There is no such thing as a generic one, Nvidia and ATI both have partners that they sell their GPU's too, they make the pcb's and sell them to market.
If you are going the Nvidia route, stay with EVGA of XFX, great special programs such as Step up and the double life time warranty, plus, both offer lifetime warranties.
For ATI, pretty much all the same, Diamond and Sapphire are good brands...All will do, ATI's partners don't offer lifetime warranties though, a big bummer.
I was wanting to know abt cards of 'PALIT', 'GALAXY', 'INNO3D' make - who use non-reference designs. Many local shops where I am list them as 'generic cards'.
So, if any1 has used them, or knows abt them - pls join in to express opinion abt performance, noise, power comsumption, etc.
I looked at the net and it seems the Galaxy 8800GT 512 MB HDMI card is pretty good on features. Yet, one review has complained of its noise level.
noise is problem of all the 8800GT since it is single slot.
the makers wont be a problem.when buying check these:
1-make sure the maker following ati/nvidia refrence design: (such as ram speed, clocks,etc)
2-choose the one that has the best warranty, n reputable to honor the warranty claims.
these two are the important factors when buying gpus
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Q6600 @ 3Ghz | zalman 9700NT cooler | gigabyte P35-DS3L | Kingstone DDR2 667 1GB x 2 | HIS 4850HD with Accelero S1 Rev.2 | enermax Liberty 500w | Coolermaster C5 case |
The galaxy card you are referring to uses a dual slot cooler with a fan that spins at a constant 3000rpm. It was apparently made obsolete, but being australia, there is probably still stock around. There is also another cooler made by coolermaster with a zalman "flower" design (much quieter), but both cards have the same product code, so it's a hit and miss. You could ask the retailer about it, but I reckon the "local shops" you are referring to would include MSY which lists "generic" cards and has zero customer service .
FYI Palit actually makes cards listed under their own name, as well as XpertVision, Gainward and one other brand. Same as Foxconn makes cards for other companies who rebrand them, so in essence there is no difference between those, other than the sticker and possibly the cooler. Obviously if the card is manufactured by somebody else you can expect a difference.
@Kamrooz: In australia, life-time warranties aren't honoured, only 1-2 year warranties (at least from XFX).
@night_wolf_in: Reference design FTL! I prefer cards with better power circuitry. The Galaxy card Xanadu mentioned has an extra power phase and native HDMI (no adapter needed if only one monitor ).
If you get the one with the zalman cooler, it also has a jumper on the PCB that seems like it lets you swap between two VGA BIOSs, one with a 1.05V vGPU and one with a 1.1V vGPU. No need to flash the BIOS to make a minor voltage bump, and if you do flash the BIOS and screw it, you should be able to swap the jumper over and boot with the other BIOS.
@night_wolf_in: Reference design FTL! I prefer cards with better power circuitry. The Galaxy card Xanadu mentioned has an extra power phase and native HDMI (no adapter needed if only one monitor ).
umm, thats cools. actually i never thought that those companies will make something better if they change the reference design, (slower ram memory). but that is informative. thanks.
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Q6600 @ 3Ghz | zalman 9700NT cooler | gigabyte P35-DS3L | Kingstone DDR2 667 1GB x 2 | HIS 4850HD with Accelero S1 Rev.2 | enermax Liberty 500w | Coolermaster C5 case |
Yea, Palit and galaxy makes some great stuff, and it's often alot cheaper than the competition. It's usually the lack of decent warranties that brings down the price, normally 1 year, sometimes 2 with galaxy.
@Xanadu: It's a good card if you don't mind the noise, I'm probably going to get the same card in a few months (when I can afford it), by then the old noisy stock should be gone. Nothing is guaranteed in Australia though.
Message edited by randomizer on 02-13-2008 at 07:20:07 AM
ATI used to have their own "built by ATI cards" along with "partnered with ATI" cards using the GPU with individual company variations. Since AMD bought ATI, I haven't seen those in the newer series.
Do you mean "reference design" when you say "generic"? Some companies stick close to the reference design, while others factory overclock or use different memory, coolers etc. I'm sure it's the same with Nvidia, which has never had their own branded cards.
I really miss the All in Wonders. Love to have an AIW 3850 for an HTPC! Those cards were never partnered, but were always "built by ATI".
No "generic" is just a term used by the retailer. If you buy a "generic" card, you'll get sent one of several different brands, usually pali, xpertvision, galaxy, Inno3D, Innovision etc. All the ones with "bad" warranties basically.
Thanks randomizer, I got my eyes on these cards now, namely
GALAXY
PALIT
INNO3D
GAINWARD
1 yr warranty is not much of a prob with me as that is what I used to get back in my country. Even the 6600 gt that I have now (frm JANTECH) carried a 1 yr warranty.
The gainward is pretty nice, although I saw a review saying that the HS didn't make good contact with the GPU. That may have just been their particular sample though. Both are pretty damn quiet. The galaxy is clocked at reference speeds because it's target user is one who will put it in a HTPC, which is why it has a native HDMI output. That doesn't mean you can't use it in a gaming PC of course, nobody cares who the manufacturer designed it for, ask those at silentpcreview.com who use mobile CPUs in desktops
I saw the gainward review too and the heatsink problem. Unfortunately, that's the only decent review online. I hope that prob gets fixed and the price plummets.
With the 9000 series cards looming on the horizon and a further future lineage frm nvidia...
Also the introduction of the 3870x2 card...
Frm the last 1 month, I have been tracking prices - both the 3870 and nvidia prices have been sliding. The 3850 is around 250$ and the 8800gt's are around 300$; the generic ones being lower like around 270$ (these r the single slot cooler ones I think).
But then again u r more experienced in this field than I. So...
My 8800GTXs are made by palit or something similiar sounding, dabs value brand , brought them at first release of the GTX though when ALL the GTX's were made in the same place and just stickered and bundled by the partners. As far as Im aware at launch of the 8800GTX the palit cards were made by the same contract manufacturer in the same factory as the evga and xfx.
Ive had no problems whatsoever with my cards in their 14 months, but I couldnt guarantee that the current cards are the same quality as when they were all just rebranded nvidia produced items.
Buy Asus! It comes stock out of the box with the best utilities for fan control, temp, curent and OCing in the biz. Buying a card that is factory OCed is asking for trouble. There is no reason a device should be OCed while idle its just a waste of the devices life span.
There is no such thing as a generic one, Nvidia and ATI both have partners that they sell their GPU's too, they make the pcb's and sell them to market.
If you are going the Nvidia route, stay with EVGA of XFX, great special programs such as Step up and the double life time warranty, plus, both offer lifetime warranties.
For ATI, pretty much all the same, Diamond and Sapphire are good brands...All will do, ATI's partners don't offer lifetime warranties though, a big bummer.
Hope that helps.
errr, get your facts right?
Visiontek offers Lifetime garantee on their cards.
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-= Selling Tamales specially for shutting up your mouth =-
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