Sapphire 9800 AIW variants

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"/mel/" <news@mel.cix.NOSPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:yyaAd.19$4F2.18@newsfe5-win.ntli.net...
> I'm still having problems with a particular dealer trying to supply me
> with a non-Pro AIW 9800 card when I've ordered and paid for the Pro
> variant. Could someone confirm for me that the part number printed on the
> PCB for the Sapphire AIW9800Pro is 109-95700-10? I believe that the
> Sapphire AIW9800SE is 109-95700-12.
>
> I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else has had supply problems with
> a UK-based seller of refurbished cards. I'm not yet going to name names as
> this may be a genuine mistake (twice), but I am becoming more suspicious.
>
> /mel/
I only have a humble ATI 8500DV as my highest ATI card so can't answer your
part number question from experience. I did buy it as a refurbished card for
about £25 incl postage though. It was from a UK Company that was located in
Scotland and I found out about it through eBay UK. The first card I received
had lots of silicon rubber on it also traces of a silver substance
(presumably thermal paste) and I couldn't get it to work properly so I sent
it back for a replacement (which was *eventually* forthcoming - complete
with a DVI/Analog adapter). The second card is the one I'm using now and
with the DVI adapter it works fine on my TFT Monitors analog input.

ATIs SE chipsets are identified differently to Pro versions by the drivers I
believe - so it should show up as such under the Catalyst control panel
options/details/chipset information about your card. Sapphire also produced
a Pro version with only a 128 bit memory bus (instead of the usual 9800 Pro
256 bit bus - not sure if it was available in AIW form though) and this does
use the genuine 9800 Pro chip (but obviously runs allot slower under many
situations) - if you have one of these cards I don't know how they are
identified. These are cards to be wary of because technically they are 9800
Pro based cards and unless a 256 bit bus was specified, no
misleading/mistakes have occurred. You should still be able to return such a
card within 7 working days under distance selling regs within the UK though.

Paul