GTX 980 ti - Does the brand matter?

[Michael J. Brown]

I have seen at least four different brands offering their own iterations of this GPU.

 

I am inclined to go with EVGA's offering, given that my motherboard is EVGA as well (SR2 Classified). But if there are virtually no differences between the EVGA, PNY, MSI and Zotac cards, then someone please let me know.

 

Thanks

[philippelamoureux]

They're all good brands Afaik! I own an EVGA and I'm satisfied. It's a regular 980 tho.

[Nikolaos M]

There are some differences, of course, in the fields of custom cooling solutions, manufacturer overclocking, and RMA support. Ex. I like Asus for their well designed custom cooling solutions (I own a gtx 780 DCUII and I'm very happy with its quiet and cool operation) but I often read complaints about their support in case of a faulty card. Gigabyte has a more balanced quality in all fields, I think, and a more predictable RMA policy (I owned a GB gpu in the past too).

Zotak, Palit, Gainward etc. are companies with some very nice iterations of the same card (AMP, Jetstream and Phantom, respectively) but most people suggest they offer a somewhat lower quality in their products, and this is reflected in their warranties sometimes (Palit gives a 2 year warranty, I think). EVGA is at the top of the list, at least when we are talking about NVidia cards (of course, they are accused for poor workmanship in a couple of their 970's versions). If I could suggest a priority list of gpu manufacturers (for Nvidia cards), it would be something like that:

 

Top choices: Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA

Middle choices: MSI (good custom coolers and very quiet cards)

Last: Gainward, Zotak, Palit

 

As for PNY, I know this company mostly for its professional gpus versions (Quadro etc.). I don't have a well documented opinion on their comercial cards, but specifically for the 970, I wouldn't bother looking at it at all, because the iteration I know has a reference cooler, and I avoid reference coolers in general.

[keithhill]

Personally I would always choose ASUS. Where that being a mobo or gfx card. Never had a problem with running or cooling of ASUS hardware.