Top Tier brands?

[mojothehut]

Hey all,
I'm itching to get a 980 Ti.
But I'm torn between brands for aftermarket cooling.
I'm really interested in the Asus STRIX whenever it comes out.
Though most people seem to say MSI & Gigabyte are the absolute best
quality. I usually upgrade GPUs every 3 years. So it has to last a while.
This wait for STRIX reviews is killing me

Thoughts on Asus vs. Giga vs. MSI in terms of overall quality?

 

[Freddy1765]

I'm not entirely pleased with my MSI 970, although I don't know to what extent their 980Ti is similar. My main gripes are lack of a backplate, which causes sagging as the card sits in the PCI-e slot, and the fact that the fans at times behave oddly. Randomly, one of them will stop spinning completely while the other will ramp up to 100%; this happens infrequently on boot-up and while idling on desktop. Only fix is a reboot, or prodding the fan with a finger.

 

[Stuka87]

EVGA is typically considered a great brand. I have only had one EVGA card, and out side of the fan dying after a few years, it was a great card.

 

[XiandreX]

I have owned many different brands over the years.
This is my first Gigabyte card and I am very pleased with the overall quality.
No coil whine, no weird fan noises, not a single issue.
I now see why WindForce cards have always been popular. :biggrin:

 

[MagickMan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iORNWrgty4

 

[railven]

I'm not entirely pleased with my MSI 970, although I don't know to what extent their 980Ti is similar. My main gripes are lack of a backplate, which causes sagging as the card sits in the PCI-e slot, and the fact that the fans at times behave oddly. Randomly, one of them will stop spinning completely while the other will ramp up to 100%; this happens infrequently on boot-up and while idling on desktop. Only fix is a reboot, or prodding the fan with a finger.

980 Ti 6GB gaming does come with a backplate, and it's sexy.



I will be receiving my first Zotac card ever tomorrow. On the NV side, we exclusively buy EVGA just because we know they're a good brand and their Customer Service has been exceptional.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS all get a lot of love from reviewers. I've had EVGA cards in the past, including my current GTX 680, and they've all been great. I have an MSI 980 TI Gaming arriving this week, so I'll let you know how that is when it gets here (it's my first time with an MSI card).

 

[Subyman]

EVGA is typically considered a great brand. I have only had one EVGA card, and out side of the fan dying after a few years, it was a great card.

I lost faith in EVGA after the 970 stuff (low end parts, back pedaling on the back plate, and poor cooler.) Their Classy and Kingpin are nice, but pricey. I'd stick with Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Although Zotac is really starting to hit their stride lately. I've got one of their 980TI's coming in mainly because I wanted to give them a shot. I've owned everything but their stuff.

I don't know if I'd say there is a "top tier" brand. All of them are really competitive today and it mainly depends on the user's needs.

 

[DooKey]

I used to think Zotac wasn't a good brand, but I had to RMA a Zotac GTX 980 Amp and it was simple, painless, easy and as fast as any EVGA or MSI RMA I ever did. I highly recommend Zotac because the customer service is excellent.

 

[Headfoot]

I've tried RMAing three different things to Asus and I've never once had them honor it. I wouldn't buy Asus if you want a warranty.

 

[Subyman]

I used to think Zotac wasn't a good brand, but I had to RMA a Zotac GTX 980 Amp and it was simple, painless, easy and as fast as any EVGA or MSI RMA I ever did. I highly recommend Zotac because the customer service is excellent.

Good to hear. I never considered them before because they were a newer brand. They've gotten several years under them now and I'm starting to hear good stuff about them, so I thought it was time to give them a shot. I've heard they honor their warranty if the cooler is taken off, so that is a big plus for me since I'll be WCing. MSI and EVGA also honors their warranty with the cooler taken off.

 

[Sabrewings]

Since it was one of the few places that had them in stock at launch and I'm watercooling anyway (no need for fancy air cooler), I bought the Nvidia brand reference card. No complaints.

 

[MrK6]

EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS all get a lot of love from reviewers. I've had EVGA cards in the past, including my current GTX 680, and they've all been great. I have an MSI 980 TI Gaming arriving this week, so I'll let you know how that is when it gets here (it's my first time with an MSI card).

Ditto to all the above.

Currently have an MSI Gaming GTX 970 and have been nothing but impressed by the design. Turning the fans off at lower temps (idle) should be a stock feature on any card. The overall cooler design is superb in both silence and cooling capacity, and that's really what you're paying for with AIB designs (support track records help). Hopefully my MSI Gaming 980 Ti will be here by the weekend so I can have some time to play around with it.

 

[nitromullet]

I've had great experiences with EVGA throughout the years. Lots of great cards. I have also stepped up a number of times, gotten free back plates, free game codes (discs back in the day), sent in rebates, and processed an RMA as well. I've never run into any hassle with EVGA.

I have owned great NVIDIA cards from Asus, Gigabyte, and Zotac; but never dealt with any of their support centers. My favorite OEM is EVGA, but that also quite liked BFGTech before they went under.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I won't say too much to promote the MSI cards. There are enough customer-reviews giving them kudos. Looking at similar cards from eVGA, the plastic fan-shroud has better coverage with potential for channeling the airflow using some minor lo-tech mods.

Howsoever I might be ambivalent over my choice of the MSI offerings, I got the "Golden Edition" which has (what appears to be the fiber-board) backplate. I'm not sure whether the backplate offers potential or hindrances for better cooling.

And I could criticize myself for the extra increment of expense that I paid for that feature.

But I'm happier than a pig in s*** with these cards. Got 'em clocked to core 1,470Mhz, memory 7,500Mhz with only a 20mV voltage bump and 105% power limit, with 3DMark FireStrike-Extreme and Furmark evidencing temperatures below 78C. And I think . . . I can improve on that . . . too . . .

 

[LTC8K6]

When you pay a lot, you should expect a lot. If you buy a card like this, it should be well made and last a long time.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/evga-980-ti-classified,29491.html

 

[bononos]

Hey all,
I'm itching to get a 980 Ti.
But I'm torn between brands for aftermarket cooling.
I'm really interested in the Asus STRIX whenever it comes out.
Though most people seem to say MSI & Gigabyte are the absolute best
quality. I usually upgrade GPUs every 3 years. So it has to last a while.
This wait for STRIX reviews is killing me

Thoughts on Asus vs. Giga vs. MSI in terms of overall quality?

You have to compare the Strix with MSI's Lightning model and Gigabyte Windforce, the reference models are probably going mostly the same. And then the manufacturers have many models for the same chip, like MSI has 10 models for the 960, Gigabyte has 3 Windforce models for the 970. Usually the difference is in the factory overclocked speed. The 980ti you are interested in have few models by each manufacturer since it is a top tier card.

I don't like the Windforce because 3 fans are just too many to fail for longer term use.

 

[railven]

My first Zotac ever product and I got a good chip. So I'm happy. +300 on core +300 on mem, ref blower @ 100% load. No problem.

Once the HG10 N980 comes out, will stick a Corsair H60 on it.

 

[Subyman]

My first Zotac ever product and I got a good chip. So I'm happy. +300 on core +300 on mem, ref blower @ 100% load. No problem.

Once the HG10 N980 comes out, will stick a Corsair H60 on it.

Congrats. My Zotac ref comes in tomorrow. Hoping for a good chip too. :thumbsup:

 

[sam_816]

Has anyone seen reviews of ZOTAC amp extreme ed? None of the English sites has it. I m torn bw this card and fury x.

 

[RaulF]

Newegg had them earlier, i picked one up. They might have more, check!

I think Sabrepc had them for pre-order, and also NCIX.

But no, no review yet :'(

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/zotac-geforce-gtx-980-ti-amp-extreme-review,1.html

BOOM HEADSHOT! Haven't read it yet.

 

[sam_816]

Newegg had them earlier, i picked one up. They might have more, check!





I think Sabrepc had them for pre-order, and also NCIX.





But no, no review yet :'(





http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/zotac-geforce-gtx-980-ti-amp-extreme-review,1.html





BOOM HEADSHOT! Haven't read it yet.

Well no surprises to see its performance but I really wanted to see how it fared against gigabyte's g1. They only mention gigabyte once in overclock section..

I guess I will open reviews for both on my PC and try to get an idea..

 

[will889]

I just got the Zotac GTX 980 and it's been perfect so far. In the past I have had eVGA and MSI, other than my ATI-AMD based cards from the past.

 

[MrK6]

Following up on my previous post, finally got to sit down and tweak my MSI 980 Ti Gaming and have been nothing but impressed. Cooler is just as good, passive at idle and even forcing 100% isn't audible over the Gentle Typhoon's in my case. Got it clocked to +125/+400 on the core/vRAM respectively, which generally is ~1479MHz/3903MHz in-game. Loads at ~81C without the AC running. Playing GTA V maxed out (except grass is on Very High IIRC) with 1.5x scaling is awesome. I'm also getting generally 60 FPS except in heavily grassy/forested areas.

 

[MentalIlness]

When it comes to Nvidia, I have always preferred EVGA. And for AMD...I would have to say XFX. But that's me.

Is it true EVGA no longer has a lifetime warranty and now it is only for 3 years? Not that it matters to me, just thought I read that somewhere.