I thought there'd be tons of info out there with a simple search, but I find no results despite it being discussed many times over the years even on this forum. I remember they'd remove entire power phases from motherboards in the retail models vs what reviewers got, even on halo models, they'd do any scumbag move. I personally was screwed over on their bait and switch on a GTX 970 where the RAM on it was 1GHz+ slower than models sent to reviewers, and it had cheaper/inferior fans and possibly more. Why I ask now? I went in to a shop to back order a Sapphire Nitro 7900 XTX so I can have it hopefully in like 2 months, but it turns out the only thing really beyond the reference designs available in the system to order is the Aorus Elite. It has the same clock speed as the Nitro (2680MHz) but I'm ultra hesitant to buy anything from Gigabyte ever again. The manager said it'll probably be 2+ months before I can back order other models such as the Nitro. What are your opinions on Gigabyte as they are now? Experienced any recent bait n switch? Is it true their software is pretty much unusable still? Edit: I've also been told by more than one person that they're horrible with honouring their warranties, any experiences with that? Edit 2: It turns out there are search results for their bait and switch tactics now, some going back many years, I wonder what changed.
Gigabyte is like the cheaper lower quality name brand of the hardware component world. I don't bother with them anymore. Out of the 5 different Gigabyte motherboards I ever bought only 1 has ever worked more than a year without issues and has lasted with 3 years of use and is currently sitting in the computer I built for my dad. Whenever you need a budget motherboard that supports the latest RAM, CPU's, etc. get ASrock or MSI. The two Gigabyte GPU's I've bought worked without any real issues. My GTX 1080 was a Gigabyte windforce and had coil whine but only when there was like a 1000fps during game startups and main menu's. I had a Gigabyte windforce R9 280x which had no issues. Sold it on Ebay. I never bothered with there software.
Theyre excellent for value products like their elite mobo series and gaming series gpus but for high end gpus and mobos id go with sth else. I have z490 Elite and 3060ti gaming and theyve been fantastic
Im running gigabyte x570 board no issues, good bios ui. Aorus products are high quality. People who didnt use one just dont know. I had a rx580 aorus extreme and it was a beast.
theres a youtube channel called: Actually Hardcore Overclocking guy is bombarded with gigabyte boards and biased. but he can ramble about them for days, if thats what you are into
Yeah, he is not biased. Its a love and hate relationship, where he says: '' I love it, I use it all the time, but this is horrible'''. Video: Rambling about motherboard manufacturers Minute: 53 all manufacturers labeled: incosistent
The thing I don't like about Buildzoid is... he rambles... He takes 10 minutes to say something minor and he'll spend another 30 minutes talking but doesn't actually say anything. I wish he'd get to the point of anything he's trying to convey, maybe even actually script his videos instead of just speaking a load of filler words. Nevertheless, he's good at breaking down specs at least.
I'm not sure a content creator '' can have a point'' these days. He made a point on ASROCK and it was over. From his hour long videos point I got is all manufacturers are inconsistent and while some 300$ boards are great, some can be the opposite. | One thing on Gigabyte boards and GPU seems is good radiators and materials. Not sure about efficiency and end result, but all RTX 3060s come with a copper heatsink, not aluminium. Same goes for motherboads, theres an actual '' heatsink'' on many high end motherboards. Its not piece of aluminium where buyer can see ''file tool marks'' made by Chinese factory worker. My RX580 too. Good GPU cooler. Copper right on top from both sides. Card is loud and for me unusable because of coil whine. But it does look quality. Also the fact that they send tons of boards to Buildzoid, make BIOS changes based on communication and comments. they do seem like trying hard and actually make decent product.
It is pretty bad in the industry: Bait n Switch by the current TOPIC MSI scalping their own HW ASUS with insane prices and premium Asrock with some good prices but need to be careful of really cut down parts and quality, not talking about their top of line gear. It used to be that these companies worked hard and created legendary valued products vs when Intel was making motherboards but all got fat and greedy on RGB bling bling taxes... Why hasn't any of the great OC'er work with them to build good valued MB without all the crap?
Not bait & switch but other reasons Gigabyte dont top my list of mfrs: My Aorus 3090 Xtreme gfx card had/still has issues that should have resulted in its return but because cards had become impossible to find I was forced to grit my teeth and accept them. 1) This flagship card has a lot of scratches that were underneath one of the protective shielding stickers. 2) Performance was poor for a flagship card and the memory ran hot. At idle the fan was constantly turning on then off to keep the GPU around 40C (ambient 21C, card was in open air) I had to ignore the scratches. Later I found HWinfo had been updated to show the hottest temp on the core as well as the average temp. Part of the core was running 23C hotter than the average, causing throttling to occur at lower temp, reducing max clock speed and performance. Max difference should be around 12C. Upon disassembly part of the GPU core was found to have no paste on it! Repasting improved performance to an acceptable level and helped reduce max memory temp a little. It also let the fans remain off at idle. But memory temp was still too close to throttle temp under load without Summer temps so I took the heatsink core from an old 1080ti cooler, added a fan and attached this to the memory cooler backplate. This resulted in max memory temp dropping by 10C, much better headroom for Summer. I'm not impressed with the build quality or the Quality Assurance of Gigabyte, even on their best product. Poor show.
Well, thanks for your feedback guys. Right now there is so much odd info out there about the 7900 XTX / Navi 31 in general that I'm starting to have second thoughts. There's the obvious issues such as everyone being confused about both the driver and the silicon/tapeout quality of this A0 batch. Then there's things such as this video that makes it sound like it'll be hell to properly OC/tune one; And I can't find any info on Sapphire's warranty of GPUs, their page just says contact support and lists out their conditions. Meanwhile Gigabyte offers 3 years + 1 more year if you register within 30 days of purchase, but again, I have people telling me they try to weasel out of honouring their warranties, and I 've never RMA'd anything to them myself. I was thinking about just placing the order for the Aorus Elite 7900 XTX then changing my order if info comes out showing it to be inferior to expectations... and if reviews/reports turn out well, take it apart just to be sure due to all the reports I've seen of the build quality / pad placement or lack of / pasting, etc being ****** up. Mufflore is far from the first person to tell me he ran into such an issue on a high end Gigabyte card. Now I'm not even sure if I want a 7900 XTX anymore. Yeah I've been watching Buildzoid for a long time, his review/whatever you'd call his style of the TUF X570 Plus WiFi is why I bought it and I don't regret the purchase. Though I should mention their software is useless to sometimes literally unusable (it was non functional for many months), and an absolute nightmare to remove (I HIGHLY discourage anyone from installing Asus software), but I finally managed to get rid of it.
You just need understand the structure of any company to really estimate their brand value. History often reveals much. I don't claim to be expert in this, nor do I know practically anything about Gigabyte's internal things. I seriously doubt they would market their longer warranty and then screw the customer, nor build an expensive premium GPU model without any thought put in. For me, Gigabyte is both a cheapo company, but also makes fine high end products, though their software is usually not that good. Their cheap end products in various categories like mice, PSUs and GPUs can be just plain badly desgined, which customers should be concerned of. Certainly it is a big company that do many things and they don't seem to have any cohesive vision, but instead many various branches doing their own thing. They thrive by focusing on value, not by fine design or quality first and foremost.
After giving it more thought, I decided I'll order the Aorus Elite and cancel/change my order if other options become available as I wait. There is no ETA. Apparently back orders are not really a thing anymore at my local computer chain, they're only taking orders for a tiny amount per location which they think will be shipped in the first batch. When I back ordered my 3080 I was something like #23 in line for my specific model. Most locations sold out of that 7900 XTX, but luckily for me, my nearest location only had 1 other person crazy enough to order one, so I got in the 2nd order. RIP my common sense, my wallet weeps for it. Reference models are $1400 (at launch $1K USD would have been about $1350 CAD but it's common practice to round up by at least $50 on expensive items), the Aorus Elite was $1549 pre-tax. Remember kids, don't spend over a grand on a video card like crazy uncle Cyrus. The shelves were loaded with all cards except AMD ones, particularly a lot of 4080s... going for $1700 for the Gigabyte Eagle model no one wants, that I'd trust a reference model over, to $2100 for the Strix 4080 OC which deserves all the ridicule in the world considering $90 more buys a Zotac Trinity 4090. ~4.3% more money to go from that 4080 to a 4090. Anyway, it looks like people just can't afford these prices and they were only selling before because of scalpers/miners. Edit: Aaaand I just realized that Gigabyte cheaped out and didn't nickel plate the copper in the card. Meaning you can forget putting liquid metal on it. FFS, how much could that possibly cost that on a $1549 card they cheaped out on that, and what else would they cheap out on if that's the case? I'm legitimately leaning towards just canceling my order and waiting to see what AIB cards are available by February. Gigabyte never ceases to amaze me with how they save a penny wherever possible.
If that backplate has no cooling solution or purpose or thermal pads, then might aswell start drilling holes in it.That's what I would do for AMD reference cards. Although temperatures are good anyways for new RDNA 3'S. So even if it rises, it should hold well. Liquid metal is too much when card is bottom of temperature chart. Just prepare hand drill for backplate. Sapphire 7900XTX is a beautiful piece reviewed here. Gigabyte Card should be good too. As long you know what you are doing.
I'm not sure if you're serious or if that's some sort of "speed holes" meme. Gigabyte's site only states that the backplate is protection/structural support, if it had cooling they would have mentioned it. Sad. $1549, no nickel plating, no backplate thermal pads, and the entire thing looks cheap AF. Honestly I don't even like how it looks, and I hate the Aorus logo, it just looks dumb and I'm not even sure WTH the bottom part is supposed to be. At this point I'm most likely going to cancel the order and just wait as long as it takes to get a card like the Sapphire Nitro.
theres some seriousness in my memes, and some memes in my seriousness. But, yes. I do think those backplates are useless. Its basically a heat trap. It should like EVGA RTX. Why would you put a full plate over component? And opinions on this are different. So one company basically spends money to drill, mill, chamfer holes in a backplate, and one basically dont do anything. Same Apple M1 Mac Mini PC. Look at tear downs. Poor little thing has one opening in the case. Its made to throttle die in 2 years. Reality is when we see a fully sealed component such as these backplates, we dont really know how it will behave in 6 month or after 2 hour gaming session in a case. Not test bench.
