Hey I was wondering what everyone prefers for manufacturer preference. What I mean isn't just ATI! or Nvidia! I mean BFG, XFX, EVGA, etc.

I myself float within the realms of BFG, XFX and EVGA. But I've seen tons of other brands, in particular Powercolor. I've always been kind of reserved from buying a Powercolor just because I'll usually noticed bfg/xfx/evga will be within $10 of each other. But the Powercolor will often be $40-50 cheaper. It's lead me to think their crappier cards. I was wondering if anyone else thought the same, or would lead me to believe otherwise. I know BFG/EVGA have their step up program, but I never take advantage of it.

Any thought? (this all sprang up due to a Powercolor 5770 I saw for $140 to pair with my XFX 5770 for CF ).

Thanks!

Due to my rampant loyalty to buying from MB, I've got a permanent hankering for Sapphire cards!

BFG/XFX/EVGA have "lifetime" warranties, the others are less, between 1 and 3 years which is often why they're cheaper.

EVGA for Nvidia, Sapphire for Ati these have been my preferences in the past, although I'm liking the fact Asus doesn't limit overclocking like pretty well all the other manufacturers do.

Sometimes the cheaper cards will have a version of the GPU which is slower, either due to clock speed or how many bits it processes per cycle (ie. 124 vs. 64 bits... old example but it's one I remember in particular seeing in the past), or by pairing the GPU with slower speed memory.

I'll check these specs to make sure one isn't much worse than the other but after that I just buy what's cheapest, and to be honest with my record, I've had more luck with the weird brand names I haven't heard of than the big ones.

My current card is a Paliet (spelling?) which I had never heard of before I bought it, and it actually had higher GPU/Memory clock speeds than similar cards from other brands, and cost a decent amount less and I haven't had a single problem with it yet.

I've run a Powercolor card before, I had no issues, as of late i've been on the Sapphire band wagon.

Find an Asus card thats Volt modded with a dual slot cooler and you will have a winner.

The last ATI cards I owned were aquired by Rob and came directly from ATI in a plain cardboard box.

On the Nvidia side, EVGA is the clear winner with both product and software tweaking tools. XFX comes in a close second due to awesome over clocking potential because they bin chips and have numerous bios updates.

currently have an XFX 5770. I can't seem to overclock it though with the Catalyst Centre cause it goes haywire. I adjust my clock speeds, and hit apply and the clock speeds change completely to something I hadn't even selected. My screen flickers, and I can never move the clock speed, so I may go on their site and find something.. I didn't think of checking XFX's site!

Also anyone see the review on hardware Canucks of the 480 ? failsauce x.x

AMD GPU Tool is quick and dirty for setting clocks, also gets rid of that pesky underclocking while idle "feature" heh.

Sapphire is treating me good. I'm four gaming cards in with them. My 4870 died but most likely due to a power spike. There is a warranty on the card but they have really steep requirements and charge for shipping.

Only Nvidia card I've owned was a BFG 8800GT and although it was a kick ass card when I bought it, it died slowly and slowly over the period of about a year before it went kaput.

The big factors are warranty, cooling solution and overclockability, factor those into your purchase and you'll always be happy either way.

my current card is a powercolor 5750. previous to that i had: HIS 3870, BFG 7950, BFG 7900, BFG 7900 (stupid BFG and their cards that kept dying), built by ATI x1900AIW, Sapphire x1650xt, an MSI 6600GT, a Sapphire 9600, etc.

i've gone from ATI to nVidia, and gone with various manufacturers over the years. i've had good and bad all along the way. I'm partial to sapphire and HIS, and i'm definitely not a fan of BFG.

In the past I picked up a total of two Nvidia cards. Both were BFG and both made a very loud popping sound (eqivilent to a .22 rifle) when they died a few months after buying.

Been Sapphire ATI ever since and knock on wood no issues since the switch.

I have had great results with Sapphire.

EVGA, BFS were great, reliabile brands which did not die on me. Palit (like flama22 has) is a good brand for a great price as well.

XFX I did have bad luck on during the days of the 8800/9800 as there were a batch where the fans died often.

I was on the BFG band wagon, decided to give ATI another try since building a new AMD rig, currently running a 1GB Powercolor 5770 and it is running really well. Had Sapphire in the past. Likely BFG and Sapphire would be my choices.

Here's my Sapphire 5870 fanmaking really loud noises, 2nd time this weekend. Gonna RMA it, as it's obviously bad...youtube video for truthiness (nothing against Sapphire or MB, ...crap happens).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4s2NTcVWnw