Finally coming back to team nvidia! Which manufacturer for a 1080?

Ragenrok

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
4,492
So I've been out of the loop for a while and even then my last 2 gpu's have been AMD. Finally ready to pull the trigger on a 1080. Last time I bought a nvidia it was during the GTX 260 days and the top choices were xfx or evga but now I have no idea who has the best support and RMA service for north america (and more preferably Canada lol). Issue for me is price, im already stretching the budget to get a 1080 instead of a 1070 as I only ever upgrade every 3-4 years (current card is a AMD 290)

Im currently looking at buying the Gigbabyte Windforce OC because of its great price, anyone have any experience with this card? Or is gigabyte not a good brand for GPU's? I was eyeing up the evga SC but it has now sold out and the best price I can find is near $100 more :(

Keep in mind while I would love a great stock OC im fine with doing my own OC and since I'm coming from a AMD 290 anything will be an improvement lol. Also if it helps I game on a 1080p projector so 4k isnt a worry, but I do use VR and I want to be able to super sample a bit
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
XFX only makes AMD/RTG cards now and EVGA makes nVidia-only cards. I hear EVGA has excellent warranty service. I typically buy ASUS and thankfully have never needed to use what I hear is their legendarily bad warranty service.
 
eVGA is the generally regarded as the best for warranty issues with Nvidia. Although, I like the build quality of the MSI cards also. The last Gigabyte card I personally used was a Windforce and it didn't feel like it was in the same build quality category as the eVGA or MSI. That being said, it wasn't their high end Aorus card either.
 
I am partial to EVGA. I had to RMA a second hand GTX980 and the RMA went pretty smooth. I was slightly worried as the box the guy gave me the card in had a KR serial number and the card itself had an other serial and suffix, can't remember what it was but it was a 1 year warranty suffix you get with an RMA'd card, but EVGA processed it and sent me my replacement no questions asked.
 
Thanks guys, I had already placed the order for the Windforce and it has shipped out lol. Im going to try it out and if I like it I will keep it, if not Ill return it for either an evga or msi.
 
Thanks guys, I had already placed the order for the Windforce and it has shipped out lol. Im going to try it out and if I like it I will keep it, if not Ill return it for either an evga or msi.
Not had one issue with the G1. Looks like the same cooler so you should be good.
 
EVGA - IMO.

I've bought 1080ti's from MSI, Gigabyte, PNY, and EVGA.

EVGA gives you the highest feeling of satisfaction from the packaging. They have the step up program, a good warranty, and the reputation for excellent support.
 
I live close to ASUS and MSI depots (Markham), so it's been painless for me to do returns (they advance me a card in a couple of days, then I drop off the old one). It's also easier for me to just go down there and raise a stink if I were to have an issue, which I've never had -- great service all around.

EVGA is good too, but it still does cost a bit to ship RMA to them (I'm also in Canada).

Gigabyte doesn't have the same sterling reputation that EVGA's service department does, and you also ship to them somewhere in the states.

Or, put this way:

If you don't live close enough to do local dropoffs and don't mind paying a bit for shipping, EVGA all the way. Then ASUS/MSI, and then rest, in that order.
 
One company that many blow off is Zotac. They have excellent NV cards with great coolers. I've also used their RMA process and it went smooth as silk. I have no qualms about recommending them.
 
I've always liked MSI. But hey, if Zotac is making good cards then I don't see why not going with them. They're usually cheaper than the rest.
 
I usually blow off Zotac because unlike the manufacturers mentioned above, they don't (seem to) have a transferable warranty, which makes the card harder to sell after the every 2 years I upgrade.
 
I have had 3 MSI GPUs die on me thanks to the shitty fans they used to use, however it looks like they have turned around, my Tomahawk board has been probably the best budget mobo I have used. I also had issues my EVGA 660Ti, not every company is flawless so to speak, but I wouldn't hesitate buy EVGA or MSI again. I really want to try a Zotac Amp card though, if I'm not mistaken their parent company also owns Sapphire, which may or may not be the greatest for RMAs.
 
MSi is my go-to these days. Had to replace more Gigabyte and Asus cards than I'd like these last couple years, so I had to try something else. I do agree it seems Evga is a great choice if you're in USA.
 
EVGA has 24/7 phone tech support where you will reach a HUMAN in 5 minutes or less after dialing your phone. No other GPU company even begins to come close to that. That alone is worth the slightly higher price EVGA charges or, save $20 and whine here at [H] if your GPU fails and the other companies treat you like you don't matter ...
 
So far my windforce has been solid. Fan is super quiet and it seems to OC well. Currently running it at 2150/5250 and it works great, idle temps bounce from 36C-40C and full load hits 65C. I'm sure I could get more from it but I haven't been trying very hard and have just been enjoying some awesome new frame rates lol (many games the fps has literally doubled or more)

Still watching to see if a good evga replacement for a good price hits amazon and I'll consider sending this one back. Problem is it was an awesome sale ($645CAD) which is almost as cheap as some 1070 ti's lol and last time I checked cheapest evga 1080 was $715.
 
Problem I have with EVGA is how great everyone wants to tell me their customer service is and I have no doubt of that from the threads that I have seen people have issues in. The fact of the matter is you should not be needing that level of service if the card is high quality. Dont get me wrong it's great that they want to help out a customer that is having a problem, but it just seems a problem happens far too often with a EVGA card. As for advice I have liked my Zotac AMP, it keeps the card cool and the fans are almost silent even at 100%.
 
Pretty happy with my MSI 1080 Seahawk (also jumped ship to team green from team red).
 
Problem I have with EVGA is how great everyone wants to tell me their customer service is and I have no doubt of that from the threads that I have seen people have issues in. The fact of the matter is you should not be needing that level of service if the card is high quality. Dont get me wrong it's great that they want to help out a customer that is having a problem, but it just seems a problem happens far too often with a EVGA card. As for advice I have liked my Zotac AMP, it keeps the card cool and the fans are almost silent even at 100%.

This is a pretty foolish mindset. At the end of the day a certain % of cards are going to fail. I've only ever had one card fail and it was back in the FX days with a MSI. I regret getting a MSI because had I gotten a BFG or EVGA I wouldn't have had to wait almost half a year for a replacement card.

There is no brand out there that guarantee's you'll never get a card that will fail. Luckily most cards are usually DOA or fail within the first couple hours of usage so you can always just return it to the seller instead of dealing with the shit RMA process that every vendor has these days besides EVGA.

Me personally - I'll buy EVGA because having an actual human who is based in the US on the other end of the phone if I ever have a problem is important to me. I also like to support companies that do the right thing. Asus and all the others seriously suck ass if you ever have to do a RMA. Most of them you can't even call anyone anymore. If you call you'll just be directed to input a support ticket, and the RMA process typically takes at least a month to two months and you'll be hoping they just didn't re-package another RMA-ed card and send it back to you.

As far as EVGA cards having problems - The only big one in recent memory was the cooler design on the 1080. They ended up giving everyone who bought these cards free advanced RMA if needed and/or a free replacement cooler that resolved the problem in question, and the problem in question was only an issue if overclocking the card to begin with.
 
Last edited:
This is a pretty foolish mindset. At the end of the day a certain % of cards are going to fail. I've only ever had one card fail and it was back in the FX days with a MSI. I regret getting a MSI because had I gotten a BFG or EVGA I wouldn't have had to wait almost half a year for a replacement card.

There is no brand out there that guarantee's you'll never get a card that will fail. Luckily most cards are usually DOA or fail within the first couple hours of usage so you can always just return it to the seller instead of dealing with the shit RMA process that every vendor has these days besides EVGA.

Me personally - I'll buy EVGA because having an actual human who is based in the US on the other end of the phone if I ever have a problem is important to me. I also like to support companies that do the right thing. Asus and all the others seriously suck ass if you ever have to do a RMA. Most of them you can't even call anyone anymore. If you call you'll just be directed to input a support ticket, and the RMA process typically takes at least a month to two months and you'll be hoping they just didn't re-package another RMA-ed card and send it back to you.

As far as EVGA cards having problems - The only big one in recent memory was the cooler design on the 1080. They ended up giving everyone who bought these cards free advanced RMA if needed and/or a free replacement cooler that resolved the problem in question, and the problem in question was only an issue if overclocking the card to begin with.

Been using graphic cards since the Rendition v1000 and over all these years and countless cards I never had one fail. Motherboards are a different story along with memory. Perhaps you did have a bad experience with MSI, but waiting half a year seems a bit of stretch. Longest wait I ever had was with Asus and that was two weeks. Talking to a human for RMA seems important to you, but for me and others it's just not a huge deal. To me the better argument for Evga is their step up program not their supposed best RMA service. All a matter of perceived value and use to someone.
 
Been using graphic cards since the Rendition v1000 and over all these years and countless cards I never had one fail. Motherboards are a different story along with memory. Perhaps you did have a bad experience with MSI, but waiting half a year seems a bit of stretch. Longest wait I ever had was with Asus and that was two weeks. Talking to a human for RMA seems important to you, but for me and others it's just not a huge deal. To me the better argument for Evga is their step up program not their supposed best RMA service. All a matter of perceived value and use to someone.
It happens, I had an Asus mobo take 5 months for an rma. I ended up buying a better one and selling off the rma when it came back
 
Been using graphic cards since the Rendition v1000 and over all these years and countless cards I never had one fail. Motherboards are a different story along with memory. Perhaps you did have a bad experience with MSI, but waiting half a year seems a bit of stretch. Longest wait I ever had was with Asus and that was two weeks. Talking to a human for RMA seems important to you, but for me and others it's just not a huge deal. To me the better argument for Evga is their step up program not their supposed best RMA service. All a matter of perceived value and use to someone.

I hope for your own sanity you continue to luck out.
 
Over the last 20 years (probably averaged 2 cards in use over the period) I've had to RMA 3 cards.

A BFG Geforce GS6800 - was a half dozenish years old - lifetime warranty for my win (but the cost of them was part of what killed killed BFG) - got a fanless GT 8400 or 8500 back.

A XFX Redeon HD 5850 - fan died after 2 years - they sent a new heatsink - no need to return.

A MSI GT 560 - started causing random system failures after 2 years - replaced with identical card.

The 5850 and possibly the 560 were probably due to card fans not being rated for 24/7 compute use yet.

All three were painless experiences; although living on the east coast and with west coast RMA centers and ground shipping even cross shipping a replacement is too slow. For the latter two failures I overnighted a new card from Amazon and used the replacement to upgrade a secondary box, the 6800 was in a secondary system already so I either swapped a old spare or just left the box down for the time.
 
So I've been out of the loop for a while and even then my last 2 gpu's have been AMD. Finally ready to pull the trigger on a 1080. Last time I bought a nvidia it was during the GTX 260 days and the top choices were xfx or evga but now I have no idea who has the best support and RMA service for north america (and more preferably Canada lol). Issue for me is price, im already stretching the budget to get a 1080 instead of a 1070 as I only ever upgrade every 3-4 years (current card is a AMD 290)

Im currently looking at buying the Gigbabyte Windforce OC because of its great price, anyone have any experience with this card? Or is gigabyte not a good brand for GPU's? I was eyeing up the evga SC but it has now sold out and the best price I can find is near $100 more :(

Keep in mind while I would love a great stock OC im fine with doing my own OC and since I'm coming from a AMD 290 anything will be an improvement lol. Also if it helps I game on a 1080p projector so 4k isnt a worry, but I do use VR and I want to be able to super sample a bit
I'll be against the grain here, but buy the card that has the features you want. The GPU chip you get is exactly the same regardless of which brand is on the card, but the thing that really differentiates one brand from another is the set of features they have. Most brands have high end cards and low end cards, and the quality of the card itself is pretty closely tied to the set of features it has, and also the price. Some higher end models have binned chips (see: EVGA Kingpin), but beyond that, what you're really paying for is the set of features. They all have a warranty, and it's going to be a pain in the ass if you have a failure pretty much regardless of who the PCB manufacturer is.

So, i say buy based on the set of features you want:

Does the card have the nifty internal HDMI port like some gigabyte cards have, for use with VR headsets?
Do you need a bigass air cooler?
Do you need it to be unusually quiet?
Do you need better water block compatibility for water cooling (reference design)?
Do you need some particular IO port arrangement?

And so on...
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Saw you already got the Windforce...good choice. Came to recommend MSI, Gigabyte, or eVGA.
 
I'll be against the grain here, but buy the card that has the features you want. The GPU chip you get is exactly the same regardless of which brand is on the card, but the thing that really differentiates one brand from another is the set of features they have. Most brands have high end cards and low end cards, and the quality of the card itself is pretty closely tied to the set of features it has, and also the price. Some higher end models have binned chips (see: EVGA Kingpin), but beyond that, what you're really paying for is the set of features. They all have a warranty, and it's going to be a pain in the ass if you have a failure pretty much regardless of who the PCB manufacturer is.

So, i say buy based on the set of features you want:

Does the card have the nifty internal HDMI port like some gigabyte cards have, for use with VR headsets?
Do you need a bigass air cooler?
Do you need it to be unusually quiet?
Do you need better water block compatibility for water cooling (reference design)?
Do you need some particular IO port arrangement?

And so on...

Appreciate the info :) I ended up going for the gigabyte windforce, it was a great price on sale and so far it works like a champ

Saw you already got the Windforce...good choice. Came to recommend MSI, Gigabyte, or eVGA.

Thanks, ya I love it so far. Card has held its OC very well with temps never breaking 65C, no regrets on it yet.
 
EVGA period!

Nah. As much as a fan, and current user, of eVGA that I am, the other main players in the arena put out good products, as well. Of all the Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and eVGA graphics cards I've owned, only an eVGA 6600GT copped a squat (go figure). Hasn't stopped me from continuing to buy eVGA's products.

OTOH, I'm glad that I've never had an Asus part fail in me, because I certainly don't want to experience their customer service based on numerous testimony...
 
Back
Top