PNY vs Gainward

[dontknowdontcare]

I'm looking at getting an 8800 GTS 512mb (G92) and was wondering what the big difference was between the versions (namely PNY and Gainward). I can get a new retail packaged PNY for £95 delivered, yet the Gainward is £200 from the same place. Even second hand it's around the £120 mark. As far as I can tell the cards are the same, neither are overclocked and both have good overclocking capability. The reviews for both are good so I don't get it? Can anyone provide some insight?

[ShyguyXPC]

Name Brand, thats about it, both company's have been around for a LOooooong time, though Gainward was bought up by some other company I forget the name, but surprised PNY isn't as expensive as many of their competitors, they used to be one of the top ranked brands of the Geforce 3/4 era... then after a while disappeared from the scene & only been back strong in the last 3-4 years...

I can vouch for the PNY, I have a 320MB GTS (my current GTS is also a 512MB, ECS brand), also have one of their Old Geforce 3 Ti-500's that still runs.

Had a Gainward GF4 Ti 4200 Factory Overclocked card (Golden Sample "Ti-4800" Equivalent card) for a while that worked well until a co-worker fried it in a system I built them around the card.


but its mainly the brand name that your paying for if the specs of both cards are the same. Gainward has almost always been one of the "performance" brands like BFG, eVGA & XFX, where as PNY was mainly the normal brands like Gigabyte, MSI, Leadtek, etc etc.

if the gainward isn't factory OC'd & neither is the PNY its most likely the name your paying for, Brand name + popularity/high demand item = higher price usually.

[EXreaction]

Which ever is cheaper.

Watch for BFG's if you can get them, even if they cost a bit more. BFG has been very great to me. They even have it where you can send in one of a few of their AGP cards they made a few years back and they'll give you a 9600 GT for free or 9800 GT for $50.

[dontknowdontcare]

cool, thanks for the info.

[dontknowdontcare]

In one day the price has jumped from £95 to £130 , yet the stock level is the same. What a load of BS!

[KarmaKiller]

Yeah, that's what always happens to me too. I come close to getting something, decide I'll wait a day or two, for whatever reason.
When I get back online to actually buy it, the price has been jacked up, or they are out of stock.

Gotta love tech!

[cksboy15]

Thats why I usually buy out of date products (ex agp video card, DDR memory, IDE hard drives) course I don't really go for performance like everyone else on this site seems to.

[EXreaction]

Stuff that old usually costs more than newer stuff.

AGP is more expensive, as is DDR, IDE and SATA cost about the same.

[qrs321]

DDR is as much as DDR3 at this point.