7900GTX: Which brand?

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phobic

Supreme [H]ardness
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I can't believe I'm about to blow $500+ on a video card (when my speakers sound like crap) but I can't resist. I've been looking at some of the brands at Newegg and I don't see any difference besides the fan shroud and $30+ (well a couple are overclocked... slightly).

What's the difference? Thanks.
 
I would go for eVGA because they have the best warranty, they have a few different versions and as the price goes up so does the clock speed as some come with a factory overclock.
 
Regardless of which you buy you will be happy. All of them are good brands.
 
Ockie said:
Regardless of which you buy you will be happy. All of them are good brands.
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Guess I'll go for the PNY brand then... saving money is always nice.
 
It's going to come down to the bundle and the stock OC.

The Warrenties for eVGA, XFX, & BFG are all lifetime.... I don't know about PNY and Leadtek. eVGA has the option of using an aftermarket cooler and not voiding the warrenty and a 3 month Step up Program.

BFG is the only "Made in America" brand. If that matters to you. I've had good experiences with BFG so that's who I'm going with. Plus their warrenty is just unreal. Drop your card and step on it and they'll honor the warrenty. Just don't pull the HSF - or if you do - save it so you can re-attach it for the RMA.

Plus the high OC eVGA and XFX are more expensive by about $40.00 - and the eVGA is already out of stock.

The higher stock OC'd cards shouldn't really matter to these cards. The 90nm die should OC like hell. And the stock HSF is just Ginormous.

Bottom line - get a brand you trust at a price you are willing to pay.

I almost went with PNY - just so I could afford to get 2 of these and SLI them. But I don't know anything about their warrenty.

Even though the Egg is only letting you order 1 card at a time. :(



 
monarch has the eVGA oc in stock for $1 less then the egg, lol.
 
rodsfree said:
It's going to come down to the bundle and the stock OC.

The Warrenties for eVGA, XFX, & BFG are all lifetime.... I don't know about PNY and Leadtek. eVGA has the option of using an aftermarket cooler and not voiding the warrenty and a 3 month Step up Program.

BFG is the only "Made in America" brand. If that matters to you. I've had good experiences with BFG so that's who I'm going with. Plus their warrenty is just unreal. Drop your card and step on it and they'll honor the warrenty. Just don't pull the HSF - or if you do - save it so you can re-attach it for the RMA.

Plus the high OC eVGA and XFX are more expensive by about $40.00 - and the eVGA is already out of stock.

The higher stock OC'd cards shouldn't really matter to these cards. The 90nm die should OC like hell. And the stock HSF is just Ginormous.

Bottom line - get a brand you trust at a price you are willing to pay.

I almost went with PNY - just so I could afford to get 2 of these and SLI them. But I don't know anything about their warrenty.

Even though the Egg is only letting you order 1 card at a time. :(



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Awesome info, thanks.
 
Are all of the manufacturers speed binning their 7900s? If you're not willing to pay the premium for a factory-overclocked card, you might want to buy one from a maker who's not speed binning. The chances of getting a good overclocker is slim to none with those manufacturers because the good cores will go to the more expensive cards.
 
aldamon said:
Are all of the manufacturers speed binning their 7900s? If you're not willing to pay the premium for a factory-overclocked card, you might want to buy one from a maker who's not speed binning. The chances of getting a good overclocker is slim to none with those manufacturers because the good cores will go to the more expensive cards.
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Yeah, kinda like those sites offering a premium "no dead pixel warranty" on lcd monitors. If you buy a monitor without the warranty, you'll probably get a few dead pixels..
 
Just took the plunge and spent 700$ on the egg for a BFG 7900gtx, and a new pci-e mobo...I fiugure with my current cpu, and 2 gigs of ram, I should get a huge jump from my old 6800gt....I feel all giddy inside-heh...can't wait
 
PNY has shite warranty, make sure you save your receipt and all the information, get it once, or don't get it back.
 
BFG and eVGA are by far the best brands you can go with, I happen to like both but sometimes I lean more towards eVGA. :)
 
Island said:
Just took the plunge and spent 700$ on the egg for a BFG 7900gtx, and a new pci-e mobo...I fiugure with my current cpu, and 2 gigs of ram, I should get a huge jump from my old 6800gt....I feel all giddy inside-heh...can't wait
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700!!!

should of gone with 2 7900gt's for around 600 and spend 100~ on a motherboard.
 
1) With 2 7900GTs, you have no future expansion possibilities. You do if you opt for the 7900GTX.
2) I'm sure UT 2007 and upcoming games will take advantage of the 512mb for textures.

7900GTX > 2 7900GTs in my opinion...
 
soekev said:
I'd go with eVGA for the 90 day Step Up program.
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If you buy now the step up is worthless.

Nostradamus says: g80 based cards will not be out within 90days.

Anyway there is another form of "step-up" (Fs/Ft forums/Ebay)
 
I just ordered my XFX 7900 GTX Extreme!! I have been very happy with XFX so far, and their prices are better than any I've found so far with this 7900 hard launch.
 
Yeah I ended up ordering one of the XFX Extreme's from Monarch. I can't believe I spent $571.00 on a video card ($22 of that was for shipping to my overseas military address :mad: ). This will be my first nVidia card ever. I guess I'm no longer a die hard ATI !!!!!!. :eek:
 
wooohooo just ordered a 7900gtx $485 after shipping!!!

Should go quite nicely with my dual core opteron at 2.7ghz. Back to nvidia again I guess. I know, I just bought the x1800xt but Ill break even cause I have an older 17" lcd laying around in awesome condition and will make up for the difference. Actually, I might make some money.
 
For the 500th time... it doesnt really matter which brand. They all use the same GPU/core, same memory chips, same BIOS (some modify clocks), same PCB design so it doesn't really matter.

The high end cards are almost exactly the same. B/c the reference design has strict tolerance for the high speed memory, etc.. so the card manufacturers don't deviate from it.

So the cards are all ALMOST the same exact thing. The PERFORMANCE is exactly the same unless they pre-overclock which is a nice bonus, if they don't charge a huge premium for it. If not you might as well overclock yourself.

The bundles are usually very similar, and warrantys are rarely needed in the short life of a videocard, if its going to fail it usually happens in the first few weeks (with in RMA of the place you bought it usually)

Anyway, back to my point, brand REALLY doesn't matter very much with videocards.

(its just a much different market from motherboards where each company designs its own, and has its own unique BIOS, etc.. and brand actually matters)
 
chrisf6969 said:
For the 500th time... it doesnt really matter which brand. They all use the same GPU/core, same memory chips, same BIOS (some modify clocks), same PCB design so it doesn't really matter.
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I can bet you the higher clocked EVGAs and XFX use different memory chips. I HIGHLY doubt 1.2ns can hit 1750-1800.

Also, ASUS likes ot make non reference designs.(even though they don't have any for the 79 series atm, i bet in a few months you will see one).
 
Is it ok to mix an e-VGA 7900 GTX @ 650 core with an XFX 7900 GTX with the 665 core? In SLi they will both run at 650 right? I can get a good deal through newegg if I do that, and I just might.
 
I like having a guaranteed & waranted oc that if it messes up, i can return it and have that same oc speed, of 690mhz. That, and I have the cash to blow on it.
 
It seems that for someone who will Watercool the GFX card, eVGA is the best option then?

How much of a difference would I see from a 6800GT to a 7900GT in CS:S?

Right now (Opty 165 @ 2.6, 2GB, 6800GT @ Ultra) I cannot get a consistent 60 fps (vsync on, since LCD) at 1280 x 1024 with most stuff turned off.
 
WOW! i ordered my eVGA 7900 GTX superclock around 4:00am pst and next thing you know i wake up to check the inventory on the eVGA's and they are out of stock!!! if they would of let me order more than one i would have but i wouldnt mind to test one for now.

since these eVGA 7900 GTX are already pre-oc'd to 690MHZ core how much higher do you think you can OC from there?
 
playskool1 said:
since these eVGA 7900 GTX are already pre-oc'd to 690MHZ core how much higher do you think you can OC from there?
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May be 750mhz GPU and 1.81ghz mem?
 
3dguru got their superclock up to a whopping 705Mhz. They are probably mostly at their limit from the factory, unless you get lucky.

I got the BFG because they did right by me with my 6800GT, have a lifetime warranty, and are an American company. Other than that it probably really doesn't matter who you buy from.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/325/14/

They did get up to 920Mhz on the memory which makes me think they use different chips.
 
I'm probably just going to get a 7900gt, itll last for a while (at the rate games are coming out). Sooner rather than later the g80 will be out
 
Can people elaborate on what cards have 1.1/1.2 ram? Do all 7900GTXs have 1.1?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the eVGA cards were only using 1.2 - but it may have been the Inquirer, so confirmation from elsewhere would be handy... anyone know?
 
pibrahim said:
Can people elaborate on what cards have 1.1/1.2 ram? Do all 7900GTXs have 1.1?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the eVGA cards were only using 1.2 - but it may have been the Inquirer, so confirmation from elsewhere would be handy... anyone know?
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Most 7900gtx's will have 1.2ns stuff... I have seen no confirmation yet, but I am assuming the cards with memory clocked up at 1750 or 1800 will have the 1.1ns because I just don't see 1.2ns hitting those speeds.
 
I landed an XFX with memory at 1700 - any idea if that's likely to be 1.1ns or 1.2ns? I tried looking on their product spec pages but didn't see it listed anywhere...
 
pibrahim said:
I landed an XFX with memory at 1700 - any idea if that's likely to be 1.1ns or 1.2ns? I tried looking on their product spec pages but didn't see it listed anywhere...
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When it comes in you should take a pic of the BGA modules or just type in the part number on Samsung's website.
 
I'm something of a noob at this - they'll be under the heatsink presumably, yup?
 
phobic said:
Guess I'll go for the PNY brand then... saving money is always nice.
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Good, choice. thats the one i ordered. Regardless of how many years past like 2 or 3 years for a warranty, I never even have a video card that long any ways.
 
J-Mag said:
Most 7900gtx's will have 1.2ns stuff... I have seen no confirmation yet, but I am assuming the cards with memory clocked up at 1750 or 1800 will have the 1.1ns because I just don't see 1.2ns hitting those speeds.
Click to expand...

They are all same gpu/ video card. Why would the memory be any different? You are paying a premium on the pre-overclocked cards just for the fact that they are pre-overclocked for you. Just get the stock cards and overclock just the same as the pre-overclocked ones.
 
It's been posted elsewhere that the eVGA cards definitely use 1.2ns memory, both the EGS and Superclocked variants. Can 1.2ns hit the 1800mhz speed that XFX reached?
 
Again, "Lifetime" warranties are different for each vendor. Read this thread. BFG has the best warranty.
 
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