Do brands really matter?

M

MoreDents

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
294
I'm looking at 8800GT cards and EGA (#1 seller on NewEgg) has it at $230

while PNY has it lower at $200

I checked the specs and they exactly are the same

So my question is...is it really worth that $30 to go for the EVGA name? People do say it's most reliable...but then again, that could be just brand loyalty. :confused:
 
I have another question that has been annoying me

EVGA 8800GT:
EVGA 512-P3-N801 vs EVGA 512-P3-N802

Those 2 have the exact same specs except the second one has a core clock increase of 50MHz and a memory speed increase of 1000MHz

Is it worth the $10 for the increase?

Thanks :D
 
I say no. They are however responsible for your warranty, so that is the point of consideration for me.
 
they both basically use standard nvidia pcbs. however, evga may get higher binned cores/ram as they also sell overclocked models, although pny i think is starting to do this.

BUT the big thing is evga has great customer service, and PNY's just sucks.
 
go with the Evga. reason 1. customer service is top notch. reason 2- lifetime warranty and reason 3- step up program. i've used their warranty and step up program and never had problem with them.
 
as for the oced version, a 50mhz core clock increase is nothing you wouldnt be able to do with easy with rivatuner.
 
MoreDents said:
I have another question that has been annoying me

EVGA 8800GT:
EVGA 512-P3-N801 vs EVGA 512-P3-N802

Those 2 have the exact same specs except the second one has a core clock increase of 50MHz and a memory speed increase of 1000MHz

Is it worth the $10 for the increase?

Thanks :D
Click to expand...

Again I'd say no. the cards are the same, just OC'd at the factory. Very simple to achieve a greater OC even through ntune (right? im an ati guy:p)
 
Very easy to overclock yourself...so don't waste the money...but definitely go with EVGA...great warranty and customer service.
 
If I am looking at the two correctly we are doing apples to apples, soooo... Although I don't have the time I would look at the details a little closer for the adapters and possibly the add in software perks. But, with my quick glance at the two, it looks like they are very comparable. I personally have used cards from both and have had no problems with either. If you are planning on overclocking either, I would say do some good investigating around the net for oc'd results. And you probably noticed the EVGA has a rebate to probably compensate for the discrepency, so if you like rebates, go for the EVGA or if you don't like rebates so much, go with the PNY. Either way, you will be getting a great performance per dollar with either as you have probably read in evaluations around the net. Good luck!
 
well the evga is $220, not $230, AND after a mail in rebate is $10 cheaper than the pny. GET THE EVGA.
 
EVGA and XFX for customer service and warranty.

EVGA -> Lifetime Warranty & Step-Up
XFX -> Double Lifetime Warranty (Transferable to second owner)

BFG has also recently brought out something similar to EVGA's Step-Up, but no one knows how well their process works yet.
 
IsLNdbOi said:
BFG has also recently brought out something similar to EVGA's Step-Up, but no one knows how well their process works yet.
Click to expand...

you can bet it will work perfectly.

So long as you don't overclock, working with BFG tech/RMA support is a breeze. 99% of their lineup (spicifically, all of their OC edition cards) come with a small overclock anyways. I put my full confidence in BFG as a superb Board vendor.

Quite frankly, rumors have been going around that Nvidia cut one of its board partners for not meeting minimum sales. I'm hoping its either BFG, XFX, or EVGA (even though its totally impossible for it to be either three), simply because whoever is cut is going to go straight to ATI, and as well all know, finding an ATI chipsetted graphics card from a reputable board vendor is impossible. Power Color and Visiontek are the best two, simply because they are the only two offering lifetime warranties, but their service is far from ground breaking, and pales in comparison to that of the three mentioned Nvidia partners.
 
I just RMA'd an 8800GT by Evga and it went flawlessly. So far I've had good experiences with both XFX and Evga and would buy from either company.
 
Thanks for the replies
Seems like I'll go for EVGA because of their customer service (just read about it on their site)

Now this LIFETIME warranty intrigues me...I mean, I'm pretty sure any electronic device won't be working after 60+ years of daily use. What's the catch?

And this STEP-UP program they have going intrigues me even more! Can't you just buy the cheapest EVGA card they have and then step-up to their most expensive for free???

:D

mnewxcv said:
well the evga is $220, not $230, AND after a mail in rebate is $10 cheaper than the pny. GET THE EVGA.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, good catch. I meant to link the $230 one
 
MoreDents said:
Now this LIFETIME warranty intrigues me...I mean, I'm pretty sure any electronic device won't be working after 60+ years of daily use. What's the catch?

And this STEP-UP program they have going intrigues me even more! Can't you just buy the cheapest EVGA card they have and then step-up to their most expensive for free???
Click to expand...

No catch on the lifetime warranty, they will give you a newer card if yours isn't being made anymore... but by then you'll probably want to upgrade to a better card... and since the lifetime warranty only applys to the original owner, most people won't make use of it after 4-5 years anyways.

And with Step-up, you pay the difference, so if you paid $200 for an 8800 GT and want to get an 9800GX2, you pay Evga's MSRP ($600) minus whatever you spent on the GT... so you pay $400.

You don't save any money, but the idea is you can buy a cheaper card "now" and "upgrade" without spending any-more money than if you had bought the 9800GX2 in the first place.
 
Thanks for the explanation. :)

About the lifetime warranty...if your card breaks, you can just get a new one replaced for free, give it to your friend and then you can go buy an upgraded version. heh.
 
Guys: Just an FYI, cards aren't all the same. There are MANY OEM's out there, especially on a card that's been out for a few months like the 8800 GT. And Nvidia doesn't do ANY speed binning. The speed binning is done by the graphics card company (Evga, BFG, XFX, etc.)

The reason you may see some card companies always at stock vs. always overclocking is most likely do to card quality. You have a 10 or 12 layer PCB that going to OC better than a 6 or 8 layer, you have different quality RAM, different VR on the board... LOT'S of variables make a big difference. But everyone gets the same GPU's.
 
MoreDents said:
I'm looking at 8800GT cards and EGA (#1 seller on NewEgg) has it at $230

while PNY has it lower at $200

I checked the specs and they exactly are the same

So my question is...is it really worth that $30 to go for the EVGA name? People do say it's most reliable...but then again, that could be just brand loyalty. :confused:
Click to expand...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1286915
Should be your answer. But I don't know about evga vs pny.
 
So EVGA and XFX are considered the better products as of now with BFG starting to do decently? Does anyone have any thoughts on the MSI cards? I have two older systems running an MSI 6800 and MSI 6800GS respectively and they both still do reasonably well.
 
only 2 reasons i have a 8800gts 320 pny is simply 1st, pny is less then 5 min away from me and i wont hesitatae to a smakc a bitch up to speed the warranty up. and 2 the deal i got was too good to walk away from.

however as far as warranty goes i think that extra 10-20 bux your paying makes a diff if your product becomes defective and u need a replacement cause u have that lanparty u planned for in 2 weeks..

just my .02cents which the majority of [H] seems to agree upon
 
alaracon said:
So EVGA and XFX are considered the better products as of now with BFG starting to do decently?
Click to expand...

Based on what? Card quality? Bundle? Warranty? Your statement is very open to interpretation.
 
Based on all of the above listed in this thread. It wasn't meant to be a rhetorical question. Based on what I have read in this thread, people seem to like EVGA and XFX with a mention of BFG as being decent as well.
 
From what I have read, BFG, EVGA and XFX are all three considered very good companies to buy NVIDA video cards from currently. Each has it's own pluses and minuses, everything from price, to factory overclock, to bundle, to step-up program, to warranty, to customer service, to return policy and so on and so on. Your best bet is to look at all the things that matter to you or that you might reasonably use and decide on what company you want to go with.

For example, I tend to not resell my hardware, so XFX's double Lifetime warranty isn't a selling point for me. And I tend not to care about the bundle because I want the most "bank for the buck" and I don't want to pay extra for the bundle if I can get the same card for cheaper without a bundle. Obviously Your Mileage May Vary. :)
 
BFG has always had a Quality Product, but from what I understand, their step-up program only cover 9 series products purchased and beyond. (Part had to launch after Feb 21st)

BFG, EVGA, XFX are all top-teir Parts.. Asus and MSI are a VERY Close Second Teir with other companies not too far behind either..

if the part uses the reference design, it should function 100% within spec..

Some other factors to consider are Outputs on the individual products, some have HDMI or Display Port too.
 
If you're going for the reference design, the main reason to go BFG, EVGA, or XFX is warranty, warranty, warranty. The three all have excellent customer service along with limited lifetime warranties. In addition, EVGA and now BFG have a step-up/trade-up program, EVGA and XFX have modder-friendly warranties that let you switch out the heatsink (though if you replace the stock one well, you should be fine with the others too), and XFX has a one-time transferable warranty. EVGA especially also sometimes has good non-reference designs in addition to selling the reference model; the other two tend to stick to just reference for the most part, though I'm sure there are exceptions.
 
when a company says lifetime warranty, they mean the life of the video card right? so once the video card is obsolete, they wont cover it anymore.
 
Some companies do that, RaDeonXtreme, but BFG, EVGA, and XFX all mean it as a real lifetime warranty, as in the life of the owner of the card. ;) That's one of the main reasons they're so popular. If you bought a GeForce4 from them years ago, it would still be covered today. They're of course banking on the fact that 95%+ of them will have been replaced with newer tech long before they fail.
 
farfromhome said:
Some companies do that, RaDeonXtreme, but BFG, EVGA, and XFX all mean it as a real lifetime warranty, as in the life of the owner of the card. ;) That's one of the main reasons they're so popular. If you bought a GeForce4 from them years ago, it would still be covered today. They're of course banking on the fact that 95%+ of them will have been replaced with newer tech long before they fail.
Click to expand...

And the cost to intentionally power a graphic card until it fails in a bare system just so you can get a replacement, would probably exceed the cost of just buying a new one.


Swingline(Red) said:
What's BFG's current stance on end-user overclocking?
Click to expand...
As long as you don't modify the bios, and instead do a software overclock I don't see how they would know. I'm not sure what their take is on aftermarket coolers though.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Guys: Just an FYI, cards aren't all the same. There are MANY OEM's out there, especially on a card that's been out for a few months like the 8800 GT. And Nvidia doesn't do ANY speed binning. The speed binning is done by the graphics card company (Evga, BFG, XFX, etc.)

The reason you may see some card companies always at stock vs. always overclocking is most likely do to card quality. You have a 10 or 12 layer PCB that going to OC better than a 6 or 8 layer, you have different quality RAM, different VR on the board... LOT'S of variables make a big difference. But everyone gets the same GPU's.
Click to expand...


well said.

some cards even have voltage jumpers soldered on for good measure.
 
I would say brands do matter based on the support such as EVGA gives to customers.
 
MoreDents said:
Thanks for the replies
Seems like I'll go for EVGA because of their customer service (just read about it on their site)

Now this LIFETIME warranty intrigues me...I mean, I'm pretty sure any electronic device won't be working after 60+ years of daily use. What's the catch?

And this STEP-UP program they have going intrigues me even more! Can't you just buy the cheapest EVGA card they have and then step-up to their most expensive for free???

:D


Oh yeah, good catch. I meant to link the $230 one
Click to expand...

The catch is that in 60 years (assuming EVGA is still around), if you RMA an 8600GT, they'll send you a replacement Geforce² 29660 (along with a letter asking you if this was even considered computer circuitry, I mean for sh!ts sake it doesn't even have a tenth an exabyte per second of memory throughput! It doesnt even support the new Direct X 85Z standard!)

Its been very common for EVGA to upgrade its customers to a more modern card if you RMA an older one, if they don't have any of the older ones around.
 
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