What nVidia gfx brands?

[RufusKing]

Just looking around at graphics cards, I know which ATI card brands are good, but no idea when it comes to nVidia cards... What brands are good, andwhat should be avoided like the plague?

[StormPC]

eVGA is pretty good. I also like the Asus cards and have had very good luck with BFG.

[iMc]

Leadtek are also pretty good, their 6600/6800 range has been overclocking well.

[RufusKing]

what are XFX like?

[StormPC]

I do like the Leadtek also! Not sure about the XFX. Never used them but the boxes look cool.

[Lord Kordir]

Gainward Golden Sample series, expensive but extremely good

[0iD]

I've used recently XFX, Gainward & PNY & are, imo, all top quality

[Thorsson]

I've had several Leadtek cards and they've always been top notch - one of the few to make their own cooling and yet they don't charge over the odds for it. Not seen BFG over here unfortunately.

[speedy_s]

Leadtek ARE THE BEST. They have the most efficient and quietest of cooling sollution. From exp own a 6800GT

[ed^chigliak]

I notice the XFX have dual DVI whereas most have 1 DSUB + 1 DVI if you plan to go dual TFT. Galaxy brand has the arctic cooler fitted as standard and I believe it is overclocked. BFG OC are also overclocked but I believe they are without bundled games. For Dabs Value and Evesham (lowestonweb) check the manufacturers codes they are usually good brands. With most cards based on reference designs having the same performance the branding doesn't really add any value IMO.

It's a different game entirely if you are wanting to softmod a graphics card. The make, model and batch the card comes from can make a big difference to your chance of success.

[RufusKing]

It's a different game entirely if you are wanting to softmod a graphics card. The make, model and batch the card comes from can make a big difference to your chance of success.

I need to shave the card as silent as possible and I was looking at a zalman heatsink for it, is there going to be any particular brand thats going to be easier to play about with in that sense...

while i'm here, a quick question about SLI. I was considering getting two 128mb 6800 GT cards to link up with SLI at some point, should I just get a 256mb version and be done or would the two have benifits... and more importantly would there be enough space between the cards to put a zalman heatsink on both? The motherboard I was looking at is an asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=...eluxe&langs=01

[Agent]

Gainward are having a hell of a lot of problems lately. Their cards used to be some of the best, now they seem to be nothing but trouble.

[TiG]

Whats the list of manufacturers using reference design Vs Their own design now?.

I used to know this in terms for 5800 days but its changed a bit, Nvidia presents the company with the design and recommended components, (even builds the cards for them with the right colours etc if i understand)

As thats the only thing that matters pretty much, a nvidia reference will do X speed, no matter who you go for be it XFX, BFG, Leadtek etc. The only people i'm aware are actually producing custom cards are Gainward.

But as i say, this was based on 5800 series and not the 6800 series.

I'd be happy to hear anything to correct my understanding tho
TiG

[muddyfox470]

some people dont like gainward

but i have had absolutely no probs, and their expert-tool is easy to use and very helpful!
my last one overclocked very well, (2.2ns memory instead of 2.8ns, and after fitting arctic NV5 ive clocked the core to 375 (it could go higher but i want stability))

and if you want to keep the card at stock, gainward give a 3 year warranty with their cards which i think is pretty good!

its easy to check out the gainward forums and see what is happening there, some people have found that some heatsinks can be poorly attached, but mine was damn hard to take off!

[ed^chigliak]

The cards are not cheap and changing the cooler would invalidate the warranty so it's a risk. Asus and Zalman would need to advise you as to whether it would all work together without conflict. If the zalman is a passive heat pipe arrangement and the two cards are in close proximity you've gotta wonder if they will overheat. I'd be inclined to go for the cheapest pair of GT's and go water cooled to solve the heat/noise problems. BFG OC's are £235 each from PCW component centre. If the stock cooler doesn't use tamper evident fixings I presume you could stick it back on again for warranty purposes.

[RufusKing]

With the amount of money I am spending on cooling it would be cheaper just to water cool everything. Never had any experience with water cooling myself though so I dont knwo how reliable it is, but the system I am building will be moved around a hell of a lot, its going to be a rackmount machine in a flight case used for mobile recordings on a weekly/daily basis.... would water cooling really be a good idea?