Graphics Card Brands - Question?

[Dougal 165]

Hi Guys

I'm starting to get serious problems with my elderly video card (Asus Strix GTX 970).  It has been heavily overclocked and pushed hard for a long time.

Hence, I SERIOUSLY need a replacement card fairly quickly, but really cant afford a new one, so I've been looking at pre-owned GTX 1080 units on eBay.

In the past (being better off lol), I've always purchased main brand names such as Asus, Gigabyte, EGVA etc.

Looking on eBay, it seems the lesser name brands are often considerably cheaper. Specifically, I've seen Gainwood, PNY, MSI and Palit.

What's the consensus on these brands guys?  I suspect they probably perform very similar to main brands (but correct me if I'm wrong), but what's the build quality like?  Are they likely to run hotter?

Any other info about this much appreciated, thanks.

[vc10man 732]

Phil, no such brand as Gainwood, but Gainward, who until a few years ago, used to score very highly

MSI are also another well-reviewed brand and I recently bought a brand-new MSI GTX1080Ti, (as I could not get my preferred brand, EVGA)e, for what the e-Bay second-handers are going for. Also been advised make sure they have not been used for 'mining'.

Edited May 2, 2019 by vc10man

[vortex681 806]

5 hours ago, Dougal said:

Looking on eBay, it seems the lesser name brands are often considerably cheaper. Specifically, I've seen Gainwood, PNY, MSI and Palit.

I'd hardly call MSI a "lesser name brand"! I've used their graphics cards for a number of builds now and have had zero issues with them. One thing that's worth looking in to before you buy is any potential problem with "coil whine" which some cards suffer from. It can be very annoying when the card is under load and it's one thing that makes me stick with MSI cards (which seem to be particularly good in this respect).

[odourboy 1,289]

Personally had good experiences with EVGA, MSI and most recently, my ZOTAC 1080 ti. I was wary of the ZOTAC brand as if seemed to be a budget card, but it's performed flawlessly for 2 years now.

[stans 703]

MSI has been around for a while and I think their cards are well respected.  The same goes for Zotac, I took a chance on a Zotac 8800 years ago when Zotac was the new kid on the block.  That Zotac card performed flawlessly and was still in perfect working order when I upgraded to a 560Ti.  My 560Ti is an EVGA and it has a single cooling fan, I will say that I think with the heat produced by today's graphics cards, cooling systems with multiple fans or liquid cooling might be better options.

[MDFlier 2,031]

I've had a PNY in the past (I'm thinking it was a GTX280 or thereabouts) and had no issues with it.