# Which GPU Manufacturer is best to buy??



## Wolvyreen (Mar 18, 2019)

Hello

Im in the market now to buy an entirely new PC.  Budget is fairly tight but one question is which manufacturer is best to buy for a GPU?
There are so many...

MSI
ASUS
Gigabyte
Sapphire
EVGA

etc etc etc

Which one is best with the best after sales support and warranties?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Mar 18, 2019)

Personally my favourites are-
Msi
Asus
Evga

I avoid palit like its a smelly turd


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## Wolvyreen (Mar 18, 2019)

LOL!!  but if you had to choose between those 3, which one would you prefer?


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## 64K (Mar 18, 2019)

For Nvidia I would say MSI but I'm basing that on years of very good experiences with MSI GPUs. Probably some haven't had the same.


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## mstenholm (Mar 18, 2019)

MSI all the way. OK didn't try Evga.


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

Well, considering all of these mfg fall within a percent or so of each other for returns.... a thing you read is purely anecdotal...

Honestly, any are fine. Dont let someone's horror story about customer service, which all have, scare you away from any brand.

Seriously...dont make this choice harder than it needs to be. I'll also suggest you make ONE thread for you new build AMD ask questions in it. Otherwise I fear half a dozen threads for each question about the same thing (your build).


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## Wolvyreen (Mar 18, 2019)

But if I'm not mistaken, certain manufacturers use different cooling heatsink designs and fans etc.  Wouldnt that make one brand better than another??
Just wondering...


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## Bones (Mar 18, 2019)

EVGA is one that will take care of you if you ever have a problem.
Yes, there are differences between designs, expected in fact due to the very nature of it all. The best ones off the top of my head are made by EVGA, Sapphire, and probrably Asus with MSI not being that far off. 
Gigabyte I'm not sure of so I can't say either way, Zotac is a rather recent maker compared to the others but hasn't done too badly overall.


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## Vayra86 (Mar 18, 2019)

Overall (as in: decent product range with a low or non-existant amount of 'duds'): *MSI*.

But this is like buying PSUs. They all provide juice within spec, but the good ones can be pushed hard without you getting uncertain about it. The cheap ones can be pushed hard and might just crap out on you at some unannounced point in time. They're all 'decent' though.

Right now Asus, Gigabyte and EVGA have all been caught red handed in the past few years with badly designed or re-used cooling solutions (heatpipes don't connect, VRM is badly cooled, VRAM dies quickly, fans keep spinning up and down from idle, fans dying fast etc.). I have yet to come across a similar example with MSI, in fact quite the opposite; even their cheaper range of cards just copies over a big part of their best cooling solutions. In that sense, they're the exception to a norm, sad as that may be. It just remains to be seen for how long as I still remember a GTX 660ti Power Edition from them, too...


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## overvolted (Mar 18, 2019)

I have both an ASUS strix rtx 2060 and an MSI gaming z rtx-2060.
They both perform solidly, run nice and cool and just kick ass. They look great too.
No issues with either one. The coolers are very well designed on each.
I have nothing bad to say about either one.

The lower spec cards of any brand are the ones I would avoid.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Mar 18, 2019)

If i had to pick one of the three. Msi. The msii gtx 770 lightning was a very very nice card


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

Wolvyreen said:


> But if I'm not mistaken, certain manufacturers use different cooling heatsink designs and fans etc.  Wouldnt that make one brand better than another??
> Just wondering...


It would make a certain card better than another, sure. But in your first post you asked about customer service and warranty... not about the card itself...at least that is how I read it. 

Take a look at some reviews and see their results for noise, cooling, etc.


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## Wolvyreen (Mar 18, 2019)

Overall, it seems that the consensus here is MSI.


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## Bones (Mar 18, 2019)

The design MSI has/had (Twin Frozr) is rather good - I have a GTX 560-448 with it and it's always worked great. 
That much I can say about MSI.


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## Vayra86 (Mar 18, 2019)

Just don't get a blower, and that is a brand agnostic recommendation


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

TF is solid, but basing it off of a card literally 5 gens old is a bit outdated. TF7, the latest, works as well as the strix and the SC, and extreme models.


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## Bones (Mar 18, 2019)

I agree, it was more for stating how MSI has been good for sometime with their cooling solutions - Even now I've rarely heard anything bad about what they do for cooling.


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## dirtyferret (Mar 18, 2019)

I've used pny, msi,zotac, sapphire, evga, Asus, and gigabyte.  I've yet to see a major difference among them as they all knock each other off.  My last three cards have been gigabyte windrunners with no issue.


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## AmioriK (Mar 18, 2019)

I agree, MSI Is great for both AMD and NVIDIA. Last cards i owned were 1070 Gaming X's though, but great cards they were^^ However I did hear some negative things about their "Armour" cooler on pre-turing cards. just fyi.

But, if you're going for AMD only; Sapphire gets my vote. EVGA are great for NVIDIA only too.

My £150 Sapphire pulse 570 has a full cover Alu backplate with a thermal pad on the back of the VRM to take heat away. It's a fantastic quality card. I've also owned the Sapphire Pulse Vega 56 and only had good things to say about it. Owned a pair of Nitro 390's back in the day, and Trix 290's before that. All of them fantastic cards.

EVGA OTOH, I've heard a lot of praise for their warranty service and card designs for the newer ICX coolers on 10 series and the Turing models are great too. My 1660 XC is fantastic, but that's about as far as my own experience goes.

I can only, unfortunately say bad things for GIgabyte recently, the 1660 dual-fan I bought recently is really mediocre. But it is a low cost model.. but the EVGA XC for the same price is way better. That said the Giga Aurous 1080 Ti i played with was fantastic. Back in the day my GIga 670 windforces, and the 980 ti windforce were fantastic so ~shrug~.

Zotac are good too, played with the AMP! extreme 980 ti; fantastic card and great warranty service for it. Only Asus i owned recently was 1070 dual, the white one. The cooler is good but not mind blowing. Otherwise i dont buy asus GPUs so cant comment. Palit make some good cards too. I had a palit jet stream 1080 (exxcellent cooler) and a pny 980 ti was great too. Ok now im rambling. ^^


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## kurosagi01 (Mar 18, 2019)

Nvidia - EVGA is my first choice as they mainly sell Nvidia GPUs
AMD - Sapphire or maybe Powercolor, again as they only sell AMD GPUs
Third party choice - Asus or MSI are my go to depending on price.


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## krykry (Mar 18, 2019)

Case by case basis. Let's illustrate it on Radeons from some time ago.

RX 480: MSI Gaming X was great, Sapphire Nitro was shit.
RX 580: MSI Gaming X was shit, Sapphire Nitro was great.

TLDR: Brand name doesn't make the card good. Read reviews carefully, decide based on that.


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

kurosagi01 said:


> mainly


Mainly? What else do they sell?


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## kurosagi01 (Mar 18, 2019)

EarthDog said:


> Mainly? What else do they sell?


Nvidia GPUs which is what they are most known for..but they also have now
PSU
Laptops
Gaming peripherals


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## kastriot (Mar 18, 2019)

You buy from brand which has best customer service and 3-5 years warranty simple.


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

kurosagi01 said:


> Nvidia GPUs which is what they are most known for..but they also have now
> PSU
> Laptops
> Gaming peripherals


Lol, ithought you meant amd...  considering this is a thread about a GPU and not other parts, lol


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## Wolvyreen (Mar 18, 2019)

kastriot said:


> You buy from brand which has best customer service and 3-5 years warranty simple.


Correct but which ones is the best for those categories.  I am leaning towards MSI or EVGA


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## EarthDog (Mar 18, 2019)

Pretty sure all their warranties are 3 years for GPUs... check their webpages.

Again customer service experience varies significantly AMD peoples anecdotes are just that.

Nobody know which are the best for customer service. Everyone has had great experiences and poor experiences on each...I mentioned anecdotes earlier. 

Brotha, read a couple of reviews of the card you can afford and see which suits your needs. This roundabout anecdotal buy in of customer service is a waste of time considering how little it yields. You may not even use it... or you may and chance are the experience will be a good one. Customer satisfaction, even of the 'worst' (which whoever that is) is still extremely high. 

Dont swim in the minutia.


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## phill (Mar 18, 2019)

Personally for me, EVGA for Nvidia and generally Asus, MSI or Sapphire for AMD.

I've not bought many AMD cards for a while now but for Nvidia, EVGA is the way for me   I think @AmioriK might agree with me there having recently bought a Gigabyte card and then bought an EVGA...


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## Wolvyreen (Mar 19, 2019)

I have opened a Build Thread now here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-build-with-decent-budget.253836/


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