I am one of those people...(Brand Loyalty Thread)

200mg

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
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134
I am one of those people who will return to the same brand repeatedly if I have had success with them in the past. In the realm of video cards I have been stuck on Evga for the last 3 builds. While the gpu's dictate the MSRP, it seems that Evga does carry a small price premium compared to other cards. In return for that premium you do get good customer service, and then there's the step-up program which is pure genius imho.

I'm still on my 8800gtx, and it's looking like it's about time to upgrade, and I may stray from Evga just to test the waters elsewhere. I put after-market cooling on every vid card I get after I had a pny 9600xt cooler go out on me a few years back. Do you guys have any favorite brands? Is MSI a good brand, I was looking at them in particular.
 
If you aren't going EVGA then I recommend BFG. Great company with excellent RMA service if needed.
 
If you put after market cooling on stick with EVGA or try XFX. They're the only AIBs I know of that allow after market cooling without voiding the warranty. It would suck to get a MSI and you seat the after market cooling wrong, and you get a fried GPU.
 
Personally for myself,

Nvidia - XFX, EVGA, BFG (no order of the popular three)

ATI - XFX
 
If you put after market cooling on stick with EVGA or try XFX. They're the only AIBs I know of that allow after market cooling without voiding the warranty. It would suck to get a MSI and you seat the after market cooling wrong, and you get a fried GPU.

Yeah, thats another thing I was wondering about, Evga will accept cards back that have been modified which is awesome.
 
So, I take it that BFG will not accept a modified card, only xfx and Evga? And the "MSI is crap" thing, does that translate into mobo's as well?
 
So, I take it that BFG will not accept a modified card, only xfx and Evga? And the "MSI is crap" thing, does that translate into mobo's as well?

MSI is known for having the cheapest cards w/o rebate. However, their customer service is really bad, and I've seen used cars with better warrenties than the warranty service offered by MSI.
 
I'll echo what others have said:

EVGA, BFG and XFX. They each offer lifetime warranties (double-lifetime w/ XFX), EVGA and XFX cover overclocking and mods, they all have high quality support and RMA services. EVGA and BFG have Step-Up/Trade-Up programs. You do pay a premium for their cards, but you get what you pay for in terms of end user support. You really can't go wrong.

Most people go EVGA. They cover OC/mod, lifetime warranty, great RMA, Step-Up.
BFG is "second". Everything as listed above without the OC/mod warranty coverage.
XFX is great as well. No Step-Up, but double-lifetime warranty, transferable to a second user.

The other board partners ...? Harder to recommend. Poor warranties and customer service, terrible RMA practices, no Step-Up. It's not that MSI makes a bad GPU. Their products are great. It's just that their warranties and customer support are generally quite poor compared to the big three. For me, EVGA and BFG are one of the key reasons I continue to purchase Nvidia.
 
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Last few cards have been EVGA. Prior to that ATI branded (never see those anymore) and BFG. I've only had one RMA experience (EVGA) and it worked out fine in the end after a phone call and several e-mails (first card received was in pretty rough shape).

I don't think I have much fear anymore of an "off brand" card. They've come down so much in price its not like the $550 I had invested in my 8800 GTX. If it costs $200 and takes a dump after a couple years its not as hard to deal with.
 
I don't think I have much fear anymore of an "off brand" card. They've come down so much in price its not like the $550 I had invested in my 8800 GTX. If it costs $200 and takes a dump after a couple years its not as hard to deal with.

The man makes a solid point. The 600$ video card era is over. (Dual GPU cards excluded)
 
When it comes to Nvidia I always went BFG or EVGA. XFX I could see using as well.

For ATI I always used the Built by ATI cards early on. I sold my old PC which had a pair of Diamond HD3870s and both cards are still going strong. Currently I'm on Visiontek HD4870s. I could easily see myself going XFX the next time I upgrade my Radeons.
 
I bought a BFG 8800GTX of a member here on forums, quite a while ago, and when I received it, it had a capacitor that had become dislodged from the pcb. I got in contact with BFG and without any explanation whatsoever, they had me send the card in, for an RMA, and actually replaced it with a faster version of the card, within a week. I also had to RMA that card later down the road, for random BSOD's, and they also handled that RMA very fast. BFG totally has me as a loyal customer due to their great customer service. I definitely recommend them if you are looking for a company with great customer service.
 
Prior to that ATI branded (never see those anymore) .

I was like you after that PNY went kaput on me, whenever I bought ATI, I bought ATI branded cards.

Sounds like I'm on the right track with Evga, I think I'll stay the course.
 
EVGA or BFG if you want to buy on brand. MSI is shit.

Oh, Hi vengence, I was just curious what MSI products you've owned and which ones you've had problems with, and what those problems were. Thanks in advance for your accurate and speedy response!
 
I'll be honest and say I'm an longtime XFX man (I tend to W/C my cards), but in the past I have used EVGA as well as BFG. I modded a couple cards from BFG with aftermarket cooling solutions and the cards went bad; if I recall correctly, the DVI ports themselves went bad on them, and I RMAed them. They replaced them without incident or question, but I did reinstall the stock cooling before I sent them in.

If you're not going to mod them or anything, I'd personally choose the cheapest available from these companies and have the peace of mind that you'll be taken care of either way you turn.
 
So far I'm not liking the MSI 8800 GTS 320 in my main system that much, specifically the cooler they put on it. My experience with MSI mainboards has been negative as well. I think I'll stick with Asus from now on for videocards. Gigabyte for mainboards :)
 
Oh, Hi vengence, I was just curious what MSI products you've owned and which ones you've had problems with, and what those problems were. Thanks in advance for your accurate and speedy response!

Their warranty prevents me from buying thier products.

Problems:

1) Warrenty claimed to be 3 years. It's not 3 years of use, it's 3 years from production. Too bad if it sits on new eggs shelves for 6 months or a year before you buy it.
MSI said:
Warranty Effective Date

From the Date of Manufacture

The warranty period starts from the manufacture date. To determine the warranty entitlement for the product, the Customer must carefully verify the first four digits of the Products serial number. The first two-digit number represents the manufacture year and the subsequent two-digit number represents for the manufacture month.
2) 3 years from manufactor doesn't even mean 3 years.
MSI said:
MSI Motherboards are warranted for 3 year limited warranty (Two (2) years Parts & Labor, and the third Year Parts ONLY, shipping and handling fee will be required).

MSI VGA Products are warranted for 3 year limited warranty (Two (2) years Parts & Labor, and the third Year Parts ONLY, shipping and handling fee will be required).

Shipping and handling? How much can that be, 5$? 10$?
MSI said:
3rd Year Warranty Shipping and Handling fees:
For Motherboard: $35.00 per unit
For VGA: $45.00 per unit

45$ to ship a 2+ year old graphics card? Most 2 year old graphics cards that aren't still worth 45$! Thus your warranty might as well be 2 years.

Oh and good luck getting them to honor the warrenty if you change the cooler (even if you replace it when you ship it back) or even pull the crappy sticker off the top.

MSI's warrenty page

My problem with MSI, is they won't even stand behid thier products as evidenced by thier warranty.
 
I choose on a few simple reasons.

1. Overall reputation of builder in terms of warranty and customer service
2. Performance of video card based on professional reviews and actual user reviews from forums like [HF].
 
thanks for that post vengence, thats the kind of stuff I would want to know about MSI before trying one of their gpu's
 
thanks for that post vengence, thats the kind of stuff I would want to know about MSI before trying one of their gpu's

NP.

The long and the short of it is simple. As long as you don't have a problem with video cards, they are all the same. When something does go wrong, which frankly isn't that uncommon, then you better hope you picked the right vendor.
 
I'm not even really concerned about the warranty with computer stuff anyway, it gets upgraded probably every 1-2 years.
 
thanks for that post vengence, thats the kind of stuff I would want to know about MSI before trying one of their gpu's

+1
I didn't have a clue their warranty was so shitty. I just started looking for a 4890 and it won't be from them.
 
I've recently had to do an RMA on a XFX card and an eVGA card. Both were awesome - basically I was out around $5 to ship the card to them. eVGA even sent me an 8800gtx to replace my 8800gts. :D So I will stick to those two brands, as long as the price is close, I'll pay a few dollars more for the piece of mind. Haven't had to RMA a BFG card, but they are on my good list too.
 
I'd go BFG if i was you, i'm almost certain they DO offer oc warranty though not sure about the moding warranty.
 
It would be biased for me to say that evga is my favorite brand since my first and only videocard purchase was from evga. However, I really like evga's customer service and will be buying from them again. I purchased an 8800gt from Microcenter on the very last date of a rebate. The videocard ended up being defective so I exchanged the next day it for a different one. My rebate was initially rejected because the new videocard was exchanged outside of the rebate period. I gave their rebate customer service manager a call and told him that I purchased a faulty card within the rebate date. He fixed everything and my rebate came 2 weeks later. They also have their step up program. I don't know if I'll ever use it but I think it's a great service to offer.
 
I am the same way as the OP. I kind of went with EVGAs this time around as well to replace my aging 8800 Ultras. They do command a bit of a price premium as you rightly pointed out but they also have these awesome tools like the oclocking utility and the sli enhancement patches for new games and stuff before even the Nvidia drivers come out. Its stuff like that that kind of makes me glad I am with them.
 
I've currently got an eVGA GTX285 and an XFX 9800GT in my system. My last two cards before that were XFX also. I've never had any problems with any of my video cards, so I can't give any firsthand reports of RMA service. The StepUp program is pretty limited in my eyes (small window of availability, upgrade options are limited, and you pay full retail minus whatever you paid for the first card), but the Double Lifetime warranty can really help the resale value. I've heard of eVGA and BFG accepting RMAs for secondhand items, but XFX specifically supports it.

I did have an issue with my eVGA rebate. I ordered a 280 but a 285 was substituted. Unfortunately the seller didn't update my invoice. There were two different $20 rebates on the 280 and the 285, but my paperwork didn't match my physical card. I emailed eVGA and they sent me a third form to use. I kept an eye on the status page, and it eventually showed up as rejected due to an invalid UPC (I had included a copy of the email conversation regarding the discrepancy). I emailed them back with my status number and explained and was told it was taken care of. Shortly after that, the status page showed that it was valid and being processed, and I received my rebate check a few days after that (before I received my eVGA mobo rebate, which was mailed in at the same time).

That reminds me, I need to dig up my paperwork for my XFX rebate. Their new rebate processor is supposed to be handling the ones that were dropped due to the other processor going under.
 
1. BFG
2. EVGA
3. XFX

I tend to have more EVGA cards because I couldn't find the BFG card when I went to purchase. Both have good customer service, lifetime warranties, good community interaction but BFG has been there since the beginning (well at least when Visiontek stopped selling Nvidia cards).
 
I stick to Nvidia. Went from Creative to Leadtek to EVGA.

So far Leadtek card lasted the longest ( 10 years+ ).

EVGA card was of very good quality, good support. Next card will also be EVGA.
 
My last nVIDIA and ATi have been XFX. They have been good quality cards and you can't beat the double lifetime warranty.
 
Agree with other posters here that evga, bfg, and xfx are top brands. I've only owned products by evga and bfg, however, so I have no first hand experience with xfx, only what I read.

MSI I do not recommend. I have a 650i motherboard and it is the only one that doesn't work with intel wolfdale cpus. Their website says this should work, but it doesn't. Other companies like evga with 650i motherboards work fine. See this thread.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1164174&page=131
 
I don't know if you're talking so much about brand loyalty as opposed to simply valuing good service and support, nothin' wrong with that... I mean, other than bundled games or aftermarket coolers, warranties and support are the only thing that really differentiates video cards from different manufacturers these days. I've had really good luck with BFG myself, one time I had to RMA this card twice (shockingly the first replacement they sent was worse off) and they told me to not even bother sending the last card back to 'em, I could just chuck it, heh.

They were even sending the replacements before I sent back the damaged cards... Very few companies do that anymore, I know Crucial stopped doing it (w/RAM).

I think BFG, XFX, and EVGA are all in that upper echelon. MSI is ehh, alright, they seem to be the most aggressive with rebates (wouldn't know about fulfillment) and pricing in general, I'd pay up to $15 for a better warranty and support personally... After that it's a tough sell. I'm eyeing that XFX GTX 260 w/CoD5 & FC2 on Newegg, for $170 AR! I don't own either game so that's a bargain compared even to the cheapest card AR (MSI at $160) or the cheapest GTX 260 I've seen elsewhere, period (that $150 e-Wiz deal).
 
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