Nr. 1: I don't know the prices that well of other countries. Here we use ZAR.
Nr. 2: Yes, some brands are crap others are better. Some brands have more than one model of the same card. (eg MSI reference gtx 570, msi twin frozr II gtx 570 and then msi twin frozr III gtx 570 then you get the exact same cards from msi, but only overclocked.)
So some brands are better, they oc their cards, they use better cooling or they just make the reference card and sell it cheaper.
