTX 260's not 460's. My point is do they have the same power draw as 460's?

mkb DOES run GTX 460's in SLI on a Corsair HX650w...

His sig...

"i7 920 D0 @ 4GHz | Gigabyte x58A-UD3R | 6GB Corsair XMS3 1600 | Gigabyte 460 1GB GTX OC SLI | HX650 PSU | Fractal Design R2 | Titan Fenrir | Dell SP2309W | Sound Blaster Arena Surround Headset "