Type of card to pick>?

[souster]

What's the most reliable, best videocard to buy? (type)

OC,
TOP,
DC II,
SC,

original..

Any comments on differences / options would be appreciated,

thanks!

Also,

Asus,
EVGA,
MSI,
etc..

[NyteOwl]

Open ended questions are virually impossible to answer. WHy?


Do you want AMD or nVidia or Intel? (gpu manufacturer preference)
Do you have a brand preference?
Do you have a budget limit?
Do you want to just surf, or do business applciations, game, program, graphics, design, CAD, etc
Do you want maximum compute capability on the GPU?
DO you want maximum open source code available, or maximum capability under open source?
What are your priorities (overclock, power efficiency, cooling, multimonitor, inferfaces)?

[souster]

I'm just looking for the most reliable graphics card.

i wasn't sure if having an OC / SC was risky? Also don't know the differences between TOP AND OC.

Was just looking for a bit of guidance.

[Adzsask]

More details please...

[Dzzope]

Originally Posted by souster

I'm just looking for the most reliable graphics card.

i wasn't sure if having an OC / SC was risky? Also don't know the differences between TOP AND OC.

Was just looking for a bit of guidance.

The difference is like having a car with GT or Sport.. these aren't types of cards they are just slightly higher grade of the same models OR!! just marketing.. depending on which one etc..

Type of card would be a PCI - PCI express - AGP

Then you have the chip manufacturers... AMD or Nvidia (for the main part at least)

Then you have models of chips.. GTX 690 - GTX680 etc or HD 7970 - HD 7950 etc

Then board partners..Asus, Evga, gigabyte etc

THEN you have the oc, top dcii, etc etc etc


Basically start at the top and work your way down...
(though the very first one can be skipped pretty much 99.999999999% of the time these days)

price range and the intended use will decide if you go amd - nvidia and then which model of chip.. once you have that narrowed down you can get into the gritty of which board partner and specific card you want to buy..

[BryceBooth]

Much like vehicles, it often comes down to name-brand preference, I have had good luck with Asus and their Direct CU cards. They have been robust, and the customer service was pretty good when I had to RMA. Try to figure out the size of power supply you have, or will need to upgrade to, to accommodate the GPU as well. What is your budget?
How much room do you have in your case ( to fit both the GPU, and the necessary number of PCI expansion slots)?
What are your main requirements of this GPU, such as GPU-compute?