Hardware & Technical Best Graphics card manufacturers

[Surfinjo]

A subject that must crop up more than most would like, is graphics cards.

I've just had my money refunded, for the third time, because a graphics card I bought was faulty.

The last two were from Sapphire. I don't recall the first.

We have a pretty good discussion on Motherboard manufacturers going, with a poll for future reference. It might be an equally good idea to do the same for graphics cards.

The issue will be rather more complicated but if we restrict this to discussion on

Manufacturers who Produce Graphics card that are the minimum to play games such as Elite Dangerous and similar.​

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

ASUS again from me, i have 2 in my current system.

a 3gb 7950 that runs my 3 screen set up and a 6850 that i use to connect my TV.

i figured as the build quality of their motherboards was good the cards would be the same, so far i haven't been proven wrong as i've never had any problems with one.

 

[Zieman]

XfX (not listed) used to produce great ATI cards, haven't heard bad things about them in the AMD era either.
Evga, Gainward & Sapphire seem to be popular too.

I have an Asus, the DC2OC seemed good + I thought that Asus mobo & Asus GPU would make a good pair. Been happy with that decision so far.

 

[Surfinjo]

Apologies for those not listed.

I searched around for lists of popular graphics card manufacturers on the web. They varied obviously, but I selected those which seemed to crop up often. From that I had to select 19 for the sake of this board.

 

[Cody]

EVGA here - but it is a personal thing!

 

[Davevti]

Apart from EVGA none of the above actually manufacture a graphics card, all these company's do mainly is to change the cosmetics, cooling solutions and perhaps modify the capacitors etc but in most case they all will perform pretty much the same.
Its whether you win the 'silicon lottery' then this will decide if one card performs better than its equal,
To give an example, I have a 7970 MSI reference card, compared to my buddy's 7970 lightning edition. He paid around 550 for his back in the day, whereas I paid half of that round about the same time for exactly the same card, but his had LEDs and some kind of power gimmick attached.
My card runs more efficiently, I use less volts for the same clock speed.

I guess all I look for in a card is a good warranty!

 

[Cosmos]

Pity we couldn't vote for more than one. Asus and Gigabyte are brands I've used and have been solid cards. I even have an 8800GT thats 6 years old and its still usable. XFX are a good manufacturer as well and replaced a card for me that fried with no quibbles.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

I've had Saphire, XFX and now an MSI.
All have been fandabbydozy...

 

[Dusty]

Never had a problem with MSI and Afterburner is nice to use.

Asus is a close second GPU Tweak is better than Afterburner and I like Asus in general, but my Asus GTX 670 conked out recently

 

[calculon68]

I've used Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA, XFX and MSI. None have failed or gone bad on me, but I don't overclock my GPUs. If I had to choose one, it'd probably be Asus.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I do not have a graphics card currently but I think the best brand is Asus. Because I have an Asus motherboard and I see the quality of manufacture. And also the articles of the specialized press and the user reviews in the sites of online sales

 

[Aleksej]

I do not have a graphics card currently but I think the best brand is Asus. Because I have an Asus motherboard and I see the quality of manufacture. And also the articles of the specialized press and the user reviews in the sites of online sales

I would say that it is a matter of luck actually. I had an OC Palit GTX580, which required increasing voltage to work at pre-defined OC frequency, I have ASUS GTX Titan, which cannot be OC'ed over 1084MHz (it is possible to OC it to 1097MHz or 1110MHz but only applying significantly higher voltage). Gigabyte's GTX Titan (OC Windforce) that I have has a much better OC capabilities but the bios is not as flexible as Asus' one. So I have flashed ASUS bios to both of them. Also ASUS' Titan constantly has throttling at 1110MHz and decreases frequency to 1084/1097, whereas Gigabyte has no throttling at 1150 or 1167MHz. Gigabyte's GTX285 that I had for about 5 years and was used for desktop applications only for the last 3 years had a VRAM failure last year.

MBs are also a matter of luck. As far as I remember correctly there were reports that Asus non-Maximus Sandy Bridge motherboards were killing CPUs, the problem did not exist on Maximus-series motherboards. Meaning that the more expensive MB had less chances to have problems.

I am using ASUS motherboards for more than 10 years and have never had any problems with them though.

 

[Dusty]

I do not have a graphics card currently but I think the best brand is Asus. Because I have an Asus motherboard and I see the quality of manufacture. And also the articles of the specialized press and the user reviews in the sites of online sales

If your looking for a graphics card the Nvidea GTX 760, 770, 970 & the AMD R9 285 are offering some tasty bang for their buck.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

not sure if they are the "best" but in terms of bang for your buck I am a great fan of Zotac.

They usually come in at around reference design prices, but on an overclocked card with a souped up cooling system (and a 5year warranty to boot!)

That being said I am hearing very good things about MSI when it comes to the GTX 970s. Their cards are hitting some insane speeds at the moment, outstripping competing, and more expensive 970s.

 

[Patrick_68000]

If your looking for a graphics card the Nvidea GTX 760, 770, 970 & the AMD R9 285 are offering some tasty bang for their buck.

I planned the GTX 970 in a few weeks

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

sorry if i am spamming about this but from what I have read on verious forums, the early leaders in the "best" GTX970s at the moment are the MSI ones with the after market cooler.

these are cheaper than some (and are running out of the box a little slower than some) but are an overclocking dream and clocking better (on average) than more expensive, faster out of the box cards. Many even hittiing 1500mhz levels on boost.

ie this one

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...mhz-gddr5-gpu-1140-mhz-cores-1664-dp-dvi-hdmi

edit. sorry.. i must be going mental. i posted almost the same thing 2 posts up. must need coffee!.

 

[Patrick_68000]

That being said I am hearing very good things about MSI when it comes to the GTX 970s. Their cards are hitting some insane speeds at the moment, outstripping competing, and more expensive 970s.

Tests indicate that the MSI GTX 970 boosted, is equal or superior than the GTX 780Ti. But the electric consumption is greatly increased

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

increased from stock, sure, but still way less than the 780ti.

in reality you are only looking at a few euros/£s/$s a year increase in energy bills........ ie.... do it you know you want to

 

[Patrick_68000]

I would say that it is a matter of luck actually. I had an OC Palit GTX580, which required increasing voltage to work at pre-defined OC frequency, I have ASUS GTX Titan, which cannot be OC'ed over 1084MHz (it is possible to OC it to 1097MHz or 1110MHz but only applying significantly higher voltage). Gigabyte's GTX Titan (OC Windforce) that I have has a much better OC capabilities but the bios is not as flexible as Asus' one. So I have flashed ASUS bios to both of them. Also ASUS' Titan constantly has throttling at 1110MHz and decreases frequency to 1084/1097, whereas Gigabyte has no throttling at 1150 or 1167MHz. Gigabyte's GTX285 that I had for about 5 years and was used for desktop applications only for the last 3 years had a VRAM failure last year.

MBs are also a matter of luck. As far as I remember correctly there were reports that Asus non-Maximus Sandy Bridge motherboards were killing CPUs, the problem did not exist on Maximus-series motherboards. Meaning that the more expensive MB had less chances to have problems.

I am using ASUS motherboards for more than 10 years and have never had any problems with them though.

In all cases, I'll content myself with the OC of factory. I like OC the motherboard. But touch the graphics card, I do not like too much

increased from stock, sure, but still way less than the 780ti.

in reality you are only looking at a few euros/£s/$s a year increase in energy bills........ ie.... do it you know you want to

MSI is very attractive. Will be one of my favorite choices with Asus