Does GPU brand matter?

[aidenp]

Okay, so I know there's heaps of different brands making custom and aftermarket GPU's with the same chips.

Obviously some outperform others, and are more expensive. But if I was looking at water cooling either one or two GPU's, does the cooler that it comes with matter? Or could I just get a cheaper or a reference card and expect the same performance?

[themaniac]

Okay, so I know there's heaps of different brands making custom and aftermarket GPU's with the same chips.

Obviously some outperform others, and are more expensive. But if I was looking at water cooling either one or two GPU's, does the cooler that it comes with matter? Or could I just get a cheaper or a reference card and expect the same performance?

if you plan on watercooling the card than the only thing that matters is the quality of the parts on the card

[shypin]

reference should be fine and waterblocks for those will be a little easier to find and resell

[manikyath]

the cooler matters, in more ways than just cooling performance.

 

aesthetics are very important to some, as well as some other things as asus cards turning off their fans under 65°c.

 

some different manufacturers sometimes also mess with their boards, allowing for stuff like better power delivery.

 

theres also brands that make better AMD cards than nvidia cards, and the other way around. as well as a few exclusive brands on both sides.

--

when watercooling you should specificly look for a brand of card that has waterblocks available for it, like the stock cards. (but not only the stock cards have watercoolers)

[aidenp]

the cooler matters, in more ways than just cooling performance.

aesthetics are very important to some, as well as some other things as asus cards turning off their fans under 65°c.

some different manufacturers sometimes also mess with their boards, allowing for stuff like better power delivery.

theres also brands that make better AMD cards than nvidia cards, and the other way around. as well as a few exclusive brands on both sides.

--

when watercooling you should specificly look for a brand of card that has waterblocks available for it, like the stock cards. (but not only the stock cards have watercoolers)

Okay, makes sense. So for example, I've got a STRIX 980 atm. Because of all the software and driver support that it has, would water cooling obviously render it useless in terms of support?

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just saying Asus isn't the only own with fan off tech.

And their current coolers suck really bad.

Basically unless there is a known issue with a cooler/brand on a particular gpu range it doesn't matter much (+/-2%), but some are easier to deal with yes.

[joeyfrydrych]

Any brand but Vamery and Diamond is fine lol

[manikyath]

Just saying Asus isn't the only own with fan off tech.

And their current coolers suck really bad.

Basically unless there is a known issue with a cooler/brand on a particular gpu range it doesn't matter much (+/-2%), but some are easier to deal with yes.

it was just an example, i know theres others out there, but i usually cant remember which ones

 

that said, i'm fairly happy with my asus strix card. it performs rather well for the furnace that is my PC.

[the ginger gamer]

Well, i do think it matters, but not that much. Typically i look for a well known brand with good reputation. However what really matters to me other than performance is the aesthetics. 

[DirtySHISNO]

Custom pcb's are sometimes harder to get water blocks for, if at all.