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Having to buy a crappy brand?

fr0sty

fr0sty

fr0sty

Associate
Joined
28 Nov 2007
Posts
145
I'm looking at getting a gtx 1080 soon. The price of these is absurd but I plan of getting a vr headset somewhere down the line a bit.

I've ever only had Asus or MSI graphics cards apart from one EVGA which died on me while all the rest kept chugging on. I was up in the air about EVGA but decided to take the plunge anyway.

Now I'm faced with this problem again where there are cheaper cards than Asus and msi but I'm not sure about them. Asus and gigabyte start at around £650.

Are Palit reliable? I don't care so much about pre overclocked or any of that I just want something that keeps working.

Out of all the crappier brands who would be the most reliable and which is the best with warranties?

Or is there any point in just waiting it out, will these drop in price any time soon? I'm thinking not as ati has nothing to compete with them. It'd be great if they all were sub 600 and you could pick and choose.

Cheers guys!!

PS the price difference between the Palit and the stock MSI is £70. The Palit has a 2 yr warranty and the MSI is 3 years. Maybe better to pay over £600 just :((
 
I've often gone with cheaper brands. Unless somebody else is offering better warranty at a fair price.

Buying from a decent retailer makes warranty irrelevant in the short term.
If it dies after 2-3 years it's an excuse to upgrade.
 
I got a Point of View GTX 470 when they launched, reference design as well.

That card is still running, I recently built a pc from old part for a friend that's going to college and the 470 is still kicking, and still managing to play games.

Cheaper brands doesn't imply they use cheaper components or have worse warranties.

Asus is expensive and has the worst RMA service I've ever encountered or read about.

Palit has been around a good while, and will do you fine. You can always RMA with OcUK if you have issues.
 
robfosters said:
I think the word 'crappier' is somewhat harsh.

Lesser known is more apt.
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And even "lesser known" is only really applicable to one territory. A few years ago at least, Palit were the biggest graphics card manufacturer around, so they must be popular in other parts of the world.

http://www.eteknix.com/asus-knocked-off-top-graphics-card-vendor-pedestal-by-palit-and-pc-partner/

The "major" graphics cards brands like Asus and MSI only have the reputation they do because they spend so much money on marketing in the US and UK, whereas the "lesser" brands don't (presumably because they do the majority of their business in Asia).
 
Assuming the cards are like for like (ie, reference), you're essentially paying £70 extra for a 1 year extra insurance policy (see it as an extended warranty). Insurance is always a game only the house wins on balance, unless you're one of the unlucky few.

IMO, go with the cheaper card. In say 2.5 years it'll be a POS anyway so time to upgrade and that £70 you saved will help buy the new card.
 
Yeah don't forget if its the same PCB (reference aka founders) then its only the cooler that is different... Some of the cheaper ones have seen really good performances on out the box clocks so this time I don't think its a terrible thing.

Its worth trawling through the 1080 launch threads close to launch date and you will find a lot of positive things said about many of them.
 
The two Palit cards I've ever owned have worked perfectly fine. My current Palit gtx1080 gamerock premium card probably has the best performing cooler I've ever owned. My only gripe is the design and styling looks horrid.

With the ridiculous pricing we are seeing these days I doubt I will ever buy a 'premium' brand card again.
 
PC Partner (Zotac and Sapphire) also make the current Manli 1060 cards, and when I had an 8600GT many moons ago the "OcUK Value" brand was XpertVision, which was part of Palit.

All of the "unknowns" are part of the big 4.
 
robfosters said:
I think the word 'crappier' is somewhat harsh.
Click to expand...

I'd agree. They still make great cards, where they really fall behind is their warranties and customer services, but they give you a nice saving out of it.

Having looked at some 1080's I'd go for the MSI Armor card. Decent cooler, not too steep a price (for a 1080 :p) and a good brand.

E: I'm basically saying £30 for an extra year's warranty is worth it, IMO.
 
Neither MSI nor ASUS are 'premium' except in name - MSI have a spotty history with many poor cards where they avoid doing anything to help their customers while ASUS overcharge for a brand name that is mostly associated with nonexistent CS/support.
 
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Harsh David, harsh.

I have had Gigabyte and MSI gfx in the past and had super customer service via OC with both.

It is a piece of electronics, look after it - handling carefully and occasional blast of air to remove the dust and it will do fine.

The Palit GTX's are going for £560 or £570 with a 2 year warranty. Keep the box in mint condition, some one will want it for an SLI set up in 2 years time and you can recoup.

What are you waiting for.
 
OK GUYS... Are you all saying that the graphics cards have the same chips etc on them? Do they all have the same manufacturer of memory chips? If thats the case I would maybe go with a Palit one.

I know a thread like this will divide opinion as everyone has different experiences.

I always buy Asus motherboards as their BIOS always seems to be good and easy to use. I have had Gigabyte before but thought their BIOS was very confusing. Ive never had any problems with Asus motherboards.

Im using a mini ITX MSI motherboard on this pc im on now and its grand and was only £37 lol.

I do have an MSI laptop too and id never get one again cos its total rubbish. Each person likes their own things :) I just want a £600 piece of hardware to last a while.
 
I think you may be able to extend EVGA cards warranty, have a research.

Zotac are 5 years.

Gigabyte has a great service IMO. 3 years.

Remember you are buying from a reputable bunch of fellas and posting to 130,000 potential PC Pros (ok perhaps 129,999 I am a noob) and if anything goes wrong they are happy to help. It is their reputation.

It is easy to be too willing to give 'all your money to Intel' if you know what you mean for some perceived better item when there is effectively no difference.

Personally I am pondering Palit and Gigabyte.
 
David Bisset said:
Neither MSI nor ASUS are 'premium' except in name - MSI have a spotty history with many poor cards where they avoid doing anything to help their customers while ASUS overcharge for a brand name that is mostly associated with nonexistent CS/support.
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I'd agree with Asus's reputation, but MSI have been above average (not premium) for me. My personal rankings of manufacturers goes EVGA, Gigabyte, then MSI. I'll only consider others if they're significantly cheaper.

fr0sty said:
OK GUYS... Are you all saying that the graphics cards have the same chips etc on them? Do they all have the same manufacturer of memory chips? If thats the case I would maybe go with a Palit one.
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Yes, every single 1080 chip is manufactured to the same standard and comes from the same source, regardless of the board manufacturer. I believe the memory chips are also the same, but I'm only 80% sure about that.

The difference in the manufacturers (palit, EVGA etc.) is that they can design different PCBs, coolers, and factory overclocks. This differentiates the cards so you can objectively say that one manufacturer has the quietest card, one has the coolest card, one has the highest factory overclock etc.

Then the subjective differences are the quality of the customer services and things like that.

Probably more information than you were looking for, but I hope that helped :)

fr0sty said:
I do have an MSI laptop too and id never get one again cos its total rubbish. Each person likes their own things :) I just want a £600 piece of hardware to last a while.
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On that note, I've never been impressed by MSI laptops, but their motherboards and graphics cards are something very different, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to say that they have some of the best quality hardware on the market.
 
jpod said:
I think you may be able to extend EVGA cards warranty, have a research.

Zotac are 5 years.

Gigabyte has a great service IMO. 3 years.

Personally I am pondering Palit and Gigabyte.
Click to expand...

You can extend EVGA warranties, but it's rather pricey.

In your position, I'd go for the Zotac card (assuming you;re ruling out MSI), but only because I can't justify the price delta between the Palit and the EVGA/Gigabyte cards.

jpod said:
Remember you are buying from a reputable bunch of fellas and posting to 130,000 potential PC Pros (ok perhaps 129,999 I am a noob) and if anything goes wrong they are happy to help. It is their reputation.
Click to expand...

As reputable as they are, they don't have a lot of power on RMA turnaround times before 28 working days have passed - that's still up to the manufacturers. And once you're out of warranty, they can't help much there either.
 
Aretak said:
The "major" graphics cards brands like Asus and MSI only have the reputation they do because they spend so much money on marketing in the US and UK, whereas the "lesser" brands don't (presumably because they do the majority of their business in Asia).
Click to expand...

MSI make quality and pretty coolers for their cards, at least the Twin Frozr design is. Gigabyte's Windforce cards are a bit... basic. EVGA's is functionally fine though a bit ugly in my experience (and opinion.)
 
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