Hierarchy of Video Card Manufacturers

With all this talk about the new 8800GT and the new offerings from ATI expected soon (and especially since I intend to buy a card soon) I was wondering if there is any real difference between the manufacturers? I don't mean Nvidia vs. ATI I mean MSI, PNY, Gigabyte, XFX etc. and if so how would you rate them from best to worst.

None really besides some offering OC'ed cards and longer/better warranties in some cases. A select few ship with non-stock coolers. I bought the cheapest 8800GTS I could find at the time (Gainward) and it OC's 600/1400/1800 without any problems, I could probably push it even more if I felt like it.

Oooo, that's a tough one since I doubt anyone has used a new version of every manufacturers cards (let alone one in each segment low-medium-high) so any answer you get would be based on a number of peoples opinions that someone has put together.

There shouldn't be any major difference though, except some might get better RAM to put onto the card and sometimes one might stray from the reference board design. Though all those things probably won't make more than a 5% difference but good RAM on the cards normally makes them better overclockers.

I haven't been keeping all that up to date about how each manufacturer has been doing but some do have a reputation, like Gainward likes releasing Golden Samples that are clocked higher than reference speeds (at a price), XFX also I think. Gigabyte loves having a premium price on their goods, Asus likes to try and appeal to overclockers, as does MSI. GeCube likes releasing rare things trying to grab niche segments (like their X1950XT on AGP for example, I think Sapphire does too).

Rating from best to worst is hard as everyone has bad times, so whoever is the best today has almost no chance of being the best tomorrow in such a competitive market and even then best at what, Price, performance, bundle, support, reliability? Noone will be best at all those at the same time.

Sorry not very helpful I guess.

If they all use reference boards, then no difference except in the package, warranty and support, which often doesn't affect us in SA. Some brands might make custom boards or use custom cooling and memory chips to get better OC'ing cards.

Usually it will make no difference though. You'd have to look into each card really.

Same advice as the above

very little difference in quality between Nvidia and ATI.

Although without question Nvidia has the better performance product and drivers right now.

I quite like XFX, but it's more personal preference than anything else

Pricing determines all
Not pricing from manufacturer to supplier but pricing from Nvidia/ATI to AIB partner.
With complex silicon and costly PCBs there will be little if any variation in the cards because deviating from the reference design means your costs are much higher than anybody else.
With mid to low end parts provided the pcb is relatively simple (usually determined by process node, bit-width etc...) then you will see lots of variations.

In the 8800GT's some are making entirely new PCB's not looking anything resembling reference boards and thats because the GPU is small (slightly larger than 7900GT) and cost to manufacturer is low....

Its only at this level where you can say X is better than Y, for the most part however their all the same

Evga is my personal favorite because of their very lenient policy concerning overclocking. They will exchange the card as long as their's no physical damage they will even honour the warrantee if you replaced the original fan. Just need to put the original back on before sending it in.

The only sad part is currently there's no stepup program here in SA.

stefan9 said:

The only sad part is currently there's no stepup program here in SA.

Click to expand...

Yep, same with XFX's double lifetime warranty, which is worth paying for, it just doesn't exist in SA. Standard 2 year warranty is all you get, so no point in looking at the warranty half the time either.

I have a Gigabyte 8600GT and wanted to upgrade to a 8800GT after reading the hoohah about Crysis, but after I saw the prices of Gigabyte 8800s I'm not sure if I should.

Anyone know of a website where they have actually compared brands?
No point in me paying R3800 for a card that I can get for R3000 that will be worth R 1500 in a year...

Gigabyte/XfX/Asus or EVGA

HD3850 worth every cent... same price as a 8600GTS not as fast as a 8800GT!

Gigabyte graphics cards are overpriced in SA because of the wholesaler in SA, Rectron, is charging rip-off prices. XFX at pcinternational.co.za have some of the best graphics card prices. I also like the Biostar brand.. as its nice and cheap.