Which is better card manufacturer for nVidia cards?

[lcp2000]

Hi all, my setup is this:

Asus P6T OC/PALM Mobo
Core i7 940 2.93Ghz
OCZ Reaper 3GB DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000)
Tagan 900W PSU
500GB Seagate HDD SATA II
1500GB Seagate HDD SATA II
* ATI Radeon X800XL Video Card *

(Note: Games I will be playing include: FarCry2, GTA4, Crysis, COD4, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Empire: Total War, and more...)

Obviously, my video card is the weakest link here and it has served me well. I will be upgrading to an nVidia card this time around and am interested in the BFG brand of cards in the GTX 280 or 285 GPUs. My main concern is for the future. I would like to be able to have new card for at least 2 years before I need to upgrade and then perhaps just run in SLI with a second card.

My choices are these but I'm open to suggestions and other brands, please tell why you would go differently. I will be running at a resolution of 1440 x 900 until I upgrade my monitor in next few weeks to a 22" :

1) BFG Tech BFGEGTX2851024OCXE GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Core clock: 702MHz (vs. 648MHz standard)
Stream Processors: 240 processing cores
Memory Clock: 2664MHz (vs. 2484MHz standard)

2) BFG Tech BFGEGTX2801024OCXE GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Core clock: 665MHz (vs. 602MHz standard)
Stream Processors: 240 processing cores
Memory Clock: 2400MHz (vs. 2214MHz standard)


Thanks allot for any input...

Bill

 

[RazberyBandit]

Though I have personally seen more BFG cards fail than those of other manufacturers, they replace them with little to no questions asked. I think either would be a fine choice. I wouldn't spend extra money on factory overclocked models, though. You can self-overclock stock models easily with the supplied software, and without voiding the manufacturer's warranty.

As with any manufacturer, always make sure to register your card(s) as soon as possible. All major manufacturers require you to do so within 30-days of purchase to qualify for the full warranty period. BFG, XFX, PNY, and eVGA are the only manufacturers I believe still offer lifetime warranties (eVGA on new AR suffixed cards, only. TR = 1-year).

This particular GTX 285 XFX card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150334 comes with 2 free games: CoD5: WaW and FarCry 2 presently. $100 worth of free software is a really nice bonus, if you asked me. You have FC2 already, though, so it might not impress you too much.

 

[gkay09]

BFG is a good brand...But the general preference goes like this...

EVGA, XFX > BFG, ASUS, GIG > Zotac, ...

+1 for the XFX suggestion above...

 

[lcp2000]

Great, thanks guys. So, should I be looking to get one with a base core clock and oc myself? I see xfx black ed. is oc'd at 690Mhz. What would be the benefit, if any, of getting a manufacturer oc'd card?

EVGA has a $50 difference between their base core and their 702Mhz card.

Oh, and no, I dont have FC2 yet so xfx card seems like great buy with the games...

 

[RazberyBandit]

Thanks for the props, gkay

lcp2000, I would look into saving a few bucks with the "vanilla" (read as stock) versions of the card. Luckily, in the GTX 280/285 eVGA cards, you won't run into the AR vs TR suffix issue I mentioned earlier. Though, I still think the XFX card I linked earlier would be a greater value. I also didn't mention that XFX also offers a Double Lifetime Warranty, meaning you can sell or pass-on the card to a 2nd person who, upon re-registering the card, would still be eligible for lifetime repair/replacement warranty.

 

[lcp2000]

Thanks so much. XFX is looking like the card to go with at the moment then. I will look at the numbers again and decide. Thanks again for the info...