The Big Graphical Debate?

[Jedziah]

Hi chaps,

So I have spent countless hours with friends trawling the reviews of each new card range which comes out. I have never really been a fan boy of ATI or Nvidia, preferring to jump ship based on how well the current generation of cards is performing.

Of recent, the cards are feeling very much in parallel. Many 'vs' reviews seem to come down to whether you are willing to drop the ability to have such support as Physx for the sake of doing so.

In recent years I have been better served with some of the Nvidia cards I have had, most notably the Gainward 1Gb 8800GT I currently have.

Aside from the key differences between Nvidia and ATI, I am more interested in the differences of brand each Hexus member has experienced. I am sure that even the most extravagant user on here has great trouble in the ability to test each and every card a brand releases. There are likely to be ugly ducklings and abnormalities from any brand but what I am looking for is some comprehensive and subjective review of each brand you guys have tried?

I was going to start with some of my graphics card history as an example and see if we can build some kind of polar scale of just what we are paying for if we for example buy an EVGA card over a Palit.


So here is what I have as an example:

Gainward Bliss 1Gb 8800GT Golden Sample

- Easily the best card I have owned in a long long time. The card has Gainward's own cooling in place of the stock 8800 cooling and it makes a clear difference of 5-6 degrees under load on a well ventilated system such as the one I am using. Of all the cards I have owned, this one has yet to present me with any problems after a year and a half of solid use.

XFX 7900GS

- Started as a very good card. Not quite up to the big frame rates of the 7950 range or the GT, yet much much cooler than the big brothers. The card itself looked quite nice (albeit I could never see the thing without a windowed case) and the general performance over its 2 year life was rarely met with any problems. I will say that it begun to develop some problems which resulted in multiple CTD's and the occasional blue screen in the final 2 months after the initial 2 years and soon became unusable. Whilst the price for XFX tends to be slightly more, I have had better experiences with Gainward products.

EVGA GTX 275 1792mb

- Was used in my friend's rig which I recently built. The card used the stock 275 casing and cooling system and hence looks like any other one you would expect to pick up on the market. The card is pretty huge in length, making the SATA ports extremely difficult to reach after the install was complete (Asus P6T Deluxe Mobo). So far, she has had no complaints regarding its performance. Installation was a little deviant however, requiring the use of a VGA cable for it to be correctly detected. Whether it is worth the substantial price difference over other brands, I am hoping this thread will tell.


As with anything, numbers and benchmarks will tell us what a card is capable of. What they can't tell us is how they stand up to the test of time and just how are extra x pounds ensures we get a better graphical weapon by trusting another brand.

Regards

Jed

[Pob255]

performance wise it's down to core and clock speeds, there's not a great deal of difference in makes execpt for pcb layout, cooling and the biggy of warranty and after sale service.
EVGA probably have the single best warranty out there, you can swap the cooler, overclock it whatever.
As long as you return the card to it's stock settings and replace the cooler it came with, and if it still has issues then they execpt it for rma as long as there is no physical damage.