PC Gaming @kbin.social GloryFish @kbin.social 1y ago

With EVGA out of the GPU market, what brands are good options for a new GPU purchase?

I was an EVGA customer for many years. I'm looking to buy a new GPU soon to replace my 2080Ti. What brands would you consider when making a new GPU purchase and why?

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I'm an AMD guy myself due to Linux compatibility. I prefer Sapphire, PowerColor, XFX, and Asus cards, in that order.
- My Radeon 290X gave me a lot of Linux problems before it died. Like freezing a while after resuming from sleep. Hate to admit the GTX 1660 Ti hasn't given me any problems on Linux.
  
  AMD revamped and open sourced their driver sometimes around the Vega era, I think? It's been super solid since then.
- I've always been AMD myself.
  
  Unfortunately I've had an Asus Strix Vega 64 suffer from voltage spikes and ended up seeing it has bad quality control thermal pads ❎
  
  Then seeing Asus melt motherboards with the AM5 X3Ds at launch 🤔...
  
  I think the current generation of Power Color was having a similar issues with thermal pads, but don't quote me on that. My PC 5700xt and 6900xt Red Devils worked fine.
  
  I went with Sapphire this go round for my 7900xtx.
  
  Make friends, resell old parts. Subsidize upgrades 🙃
  
  I've been using ASUS/AMD for 20ish years now with excellent results. Just upgraded from a R9 380 that was and is still running fine. Will be my kid's new card.
I am very pleased with PowerColor for the price. My RX580 has been beaten a ton for 5-6 years now, and goes on strong. Same from other PowerColor GPUs of friends
Just go with Sapphire. Get whatever the best card they sell that's within your budget. Can't go wrong.
AMD side: Sapphire, Powercolor, and XFX in that order usually. Asrock's been pretty decent as well.

Nvidia? Not really sure, Zotac is a sister company to Sapphire and is usually pretty decent, I've heard. MSI might be okay, but I'd read reviews for the specific card in question. Same with Asus, as I've heard they've been going downhill as of late. Gigabyte's been known for poor quality cards for a while. Maybe not all of them, but more of them than other brands.

That's just the word on the grapevine though, individual reviewers would have more insight. Like Gamer's Nexus and Hardware unboxed.
I got a sapphire for my latest card because it was the only brand with a 7900 xtx short enough to fit in my case (aside from the reference edition, which was of course sold out everywhere). Thus far my experience has been that it works and it doesn't not work. I guess that is as good as it gets, lol. There was some coil whine the first day I had it but that seems to have just gone away or I haven't noticed it and now I've had it for about 6 months.
If I'm buying an AMD card, I buy PowerColor or Sapphire. If I'm buying an Nvidia card, I buy ASUS or MSI (quality isn't as good as ASUS, but tends to be cheaper). No real reason for those picks other than preference and good experience over many years of using them. Just remember that it's possible for any card to break regardless of brand so take reports with small sample sizes with a large grain of salt.
One good reason to support AMD is to also support 3rd party card vendors and manufacturers imo. Otherwise, for Nvidia, I got nothing.
I'm only looking at buying an MSI 40 card.

ASUS charges extra for the name, I'm concerned about Gigabyte build quality and denying warranties, it looks like MSI is the quietest card for this gen and coolest ot second coolest card, I have tried Zotac and they seeem to have cheaper or louder fans.
- I was a long time EVGA user. I bought a Zotac 4090 (AMP OC) on a whim when I saw them in stock a Microcenter. It was sitting 2 feet away from me in my open air case for 3 months before my waterblock arrived and I could barely hear it even at full tilt.
Sadly, no one else is as good as EVGA was when it comes to the warranty.
This is my own experience, but for this generation I've been having a lot of bad luck with GPUs

Bought a 5700XT from gigabyte and it suffered from random freezes/memory issues, RMA'd, worked fine for a couple of months, same issue again and now outside warranty.

Got an EVGA 3060 Ti second hand from a friend, worked fine but then started making this croak like sound every time the fans ramp up.

Decided to just get another 3060 Ti brand new from ASUS and one of the fans made a grinding noise not one month into operation. RMA'd now good.

It really depends sometimes. All of this trouble with new gen cards but my old Gigabyte GeForce GTX560s still run great.

Imho, I'm still a fan of Asus for Nvidia. For amd, I'd go power color or sapphire. Those seem to be the best ones.
- That sounds about right. Gigabyte's known as being an inferior choice much of the time, and ASUS has been cheaping out lately and getting lazy. They're just coasting on their name recognition as of late, unfortunately.
I am an MSI and AMD guy… Considering a 6800 XT right now… I’ve had my R9 390 for a long time, and it’s still holding up just fine (also, MSI).
Before my current card which is an EVGA 980 ti I had Asus cards which I liked but the last one I had was an r9 270x so things might have changed since
I am looking for a good answer one this myself as I have a 2080 super bought right before the price hike of 2020
I loved my last Sapphire card. Sadly I wasn't able to get a good deal on one when I went back to AMD this time, so settled for a XFX instead. So far so good!
I've always just went with xfx cards and they seem to work really well granted they only make amd

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