Quality: EVGA vs Zotac vs Asus

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catsinspace

catsinspace

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Mar 25, 2013
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Getting a GTX 660 (FOC). Quality and support wise, which is better Asus, EVGA, or Zotac. I have no experience with Zotac quality and support.
 
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Onus

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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I'm not familiar with Zotac. I have had four Asus cards since the days of the HD3850, and 2/4 of them died within hours or days of first use. I have also owned four eVGA cards, the old 6600GT,7600GT, 7900GS, and a new GTX650Ti. None had any problems; so of the vendors you listed, I would choose eVGA.
 
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Kindredsouls

Kindredsouls

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I tend to prefer Asus as well. Most of my PC parts and accessories are from Asus, and my experience has always been very good. Well made stuff, and on the occasion I did have an issue their warranty process was as painless as one would expect.
 
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Onus

Onus

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Asus is my #1 pick for motherboards, but one of my last for video cards. OTOH, MSI is pretty high up the list for [nVidia] video cards, but I do not trust their motherboards.
I haven't bought (and wouldn't buy) any Jaton video cards, and Diamond is on my personal "Do Not Buy" list for a raft of reasons; of the cards I remember, I had good results from HIS (4-5), XFX (4), Powercolor (2-3), and Sapphire (2-3), and from the one MSI (GTX460) I bought.
 
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Kindredsouls

Kindredsouls

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Out of curiosity, why don't you like Asus for video cards?
 
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Onus

Onus

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I answered that in my first post here; 2/4 brand new Asus cards I bought died within hours or days of when I installed them. The only other card I've ever had die in use was a HIS 6790 that I had overclocked a lot and may have overheated while testing bitmining.
Edit: I was using reasonable to good PSUs at the time too, and nothing else in the systems died; just the graphics cards. Nothing was overclocked either.
 
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D

Deleted member 217926

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I'm with Onus on this one. EVGA cards are generally of the highest quality and they are considered to be Nvidia's "pet" manufacturer. Their warranties and customer service are legendary. I have used EVGA cards exclusively in my builds since the 6600GT.

Asus motherboards are top tier but like Onus I have had issues with their GPUs. I had an Asus GTX 560 die in a build I did for a buddy. Their customer service was good though.

Zotac is decent but they are not a top line manufacturer like EVGA and Asus.
 
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B

Brett928S2

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Hi :)

I usually choose Asus cards for my own gaming machines as I also usually have Asus motherboards.... and I would hope they test the two together lol...

Having said that, my 7990 6gb Red Devil is a Power color.... (because Asus don't make one yet)

All the best Brett :)
 
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Kindredsouls

Kindredsouls

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I've owned several EVGA brand cards as well. I've had a few failures but their RMA process is pretty good.

Downside to EVGA cards are the reference coolers. Less over clocking head room because of that, and they tend to be louder. On the plus side, they do push the heat out the back of the GPU rather then keeping it inside the case.
 
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catsinspace

catsinspace

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Thanks much, all. But I'm still left with my two primary choices, Asus and EVGA. The EVGA does have a gtx 660 oc with 3gb which I'm looking at, but I'm a bit leery of the 3gb... is the gain noticeable over 2gb or just more heating/energy usage problems? Also maybe some help on whether rear exhaust is better than dual fan open cooling. I have no blockage in case or at rear of tower, so either I keep the gpu cooler, Asus, or, keep the inner case cooler, EVGA. Again thanks all for the responses, every bit helps :)
 
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D

Deleted member 217926

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Having 3GB will not help a GTX 660 unless you are running a multi monitor setup or using very high resolutions. In gaming the 3GB card will actually be slightly slower than the 2GB card. A 660 is not powerful enough to use all that VRAM.
 
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Kindredsouls

Kindredsouls

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I agree with anort3. 3 GB isn't going to really have much benefit on a GTX 660. 2 GB is perfect for that card.

EVGA's cards use reference coolers but they do pull the air out the back of the card. Not relying on your case's own cooling. However, as I mentioned EVGA's cards do tend to be some what loud. Asus tends to use dual and triple fan setups that are very cool and quiet. Downside being the GPU doesn't do any of its own venting. If you have good case airflow it really doesn't matter that much. The hot air should get vented outside the back of the case anyway.

Noise may be the determining factor for you. My advice is, if you don't care about the extra noise from an EVGA card I would go with whatever gives you the better deal at the time.
 
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catsinspace

catsinspace

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Great answers ALL! Tom's Forum is super with people like y'all. I did find an EVGA OC 660 with dual fan, but I'm going with Asus GTX660-DC2T-2GD5 for $229 before $20 rebate Newegg. Final. It's the Top OC model to boot. (to boot, lol) Thanks for your time, everyone!
 
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catsinspace

catsinspace

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Thank you, I'm going with 2gb... I like sufficient/efficient, not overkill.
 
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