I was wondering... Anytime soon i am gonna buy myself a 8800 GTS 640MB. At the left you can see my specs for now...this is the one the 8800 will be placed in. At this moment the 7600GT is one from Asus. When i buy the new card...should i look at the manufacturer or doesnt this matter at all...i am thinking of getting one which is OC'ed. Will i notice any difference between the following manufacturers?? BFG, MSI, ASUS, EVGA, XFX you name it...just something i like to know before i get busy.
If you mean performace - NO. At same clocks diffrent manu. = Same performace. Some manu. have higher clocks at stock. But you can manualy OC card wich gives same results. And often non oced cards are cheaper. For example i pickuped Asus becouse they mostly dont OC cards and i dont like stock OC ;p Also i found that company solid.(My mobo). And now i know my card OC like crazy
Manufacturers like EVGA have a step up offer and lifetime warranty. Also some give free games or software with the card but quality wise they are all the same
The main differences would be the warranties, go with one that offers lifetime warranty, IE: BFG, EVGA......
eVGA offers a lifetime warranty, including against overclocking as long as voltage isnt raised, and has the best/fastest tech support. I never recommend anyone else.
So, That means all nvidia cards are equal (as in they are all reference)?? It doesnt matter which manu. i choose, qualitywise they are all the same.. Nice... I think i'll go for a BFG..:thumbup: Thnx a lot!!
Hi Guys Actually there some differences between the 8800GTS 640Mb cards, XFX always ensure they have A02 silicon and samsung memory chips onboard, to ensure better overclocking stability, other manufacturers cannot always ensure this. cheers fresh
Hmm...how can i check if they have A02 silicon..? I know how to check for the mem thing but not the silicon...:question: EDIT: btw i always thought that OC'ed from the manu. was better, because they know there own products??
There is nothing special about the cards they are choosing to overclock and the avg consumer overclocking their cards. They are simply charging more because their warranty backs the OC; however most manufactures (like eVGA) back overclocking and even heat sink changes. In the end if you have the know how and the time, overclock the card yourself and save some money. They aren't doing it any safer than someone taking their time would do.
I'd look at the warranty and tech support aspects of the various manufacturers. The cards themselves are pretty much the same. If you go to online retailer sites you can often find feedback from purchasers and I find that can give great insight as to the quality of the cards being sold.
One thing that can be a consideration is that pre-oc'ed cards are done in the bios. If you want a bit of oc on your card but have no interest in overclocking yourself, then a pre-oc'ed card might be a consideration. Of course you can reflash the bios with higher clocks, and/or use software to overclock in windows. But this can be a headache sometimes and can also be time consuming. If money really isn't an issue, but time and hassle is, then maybe a pre-oc would be an option. I got both my BFG OC's for less than the stock clocked cards, so I thought it was a no brainer, however the OC on my cards from BFG isn't really a lot and I actually OC them a little more (with the default stock cooler and fan speeds it works out well for me, but it is kind of a hassle in Vista to maintain the OC's - at least for me...)
I never said anything about skill levels needed... It can still be a pain, and btw, NBiTor didn't work on Vista last time I checked... Luckily I have a backup system running xp (and vista) so I can use it for things such as this. Regardless of that, if money isn't an object, then a pre-oc card might be an option for someone.
I've been using nvidia cards since the TNT days, i can tell you there are differences in manufacturing quallity between vendors generally, i'd go for the well known and reviewed models, stay away from Palit Daytona and Xpertvision, because for want of a better word.. they are ****e- Reuben
in general, they are more or less the same. in terms of quality, all i can say is that some brands would use better memory chips than others. for example, i was looking around for a agp 7 series board and noticed that certain companies would go cheap and use hynix ram while others would choose to put slightly better ones from samsung. for most cases, it shouldn't make a huge difference, but if u are really stressing performance, and if the prices are reasonable, i would opt for the bigger brands like EVGA, BFG, XFX and ASUS (in order of preference).
That's the thing, i dont have the time to do a proper OC, i just want it to be stable and fast...well why dont you buy a GTX or Ultra?..sorry dont have the money for those cards...i personally dont think it would be appreciated here in this home(as i have to buy a new car soon) i need more money.....:bigsmile: As i have watched this site, the OC'ed versions are almost the same price(some more/less expensive).
Think i'll go for one of the Cards below: XFX XXX EXTREME BFG OC2 ASUS 8800GTS 640 Stock Which ine would you guys choose...?
Well, neither nVidia nor ATi leave a lot of latitude to their partners in the choice of components, they all have to meet a minimal standard (the so-called "reference design") so there isn't much of a difference quality wise between manufacturers. Extras and warranties are what makes the difference.
