rdkeeney :
Just another thought...am I really gaining or losing much between brands. Such as buying the same card from EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, ect
I personally prefer the ASUS(being using theirs mobos&GPUs since 2002),but I think that every other well known brand has its own loyal fan base.Its hard to get wrong at least with the mid-tiers graphics card,the differences will be minimal(noise/heat/OCing).
P.S. its hard to justify going over 200$ for GPUs,especially if you game at 1080p.