Video Card Vendor Ranking 2016

Video Card Vendor Ranking

  • ASUS

    Votes: 19 19.0%

  • EVGA

    Votes: 46 46.0%

  • Gigabyte

    Votes: 13 13.0%

  • MSI

    Votes: 9 9.0%

  • Palit

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • PNY

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • PowerColor

    Votes: 4 4.0%

  • Sapphire

    Votes: 8 8.0%

  • Sparkle

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • VisionTek

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Total voters
    100
  • Poll closed .
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WangChung

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 19, 2013
Messages
181
I haven't come across any recent lists of the actual ranking of the vendor/manufacturer of video cards. A lot goes into consideration when making a purchase, and dealing with the company who makes the card and their customer service/support is a large part of that.

I pulled this list of vendors from Newegg (save Palit). And while I'd have liked to just keep the list to vendors that are chipset agnostic, the reality is that I'm well aware there are good vendors that strictly make Nvidia or AMD cards.

Would definitely like to hear your favorite and worst dealings with the various vendors. Thanks!

EDIT - XFX and Zotac wouldn't fit on the poll, but if they're you're preference just say so!
 
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I've owned many of the brands that are out there today... EVGA used to be my go-to, but after two Factory OC'd cards failed because of the Overclock (I.e. I had to set everything back to factory standard specs recommended by nVidia) to stabilize it to be able to play anything... I decided to steer clear. Afterward I started buying Asus cards, and have not had a single issue.
 
so you kept Palit and Sparkle, but booted Zotac and XFX?

Wut...I'd edit your poll and swap those.

Anyway, my last purchase was a eVGA, but that was many years ago...I'm honestly not sure if they are as good as they used to be...
 
I have to assume the ASUS voters have never needed an RMA.

I've only used EVGA for a while, with a slight deviation for a pair of MSI 280's, one of which was DOA.
 
EVGA is my #1 but I really like MSI too. I've had a couple of their cards and have bought them for rigs I've built for friends and they've always performed great and been built very solid. But EVGA gets the nod for customer service. EVGA FTW!! See what I did there?
 
skeeder said:
so you kept Palit and Sparkle, but booted Zotac and XFX?

Wut...I'd edit your poll and swap those.

Anyway, my last purchase was a eVGA, but that was many years ago...I'm honestly not sure if they are as good as they used to be...
Click to expand...

As stated in the OP, they literally wouldn't fit - 10 selections max. As you can also probably tell the list is in alphabetical order and both XFX and Zotac and well, X and Z are at the end of the alphabet. :)
 
I rate companies by their warranty service. Since most are using the same/similar parts, except in rare cases you have the same low odds of a defect. It's when you have that defect that a company's reputation comes into play. I've owned parts from MANY companies, but I've only had to RMA the following:

EVGA - free cross shipping (they paid both ways), fast replacement, no hassle, and in one case they gave me a free upgrade. Really, no contest.

ASUS - First time I had to argue. When their replacement failed, I was told, "we only honor the warranty the first time as a courtesy. We don't have to RMA the product a second time." BBB complaint changed their tune, but haven't bought an ASUS product since (except a Google Nexus Player).

XFX - Bought THIS card from them. It was novel at the time with the LEDs and the metal plate for stability. Problem was that it had a higher defect rate than most. You either got a great card, or a dud. Mine died quickly. RMA'd it. Replacement was DOA. Second replacement was DOA. Third time I called in I was told that they only give 2 RMAs and they're done. Threw away the card, bought an EVGA 7800GT, and the rest is history. Have ONLY purchased EVGA since. Also, EVGA is the reason I normally don't buy ATI/AMD. If it's a tie in performance, I go EVGA.
 
I've never had a video card die or develop any other issues so voting here would be irrelevant. My MSI 6950 was my favorite card thanks to the unlocked shaders and hefty overclock I was able to grab on top of that. My ASUS GTX 970 had never given me issue but can't overclock for poop. Currently using a Sapphire Nitro 390X that has been great and is slowly attaining a nice overclock, factory paste was shit though because temps dropped 10 degrees when I took it apart and put AS5 on it.
 
HeavensCloud said:
I've never had a video card die or develop any other issues so voting here would be irrelevant. My MSI 6950 was my favorite card thanks to the unlocked shaders and hefty overclock I was able to grab on top of that. My ASUS GTX 970 had never given me issue but can't overclock for poop. Currently using a Sapphire Nitro 390X that has been great and is slowly attaining a nice overclock, factory paste was shit though because temps dropped 10 degrees when I took it apart and put AS5 on it.
Click to expand...

When in doubt, I look for the following in a warranty just in case something goes wrong:
  • Is cross shipping/advanced RMA an option? EVGA offers this. No other GPU manufacturer does that I'm aware of.
  • Who pays shipping? Do they provide a return label (IE, "My bad our product broke, we'll cover it") or does the customer? EVGA offers a free label with their cross shipping. Not sure who else does.
  • Is the warranty transferable? A transferable warranty helps with resale value. EVGA goes off purchase date (3 years from) for the original owner, serial number (3 years from date of manufacture) for subsequent owners. Some other companies do this, like MSI. Other companies require the receipt and explicitly rule out a transferable warranty. By making you register your card for full warranty perks (IE, 2 year out of box, 3 year/lifetime with registration) they prevent you from selling the card with receipt to unofficially transfer the warranty.
 
Funny thing is, XFX and Zotac probably sell more cards than Sparkle & Visiontek or Palit.

I voted MSI though I know EVGA has a slight edge. I voted MSI because they make video cards for both nVidia and AMD and i've had many positive experiences with them from my days of mining.
 
Daniel_Chang said:
When in doubt, I look for the following in a warranty just in case something goes wrong:
  • Is cross shipping/advanced RMA an option? EVGA offers this. No other GPU manufacturer does that I'm aware of.
  • Who pays shipping? Do they provide a return label (IE, "My bad our product broke, we'll cover it") or does the customer? EVGA offers a free label with their cross shipping. Not sure who else does.
  • Is the warranty transferable? A transferable warranty helps with resale value. EVGA goes off purchase date (3 years from) for the original owner, serial number (3 years from date of manufacture) for subsequent owners. Some other companies do this, like MSI. Other companies require the receipt and explicitly rule out a transferable warranty. By making you register your card for full warranty perks (IE, 2 year out of box, 3 year/lifetime with registration) they prevent you from selling the card with receipt to unofficially transfer the warranty.
Click to expand...

I don't care nearly that much about warranties. I don't care if it cross ships, I'll buy a new card and sell the RMA. In my experience the parts that break have basically lived out their effective life already. If not hopefully it fails within the normal warranty window. I've contemplated going all out and getting a Galax card knowing that warranty services would be pretty much kaput because I had a Galaxy 9600 GT that I was fond of.

Also, do you work for EVGA or something? :p
 
HeavensCloud said:
I don't care nearly that much about warranties. I don't care if it cross ships, I'll buy a new card and sell the RMA. In my experience the parts that break have basically lived out their effective life already. If not hopefully it fails within the normal warranty window. I've contemplated going all out and getting a Galax card knowing that warranty services would be pretty much kaput because I had a Galaxy 9600 GT that I was fond of.

Also, do you work for EVGA or something? :p
Click to expand...

To answer your question first, no, I do not work for EVGA. Now, let me tell you about my EVGA warranty, and then you tell me if you still don't care about warranties.

I purchased a 7800GT from them (conveniently, the one after my XFX fiasco). Within 90 days I used the Step-Up to the 7900GT. I got their highest binned card. Shortly after, memory failures. Got an RMA replacement, same problem. Third card, same problem. Turns out, this is perhaps why most AIBs don't overclock memory so often. Anyway, while using the 4th card (no problems yet), they call me. "Our 7900GT SSC (whatever it was at the time) has a known defect. We're sending you a replacement product." It was a 7900GTO, which was basically a lower binned 7900GTX.

Went from a 7800GT to a 7900GTX replacement all because of their step-up/warranty service. So yea, I'm a fan.
 
Daniel_Chang said:
and then you tell me if you still don't care about warranties.
Click to expand...

I still don't care ;) I'm glad EVGA was able to step up for you and make you happy after repeatedly giving you dead cards though.

Vehicle warranties, appliances over $1k, home insurance I care about.

I'm not saying people shouldn't take warranties into consideration when purchasing a card, I just look at other factors first.

As Tommy would say:
"Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside."
 
I'm a fan of sapphire for AMD, EVGA for Nvidia. If they both sold either brand: EVGA.
 
WARNING: Random probably not so popular thoughts from me at 3AM....

People rave and rave about EVGA, but to me their customer service isn't anything like it was 10+ years ago - honestly it's not fantastic today in my opinion and there is literally no one-on-one interaction with anyone when doing an RMA like there used to be. And that whole thing about charging for advanced RMA AHEAD of time when you register the card? Absolute stupid nickel and dime bullshit. As I've said in other threads EVGA used to offer this as a courtesy, only requesting a credit card to secure it.

I also think their card designs are uninspired - up until somewhat recently the vast majority of their cards and coolers were bone stock Nvidia reference straight from Flextronics (or whoever Nvidia has stamping out reference cards now). Even the super 'high end' ACX coolers seem entirely bland and uninspired to me. I honestly don't see why people continue to hold them in such high regard except I guess even with the above downfalls their customer service is still better than most others.

For me it was a real toss up between Asus and Zotac.... but since Zotac isn't even in the poll......

Asus because even though we all know their customer service SUUUUCKS the cards are just built so damned well. I've watched the evolution of the DirectCU coolers from way back in the 5 and 6 series cards to the STRIX editions of today and they're just incredibly stout pieces of kit.

Zotac because they really came in over the last few years with a one-two punch - very nice card and cooler designs that stray from reference and look pretty snappy doing it, and pricing that is usually $20 or more below their closest competitors.

I think MSI and Gigabyte are pretty cool too, in fact now that I've had a good look at the Extreme GTX 1080 card I'm awestruck. That cooler is just freaking awesome....
 
Due to my geographical location, my experience with Asus has been rather different from the rest of the world, although I admit, I am not surprised that the big 3 has horrendous Customer services.

The only time I had to perform an RMA was on my router, when the switch started failing (bad connection, as I could feel electric sparks and a light burning smell), I emailed them and they promptly asked me to hand it in to one of the Royal Clubs we have here, which effectively are customer service outlets for Asus products. Acer has similar offices also.

Long story short, due to my circumstances, they surprisingly allowed me to hand the defective product in the club in one of the cities, send it back for repair, and have it picked up in another city.

Turns out they were missing parts for the repair, so they sent a newer model to me via post. Didn't spend anything on it.

After this experience, I am probably going to keep choosing Asus for a while. I was thinking about non-Taiwan based companies (Zotac, Inno3D, Galax and EVGA), but given my long working hours and the time it will inevitably take for the RMA process (sending the card out of the country etc), I am not sure if I even want to go down that route, as I am not a fan of having to spend the time and effort to ship the card out, I prefer hand it in person.

I would have given Asus Strix a serious thought, if it was not for the fact that 1080 O8G is more expensive than FE here.

I have MSI GPU and Gigabyte Mobo, but neither failed on me, so I have no idea about their RMA, but given what Gigabyte did to my brother's laptop when they did the RMA, I am not terribly impressed, but probably not enough for me to not consider it.

In the interest of fairness, I did not cast a vote, as my experience seem to be a major exception.
 
NoxTek said:
For me it was a real toss up between Asus and Zotac.... but since Zotac isn't even in the poll......
Click to expand...

Again...

ZOTAC AND XFX ARE IN/ON THE POLL. THE FORUM LITERALLY ONLY ALLOWS FOR 10 OPTION RESPONSES IN THE POLL AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, AS MENTIONED. IF YOU LIKE THEM, SAY YOU LIKE THEM. IF YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH EITHER, STATE YOUR BEEF.

Thank you :)
 
From experience with nearly all these vendors over the years:

EVGA on the NVidia side - they basically won me over when I was able to step up from dual 7800s to dual 8800s

Powercolor on the AMD side - best RMA experience and communication I've had, and seem to go the extra mile on their designs
 
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WangChung said:
Again...

ZOTAC AND XFX ARE IN/ON THE POLL. THE FORUM LITERALLY ONLY ALLOWS FOR 10 OPTION RESPONSES IN THE POLL AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, AS MENTIONED. IF YOU LIKE THEM, SAY YOU LIKE THEM. IF YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH EITHER, STATE YOUR BEEF.

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

No need to yell. Just change your poll. you don't NEED every brand under Newegg to figure out what people are saying. XFX and Zotec has been brought up many times. Palit, zero. Sparkle, zero. PNY, zero.

Swap em out brah.:meh:
 
I feel like a card you get from any vendor will pretty much work, but it all depends on what you want outside the card. EVGA, ASUS, MSI probably rank in my top picks. Does Sapphire even make cards anymore? I remember having issues with them back in the AMD 9800 block.
 
WangChung said:
Again...

ZOTAC AND XFX ARE IN/ON THE POLL. THE FORUM LITERALLY ONLY ALLOWS FOR 10 OPTION RESPONSES IN THE POLL AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, AS MENTIONED. IF YOU LIKE THEM, SAY YOU LIKE THEM. IF YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH EITHER, STATE YOUR BEEF.

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

I couldn't hear you, can you repeat only louder? :D
 
WangChung said:
Again...

ZOTAC AND XFX ARE IN/ON THE POLL. THE FORUM LITERALLY ONLY ALLOWS FOR 10 OPTION RESPONSES IN THE POLL AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, AS MENTIONED. IF YOU LIKE THEM, SAY YOU LIKE THEM. IF YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH EITHER, STATE YOUR BEEF.

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

What's that?

I decided to not listen to the words coming out if your fingers.

Delete fuckin Palit and Sparkle. Nobody would touch their cards !!!
 
People complaining more about the goddamn technical limitations of the poll than discussing the companies they're focused on...
 
WangChung said:
EDIT - XFX and Zotac wouldn't fit on the poll, but if they're you're preference just say so!
Click to expand...

What about GALAX/Y?

their rep was a total bro on these forums, not sure if he's still around.

I've had a few brands (gainward, evga, gigabyte, galaxy). only had problems with EVGA. rest were fine
 
captaindiptoad said:
Wont vote until palit and sparkle are removed and zotac and XFX are put in...
Click to expand...

Everything I find about Palit is usually from a .fr, .ph, or otherwise out of North America. This isn't supposed to be a "North America only" poll.
Four days after creating the poll PowerColor, Sapphire, and VisionTek had zero votes, yet now they do.

Vote. Don't vote. I don't care. The people bitching about this are ridiculous. If you can't figure out how to type "+1 for XFX/Zotac" I'd be hard pressed to trust your judgement anyway.
 
Gigabyte 7970 since new. Middle fan is noisey at times though. Ordered an Asus 1080 this time around. Hate EVGA. Special ordered a pair of 7900 Signature series cards. They came with a special box, and signed sheet from some VP of Sales, IT director, and lab manager bla bla. I was so proud, and they cost me a bundle. Both cards overheated within minutes. I took the coolers off and noticed they had not put any tim on the gpu, both cards. Never again.
 
WangChung said:
Everything I find about Palit is usually from a .fr, .ph, or otherwise out of North America. This isn't supposed to be a "North America only" poll.
Four days after creating the poll PowerColor, Sapphire, and VisionTek had zero votes, yet now they do.

Vote. Don't vote. I don't care. The people bitching about this are ridiculous. If you can't figure out how to type "+1 for XFX/Zotac" I'd be hard pressed to trust your judgement anyway.
Click to expand...

Did I say anything about Powercolor, Sapphire, or visiontek? No, Why? Because i've heard of them.

I'd be hard pressed to trust the judgment of someone who creates a poll with off-brand garbage and then fights multiple people who tell them they should re-do the poll... It sounds like your a fanboy....
 
WangChung said:
People complaining more about the goddamn technical limitations of the poll than discussing the companies they're focused on...
Click to expand...

Original poster complaining about people instead of admitting he fucked up.

(I keed, I keed!) :D
 
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