Graphics How important is brand to you (GPUs)?

How important is it to you when buying a GPU what brand you're getting? Is it important that you pick up an XFX or ASUS, instead of (say) a Palit or Zotac?

Presuming reference cards that come out follow the design laid down by ATI or Nvidia - there can't be any real difference in the product can there?

Perhaps the bigger/more successful/experienced manufacturer has tighter quality assurance mechanics, but other than that, surely the cards following the reference should be identical, no?

So, what difference does branding make to you?

 

I like eVGA because of their warranty, and it is definitely something I consider while buying a card or component or entire laptop of any kind, warranty that is.

 

I tend to go with brands that I trust, which just happen to be XFX and Asus..lol. also I look at whats recommended on here. Plus some stuff just works well together so i'll go for combo's that I know won't run into problems when you try to get them working together.

 

For me it comes down to cooling. I've noticed that most of the gigabyte cards have slightly better cooling than other brands. E.g. my old HD 4650 and the new GTX 460

 

Seeing as most use a reference board with reference heatsink, I'd go for cheapest.

But
a good warranty is worth it (3 year IMO, I'm not likley to keep one for more than 3 years TBH)
Pacakge - Games- extra's ?
non reference heatsinks & Overlclocks.

But then again.
I'm a water cooler, so it would in theory invalidate most warranties and I'll get a much bigger overclock then any fatory would give (Currently run 25% overclock on my gtx 280's).

One of mine is a XFX factory overclocked (I got it as a warranty replacment, they had no stock 280's available, lucky me), came with 3d mark vantage.
the other is a Cheapo leadtek, £80 difference in rrp.

Bother are rock stable with my overclock.
In theory they might get speed binned, so the dear ones are from the good center of the wafer, possibly better components. but, as mine prove, nothing a good tweak can't fix.

 

As I tend to watercool every new graphics card the brand is usually somewhat of a factor for me because of how some brands (mainly gainward/palit) use non-reference card layouts (even for 'standard' cards) which affect compatibility with full-cover waterblocks.
I tend not to actually use full-cover blocks, but I like to keep the option open nevertheless.

Other than that it's a matter of price and warranties. I avoid XFX on principle because of some rude responses I had from their customer support in the past, while I've had good experiences with eVGA so I tend to favour them when browsing stores.

 

Exactly, I do the same.

 

Brand not important for me.

But what is important is where are the RMA centre. I don't want to send my card all the way to Germany or even USA.

I just go for the cheapest that have UK returns. I know the following have uk returns: KFA2 and Zotac, one would imagine large motherboard manufacturers would also have returns in UK.

 

always price wins it for me, i haven't overclocked a graphics card for some years, never had the need. And considering i water cool them for silence that tends to void any warranty that was on the card.

I must admit, i don't jump on new tech too quickly, think i bought my GTX280 just before the GTX285 was released, which hurt as I didn't know of the pending release, but also the GTX280 bugs had mostly been fixed by then.

 

Brand is extremely important. Brand determines how good the GPU will be, how well it's made, how well it will overclock, what temperature its kept at. Years ago, I owned a PNY NVIDIA card. Overclocked it a little, lasted about two weeks before it blew up. Then got the same mode of NVIDIA card - 6600 - but this time by XFX. Overclocked it lots more and never blew up or had any problems. I had that for about 3 years, and have stuck with XFX ever since, and probably always will.

 

Some good responses here, I think the warranty and RMA locations are valid reasons to select a given brand.

Lol at this response - harsh, but imo fair!

 

When I got my BFG 8800GT I liked the extended warranty and overclock. The price was good too for those additions.

Now I'm buying the replacement (probably a GTX570) and not sure what to go for. Palit is generally the cheapest around at £260, if I'm going to take off the cooler and replace it with a waterblock is aftermarket supprt / warranty even important? What are the chances you can re-fit the air cooler and send it back if it breaks?

 

I vaguely remember one manufacturer, might be EVGA, who allow you to fit a waterblock and keep your warranty. I'm thinking of buying a 570 myself and tempted by the EVGA card.

 

Somewhat harsh... when I say it affects a GPU's goodness I meant overall - i.e. I wouldn't have said my PNY card was good, purely because it died so easily.

Also I know several people which have had bad experiences with PNY, so I would recommend you keep your irrelevant anger away and maybe **** off?

 

I guess your not good at taking criticism.

 

Tbh, you threw the first punch.

Both of you stop the flames.

Serious Bindi is Serious.

 

Price pretty much. Although if one has a better warranty/Bundle i would go for that.

 

same here.

 

Aftermarket coolers if not using water
Reviews of cards

Price isn't ever a huge factor personally

 

For me, top to bottom in terms of importance:

Reviews... and feedback here at BT
Warranty
Valid period of performance i.e. how long before I want to replace it with something even shinier
RMA / Supplier
Brand... purely as a tie-breaker if the above doesn't give a clear decision.

Edit: price doesn't even come into it for me... simply because on the couple of occasions I've made it top priority I've ended up wishing I'd bought the more expensive / higher spec component.