Does brand matter?

[football52]

Alright I was originally going to buy a EVGA gtx 780 ti but I just got an email from newegg about a huge 4th of july special. The MSI 780 ti is on sale from $709 to $629 plus a $30 mail in rebate bringing it to $599.

Is MSI a good graphics brand or should I stick with EVGA?

This is the graphics card that is on sale.

MSI GTX 780Ti GAMING GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

 

[Cryoburn101]

EVGA is often known to make the best Nvidea GPUs. That being said, I know plenty of people who love MSI's GPUs. When you are talking $200 savings, I would switch.

Brand matters for a reason. The different brands will often use different cooling designs, software, etc.. So it really comes down to reviews, the tech, and what you would prefer.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Both cards are effectively the same - - they have the same graphics chip (GTX 780 ti) so will use virtually the same drivers.
The only feature which separates them is the manufacturer of the actual board and possibly the amount of RAM -- it's the graphics chip model on the board and the amount of RAM which matters the most so go for the discounted MSI one if it has the same amount of RAM (or more) as the EVGA one.

So basically it's the manufacturer of the actual graphics chip that's important, not the badging on the host card.

 

[football52]

Here is the comparison between the two.

http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2028&gid2=2022&compare=geforce-gtx-780-ti-evga-superclocked-edition-vs-geforce-gtx-780-ti-msi-gaming-3gb-edition

 

[TheMentalist]

The brand matters when you compare cooling, noise, factory overclock and waranty. Mostly the differences aren't huge but the prices are close too. When you get a deal for like $40-$50 savings, get the cheaper one(in this case the MSI one). Because the difference in what i mentioned won't make up for the money you save. But try to stick with EVGA, ASUS, Sapphire, Gigabyte or MSI(in this order). Those are some good video card brands.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Yes, brand matters....especially here..... look at the roundup reviews for the 780 and 780 Ti and you will find that the EVGA SC usually lands at the bottom of the pack. And I'll disagree with previous post and say that the differences can be huge. In this case, the best card is also the cheapest card....

EVGA 780 Ti SC = 9.5 rating (1006 MHz / 35 dBA)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_SC_ACX_Cooler/

MSI 780 Ti = 9.9 rating (1020 Mhz / 30 dBA)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_780_Ti_Gaming/29.html

MSI's GTX 780 Ti is almost too good to be true. The card comes overclocked out of the box, to 1020 MHz base clock, which, thanks to Boost 2.0, runs the card at 1144 MHz on average - higher than most other custom GTX 780 Ti cards. Compare this to the GTX 780 Ti reference board and it results in a significant 8% percent performance improvement, making it the fastest graphics card we ever tested. Yes, even faster than the dual-GPU HD 7990 and GTX 690. Compared to AMD's Radeon R9 290X, the difference is 16%, which is about as much as the R9 290X's lead over the previous-generation HD 7970 GHz. It would have been nice to see a small bump in memory clocks, too. I suspect some kind of limitation from NVIDIA's side there since nearly no custom board partner increased memory clock beyond the memory chips' rated frequency.

What is even more amazing is that MSI has achieved these fantastic performance results without scorching temperatures or lots of fan noise. While MSI uses a reference-design PCB, they have opted for the latest version of their well-known dual-fan TwinFrozr thermal solution, which we've seen on other cards before. Temperatures reach only 78°C, which is well below the temperature limit beyond which Boost 2.0 starts reducing clocks to keep the card cool. The real highlight of the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming, however, is fan noise. The card is whisper quiet in idle, which will be important if you don't game all the time. More importantly, once you start gaming, fan speed increases just a little bit, enough to keep the card cool without all hell breaking loose. At just 30 dBA, the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming is quieter than most graphics cards, no matter their performance segment - and this is the fastest card we ever tested! I recently reviewed several GTX 780 Ti cards, by all the big players, and none are even close in noise levels. It really is a night and day difference, even more so when you start comparing this card to AMD's R9 290X flagship.

Overclocking of our card worked well, providing another 5% performance improvement. Not a huge difference, it is probably still enough to make looking into manual overclocking worthwhile. When I disassembled the card, I spotted a missing thermal pad on the voltage regulation circuitry. I can't say if it is an isolated issue or whether it's widespread. What I can say, however, is that the card was perfectly stable at all times, no issues encountered.

You can find MSI's GTX 780 Ti Gaming online right now for $710, which is just a small $10 price increase over the reference design cards, and definitely worth it. Compared to other premium models in the $730 range, the card is also much better than other premium models in the $730 range, and in every metric that matters except for, maybe, maximum manual OC, which also has a luck-of-the-draw element to it. If you don't want to spend that much money on a graphics card, AMD's R9 290/290X could be more affordable alternatives, but be prepared to experience much higher noise and temperatures. I, for my part, will be replacing my personal system's ASUS GTX 670 Direct CU with the MSI GTX 780 Ti Gaming as it's the best card I've reviewed in a long time.

Wile the EVGA Classified and MSI Lightning remain the cream of the crop, I have taken great pains to avoid the EVGA SC series since the 5xx days .... while everyone else among the big 4 was using custom VRMs, EVGA stood out as the loner here. nVidia took note here and now the reference VRM win the 780 Ti line is much improved over previous series cards and few manufacturer's are going custom.

For air cooled cards (like most reviewers), I'd rank them MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA
If water cooling, I'd rank them Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA