Generally speaking, any PC builder putting together a new system should allocate most of their budget to the graphics card (assuming they’re building it for gaming). Well, that was until RAM prices turned ridiculous, but ignoring that, it goes without saying that you want a reliable GPU to last you for years to come. Now we have a chart to pinpoint the most reliable brands.

Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, all have GPU partners they work with to produce third-party graphics cards, otherwise known as AIB GPUs. These include popular brands such as ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, or Acer, and some brands only work with specific suppliers – PowerColor and Sapphire are two examples that deal exclusively with AMD Radeon GPUs.

Which GPU brand is the most reliable?

This information comes from Galaxus, the largest online store in Switzerland – we’ve seen people label it the Swiss Amazon, due to the lack of a dedicated Amazon store for the country. So, while these statistics don’t represent the global market, or the market in the United States, it’s a nice set of data to work with.

Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards top the warranty score charts, with just 0.1% reported defects in the first 24 months of operation. It is worth noting, however, that these cards are usually much less available at third-party retailers, and generally easier to find at Nvidia’s official marketplace – we even saw the RTX 5090 Founders Edition back in stock recently. Regardless, Galaxus notes that the data only includes brands that sold at least 300 products within the last two years.

AMD doesn’t sell first-party Radeon graphics cards of its own, so the top AMD partner on the Warranty Score chart is technically MSI (although they don’t make any current-gen RX 9000 series GPUs); below them, there’s ASUS. However, ASUS is one of the brands with a particularly poor warranty case duration – the best reported turnaround is for Palit’s GeForce GPUs. As for return rates, the worst offender is Acer, with 11.3% of its GPUs being sent back, despite a 1.9% failure rate.

PC building enthusiasts still look back to EVGA as the gold standard for Nvidia graphics cards – the brand was highly rated for its top-tier customer service, excellent build quality, and warranty programs. EVGA exited the GPU market back in September 2022, just before Nvidia launched the RTX 40 series with its flagship (at the time) RTX 4090.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.