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Advice on Video card purchase new EVGA 3070 vs Refurbished Zotac 3090

Saganaki
By Saganaki
in Graphics Cards
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Posted

They are both the same price around $600.  The Zotac is obviously but I am concerned about the warranty and it has heating issues from what I can read on Amazon.  Whereas the EVGA has amazing reviews and a warranty but it with EVGA getting out of the video card business with NVIDIA that makes it a somewhat questionable.  Which card would you purchase or do you do you have any other suggestions around the same price point?  

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I like things spicy, I would go with the refurb.

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Is the refurb from Zotac itself? If so, I'd go with that one. Seems obvious at that price.

 

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Not a fan of zotac, A used 3090fe would be my go to, or 3080. 
Warranty will be all the same with evga within the covered period. 

Main RIg Corsair Air 540, I7 9900k, ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero, G.Skill Ripjaws 3600 32GB, 3090FE, EVGA 1000G5, Acer Nitro XZ3 2560 x 1440@240hz 

 

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Posted

EVGA is said to keep some stocks for warranty claims/RMAs, so there's that.

I also heard zotac cards' VRAM thermal pads melted off, so there's also that.

Also, if the refurb have warranty, maybe a year at least, it might be worth it. 

Up to you, whether the performance gain is worth the risk.

Not an expert, just bored at work. Please quote me or mention me if you would like me to see your reply. **may edit my posts a few times after posting**

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Posted

The 3090 is significantly better than 3070,

 

$600 is unusually low for even a refurb 3090

 

 

Yeah, we're all just a bunch of idiots experiencing nothing more than the placebo effect.
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Come to find out it not a refurb it is an OEM from a local system builder offloading some cards before the 4000 series is here.  My main issue is no warranty with the card since it is OEM and even if he bought it from new retail the warranty does not transfer like with EVGA.  Also Zotac does not offer out of warranty repair.   That being said $600 is a fabulous price for this card as long as I have no issues.

 

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4 hours ago, Saganaki said:

Come to find out it not a refurb it is an OEM from a local system builder offloading some cards before the 4000 series is here.  My main issue is no warranty with the card since it is OEM and even if he bought it from new retail the warranty does not transfer like with EVGA.  Also Zotac does not offer out of warranty repair.   That being said $600 is a fabulous price for this card as long as I have no issues.

 

Ehh screw it and replace the thermal back pads on it. Been buying many 3090's second hand

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Both are the same price $600 but nervous about no warranty on the Zotac and no out of warranty repair service.   The EVGA 3080 is new in box with warranty.  Which would you get?

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Do you need 24GB of VRAM for editing or game dev or something? If not, then the 3090 doesn't offer much over the 3080. The performance difference between the 3080 and 3090 is minimal, and the 3080 is also much easier to cool and power. Since the 3080 also comes new and with a warranty, I'd go with that if you don't need the VRAM.

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By Zotac OEM you mean it's out of a Dell or something? I wouldn't get it just because it probably has a worse cooler.

If you are getting the EVGA card via proper channels, I'd probably go with that.

In the future if you're going to ask questions, you really need to provide more information. Here, you'd have been better off including what your PC specs are, what you're doing with it, if you're gaming what resolution, games and settings you want to achieve. Otherwise we really have nothing to base answers on and you're going to get incomplete or incorrect responses.


Welcome to the forum.

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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26 minutes ago, dizmo said:

 

My current PC specs are i5 2500k w/ a 970 and 16GB RAM.  The card will be used primarily for gaming but in the future I could do some content creation but that is doubtful.  After this have to decide on the AM4 or AM5 platform for my next upgrade.  BTW thanks for the advice.

 

 

 

 

By Zotac OEM you mean it's out of a Dell or something? I wouldn't get it just because it probably has a worse cooler.

If you are getting the EVGA card via proper channels, I'd probably go with that.

In the future if you're going to ask questions, you really need to provide more information. Here, you'd have been better off including what your PC specs are, what you're doing with it, if you're gaming what resolution, games and settings you want to achieve. Otherwise we really have nothing to base answers on and you're going to get incomplete or incorrect responses.


Welcome to the forum.

 

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What are you running for a monitor? That's going to be a horribly unbalanced system.

When replying, put your reply below the quote window, not in it 😉

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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1 hour ago, dizmo said:

What are you running for a monitor? That's going to be a horribly unbalanced system.

When replying, put your reply below the quote window, not in it 😉

 The LG 34WP65C-B 34-Inch and I know it is horribly "unbalanced" I am working on fixing that 😁  Only thing modern in my system is my Lian Li 011 and my Corsair 750 watt  PSU.

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* threads merged *

 

Please do not post the same topic multiple times.

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