GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

Honestly, about 95% of the issues people have with the R9 280(X) come straight from Asus. 😁 They've got way too many flaws and the VRM cooler is pretty mediocre. I'd bet my money that the gtx 970 isn't much better either.

If anyone here is running an Nvidia Asus, hit me up. 🙂

I'm actually sitting here Googling asus gtx 970 problems right now, and honestly? I'm not seeing much in the way of negative feedback 🤷

You might end up dealing with some coil whine eventually (with any gtx 970) — but honestly, that’s just standard behavior for those cards.

Yeah, I'm doing a little digging right now—and since Linus mentioned the HD 7970, I'm just hoping it isn't actually that loud. I mean, the 970 is a newer generation, so surely it'll be better than that, right?

It really just depends on your luck. We actually discussed this over here

Some people picked them up later on—and honestly, a couple of them didn't have any coil whine at all. For some users, it's incredibly quiet and barely noticeable...

So, I went ahead and picked up an MSI 6670
but for some reason, when I pull up CPU-Z, it won't tell me the bus width or the DDR type. It's just being completely unhelpful.
Check out this screenshot: http://prntscr.com/5hzh6j

gpu-z

Yeah, yeah, I already tracked this one down, but thanks anyway.
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/14/12/17/bu8.png Seems decent enough for a $107 card that’s got about two months of life left in it before it finally bites the dust.

It's solid

Linus says "No coil whine here" 😬
(around 3:30)

It really comes down to the specific sample you get. I'd imagine someone like Linus or JayZ2centuri would have companies like ASUS vet the cards to ensure they’re high quality—meaning no coil whine and top-tier overclocking potential—before shipping them out. There was actually one guy who went through four different units, and he mentioned his Asus Strix was somehow even louder than the others. It's just like what Daniel Popovic says 🤣

Timothy Kim60 said:It really depends on the specific unit. I'm pretty sure guys like Linus or JayZ2C would vet the cards to pick out the good ones—the ones without coil whine and top-tier overclocking potential—before shipping them out. There was this one guy who went through four different units, and he said his Asus Strix ended up being the loudest one yet. It’s just like what Daniel Popovic says 🤣

I get that, but from what I've gathered about coil whine, the PSU plays a massive role. Honestly, someone is more likely to fix their coil whine issues by swapping out their PSU for a different brand than they are by hunting for a better sample of the same card. The issue isn't necessarily that "one" bad card; it's more about the general frequency compatibility between that specific GPU brand and the existing PSU... maybe I've got that totally wrong, I can't remember where I read it to drop a link here ☕

There’s no magic formula here. You can't just plug in a set of variables to predict exactly what will make a dog stop whining. There are way too many moving parts involved, and honestly, there aren't any established rules to follow when it comes to this kind of thing.

Can anyone weigh in on two different cards here? I'm looking at a Zotac Nvidia GTX 560 Ti versus an EVGA Nvidia GTX 680. Which one would play nicer with my current setup? It’s an MSI Z87-G43 Military Class 4 motherboard running an Intel Core i5 4570. 🤔

Stronger 🙂

Nathan Castillo16 said:Can anyone give me their thoughts on two different cards—the Zotac GTX 560 Ti versus the EVGA Nvidia GTX 680? Also, which one would play nicer with my setup? I'm running an MSI Z87-G43 Military Class 4 motherboard paired with an Intel Core i5 4570. 🤔

The Nvidia GTX 680 is definitely the stronger card and will be a much better fit for your build... plus, your processor shouldn't act as a bottleneck. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of price are we looking at for that Nvidia GTX 680?

😵

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is probably about twice as powerful, so I guess you'll have a much better time. 😛

Haha, man, ice? Seriously? What are you even supposed to be able to buy for a hundred bucks then—a damn ice cream cone? 🙏

Larry Ortiz5 said:Haha, man, ice? Seriously? What are you gonna buy for a hundred bucks then, a damn ice cream cone? 🙏

There was a time when you could snag a decent rig for twenty bucks. Used to be like that even at those roadside flea markets out in rural Ohio. You find some interesting stuff if you're lucky. If someone decides to head over to Germany, Friday through Sunday is when the big market in Passaic really hits its stride.

Are you kidding me? An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 for 25 bucks?! 😵Who on earth is missing this from their build... 😬