Like what I have mentioned to you thru PM.
You get what you paid for.
Lesser known brands vs all the way to premium brands.
Ultimately pricing wise, NV vendor brands like Palit, Zotac will have the best pricing ratio among the major brands out there.
But note that there must be a reason why it is cheap. Chip all provided by Nvidia. Just the cooler, PCB design, component used, and other small features differences that made up the extra premium you paid for.
<$500 at this time, you are limited to only Zotac, and Palit.
MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and EVGA has a improved version in their overall design. Things like more VRMS, Power Phase, Superpipe being used, 0dbm fan on idle, 500w TDP cooler, VRMs heatsink, soldered heatsink, factory out of the box higher base clock, higher boost clock etc. The list continues.