BFG vs eVGA

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rampantandroid

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I know they both have lifetime warranties, but in the general opinion here, which is better?

I'm looking at these two cards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143144
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130367

Same price, and I don't care TOO much about the extra 30MHz, I can easily do that myself (assuming the card can hit 650MHz.) What about customer service? In past, BFG let me down (2 hr hold time) whereas eVGA was much faster. Is this still true? What about quality of the hardware itself, and failure rates?
 
I can only speak for myself, but I would never buy anything from EVGA again. Sure the RMA worked okey, but the cards they sent me was not working, three times I sent in that stupid card and every time I got some "refurbished" card back that was in worse shape than the one I sent in and failed even sooner. Since I lived in Canada at the time I had to pay for shipping and import tax. I gave up and lost 400 bucks for the card plus 150 bucks in tax+shipping.

I realize I might just have been super unlucky though so you might not have this problem.
 
personally I say go evga. They reply to emails fast, customer service on the phone is as good as it gets, warranty is too awesome, and their video cards are always reliable. Plus Evga has their stepup program, not sure what you'd stepup to from the card you're getting but it's an option. I've never had a bfg card, so I can't really comment on that.
 
I have never owned BFG, but I have owned 3 or 4 eVGA.

I'd go with BFG tech just because eVGA's customer service has gone slightly downhill and from I heard, BFG does not put huge plastic stickers on the heatsinks.
 
Hooligan said:
I have never owned BFG, but I have owned 3 or 4 eVGA.

I'd go with BFG tech just because eVGA's customer service has gone slightly downhill and from I heard, BFG does not put huge plastic stickers on the heatsinks.
Click to expand...

All the companies put huge stickers on....

Any sources on eVGA's customer service going downhill?

Thanks.
 
I had a BFG 6800GT and they was good about rma and there tech support is american and they are very friendly.

I also had 9800GTX from evga there tech support was awesome helpful as well the step up program is nice to have. i never had to rma anything to them. but its a good rma service after reading lot of forums.

so i mean they both are good companies both has american tech support and both were very helpful
 
Gulkor said:
I had a BFG 6800GT and they was good about rma and there tech support is american and they are very friendly.

I also had 9800GTX from evga there tech support was awesome helpful as well the step up program is nice to have. i never had to rma anything to them. but its a good rma service after reading lot of forums.

so i mean they both are good companies both has american tech support and both were very helpful
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My nForce3 mobo from BFG was trouble....they never did much to fix it, and I had to sit on hold for ages...they responded to emails quickly....but I'm wondering if my experience is out of the ordinary.

I'm leaning eVGA for the step up program, and their record seems good (with the whole 7900GT fiasco)...
 
Don't go with BFG. I had to rma my 6800GT and they sent me 2 bogus cards before I finally got one that worked. System was down for 1.5 months. Absolutely horrible experience.

Personally, I'd stick with Asus or MSI. Never had any truoble with any of their boards/cards.

Funny, seems to be a common occurance.
 
On the whole, both BFG and EVGA have tremendous support. But I would tend to lean towards Evga because of their presence on these very forums and their active forum community and all their sponsorships of lan parties. Not that BFG doesn't do those things too but as a tie breaker, EVGA's forums > BFG's forums...and with the myriad of things that can go wrong having EVGA's resources available gets them the edge.
 
dagas said:
Sure the RMA worked okey, but the cards they sent me was not working, three times I sent in that stupid card and every time I got some "refurbished" card back that was in worse shape than the one I sent in and failed even sooner.
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Every eVGA card I've had has failed, sooner or later, which is probably why their RMA system rocks. My next card is going to be BFG, now that they seem to be interested in being price competitive. We'll have to see if it's as much a RMA-go-round. I suspect probably so, since they're both at the mercy of nV reference design.

The extra 10 days 'step up' from BFG can't hurt either. I won't buy MSI again due to my issue with their rebate scam from June. I'd actually like that Asus 280 TOP card (all their mobos have been good to me), but nobody has them in stock.
 
Odd, I've owned 3 different eVGA cards - the oldest being a 5900U - none have ever failed. But tbh, in the last 6 video cards I've owned since 2004, none have failed. Maybe I'm just lucky?

I'm going to guess that it doesn't matter quality wise between eVGA and BFG....their chips are from nVidia no matter what - they don't fab their own silicon.
 
I own both and both companies are great however my recent dealings with BFG have be very good. You feel like your speaking with fellow [H] members and you are. They are just a little more personable where evga comes across as being more corporate. The step up program is works better to in my humble opinion
 
I had a bad experience with ATI which would not of been so bad but I could not return to Newegg after 30 days. And I hate f'in RMA when the card is only 4 months old and I get some refurbished POS back. I want new. If you look at the warranty for most vid cards at Newegg, the return policy is 30 days and then you have to deal with RMA and used sht. I made sure this time I ordered BFG because it is the only one I saw with a Standard Newegg Return Policy (GTX280) which means all I have to do is call Newegg up and they will send me a NEW one out for up to a year and if they don't have it anymore, they will give me FULL refund.

I have an account like a lot of people and they just charge the new one to my account and credit me back when they get the other one back. I can have the new one a day after the defective one takes a dump... depending on the time of day. I have never misused Newegg's return policy and they always have had my back.

I like BFG, EVGA, and ATI (Sapphire, HIS) all the same but I want to make sure I am covered by Newegg, not the company. I bought from Newegg... they can deal with the actual company... I don't have time for that sht.

BFG has the best warranty through Newegg and they have 100 day step up program. They had to outdo eVga by 10 days lol. If eVga had a better Newegg policy, then I probably would of gotten that.

LOOK at the "Returns and Rebates" tab under the items and notice BFG's Newegg policy. 1 year return to Newegg FTW That is the EXACT one I ordered that will be here Monday. Wish I would of ordered Thursday.:D
 
crysis642008-09-0616-34-50-08.jpg
crysis642008-09-0616-35-13-44.jpg
P1000859-1.jpg
 
Had one BFG and two EVGA cards and them seem "as broad and they are long" to me (to use and expression from my ol' Dad). Customer service from both was good and responsive.
 
I have used both eVGA and BFG products, and I never had any problems. BFG products are usually higer priced though.
 
I had 6 eVGA and 3 BFG video cards and I never had any problems with any of them.
IMO, eVGA is a bit superior because of their popular forum.

BTW, the only deffective video card I have ever had is a Gigabyte 8500GT with passive cooling.
 
I have experienced the same with evga as others have. I have had problems with all but a couple video cards and also with a motherboard I had form them. Their customer service is OK.
I have only had one issue with a BFG card and it was the BEST rma experience I ever had! It took 3 days total from the time I sent it to when I had a new one at my door step!
Sure, evga has a step-up program which is nice if you're expecting a new tech to come out soon, but I would recommend BFG. I am very happy with their cards and customer service!
 
i own a 8800gt from evga, shits dope. no problems, all good :p im sure both sides have their faults
 
I've owned 5 different eVGA cards over the past several years, and I've never had any problems with them: FX5900, 6800GT, 7800GTX, 8800GTX and 8600GT. The latter three cards are still in use and going strong. You really can't go wrong with either manufacturer, though.
 
I've also owned several EVGA cards, 6800GS, 7900GT, 7950GT KO SC, 8800GTS 320MB, 8800GTS 512MB and 9800GTX, the only cards i had trouble with are the 6800GS and the 7900GT, and it only happened after years of the cards being used for intensive gaming nearly every day. EVGA was happy to replace them and i haven't had a single problem from the replacements.

as long as I'm buying an Nvidia card, I'll be buying EVGA.
 
Well, I pulled the trigger on the eVGA card. I prefer them, personally, but wanted to see what people thought. I know they were both the same price, but since the GTX280s themselves seem to run on the hot side, I think I'd rather OC the card myself....

Thanks for all the input. If something goes wrong with my eVGA card, I'll make sure to let you guys know so you can say "I told you so" :p
 
BFG = american on the phone when u call them.

that said they have changed there warranty policies to closer reflect EVGA which is a negative thing but the american service when i call is the kicker for myself.
 
dajet24 said:
BFG = american on the phone when u call them.

that said they have changed there warranty policies to closer reflect EVGA which is a negative thing but the american service when i call is the kicker for myself.
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eVGA and XFX are also US based service, so that was a non-issue.
 
eVGA and BFG are both good. Infact, they both have such good customer service you might as well pick on which logo you like better on the card its self.
 
rampantandroid said:
Well, I pulled the trigger on the eVGA card. I prefer them, personally, but wanted to see what people thought. I know they were both the same price, but since the GTX280s themselves seem to run on the hot side, I think I'd rather OC the card myself....

Thanks for all the input. If something goes wrong with my eVGA card, I'll make sure to let you guys know so you can say "I told you so" :p
Click to expand...

Feel free to PM me if you run into any issues or if you have any Questions.

Also, EVGA has US based Support thats available 24/7 and if you call at the right time you might get me. :p
 
Does BFG's Trade-Up program suck as bad as it seems to? Went to their store and the prices are plain old fucktarded.
 
I've heard a lot about people getting high temps with BFG cards. I have (well, had, it doesn't work anymore) a 6800GS OC that idled at 53 and peaked around 73. Not burning, but not very cool either, considering that I kept it at factory OC speeds, which wasn't that much higher from the vanilla version.

Regardless, it worked fine for 2 and a half years until it started artifacting, sent it in and received another artifacting card. Upon closer inspection, all they did was clean the dust out of the fan, slap a "BFG" logo sticker on the central part of the fan, and slapped a new serial code sticker over the old one. They did a pretty poor job, too, because I can still see the original serial number. E-mailed them again saying that I receieved the same card and then they had the nerve to ignore the fact that they sent me a bad card, and instead asked me to give them my BIOS info, voltages, etc. Long story short, the only good thing I got out of that whole fiasco was a BFG t-shirt.

Anyways, BFG's card designs (and a lot of other companies, too) really seem rather "geekish" to me. I don't want a blue man, a bipedal alpha-wolf, or any scantily clad fantasy women on my cards. I'd rather just stick with a nice, sleek abstract work of art as seen on the eVGA cards. Then again, I'm superficial like that, so you may or may not really care about this as much as I do.
 
After having an overall terrible experience with eVGA and their Motherboards I swore I'd never buy another evga product again. Of course two days later I have a 9800GTX+ waiting in a box. I do kind of like eVGA precision and, correct me if I'm wrong, BFG does not allow end-users to OC their cards without voiding their warranty.
Also I've heard aftermarket cooling is fine with evga as long as you swap back the original cooler before RMA'ing it.
 
The fact that the eVGA warranty covers third-party heatsinks is an advantage IMO over the BFG warranty (which does not). Even for step-ups as long as you return the card with the original heatsink on it, they'll take it regardless of whether of not you've used a third-party cooling device. Also the step-up program can be pretty useful, especially if there's a hint of a possible new release in the near future. Their customer service is pretty good though you're still better off going to a forum like this for tech support. The main con is that their RMA service used to be free if you registered within 90 days, but now they will still charge regardless of when you register it (you'll simply get a "discount" on preminum RMA services if you register the card early). But regardless, their RMA process is pretty good and straightforward. I've done one RMA and two step ups with them so far and both experiences have been positive (I've owned a total of 7 eVGA cards to date). So my vote goes to eVGA.
 
I had a BFG 7900GT that started artifacting, and the BFG RMA service was speedy and efficient. They actually crossed shipped the card in this instance because the card was for my workstation.BFG is top notch in my book.
 
Every EVGA video card and mobo ive purchased ive had replaced, the RMA is good but you pay for the cross shipping.

Each and every oc'd evga card has bit the dust on me in one form or another, my evga 680i was sh*t, im not sure that was their fault, bad chipset. After two years i called them and told them my mobo was bad and they started the RMA quickly and sent me a new A1, so far no problems, very impressed there.

I just pulled the plug on a BFG oc'd gtx280 and so far so good, temps are low and no problems.

So far im leaning BFG.
But i havent had to deal with their RMA process either.

GL.
 
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