Are Powercolor GPU's a good deal or a pile of junk?

The question I am asking here is simple: I have been looking all around the web to try to find a conclusive opinion on the AMD based video card manufacturer "Powercolor", but have found very mixed opinions. The controversy being this question comes up because no matter what website you go to, what model graphics card you are searching for, Powercolor almost ALWAYS has the cheapest prices on cards. Furthermore, it seems that the reviews on those cards are incredibly polarizing. Half the reviews say the card runs cool, reliable, and quiet, while the other half of the reviews claim the card was dead on arrival. My question is: Are Powercolor cards a decent buy or is there some shortcoming about them that justifies the consistently lower price. My 7770 is dieing on me and I don't have the time to do an RMA, so I figured this would be a good time to upgrade.



Thanks for the help, I appreciate y'all taking the time to answer my possibly stupid question 

stick with the second cheapest, sapphire

What if I see a Powercolor on sale for significantly less? Would it still be a good idea to steer clear of them? I

I have a powercolor hd 6850 that lasted me forever.  So from my experience with them they aren't bad, but doesn't mean all of them are good.  So going from my experience I'll say go for it.

personally i don't like powercolor (devil line excluded) or sapphire, but they are great deals, hense the reason i have a sapphire gpu instead of the asus or xfx i probably would be happier with

so i guess the awnser is both, hassle of returns if it's bad, great deal if it's good

I think its definitely worth spending a slightly bit more to get a card with a decent cooler as opposed to a card with a bad cooler.

Also make sure you look at the warranty on the powercolor.

Well I have an XFX R7770 now that is dieing on my. It's just barely over a year old, and while it did run great while it did, it's definitely on it's way out now. 

Well as it so happens, in most instances these Powercolor cards actually APPEAR to have decent, dual fan coolers on them

Right now though, since I am looking for a 7950 with at least a double or triple fan cooler, these are the current options that I am considering

 


 


Here are the links to these cards. And yes you're right that I definitely want good cooling as the 7950 overclocked is almost the same performance as the 7970 when it is overclocked.


 http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-111961920g

 http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax79503gbd52dhpp

 http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr795wf33gd

You may want to consider waiting, apparently the next generation of AMD cards are being announced in about a month.

here's an idea, cooler be damned for $50 less http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127737 i've never heard anything bad about msi gpus

but yeah, i heard amd event in hawaii september 20's, waiting could only be a good thing

Although it doesn't mean that the whole next generation will be released then, maybe they will only announce a release or release a couple of cards.

Thanks you two, waiting probably would be a good idea. And i'm really torn about that 7950 you sent because it is REALLY cheap but at the same time the 7950 is one of the best overclocking cards available and a single card fan wouldn't be ideal for that. Plus it would be a lot louder.


It's a hard decision :/ 

all my GPU's are Powercolors... from my hd 4650 to hd 7850 PCS+. great cards.

Thanks for feedback. I've been doing some research and have been hearing really good things about the Powercolor 7950 PCS+

My 6850 is a Powercolor, and I haven't been having many issues, although the second DVI port broke on me after a year and a half. Mostly pretty good though.

im running 2 hd 6850's from powercolor. no real issues for me still work just as good as they did on day one.  i am looking into getting the powercolor 7970. or might get the 9970 when it comes out.