brand name matters?

[indiancheef]

first of all, thank you for all the advice in my last thread. appreciate it (you know who you are) - went out and bought a better psu, and i decided on the GTX260 core 216 gpu (oh sweetness) .
now one question before i convert hard earned dollars into awesome graphics - does the brand name of the card matter?
on newegg for example, the core 216 is under eVGA, PNY, XFX -
i dont think they would matter much - but there is a price difference between them. anything i should look out for? or are there any favorites?

 

[63083]

Well all of the cards are the exact same. The difference is the brand and it's cooler. Better cooler = card lasting longer & less noise. But the will all perform the same. I'm not going to be a fan-boy here but I would recommend EVGA as the are competitively priced, well built, have lifetime warranties, and I have personally ad bad experiences with PNY and there are not many people out there with XFX cards.

 

[worshipme]

i dont think they would matter much - but there is a price difference between them. anything i should look out for? or are there any favorites?

Some manufacturers have lifetime warrantys. EVGA and XFX do a step up program, which means you can step up to a better card within 3 months of purchasing your current one by paying the difference.

 

[Kage]

With GPU's, since a lot of resellers just tend to use the same spec/cooler (though not all the time), I do tend to go for the cheapest option, if its more than a £15 or so difference.
I would rather stick to the likes of XFX, EVGA though if I can, but Powercolor cards, etc do work exactly the same like 63083 says.

Warranties also differ, and some companies offer step up programs in certain regions of countries, etc.

Plus, some companies slightly ramp up the speeds, using overclocking software, or even hard modding (on the card itself and not software based) which improve the speed, but this can be done yourself if you are willing, but I guess the plus is that, not all cards (since believe it or not, all perform slightly different at overclocking) that you are guaranteed at least a moddest overclocker with one picked to overclock.

 

[Cabbs]

Everyone here is right. I'd just like to add that some companies will come up with their own PCB design for cards instead of the reference design. I've noticed Asus doing this a lot. They're also beginning to offer voltage control on their high-end cards.

 

[setishock]

I've stuck with eVGA cards after tryin out other brands and even trying an ATI card. I was in BestBuy the other day and compared to a PNY card feature for feature the eVGA has the same at a lower price. I compared the 260 and the 9600gt. When I lose my grip on reality altogether, I may drop 150.00 bucks on a higher end vid card.

 

[Techmaster05]

Evga FTW

I've stuck with eVGA cards after tryin out other brands and even trying an ATI card. I was in BestBuy the other day and compared to a PNY card feature for feature the eVGA has the same at a lower price. I compared the 260 and the 9600gt. When I lose my grip on reality altogether, I may drop 150.00 bucks on a higher end vid card.

Evga dont make ATI cards ?

 

[tom-knox]

He means that after trying all kinds of brands, including ATI, he ignored them all and has since stuck to eVGA cards

 

[Techmaster05]

ahh alrighty, thats what i thought he meant but than again didnt

 

[indiancheef]

wow, just woke up and this is fantastic!
yeah i thought as much - i personally like eVGA (they look kinda cool) - my 8400GS is XFX and i havnt had any complaints with them. i think i'll order the eVGA one tonight. or wait a day or two to see if i get a good deal somewhere.
sweet.
also, i decided to build a new computer - it'll just have to be piece by piece according to my what my budget allows. expect me here more and more.

also, i feel pretty stupid - now that i go back and go through the details, i see there are clear differences in the core clock speeds and shader clocks and etc etc etc *stupid cheef*