GPUs and aftermarket manufacturers

[freshbuilder]

The time for me to build my very first build is really coming close. The biggest problem i have is with my graphics card, had a lot of choices. But it boils down to two cards, either a 6950 or 560. I haven't chosen yet but I just wanna get as much feedback as I can from the readers here at Toms about the following aftermarket manufacturers:
Sapphire
EVGA
Gainward
Power Color
Sapphire
HIS
MSI
XFX
Palit
ASUS

Aside from performance I want to know about customer support and reliability, thanks a bunch to those who will contribute to this

 

[DM186]

There are so many answers you are going to get and they all have a good point. The HD 6950 or the GTX 560 Ti are both good cards and are about the same. It boils down to what you like my self I like Nvidia cards they have a rep.

But there are a lot of people who swear by the HD 6950. Evga has a good customer base on there stuff. I have a link on the 6950 vs 560 ti. I will come back and post it for you.
Here it is

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1533/

 

[freshbuilder]

Wattabout the aftermarket manufacturers? Some sell them cheaper than the others and I'm wondering if price reflects build quality?

 

[DM186]

Wattabout the aftermarket manufacturers? Some sell them cheaper than the others and I'm wondering if price reflects build quality?

Not all the time. Pretty much of all the brands are good but XFX, EVGA are some brands with good customer base support. Price doesn't really reflect how good they are unless they have extra little stuff like a 448 core on the 560ti or a 2gb of Vram.

Also you could get an XFX 560 ti on sale and there price would be low. Another way to look at it is custmoer base. Some brand names are good but there customer support sucks. I hope this is a little help and good luck to you.

 

[freshbuilder]

I know vram but I have no idea what you mean by 448 core. BTW does having a higher clock rate equate to a better GPU?

 

[DM186]

yes when the clock rate is higher than normal it would indacate Over clocking. Sorry about the 448 core it just makes that one card the beast but only in the 560 ti.

 

[benski]

All cards are aftermarket these days, the main difference between the manufacturers is warranty length, price, and cooler design. They all use GPU's from the same factory so there isn't much difference between any brand unless it includes a premium cooler and factory overclock. There really aren't any bad manufacturers, but you often get what you pay for in terms of cooling and overclocking ability.

 

[freshbuilder]

Best answer selected by Freshbuilder.