Thoughts on Smaller GPU Brands?

[Guest]

I'm trying to get some opinions on smaller GPU brands than Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, etc.

 

I was just searching around, and I came across a few absolutely awesome looking cards, but they are smaller brands.  Inno3D, ZOTAC, and GALAX.  The links to the cards are here:  http://www.zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-900-series/product/geforce-900-series/detail/geforce-gtx-980-amp-extreme-edition.html , http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=157, http://www.galax.net/US/980hof.html . They look pretty sweet, and would fit right into my build.  From what I've heard, the Inno3d has AMAZING temperatures, less than 60c under load, the ZOTAC looks the coolest, and the GALAX has pretty good reviews.  Does anybody have any experience with any of these cards, and should I consider them for my build, or would it just be better to stick to what everyone knows?

[nj4ck]

zotac is actually pretty big, just not in the US and europe. They're pretty good. Galaxy/Galax, whatever they call themselves now, has also been around for a while. Can't speak for Inno3d, I've never had any of their cards. Doesn't mean their bad though, I just don't know. Try to find reviews.

[arnavvr]

GALAX is not an unknown brand, and the 980/970 HOF is very well regarded. Also, get 2 970's instead of 1 980.

[Guest]

GALAX is not an unknown brand, and the 980/970 HOF is very well regarded. Also, get 2 970's instead of 1 980.

Not really unknown, just not as big as the obvious ones.  I know that 970 SLI gets better performance than one 980, but I am looking to SLI the 980 eventually for 4k.

[Bogica]

Gainward and Zotac are very reliable and offer some really good cards. As someone who owned some older Gainward Nvidia cards I can confirm they are very high quality and well cooled. I sold a Gainward GSGLH (Golden sample, goes like hell) edition 8800gt to a friend and he still games on it to this day. Also my Gainward GTS 250 1gb card is still running on another friends PC, it's always been used for gaming since 2009. While my leadtek 465 died after 3 years of gaming, which is not bad at all, even 2 years of heavy gaming should have killed that Fermi card.
Also Galaxy has HOF (Hall of fame) cards which are really good.

[Briggsy]

I wish BFGTech were still around... 

[spwath]

They are all good, better then Asus and the like

[Guest]

Gainward and Zotac are very reliable and offer some really good cards. As someone who owned some older Gainward Nvidia cards I can confirm they are very high quality and well cooled. I sold a Gainward GSGLH (Golden sample, goes like hell) edition 8800gt to a friend and he still games on it to this day. Also my Gainward GTS 250 1gb card is still running on another friends PC, it's always been used for gaming since 2009. While my leadtek 465 died after 3 years of gaming, which is not bad at all, even 2 years of heavy gaming should have killed that Fermi card.

Also Galaxy has HOF (Hall of fame) cards which are really good.

Those Gainward cards are pretty ugly, but look like they have some pretty good cooling.

[Bogica]

Those Gainward cards are pretty ugly, but look like they have some pretty good cooling.

I don't really care how it looks, it's going to sit in my case either way, all I care about is good cooling and high performance.

[LiamApex]

there is one calloed color or somthing seen  there r9 cards

[Guest]

Wow, just looked at a review on the Inno3D card, it was 28c on idle, 48c under load, and 55c in furmark, while performing better than all the other variants of the 980.  That just brought it up my want list even more.

[Yoinkerman]

I really like zotac gpus, and Galax is actually huge, and supposed to be good too.

[vembutech]

The above mentioned are good with the gpu in that zotac which looks good with performance.