Whats with XFX, Zotac, BFG, etc. on graphics cards? - Hardware & Software

Rate meh boxes, I don't understand why there are all these other brands of graphics cards of NVidia's and ATI's cards. Why isn't there just ATI and NVida brand cards. I just find it retarded and confusing how the same graphics card made by two companies cost different prices and one is faster and one is slower. So how does this all work? Do these companies buy the cards then clock them or add extra cooling and slap their logo on and charge a different price?

[QUOTE=bull3tmagn3t;28233329]Rate meh boxes, I don't understand why there are all these other brands of graphics cards of NVidia's and ATI's cards. Why isn't there just ATI and NVida brand cards. I just find it retarded and confusing how the same graphics card made by two companies cost different prices and one is faster and one is slower. So how does this all work? Do these companies buy the cards then clock them or add extra cooling and slap their logo on and charge a different price?[/QUOTE] Those companies are manufacturers; they take AMD/NVIDIA's hardware and either re-release the reference model or create their own and then tweak it by overclocking, adding more memory or slapping on a custom cooler. Because there are so many different graphics cards, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, it makes sense to allow third parties to tweak, modify and market them as they see fit. For AMD/NVIDIA to do that themselves would cost a fortune.

XFX = tops. Double lifetime warranty.

[QUOTE=MTMod;28235091]Double lifetime warranty.[/QUOTE] "You: Yeah my card died a third time." "XFX: Fuck off."

[QUOTE=Agent766;28241603]"You: Yeah my card died a third time." "XFX: Fuck off."[/QUOTE] That's not how it works.

[QUOTE=Agent766;28241603]"You: Yeah my card died a third time." "XFX: Fuck off."[/QUOTE] Hey. I will not tolerate any bashing of XFX customer support. They replaced my GPU even when they found nothing wrong with it, and paid for all shipping costs. They're such sexy people.

EVGA and XFX are the best Tech support Ive talked to. Never once had any issues when calling them. At 3am I still got a English speaker, within 3min of calling. Just great support.

[QUOTE=Agent766;28241603]"You: Yeah my card died a third time." "XFX: Fuck off."[/QUOTE] Good luck finding anyone that'll replace a card a third time.

[QUOTE=MTMod;28251038]Good luck finding anyone that'll replace a card a third time.[/QUOTE] If you're replacing the same one for a third time. You're doing it wrong.

[QUOTE=ghostofme;28254706]If you're replacing the same one for a third time. You're doing it wrong.[/QUOTE] They'll replace it for life, eh?

[i]Sparkle[/i] all the way! [sp]But really, I love XFX and EVGA[/sp]

[QUOTE=MTMod;28261062]They'll replace it for life, eh?[/QUOTE] When they say lifetime, they mean that they'll replace it for as long as you draw breath, and the double part means it can be signed off once. So when I sold my card to my friend, he got the lifetime warranty too.

I like XFX. They have pretty good support.

I just bought an XFX 6850 card, the only problem I had with it was it's pretty noisy, and that you had to sign up for this shit to download the drivers

[QUOTE=MTMod;28235091]XFX = tops. Double lifetime warranty.[/QUOTE] Hey hey hey, MSI Cyclone, Twin Forzr II. That is all.

[QUOTE=koeniginator;28264673]I just bought an XFX 6850 card, the only problem I had with it was it's pretty noisy, and that you had to sign up for this shit to download the drivers[/QUOTE] You don't have to sign up to download any ATI drivers. Next time just go to AMD.com and pick it from the list. Those CDs always come with old drivers.

[QUOTE=MacTrekkie;28268305]Hey hey hey, MSI Cyclone, Twin Forzr II. That is all.[/QUOTE]I'd get EVGA or XFX before MSI.

I just buy the cheapest option with nice features from a reputable company. My current card is an MSI Cyclone, which not only was the cheapest GTX 460, but it has one of the best coolers.

[QUOTE=ghostofme;28262832]When they say lifetime, they mean that they'll replace it for as long as you draw breath, and the double part means it can be signed off once. So when I sold my card to my friend, he got the lifetime warranty too.[/QUOTE] I know this. I own two XFX cards myself. I think you may be confused.

Zotac and Xfx here. Had no issues with either (Zotac 570GTX and a Xfx 9600GT). Had two Xfx 9600GT's before upgrading to a 570 GTX and leaving a 9600GT for PhysX. The zotac doesn't look as good as the Xfx and runs ALOT hotter (64 degrees Celsius idle, 86 degress Celsius 100% load) in a cable managed Antec 900 v2 :/ Well they are different hardware technologies anyway.

Centrigrade?

[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;28280073]Centrigrade?[/QUOTE] My bad, I meant celsius :) I've always gotten those two mixed up, even though centigrade isn't often used any more.

Ehh I wouldn't trust Zotac at all. But that's just me.

-snip-

[QUOTE=ClaBrendon;28284903]Ehh I wouldn't trust Zotac at all. But that's just me.[/QUOTE] Well at least they thought about my safety and gave me a massive sticker with the card which is literally something I put near to the computer which shows a persons hand being burnt by touching the Graphics Card. Thanks for that Zotac... I really needed it in sticker form, instead of a simple warning in the manual. Even that would have been less patronising than a sticker.

[QUOTE=ClaBrendon;28284903]Ehh I wouldn't trust Zotac at all. But that's just me.[/QUOTE] I bought my computer teacher a Zotac 9500gt. It installed easy, had a cool cooler design, cool box art, it runs cooler than it could, and it fucking had a :frog: on the box! Also their mini-ITX motherboards are pretty good.

Nvidia and ATI spend large amounts of time and money researching and designing new chips (the actual GPUs) for their cards. They then order the GPUs from a third party fabrication facility. Those chips are then sold to OEMs (XFX, EVGA, etc) who have them incorporated in a board usually produced in Taiwan. The completed cards are then shipped back to the markets where they will be sold. The OEMs cover the marketing and warranty costs associated with selling graphics cards. The OEMs sell their completed cards to retailers.

[QUOTE=MacTrekkie;28291757]I bought my computer teacher a Zotac 9500gt. It installed easy, had a cool cooler design, cool box art, it runs cooler than it could, and it fucking had a :frog: on the box! Also their mini-ITX motherboards are pretty good.[/QUOTE] palit's logo is the robot frog, I don't think zotac have a "mascot"

[QUOTE=reapaninja;28294598]palit's logo is the robot frog, I don't think zotac have a "mascot"[/QUOTE] oh did it? Right right right, I'm mixing up the Palit 9400GT's we ordered. Regardless, I still like zotac