Different Brands for the 8800gts

[ChaoticLusts]

Hey all

I was looking at an upgrade soon and was going to put an 8800gts in my system unfortunatly I've found that there's about a dozen brands most of which I've never heard of and hte few I have are far more expensive than the others

basically I'm asking if anyone knows what the difference is and wether it's worth the extra money cause I know in the states it's EVGA or BFG but I think the value is a little different over here

I've tried checking the various companies websites and most of the don't have any info on warrenties etc..which is kind of worrying but seems to be the norm

ok i'll explain the costs
the cheapest a BFG8800gts goes for is 799AUS (or 613US) and the evga goes for 820aus(629US)..this is quite a bit above most of the other brands that go for 700aus(537US) one for a bit less than that too

unfortunatly like i said I've never heard of these brands and was hoping I could get some opinions from people that know about them before sinking that much money on one, if they're crap I'll just have to fork over the extra

they are Sparkle, Palit, Gainward, Albatron, Point of View, Inno3D and MSI

I'm sorry this is such a long post but if any of you have heard of these companies and what they're like with graphics cards any opinoins or warnings would be great thank you ^_^

 

[ChaoticLusts]

Ahh cool, just had a look at their website and saw they have a 3 year warrenty beats the hell out of some others that had either 1 or didn't state what on the site, looks like i'll be going with msi which is about $715 so thats a hell of a lot better than 800 ^_^

thanx tons

 

[prozac26]

I would go for the cheapest at this point.

Right now, all cards are same. Factory overclocked cards aren't out yet, so performance will be same.

 

[enforcerfx]

Are the Waterblock 8800GTX's the same to?

 

[arjunatgv]

Thare wont be any factory overclocked Geforce 8800 cards because nvidia said not to overclock the cards

 

[pauldh]

They don't want a repeat of the 7900's *poof what's that smell* :lol:

 

[enforcerfx]

Chicken?

 

[ChaoticLusts]

lol

well the only difference that I was really wondering about was warrenties and exactly what those warrenties cover (like some places covering OC'ing others considering it void or some having 1 year warrenties as oppose to 3 years) oh and how much each company attempts to weasal out of them given half a chance

 

[netspiderz-net]

Just pick a good brand.
I had XFX and eVGA and I never had any problems.

 

[danny9894]

BFG is a little more expensive but imo it is worth the extra money.

 

[RTsa]

BFG is a little more expensive but imo it is worth the extra money.

Question is, what do you get with that extra money?

 

[Talon]

As above poster stated most of the warranties are the same. EVGA has a step-up program which others don't have. If within 90 days a new card comes out or you want a GTX instead of GTS you can pay the difference and swap cards with the company.

Other than that the cards designs are the same and any namebrand you've heard of likely will be nice and inline with other cards.

The one thing I wonder about is that the EVGA GTX is the only card thus far using its own cooler design. Its reported to lessen temps by at least 5C. I don't know if the GTS uses a unique cooler as well or if its the stock cooler. Can anyone shed light on the GTS cooler from EVGA?

 

[VBDude]

Are the Waterblock 8800GTX's the same to?

The cards are, but the cooling method is obviously different, and the price increase is substantial, placing them at $800 where they're still cheap! 8O

The one thing I wonder about is that the EVGA GTX is the only card thus far using its own cooler design. Its reported to lessen temps by at least 5C. I don't know if the GTS uses a unique cooler as well or if its the stock cooler. Can anyone shed light on the GTS cooler from EVGA?

As far as I know, the launch GTS uses the same cooler as the launch GTX for EVGA cards. But soon EVGA will release both flavors with ACS3 to improve cooling even further. Indeed, Anandtech already had a GTX equipped with ACS3 when they did their brand comparison. The new coolers apparently offers EVGA cards quite a bit more OC potential.

 

[Guest]

I wonder if it's the cooler that helps the higher OC.

Seing that Sparkle with really good cooling being under performing in the OC department, any of you guys think it's just luck of the draw when it comes to OC potential?

Not to say the ACS3 ain't nice, a better option IMO, just trying to figure if the OC is directly related to the cooling.

 

[VBDude]

Well, any number of factors could have limited the Sparkle's OC. Poor memory, bad hardware production, bad luck, etc. But the thing to keep in mind here is that Sparkle hasn't yet released any G80 cards. So it could be a pre-production results too that may change after release.

I don't know, really. Just blowing smoke... :?

BTW, who is Sparkle anyway? I've never heard of them and I'm feeling too lazy to look them up.

 

[Zeal]

if ur looking at just warranties doesn't BFG have a lifetime warranty? making it the best option?

 

[Guest]

Sparkle is new in the US I think they've been around for a while though, saw it mentionned in a inquierer article on that card with pelletier element , I know the inq /shame.

@Zeal, I hate you, so does canada in general, eVga has lifetime too, go learn politics/economics/computer hardware before you make another post you nazi.

There I said it

 

[ChaoticLusts]

The real problem with sparkle and some of the others (not sure which) is the fact that they have a 1 year warrenty....thats really way too short, 3 years is ok I mean in 3 years time the card will be worth stuff all anyway but when I buy my 8800 I'm not planning on replacing it in a year unless I suddenly get a whole lot richer (my geforce 256 lasted a bit over 3 years and my 9600xt has lasted about the same)

 

[Guest]

Yup I agree, personally anything over 3years Is fine and I think most people should e happy with 5 years, after that the card is not worth that much anyway. Still something to look at closely.

Also if you plan on putting after market cooling on the card, or do any modding, then the warranty become an non-issue...