Which Brand of Graphics Cards Should I Choose?

[DAWWolfX]

I would like to know which brand of graphics card is highly recommended. Which brand is typically really good? It can be either AMD or Nvidia. Which brands should I avoid besides weird foreign brands not typically sold in the US? Thanks! 

[DAWWolfX]

I know brands can be very subjective so mainly focus on brands you have had least trouble with, have good builds, customer support, warranties, etc. 

[TH3R34P3R]

Just now, AlphaXWolf1M said:

I would like to know which brand of graphics card is highly recommended. Which brand is typically really good? It can be either AMD or Nvidia. Which brands should I avoid besides weird foreign brands not typically sold in the US? Thanks! 

best gpu brand for if you have an issue - EVGA. super solid customer service. will always have an answer in under 24 hours. 

 

Best GPU for speeds? - it seems to be a toss up for me between EVGA and ASUS. Asus's strix cards are crazy good. EVGA's FTW3 and KINGPIN cards are beasts for overclocking. 

 

so overall, i would recommend EVGA overall. 

 

avoid MSI's Armor line-up, any blower style card, and Asus's Dual and Ceberus (i think thats the name). These are budget cards, have the lowest non-binned chips, and will most likely run hotter than the counterparts of significantly higher build quality. 

[DAWWolfX]

Just now, TH3R34P3R said:

best gpu brand for if you have an issue - EVGA. super solid customer service. will always have an answer in under 24 hours. 

 

Best GPU for speeds? - it seems to be a toss up for me between EVGA and ASUS. Asus's strix cards are crazy good. EVGA's FTW3 and KINGPIN cards are beasts for overclocking. 

 

so overall, i would recommend EVGA overall. 

 

avoid MSI's Armor line-up, any blower style card, and Asus's Dual and Ceberus (i think thats the name). These are budget cards, have the lowest non-binned chips, and will most likely run hotter than the counterparts of significantly higher build quality. 

Out of curiosity, I never hear anything about Zotac or PowerColor, are they bad or just meh? 

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

I would like to know which brand of graphics card is highly recommended. Which brand is typically really good? It can be either AMD or Nvidia. Which brands should I avoid besides weird foreign brands not typically sold in the US? Thanks! 

NVIDIA vs. AMD is a decision you have to make for yourself based upon what your needs and budget are. Both companies produce plenty of fine graphics cards, and we're not at a point in history where NVIDIA vs. AMD should be deciding anything for you.

 

In terms of OEMs, I've had terrible experiences with Gigabyte's customer support and quality issues with their coolers--bad combination. EVGA's product support is second to none. I've had great experiences with Sapphire and AsRock as well (albeit not with GPUs for AsRock). ASUS has been hit or miss for me on RMAs (again, not just on GPUs).

[Semper]

The only "brand" I avoid is Asus, for the reasons listed here.

If you're going with nVidia, It's my belief that EVGA is the one to go for, as their customer service is really second to none. Multiple times i've contected them with a questions or issues (I've had to RMA a few things), and they've gotten back to me within 6 hours (20 minutes was the fastest), and when I had to replace a PSU, they had the new unit to my door in two days from the time the original message was sent (it also helps that I'm only about 40 miles from their RMA center, note)

I don't know much about the AMD side (the last AMD card I owned was the 7870 from above), but I know people often like Sapphire.

 

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Out of curiosity, I never hear anything about Zotac or PowerColor, are they bad or just meh? 

PowerColor had some serious DOA issues with the RX 480, but I'm assuming those were fixed with newer cards. I've never had a problem with a Zotac card, and as a result, I've never had to RMA one.

[TH3R34P3R]

4 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Out of curiosity, I never hear anything about Zotac or PowerColor, are they bad or just meh? 

i've never had any of their cards. can't give personal insight into that. 

[DAWWolfX]

Just now, TH3R34P3R said:

i've never had any of their cards. can't give personal insight into that. 

Oh okay. Thank you for the recommendations made previously. Trying to get the community's opinion so I can make a good choice. 

[nhatduy1611]

I can vouch for zotac but not powercolor. Had a zotac gtx 970 for 3 and a half year and it ran great. My personal favorite are galax and asus. If you buy amd go for sapphire card. First video card i got was a sapphire r7 270 for 2 years as well.

[LukeSavenije]

8 minutes ago, TH3R34P3R said:

avoid MSI's Armor line-up

for 10 series or earlier. the rtx line is actually pretty good

 

7 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Out of curiosity, I never hear anything about Zotac or PowerColor, are they bad or just meh? 

yes, the costumer service has mixed reviews and some cards run pretty hot, but i personally don't have one. btw, i would avoid blowers (except if you can get a REALLY good deal on one).

[DAWWolfX]

7 minutes ago, Semper said:

The only "brand" I avoid is Asus, for the reasons listed here.

If you're going with nVidia, It's my belief that EVGA is the one to go for, as their customer service is really second to none. Multiple times i've contected them with a questions or issues (I've had to RMA a few things), and they've gotten back to me within 6 hours (20 minutes was the fastest), and when I had to replace a PSU, they had the new unit to my door in two days from the time the original message was sent (it also helps that I'm only about 40 miles from their RMA center, note)

I don't know much about the AMD side (the last AMD card I owned was the 7870 from above), but I know people often like Sapphire.

 

I have heard good things about EVGA's customer service. I will definitely look more at their models. I bought a 750w power supply, the G1+ 

[LukeSavenije]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:51 AM, nhatduy1611 said:

I can vouch for zotac but not powercolor. Had a zotac gtx 970 for 3 and a half year and it ran great. My personal favorite are galax and asus. If you buy amd go for sapphire card. First video card i got was a sapphire r7 270 for 2 years as well.

sapphire, xfx, asus, gigabyte, msi (not the armor) get a high recommendation from me on amd (asus arez and ROG are the same FYI)

 

EVGA, asus, msi (not armor for 10 series or earlier), zotac, pny and galax/kfa2 get a recommendation from me, especially EVGA as i personally have one

 

On 2/19/2019 at 9:55 AM, AlphaXWolf1M said:

I have heard good things about EVGA's customer service. I will definitely look more at their models. I bought a 750w power supply, the G1+ 

they can do in like 15 minutes somethimes, it's impressive

[DAWWolfX]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:55 AM, UncleJarvis said:

-snip-

No just getting opinions from the forums! I watch reviews by the way. 

 

On 2/19/2019 at 9:57 AM, LukeSavenije said:

they can do in like 15 minutes somethimes, it's impressive

That is impressive! Good customer service is something I am looking for. 

[LukeSavenije]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:57 AM, AlphaXWolf1M said:

No just getting opinions from the forums! I watch reviews by the way. 

just curious, are you planning on getting something?

 

On 2/19/2019 at 9:59 AM, AlphaXWolf1M said:

That is impressive! Good customer service is something I am looking for. 

EVGA can do that with ease. too bad they don't offer anything from AMD anymore...

[DAWWolfX]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:59 AM, LukeSavenije said:

just curious, are you planning on getting something

Yes. I will be buying a card in March or April-ish just got to wait a little longer. 

 

On 2/19/2019 at 10:01 AM, LukeSavenije said:

EVGA can do that with ease. too bad they don't offer anything from AMD anymore...

Yeah, I was looking at maybe getting the Vega 56 or a 580/590. I think my last forum post yesterday made me look at the RTX 2060. 

[nhatduy1611]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:01 AM, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Yes. I will be buying a card in March or April-ish just got to wait a little longer. 

If you don't mind used get a 1080 or 1080ti used. You can get them for pretty good price. Vega 64 is also a good option if you want amd. I'm just talking about raw gaming power here though.

 

On 2/19/2019 at 10:03 AM, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Yeah, I was looking at maybe getting the Vega 56 or a 580/590. I think my last forum post yesterday made me look at the RTX 2060. 

Wait for the 1160ti then. It just a cheaper 2060 without rtx.

[TH3R34P3R]

4 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

That is impressive! Good customer service is something I am looking for. 

yeah I had a GPU issue with an EVGA card... they sent me the wrong thing, a 1050 instead of a 1050ti. but in 15 minutes the whole thing was solved, and a new card was shipped to me in about 30 minutes. It arrived the next day, and i got to keep the wrong card. gave it to a friend cause I had no use for it at the time. but yeah, 30 minutes for the whole ordeal... 

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

Yes. I will be buying a card in March or April-ish just got to wait a little longer. 

if you're going midrange, you might want to wait for NAVI to be released... but that won't come in a EVGA flavor afaik

[DAWWolfX]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:03 AM, nhatduy1611 said:

If you don't mind used get a 1080 or 1080ti used. You can get them for pretty good price. Vega 64 is also a good option if you want amd. I'm just talking about raw gaming power here though.

I am about looking at a price range of no more than mid-300s, honestly, but there may be a good one at that price used. I would prefer new to be honest but I may shop around the used market.

 

On 2/19/2019 at 10:05 AM, TH3R34P3R said:

yeah I had a GPU issue with an EVGA card... they sent me the wrong thing, a 1050 instead of a 1050ti. but in 15 minutes the whole thing was solved, and a new card was shipped to me in about 30 minutes. It arrived the next day, and i got to keep the wrong card. gave it to a friend cause I had no use for it at the time. but yeah, 30 minutes for the whole ordeal... 

That is really good service! 

[nhatduy1611]

5 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

I am about looking at a price range of no more than mid-300s, honestly, but there may be a good one at that price used. I would prefer new to be honest but I may shop around the used market.

Well brand new a  vega 56 with a good cooler will beat the 2060 when you oc it. Can't really oc with rtx card. Not to mention vega has extra 2gb of vram which is imporant for newer game.

[TH3R34P3R]

7 minutes ago, AlphaXWolf1M said:

I am about looking at a price range of no more than mid-300s, honestly, but there may be a good one at that price used. I would prefer new to be honest but I may shop around the used market.

for 300ish? EVGA XC Gaming 2060 is 329.00 (or .99) now, and most likely will stay there for a while.  

[DAWWolfX]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:11 AM, nhatduy1611 said:

Well brand new a  vega 56 with a good cooler will beat the 2060 when you oc it. Can't really oc with rtx card. Not to mention vega has extra 2gb of vram which is imporant for newer game.

I think the prices of Vega 56 inflated again. I saw one for $330 and it jumped to $469 a day later! Bleh... But hopefully by March it will drop again. 

 

On 2/19/2019 at 10:16 AM, TH3R34P3R said:

for 300ish? EVGA XC Gaming 2060 is 329.00 (or .99) now, and most likely will stay there for a while.  

That is one I looked at, I may very well choose that one. 

[Appelzaadje]

wonder why no one mentions which vendors allow water cooling EVGA and XFX as far as i know are the few who don't care about consumers removing the coolers dono if this is still true though

[DAWWolfX]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:20 AM, Appelzaadje said:

wonder why no one mentions which vendors allow water cooling EVGA and XFX as far as i know are the few who don't care about consumers removing the coolers dono if this is still true though

Yeah what is everyone's opinion on XFX? And I have considered watercooling a card especially if I got a Vega Card since it has a lot of focus heat on the HBM2.  

 

What is everyone's opinion on XFX?

 

On 2/19/2019 at 9:45 AM, aisle9 said:

NVIDIA vs. AMD is a decision you have to make for yourself based upon what your needs and budget are. Both companies produce plenty of fine graphics cards, and we're not at a point in history where NVIDIA vs. AMD should be deciding anything for you.

 

In terms of OEMs, I've had terrible experiences with Gigabyte's customer support and quality issues with their coolers--bad combination. EVGA's product support is second to none. I've had great experiences with Sapphire and AsRock as well (albeit not with GPUs for AsRock). ASUS has been hit or miss for me on RMAs (again, not just on GPUs).

The person who built my computer told me to stay away from Gigabyte Motherboards, so I did. He likes the MSI and Asus boards. I liked the MSI Pro Carbon AC board so I selected that one. So I think I will look at EVGA and Zotac on NVIDIA and Sapphire and maybe MSI/ASUS on AMD. Not sure yet though