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Third party GPU question
Looking at getting some GPUs, for builds I will be doing soon, and I was wondering if people had any insights into what brand (EVGA, MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, Sapphire, ASRock, etc.) I should choose or stay away from. I suspect that all of the cooling comes from just a few different vendors with slightly differing specs. Does anyone know of any brands that have better, quieter cooling or brands to avoid (generally bad cooling).
I do suspect that the more you pay for a card the better cooling get, but it would not surprise me if there was markup from some brands that had little to do with actual performance. Conversely, I could see some brands just selling garbage coolers to bring down cost.
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
--John Ruskin
--John Ruskin
Comments
That said, you don't necessarily want the nice card. The "good" version of a card might have 50% better cooling in order to clock 10% higher and burn 30% more power--and also cost 15% more and be more likely to die early because of the overclock.
People commonly say to avoid the single-fan blower cards, and I'd mostly agree with that for mid-range or high end cards unless you're going small form factor with peculiar cooling needs or trying to cram something into a bad case. But a cooler with several heat pipes and multiple fans that spray heat off in all directions will be fine outside of some very high power (typically multi-GPU) cards if your case has ample airflow.
If you're looking at cards that are around $100 or less, then you start to get some coolers that are just bad. If a card just has a heatsink and no heatpipes, then it isn't going to be a very good cooler. That's fine on a 20 W card, but not what you want on a 75 W card--and no one will try it on a 150 W card because it would be so woefully inadequate.
The only brands to stay away from are some small Chinese brands, but you should notice those brands because they're offering a lot less different models and you can't usually find reviews of them from reputable western review sites.
The performances of different models are usually so close to each other that the only meaningful differences between cards are their price, whether it fits inside your case, and how much noise the cooling is going to produce.
--John Ruskin
--John Ruskin
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
I've had good experiences with EVGA and Sapphire in the past, and I'm looking at a Gigabyte card for my upcoming build but can't speak to that brand yet. As far as cooling specifics goes, I'm typically fine with running the factory overclock and not pushing further, so I don't worry much about it as long as it's not a single-fan blower. It never hurts to watch/read some benchmarks, though...Gamer's Nexus goes pretty in-depth on thermals and noise in their GPU videos
--John Ruskin
Update October 31, 2018 - you must now register the second-hand card once you receive it. Warranty is still transferable.On the AMD side:
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Asus still makes decent products, they just tend to be prices higher. And god help you if you need to use their RMA - it’s notoriously poor.
EVGA has a good RMA system, but unfortunately you need to use it more often than some other brands. A lot of folks have won the lottery on warranty service for older cards getting a free upgrade though.
Ive had great luck with XFX and sapphire on the AMD side.
i do recommend considering warranty - there are some cards out there with 5 year or even lifetime warranties available. You hope to never need it, but there are times that you do (like your PSU blowing up and taking your GPU with it)
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
1) That computer doesn't work for a few weeks while you wait for them to send you a replacement, unless you've got a spare card laying around.
2) There's a good chance that your replacement card will be one that someone else sent in as defective, but the board partner thinks is fine.
Perhaps that's better than nothing. If nothing else, you could buy another, cheaper GPU while waiting for the warranty replacement. But it's not nearly as good as having a video card not die in the first place.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Video cards also depreciate fast. Yes, a warranty for a card that dies after you've had it for six months can have value, but everyone will cover it for that long. If a card dies after four years, buying a brand new card with performance equivalent to the dead card would cost a lot less than the original card cost new--and use less power and have better features, while you're at it.
Maybe you've got a spare GPU around to keep the computer working while you send in parts for warranty service. Or maybe in the event of a card dying, you don't mind having the computer not work at all for a few weeks if you're lucky, or longer if you're not. As I said, it's your money and you can do what you want.
Both suck if you need to use them, but it sucks less than just having a dead card.
Reseller is usually limited to 30 days or so from
purchase, and requires all the original
packaging. Typically not a lot
of questions asked, and usually it’s turned around in 7-10 days.
Warranty service lasts for years... for GPUs usually 3-5, sometimes life. Some companies will transfer warranty after sales. But it can be denied for certain reasons, and the service area will check out the card and run diagnostics. Turnaround time here can be weeks. There is a very slim chance you could receive an upgraded card in return, but being honest, it’s not very big and the company will look for any legit reason to deny your claim.
I’d rather not have to use RMA service at all, but it’s better to have it and not just be out hundreds of dollars than to have a very expensive paperweight with no other recourse available.
Warranty is a great reason to buy new and avoid the gray market. I wouldn’t pay a lot extra for a lifetime warranty though, and I wouldn’t count on a transferable warranty being honored on a used sale.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.