Should I Buy XFX?

[Landstander]

I've been considering an R6 260x, R6 265 or R7 270.
I've noticed that XFX has had some pretty good prices coupled with rebates making for some really great deals. At the moment, the R7 270 Double D can be had for $160 after rebate.

Here's the problem: I've noticed what is probably a complete lack of knowledge of their own products at XFX.

Their website specs the R6 265 as having 1280 Stream Processors, which if true means it is just a R7 270 stamped as a R6 265 (all other specs are identical). I suppose it's possible, but it seems pretty unlikely.

I also noticed that they claim the R7 270 contains AMD's TrueAudio. That's flat out wrong unless they are using a Hawaii core that's half disabled (or using 2 Bonaire cores).

To make matters worse, recent articles have suggested that XFX (among a couple other companies) may not survive quarter 2 this year for several reasons.

So my question of the moment: Is XFX good, reliable and safe to buy or should I ignore the lure of really deep discounts?

 

[Mouldread]

Hey,

as I mentioned it today in another post - from all brands GPUs I've had through the years the only one to die on me was an XFX. It could be a coincidence but I've read a few people complain of this particular brand.

If the price is attractive you could still buy the card but if the retailer is the one to deal with guaranty/warranty/problems. This way even if the XFX bankrupts or whatever you can still be sure that in case of a problem with the card the retailer would be the one to replace/repair it so you don't have to deal directly with XFX. Also sometimes when retailers have ran out of stock of a particular brand they would replace it with another and you might end up getting a more expensive model/brand in case something goes wrong.

 

[cball1311]

Well, I don't know much about XFX as far as GPUs because I have personally never owned one but I can tell you that XFX is an OEM partner of SeaSonic which is one of the most reliable PSU manufacturers out there. I have never had any problem with XFX PSU's but GPU's could be a different story.

Here is a little write-up about XFX (first 2 paragraphs) from HardOCP.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/04/20/xfx_black_edition_750w_power_supply_review/#.U2mAq6XC0t0

 

[hunter315]

cball, you have things backwards there. Seasonic is a PSU supplier for XFX, they aren't really partners persay, XFX just gets seasonic to put their platform into a different box with different stickers. Don't imply quality across product lines from a single product line, its just drawing bad conclusions from relationships, like saying i have a car with bad fuel economy, so it must be a super car.

XFX cards are generally basic cards, standard reference boards, not many with exotic coolers like Sapphire, EVGA, and MSI tend to offer. I had an XFX 4850 that treated me well, i moved up to a sapphire 7850 with a nicer cooler which is notably quieter. XFX doesn't really have much to set it apart from the reference cards aside from their transferable lifetime warranty.

Where had you seen stuff that said XFX wouldn't make it through Q2? A quick googling has turned up nothing?

 

[Landstander]

One of the articles I've seen on Q2: http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/gpu_vendors_look_to_10_20_sequential_drops_in_2q14.html

Thanks for the info guys. I guess the next best price out there right now looks like a MSI or Gigabyte cards. I might go that way then.

One-off card failures aren't really definitive, but I'm willing to listen to the warnings. The only unreliable card I ever had was from EVGA. Go figure.

 

[smeezekitty]

I am using an XFX 6670 but mainly because of limited case space. Their higher end cards tend to have some issues like VRM overheating. Usually its more prevalent in the R9-280 and higher

 

[cball1311]

cball, you have things backwards there. Seasonic is a PSU supplier for XFX, they aren't really partners persay, XFX just gets seasonic to put their platform into a different box with different stickers. Don't imply quality across product lines from a single product line, its just drawing bad conclusions from relationships, like saying i have a car with bad fuel economy, so it must be a super car.

XFX cards are generally basic cards, standard reference boards, not many with exotic coolers like Sapphire, EVGA, and MSI tend to offer. I had an XFX 4850 that treated me well, i moved up to a sapphire 7850 with a nicer cooler which is notably quieter. XFX doesn't really have much to set it apart from the reference cards aside from their transferable lifetime warranty.

Where had you seen stuff that said XFX wouldn't make it through Q2? A quick googling has turned up nothing?

Just referencing from this article about being an OEM partner (April 2013).
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2013/04/26/best-power-supply-psu-720-750w/9

 

[renz496]

i used to hear great thing about XFX. like their double lifetime warranty stuff and great customer support. i think i can understand why things like this could happen to XFX. right now they only selling AMD gpu. and if you look and the market share it is obvious more people buying more nvidia gpu than AMD's. and the fact they have to compete with other board partner to sell gpu making it harder for them. i think that is also the reason why they start selling other stuff like PSU because i think they know selling gpu alone will not be able to sustain the company. not after they stop making Nvidia gpu.

 

[Landstander]

From my research, I can't help feeling even with the buying preference shifted towards Nvidia, that it's largely because of crypto-currancy mining (which has been better on Nvidia chips), and not game performance or bang for buck.

Besides, with current gen game consoles being AMD based, it isn't a stretch to think that a lot of PC games are just going to perform better on AMD.

 

[renz496]

From my research, I can't help feeling even with the buying preference shifted towards Nvidia, that it's largely because of crypto-currancy mining (which has been better on Nvidia chips), and not game performance or bang for buck.

AMD has always been performance for buck company but they never topple nvidia in terms of market share. during 5k and 6k series AMD have around 40%+ market share on consumer discrete gpu. at one point they have the market share around 51/49 split between the two. the market share drop further during 7k series which means AMD has been losing more market share even before their price got inflated by coin mining craze.

Besides, with current gen game consoles being AMD based, it isn't a stretch to think that a lot of PC games are just going to perform better on AMD.

that is just simple assumption. the truth is far more complicated than that.