Who do you trust/which would you get? Zotac/Palit/Inno3D?

[keef247]

problem solved!

Cheers!

[kalniel]

They will nearly universally be using the cheapest components they can regardless of brand. I'm currently rocking a Palit 1060 that I've had nearly 6 years and still no problems or noise.

pre-overclocked.. depends if that buys you any better components - sometimes VRMs might be better I guess, so if going for a power hungry card take a look at the PCB teardowns and use that to help inform your choice. But on the flipside pre-overclocked might have been tweaked to run less efficiently/higher power limits, which means more heat = noise = fan wear etc. and ironically, sometimes lower speeds from boosting.

[keef247]

They will nearly universally be using the cheapest components they can regardless of brand. I'm currently rocking a Palit 1060 that I've had nearly 6 years and still no problems or noise.

pre-overclocked.. depends if that buys you any better components - sometimes VRMs might be better I guess, so if going for a power hungry card take a look at the PCB teardowns and use that to help inform your choice. But on the flipside pre-overclocked might have been tweaked to run less efficiently/higher power limits, which means more heat = noise = fan wear etc. and ironically, sometimes lower speeds from boosting.

Thanks mate! I was thinking non oc for similiar reasons as I've seen them clock just as high/higher than the oc models...
Just found out the Inno3D doesn't have OC options in the slider and the gimmick'y plastic fest hs and extra fan are nonsense and when removed actualled made cooling better on a 3070! so yeah it's between the zotac's and palit now... Also since posting this thread the Inno3D wen't up £18 and it's now £48 more than last week

[Saracen999]

Zotac/Palit/Inno3D?

Well ..... any, or rather, none.

I've heard decent things about Palit and not much at all about the others.

My perception is that they're the 'budget' end of the market and Asus, MSI and EVGA are more 'premium'. But .... my 'perception' is also of BMW as being 'premium' and Skoda as 'budget'. However, I'm fully aware that historically that might have been accurate but is probably several decades out of date. These days, my brain would overrule my 'perception' and Skoda would be high on my quality list and very high on my value-for-money list. i.e. smart buy.

The other 'perception' war I have going on internally is Waitrose v. Aldi/LIDL.

To be clear, my gut definitely (and literally) overrules my perception on that one and I use both. I used to use Waitrose primarily, but largely because it was just damned convenient, in walking distance and Aldi/LIDL were not. Then, aitrose closed my 'convenient branch. Bar-stweards. Now, Sainsbury and Co-op are convenient and Waitrose are not. Guess which ones I use?

Anyhoo ... my rather laboured point is that despite my perception of Asus/MSI etc v Palt et.al I would buy on facts rather than perception. One fact is I've had good experiences with Asus, MSI and EVGA and no experiences with Palit, etc. But that's self-reinforcing, because if I don't trust them because I haven't used them but don't use them because I have nothing to base trust on, then it's circular.

What would I buy? Well, what I'm about to buy (probably) will be, for fitst choice if I can get what I want, Founder's Edition. If I can't get (the right chip type, which I'm currently going round and round on) a suitable FE, then a relatively budget version of Asus, MSI or EVGA probably. Why relatively budget? Well, calling mid or higher end graphics cards 'busget' is something of a misnomer, but my real perception is that just about all OEM cards are about pre-overclocking (not bothered) or fancy gismos's like RGB (yawn) or fancy cooling (because of pre-overclocking). But at a considerable price premium.

Personally, price is not that high (within reason) on my priority list. I will pay what it costs to get what I want (note, "want", not need) in terms of chip version, memory etc but not for fancy bolt-on gismos, or even branding.

But .... historic experience of customer service, or lack thereof, is not just branding or gismos. Buying from what I'm familiar with is somewhat safer than risking what I'm not familiar with.

That's a precis of my thought process on who I will prioritise buying from for expensive products but there's one more wrinkle. A bad experience gets a company put on my personal blacklist. Gigabyte are currently on it, based in part on a mobo experience, but recently reinforced by their attitude over 'exploding' PSU's. There are currently no circumstances under which I'll buy Gigabyte products. If they had stocks of my chosen GPU and were the only ones that did, I'll go without. They're on my blacklist until I see concrete evidence they've changed their attitude to the point that my 'perception' changes. I'm not holding my breath.

TL/DR - For choice, I'd go FE not Zotac/Palit/Inno3D, but if I had to chose an OEM, for somewhat less than rational reasons, it'd be Asus, MSI or EVGA. For PSU's (not that you asked but it illustrates my mindset), I'm in the Seasonic (really good, but pricey) camp, and would want Gigabyte about as much as I want an STD.

[keef247]

I've just found out that the Zotac offers a 5 year warrant so despite these all being brands I'd never normally use/heard of I think I'll go with that considering name brands like Gigabyte offer 3 year warranty and I've heard of issues with them... I can't justify another £50-100 for a name brand if the warranty is less than half a cheap card...

[keef247]

Well ..... any, or rather, none.

I've heard decent things about Palit and not much at all about the others.

My perception is that they're the 'budget' end of the market and Asus, MSI and EVGA are more 'premium'. But .... my 'perception' is also of BMW as being 'premium' and Skoda as 'budget'. However, I'm fully aware that historically that might have been accurate but is probably several decades out of date. These days, my brain would overrule my 'perception' and Skoda would be high on my quality list and very high on my value-for-money list. i.e. smart buy.

The other 'perception' war I have going on internally is Waitrose v. Aldi/LIDL.

To be clear, my gut definitely (and literally) overrules my perception on that one and I use both. I used to use Waitrose primarily, but largely because it was just damned convenient, in walking distance and Aldi/LIDL were not. Then, aitrose closed my 'convenient branch. Bar-stweards. Now, Sainsbury and Co-op are convenient and Waitrose are not. Guess which ones I use?

Anyhoo ... my rather laboured point is that despite my perception of Asus/MSI etc v Palt et.al I would buy on facts rather than perception. One fact is I've had good experiences with Asus, MSI and EVGA and no experiences with Palit, etc. But that's self-reinforcing, because if I don't trust them because I haven't used them but don't use them because I have nothing to base trust on, then it's circular.

What would I buy? Well, what I'm about to buy (probably) will be, for fitst choice if I can get what I want, Founder's Edition. If I can't get (the right chip type, which I'm currently going round and round on) a suitable FE, then a relatively budget version of Asus, MSI or EVGA probably. Why relatively budget? Well, calling mid or higher end graphics cards 'busget' is something of a misnomer, but my real perception is that just about all OEM cards are about pre-overclocking (not bothered) or fancy gismos's like RGB (yawn) or fancy cooling (because of pre-overclocking). But at a considerable price premium.

Personally, price is not that high (within reason) on my priority list. I will pay what it costs to get what I want (note, "want", not need) in terms of chip version, memory etc but not for fancy bolt-on gismos, or even branding.

But .... historic experience of customer service, or lack thereof, is not just branding or gismos. Buying from what I'm familiar with is somewhat safer than risking what I'm not familiar with.

That's a precis of my thought process on who I will prioritise buying from for expensive products but there's one more wrinkle. A bad experience gets a company put on my personal blacklist. Gigabyte are currently on it, based in part on a mobo experience, but recently reinforced by their attitude over 'exploding' PSU's. There are currently no circumstances under which I'll buy Gigabyte products. If they had stocks of my chosen GPU and were the only ones that did, I'll go without. They're on my blacklist until I see concrete evidence they've changed their attitude to the point that my 'perception' changes. I'm not holding my breath.

TL/DR - For choice, I'd go FE not Zotac/Palit/Inno3D, but if I had to chose an OEM, for somewhat less than rational reasons, it'd be Asus, MSI or EVGA. For PSU's (not that you asked but it illustrates my mindset), I'm in the Seasonic (really good, but pricey) camp, and would want Gigabyte about as much as I want an STD.

Haha!
FWIW I've had 5 bmw e36's all bar 1 had issues but I didn't own that 1st one long enough and it had a hefty 3 grand in new parts 3 months before buying it/modifying it...

But I'd never go the models after them as they're known to be trash/badly-cheaply made/built to make you keep taking it back to be bent over my a main 'stealer'/get crap trade in when it breaks then they fix it and punt it on for loads...

The newer stuff would not have taken the abuse drifting etc my e36's did. However there was always something needing replacing all the time on them even when I babied them and I always would buy every arm/bush/uprate stuff to very expensive brands and still summit would fail - the engine however and gearbox and m3 lsd were bang on but again I uprated all the parts and even used eye wateringly expensive oem box fluid/race diff fluid and changed the oil every 3k haha.

However my honda's i've abused up until the last one and I more made pretty and did basic servicing and just bought expensive suspension and never a failure bar one I broke a part that can break in any gearbox and that was about it, where as the beamers I blew 2 engines before I went for a big six pot and yeah always breaking... I am a jdm guy at heart though but the beamers were less mileage that all the hondas so go figure...

My current is bulletproof but because I'm anal and love satefy/handling/fast road capability in the national twisties I've uprated/replaced everything with oem or better parts... so it's pretty much a brand new car now bar the paint which is coming lol. However it didn't 'need' anything when I got it and drove amazing bar one 16 year old sensor 9 months in that was so cheap even direct oem from honda who cares they're a servicable item...

I use tesco and lidl and totally agree some stuff is polished turds with either brands!

FE wise NVIDIA seem to simply not stock a 12gb model whenever I've seen stock regardless - VERY annoying so I'm screwed there! I swear it's cause they just want to bend you over for a Ti instead?

Yeah I used to hear such good things about Gigabyte but now I've seen stuff with graphics cards failing and psu's (as with Seasonic's SFF psu's going bang!) I'm steering well clear, the fact they have only a 3 year warranty on their cards when even Zotac does 5 seems very offputting for the nearly £100 extra you can pay for them... I'd like an Asus personally but not for £100 more and again 3 vs 5 year warranty...

[kalniel]

Only Saracen could make a point about walking distance to his local Waitrose in a thread about graphics cards

It is annoying about the live price increases though - probably just the result of us clicking on those links to see what the OP was talking about

There was never a FE 3080 12GB, so you'll be waiting quite a while if that was your plan Only the Ti has 12GB in the 3080 FE range.

[keef247]

Only Saracen could make a point about walking distance to his local Waitrose in a thread about graphics cards

It is annoying about the live price increases though - probably just the result of us clicking on those links to see what the OP was talking about

There was never a FE 3080 12GB, so you'll be waiting quite a while if that was your plan Only the Ti has 12GB in the 3080 FE range.

Haha!

Ah that makes sense! So I was right they're just being scumbags forcing you on a Ti!

99.9% sold on the non oc Zotac 12gb now I reckon! 5 year warranty vs 3 year on named brands that are £100+ more... Pointless and I have terrible luck so I'll go with warranty!

[Saracen999]

...

There was never a FE 3080 12GB, so you'll be waiting quite a while if that was your plan Only the Ti has 12GB in the 3080 FE range.

Indeed. I'm relatively new to modern GPUs as I only started looking at upgrading a few months ago. My initial stance was around 3060, maybe 3070 and that while 8GB was just about enough right now, it was starting to get to the point where games were filling that. In order to try to ensure this is my last GPU, I was thinking "more than" 8GB. That would include 10GB but my target was 12GB.

That said, there is some budgetary limit, though it's fairly high. And what I will go to has probably gone up. 24GB (or more) cards are neither necessary for me, nor is either the power draw or budget justified. So I was looking those very few cards at the lower end but with 12GB.

But then, I up'd the budget a bit from the £600-700 range to the £1000-ish mark, and now, prices have come down. Right now, I'm circling between a 3080 FE witth 10GB and a 3080Ti with 12GB, on the basis that a 3-80Ti seems to pretty much be a 3090 but with a more modest price, half the RAM at 12GB and lower power draw.

To be clear, if and when I finally decide on "go" I'm still inclined to 3080FE at £650 ... if I can get one. Right now, no stock. The 3080Ti is, however, in stock albeit at £1050.

So when I'm ready to basically buy the whole system, a lot depends on whether the 10TB 3080 is available to buy or not. If it is, I'll probably do that. It's probably still overkill for what I need, even in video encoding terms. But if it isn't available, will I stick the extra £400 into the budget and go 3080Ti? Probably, because in terms of a system at £2.5k - £3k, the £400 difference is not a deal breaker, but not being able to buy my current preference is.

[keef247]

yeah I totally agree. I lol went from a 3060-70 then was set on a 70ti then thought screw it it's only another £100ish for a 10gb 3080 then saw how much cheaper (for once) ocuk was for a 12gb vs scan who I always use and yeah no brainer... however the jump to a Ti is a bit too much now unless they drop at the time I come to buy haha

[MrJim]

Buildzoid's Youtube channel is worth a look, he has lots of 3080 GPU 'breakdown' videos where he discusses the quality of PCBs and components (focusing on VRMs predominantly). I think the Asus Strix cards seem to have the best reviews from him:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ActuallyHa...80%20breakdown

[keef247]

Nice one! Will have a look!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This thread is only upto 2018 but worth a read:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/th...look.18231329/

[Saracen999]

... however the jump to a Ti is a bit too much now unless they drop at the time I come to buy haha

Mmmm.

My plan (assuming I do the new PC at all) was to try to time it in the period right before the new stuff (new Ryzens, new RTX 4000 cards, etc) start shippng to pick up (hopefully) bargains in the older stuff.

An interesting viewpoint from JayzTwoCents I watched earlier, though, suggested there are rumours nVidia have halted production of 30xx cards early, exactly so as to not be left holding lots of them when 40xx ships, requiring discounting to clear. His conclusion (which is, of course, speculation based on rumour, leaks and industry experience) is if doing that, buy NOW. Or risk getting caught by 30xx being all gone, and 40xx coming out into the resulting pent-up demand from those that waited too long, only to face rumoured LARGE price hikes, especially at the high end.

It is a speculation I find utterly plausible. But right? I don't have a clue. It does make me wonder, though .... I should jump pretty quickly, or not jump at all.

[Saracen999]

yeah I totally agree. I lol went from a 3060-70 then was set on a 70ti then thought screw it it's only another £100ish for a 10gb 3080 then saw how much cheaper (for once) ocuk was for a 12gb vs scan who I always use and yeah no brainer... however the jump to a Ti is a bit too much now unless they drop at the time I come to buy haha

The question of whether Ti is worth it or not is one that confuses me. From what I can make out, usually not. BUT .... from what I can see, the 3080Ti is actually more of a 3090 Lite than a 3080 with extra bits. If I understood it correctly, it uses the 3090 chip not the 3080, but effectively has just half the (very expensive) graphics RAM. Whether it's "worth it" or not would then seem to depend entirely on what will be done with it. Nothing I do is likely to get much, if any, benefit from 24GB rather than 12GB though there certainly are use cases that will. In gaming, though, the 3080Ti seems to be VERY close in performance to the 3090, and in some cases, actually exceeded it.

But at about £400 more than the 3080.

So my takeaway from that is that for my usage, I get virtually everything I would get from a 3090 but for a lot less.

But, of course, a 3080 is stilll a heck of a lot of grunt for my needs, at (supply permitting) a lot lower price than te 3080Ti.

Do I need a 3080Ti/ Nope, but truthfully, I don't really need a 3080 either. Do I want one? I'll plead the 5th on that. And my accounting brain says "£400 difference, but I'll get 5 years out of it (or more), which is £80/year, or £1.50-ish a week. Is it worth £1.50 a week to indulge myself?"

It's amazing what we can rationalise ourselves into if we want to, innit?

Anyway, my point is to be careful when selecting between Ti and non-Ti because the differences aren't always what you might think. A lot of the numbering seems to be as much about market positioning and marketing, as about performance. Maybe more than "as much" about that.

[kalniel]

Well the 3090 TI, 3090, 3080 TI, 3080 12GB and the 3080 all use the GA102 chip, with varying degrees of cutting down. Going narrower may mean they can run at higher clock speeds of course, and later productions sometimes have better quality silicon which allows higher speeds too.