EVGA vs MSI, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB.

[Pois0nF34r]

Hey awesome geek people,
I'm trying to decide between the EVGA and the MSI Twin Frozr version of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB. If you have personal experience with either that's great, and I'd like to hear about it. This is just for a "practice build" of mine, I've been researching something new about every week so that I can be prepared for when I actually want to buy the parts in a few months.



APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I'm just getting the idea of what I will want. Actual purchase will be in about 2 months, so I assume that prices will drop slightly as more technology becomes available.

BUDGET RANGE: $200-$300 USD, for video card. Around $1000 for total core components.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming (BF3, Skyrim, Minecraft, Team Fortress 2, Starcraft 2, that sort of thing), video/audio editing (Sony Vegas), streaming youtube videos, school work.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: It's between the EVGA and MSI Twin Frozr so far, and my PSU that I selected is the Corsair Professional Series HX650. I really don't know much about choosing PSUs so help there too would be appreciated.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: What I've thought up for another possible build, I'm still hesitant about power supplies though.
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer, ATX Mid-Tower
Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel Z68 SATA 6 ATX
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz Quad Core
CPU Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB)
PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX650 650W Modular 80 Plus Bronze

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I've been looking on Newegg.com, but a friend recently recommended iBUYPOWER.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: North-western United States.

PARTS PREFERENCES: First build, so I don't have much of a preference, but I have been looking at NVIDIA cards quite a bit.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe, I don't think I'll do it for a while though.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI down the road if it becomes necessary to upgrade in such a way.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080, only one monitor (maybe 21.5" to 23")at the moment due to space and budget.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I want this system to be very long-lasting, so the less I need to upgrade later, the better. I want to go with the 2GB GPU right now (even though that's slightly overkill from what I've read), mostly because games within the next few years will require better and better computer parts. I'd probably be spending 5+ hours a day on this computer, if that information helps. Warranty would be nice too.

Thanks.

 

[tlmck]

Both EVGA and MSI make excellent video cards. I tend to stay away from EVGA because of noisy fans in the past. The card still worked great though. I got my current EVGA 550 Ti slightly used for $50 and it is reasonably quiet.

The MSI is very popular for the superior cooling solution which allows for some impressive overclocking with the included and equally excellent Afterburner software.

edit: The rest of the system looks fine.

 

[refillable]

MSI,

And I'm wondering why you need 2GB? when you use only one 1080p monitor.

 

[Pois0nF34r]

MSI,

And I'm wondering why you need 2GB? when you use only one 1080p monitor.

The reason I want 2GB is so I can use it for much longer (I hope) without having to replace any components of the computer. I know for me that 2GB right now is too much, but later on I will probably want another monitor and be able to play games very reliably.

Thanks for the input, both refillable and tlmck. Other ideas are well-appreciated also.

 

[renz496]

personally i think 1GB memory on GTX560Ti is good enough. there might be some cases the graphic core itself will not have the grunt before the memory starts becoming bottleneck in performance. in that case having large amount memory does not help the performance at all. btw do you intend to do multi monitor gaming?

 

[refillable]

OK, good luck on purchase

 

[sunnk]

msi would be slightly better in performance of cooling it keeps the card cool and its overclocking ability is very nice and in msi brand twinfrozr is one of the best card to buy.no need to buy 2gb one i have an good that is close to the performance of gtx 570 and cheaper then gtx 570 it overclocking is great cooling is superb and quit and of the best card.

msi twinfrozr iii gtx 560ti 448 cores 1280mb vram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127615

its limited.

 

[Gordon Freeman]

The card will hit its end of line and be slow as molasses before it will use 2gb of Vram in tomorrows games @ 1080p maybe. I would recommend 6950 but 560ti when Oced can match its performance.

 

[noskillninja]

i noticed u like to play bf3. don't buy a 1 gig card. i have a 1 gig asus 560 ti 925 stock clock. plays bf3 well. decent frame rate but would hitch when there was a lot going on. i was going to sli to fix the issue and my research brought me to buy a msi n560gtx ti 2gb (for future sli capabilities u are gonna want 2 gig) turns out im pretty happy with the one card so far. my monitor is 24 inch and looks terrible on anything lower than 1080p so that doesn't get changed on my rig. i also noticed that most of the maps use 850mb to 1280 mb on ultra no MSAA no blurr and ssao or no ambient oclision. thus confirms the 560 ti capable of using more than 1 gig of vram in a game that was made last year. next bf will be even more demanding. my 1 gig card just sits in its box now 🙁

 

[mace200200]

I've never owned an EVGA card, and I tend to buy MSI cards, they don't let me down and I always liked the afterburner software, EVGA's software is almost the same thing, but still not the same.

 

[Pois0nF34r]

I've never owned an EVGA card, and I tend to buy MSI cards, they don't let me down and I always liked the afterburner software, EVGA's software is almost the same thing, but still not the same.

Thanks for the response, try to notice the time this was posted though. I did end up getting the GTX 550ti, 1GB and it runs bf3 pretty well. I even can manage to record on ultra with two monitors around 20fps, for reference. I'm very happy with it, decent price and doesn't even get too hot, ~60°C on my usual BF3 settings.