Zotac brand... what is the consensus?

LigTasm

LigTasm

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 29, 2011
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I figured I would pose this question to you guys. I never really payed much attention to Zotac since they seemed to be one of the lower end Nvidia AIB partners, mainly putting orange heatsinks on reference cards. I've seen their products a lot, especially locally at the Fry's which has them in OEM form.

Well, I recently came across a GTX 560ti 2GB my friend had that was dead as dead can be, won't even POST. He never registered the warranty, but I took it to see if I could do something with it since he isn't very computer savvy. As it turned out, there was no helping this card. I shot Zotac an email and explained the situation completely expecting to be turned down, and got a reply within about 3 hours saying that they would make a one-time allowance to RMA it even though I had no receipt and it never got registered. I was already very happy, up until today when it got even better. It took about 4 days to process and I get an email saying they don't have any in stock, and would I be willing to accept a GTX 570 instead.

All in all, I'm thoroughly impressed. I've sent EVGA and Asus emails and support requests before multiple times about the same subject and not had an answer back within several weeks.

So, am I a lucky one or have others had a good experience with them? I will for sure look for a Zotac GTX 680 when I get around to buying one, as I consider my loyalty as a customer earned for right now. With how quick and helpful they were for me, I'm surprised I haven't heard about them more.

TL;DR: Have you had a good/bad experience with Zotac?
 
I know Zotac has a good rep for their cards in the asian market, and it's really cool to see that carrying over toe their North American customer service.
 
Recently I heard that Zotac is part of Sapphire, and Sapphire has an above average reputation for service.
 
Just don't buy any Zotac card with non-reference cooling. I had a Zotact GTX 560 Ti and the cheap little weird cooler they used on it was so terrible that the card would hit 95C and throttle down. I had to spend a bunch of money on aftermarket cooling and it left a bad taste in my mouth. (Also had an EVGA GTX 560 Ti that wouldn't go above mid-80s with the reference cooler in my case, so Zotac was really just cheaping out)
 
Zinn said:
Just don't buy any Zotac card with non-reference cooling. I had a Zotact GTX 560 Ti and the cheap little weird cooler they used on it was so terrible that the card would hit 95C and throttle down. I had to spend a bunch of money on aftermarket cooling and it left a bad taste in my mouth. (Also had an EVGA GTX 560 Ti that wouldn't go above mid-80s with the reference cooler in my case, so Zotac was really just cheaping out)
Click to expand...

Check out this new non-reference cooler they're putting out soon:

http://www.techpowerup.com/163432/ZOTAC-GTX-680-Extreme-Edition-Clocked-at-1.20-GHz.html
 
^ cool. Hopefully they don't ruin it by using Elmer's glue for thermal paste.
 
My Zotac 460 served me well in a second computer for about a year. Since then it has been running in a friend's computer and has been a good trouble free card.

Beware of their rebates - they're notoriously slow and may require a follow-up email or two :)
 
Had a passive GT430. Worked as well and seemed as well built as anything else.
 
They seem to be weak in US market but I took a chance on them and been happy so far. rebate came quick. OCs well and plays everything I need it to. I did replace stock HSF from day 1 though with waterblock so I can't comment on quality there.
 
Ok well I guess I'll see what happens with this 570 when I get it. I'm on the lookout for a 680 in the near future when they come into stock more so maybe I will go with them for that one too.
 
I have a couple mid/low end Zotac cards and they're all working fine still..
 
I've gone through an RMA process with my GT 430 and it was painless — no fuss at all. They had me ship the card to a facility in California and the replacement was shipped from another California facility. There was no real communication beyond the boilerplate RMA emails, but communication wasn't really necessary, so I don't deduct any points there.

I'd buy a ZOTAC card again, sure.
 
I had a Zotac gtx 580 that I got on the cheap - didn't run into any issues with it.
 
generally good opinions, I've found. And, they're one of few vendors that will go out of their way to make shortened PCB cards, or low profile offerings. They were early in the ITX form factor, too. I think it's in their DNA.

So if you like small form factor builds, they're a great option. I plan to buy one of their cards for my SG05 rig, and I think their shortest one will even fit in a CM Elite 110 with about 1/4" to spare. Don't quote me on that though, I'm just going be a measurement that a user provided on Newegg's question and answer thing (listed it as 8.03", and the CM 110 will do maximum 8.25").
 
For what it's worth I am running a 980 GTX from zotac atm. Although probably temporary until I snag msi 970s, it has served me well so far no issues.
 
I have a Zotac 970 in my htpc, works great, haven't messed with ocing much but put a modest one on it and no troubles so far.
 
I've had two Zotacs, a 460 and a 780 AMP edition, and both performed perfectly. I'd buy one again.
 
doox, which model did you get? How long is the PCB? Their stock-clocked one is about 8", but if one of the OC'd ones is still under 10" it will fit in my SG05, and I might look at that instead.
 
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