brand generalities? msi / sapphire / gigabyte / asus / etc

[giantbucket]

when i look at my options for a GPU, i feel like i'm buying toothpaste - 17 different colour boxes, each one says "new look, same great product".

so how do i narrow things down once i've settled on a chipset brand and model? why would i typically reach for an ASUS instead of a Zotac, or vice versa?

so many brands... asus, evga, gigabyte, msi, sapphire, zotac, xfx. etc...

 

[misclik]

people may have brand preferences or prefer the look of a card.
for example, I have a Gigabyte mobo , and it performs well, so i like gigabyte, I also have an msi gpu, but it is a mediocre overclocker, so i am indifferent toward that brand.
realistically, just don't get cheap motherboards.
how you would narrow it down... well, which one is the cheapest and still has a good cooler?