I'm wondering about that for a while now.. I'm buying GTX 970 graphics card but prices are varying from 350€ to 450€ which is a big difference. But they are all GTX 970 cards, just different manufacturers.. EVGA, ASUS, ZOTAC, MSI, Gigabyte,.. what's up with that? Which one would you recommend?

Each manufacturer will have a number of different models, generally speaking the cheapest will have a standard cooler and the GPU and memory will not be overclocked, the most expensive will have a much more efficient cooler, a metal backplate to aid rigidity and cooling, and will be overclocked on the GPU and possibly the memory, cards in-between will vary on the cooling solution and overclock speeds. You should be able to see the different claimed speeds for the GPU and memory when checking out the cards online, not all manufacturers overclock the memory.

 

The cheaper models will appeal to those on a budget and also those that will be replacing the stock cooler with water cooling so don't need to pay a premium for the upgraded cooler. The top of the range models will appeal to those that want the best performance without having to overclock themselves.

 

If I were in the market I would be looking at EVGA as they have an excellent reputation for customer service and their warranty is transferrable if you ever sell the card. Because I enjoy overclocking I would get the base SC model but if I just wanted the best out of the box performance then their FTW model would be what I would choose.

That makes sense. Thanks!