Recomendations for new ati user

Hi, ive been a Nvidia fanboy for years now but after they released the gtx 200 :pfff: series i started to look at ati's new 4870. Does anyone have any recomendations as which to which brand i should look at? From what ive heard Diamond MSI and Visiontek are the best but im looking for anyone else's opinions here. and would it b worth it to wait for the 4870 x2 or would it be better to just crossfire? i l know that these are simple questions but ive never had an ati card so i really have no idea whats good. any feedback would be apreciated. Thanks!

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Well I've been a fan of Sapphire for a long time, and Gainward too back when I was an Nvidia fan. Now that Gainward is making ATI cards, at least the 4800 series cards, I've thought about looking at theirs. Of course, Gainward is usually a tad bit higher priced comparatively but they usually overclock their cards and pack all kinds of goodies with them. I've never used a Diamond, MSI, or Visiontek card before but there are alot of people here that value their products. There's 2 or 3 ATI card makers that have limited lifetime warranties but I can't for the love of all that's good and decent in this world remember which brands.

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Reply to arson94

I am in the same boat as you, having been a longtime Nvidia user. I went with Diamond since it is a local Cali company, Diamond has only a 1 year warranty but if my card craps out after a year I'll probably just pick up a newer card. Visiontek is also US based company which looks like it has a good community forum as well, I think it is the only ATI brand company that actually has a limited lifetime warranty. I actually have a computer that is still running a 6 year old Visiontek Geforce Ti4600 board. I probably would of gone with them if newegg had it in stock when I ordered but they only had Diamond and another brand in stock at the time. Sapphire is an old ATI brand but while researching the different ATI company websites I didn't realize Sapphire is a Taiwan based manufacturer, that in itself is not a big deal since I am a big fan of Gigabyte, but at least when I was checking there site there RMA request page was giving me a bad Taiwanese link page, which kinda scared me.

Reply to omicron_15

Palit or Visiontek imho.

Reply to ovaltineplease

I bought the visiontek had to buy it at there online store nobody had any 4870's in stock,paid $309 us plus shipping. had it in 2 days.Waiting for fan controll software fix.Replaced a gs7900 gs extreme so far so good.

Reply to sausagemandan

arson94 wrote :

Well I've been a fan of Sapphire for a long time, and Gainward too back when I was an Nvidia fan. Now that Gainward is making ATI cards, at least the 4800 series cards, I've thought about looking at theirs. Of course, Gainward is usually a tad bit higher priced comparatively but they usually overclock their cards and pack all kinds of goodies with them. I've never used a Diamond, MSI, or Visiontek card before but there are alot of people here that value their products. There's 2 or 3 ATI card makers that have limited lifetime warranties but I can't for the love of all that's good and decent in this world remember which brands.

As far AS I know Visiontek is only Ati AIB partner that has Lifetime warranties.

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Reply to FrozenGpu

Well I think it would be worth wild for the 4870x2 because Suposable ATI has some good stuff with crossfire. Like it will be 1gb of ram instead of 512x2 effective if so theirs bound to more :pt1cable:

Reply to kelfen

FrozenGpu wrote :

As far AS I know Visiontek is only Ati AIB partner that has Lifetime warranties.

very true

Reply to kelfen

I got the Asus for the fan control software, though there are other ways to control it too. I think Asus has a 3 year warranty. I don't trust lifetime warranties because it probably means bad service for life rather than 3 good years of service (and plus, who really will be using this card seriously in 4 years?). I have no experience with Visiontek though and they could be great (all I know for Asus is that almost every one of my Motherboards is from them and their service has been great.)

------------------------------ Intel Core i5 750 > Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P > 2x2GB GSkill 1600MHz @ 1333MHz 7-7-7-21 1.5V > Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB >
Antec 300 Illusion > Asus 4850 512MB w/AM Cooler > Corsair 650HX > CM Hyper 212 Plus > Other: PII 940/Gigabyte 790GX/4850 1G

Reply to EXT64

If you are going to get a Gainward, save your money and get a Palit or Xpertvision instead. They are all the same, except the coolers generally.

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http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w179/random1301/1224237394448br8.jpg

Reply to randomizer

The top AMD card companies are Sapphire, HiS, Asus, and Diamond. You need to be careful with Sapphire. Their cards work well, but they've been caught before selling things with the wrong specs. His is well known in the AMD world for providing outstanding coolers on their cards. Asus sells nice overclocked ones, at least their "top" cards. Diamond has been making AMD cards since at least the "rage" days.

You really can't go wrong with any of these. I'm still a bit leary of MSI cards, hear to many horror stories with them.

------------------------------ The voice of REASON
Do NOT feed the TROLLS!
Always a DEMON!
Reply to 4745454b

If you need another MSI horror story I've got one

Not really their fault I guess, but they sent me a card that had a short in the PCI-E Power plug. Fortunately my cheap Ultra PSU came with short protection and no harm was done.

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Message edited by EXT64 on 07-03-2008 at 03:54:34 PM

------------------------------ Intel Core i5 750 > Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P > 2x2GB GSkill 1600MHz @ 1333MHz 7-7-7-21 1.5V > Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB >
Antec 300 Illusion > Asus 4850 512MB w/AM Cooler > Corsair 650HX > CM Hyper 212 Plus > Other: PII 940/Gigabyte 790GX/4850 1G

Reply to EXT64

EXT64 wrote :

If you need another MSI horror story I've got one

Not really their fault I guess, but they sent me a card that had a short in the PCI-E Power plug. Fortunately my cheap Ultra PSU came with short protection and no harm was done.

:sweat: Scary..

Reply to grizz86

A shame really. MSI seems to throw together some nice bundles. I'm sure they make good cards, and I'm sure we could fill many forum pages telling horror stories about any company. Still, there is just something about MSI that just doesn't seem right. Perhaps its because they compete in so many different things, and excel at none really.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ The voice of REASON
Do NOT feed the TROLLS!
Always a DEMON!
Reply to 4745454b

4745454b wrote :

A shame really. MSI seems to throw together some nice bundles. I'm sure they make good cards, and I'm sure we could fill many forum pages telling horror stories about any company. Still, there is just something about MSI that just doesn't seem right. Perhaps its because they compete in so many different things, and excel at none really.

lol, no, I don;t think so... :non:

They may not be the best but are far from the worst. :pfff:

Reply to FrozenGpu

Ok my bad, I was trying to recall from another thread I read months ago about which ATI AIB partners had lifetime warranties and I thought there was more than one. Guess not. I'll be checking out the 4870 offerings as soon as the new 790FX boards come out with the newer SB750 SouthBridge.

Reply to arson94

Something need a lifetime warranty, I'm not sure video cards are one of them. If a card breaks 4 years from, do you really want its current replacement? Looking at mags I have from four years ago, the 9800pro/XT was the top card, do you really want a x1600pro? (what is that for the 2xxx/3xxx series? The 2400XT? 2600pro?) When parts die, thats the excuse you use to upgrade.

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They may not be the best but are far from the worst. :pfff:

Where did I say they were the worst? I even said I'm sure they make good cards. Please don't go putting words in my mouth.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ The voice of REASON
Do NOT feed the TROLLS!
Always a DEMON!
Reply to 4745454b

4745454b wrote :

Something need a lifetime warranty, I'm not sure video cards are one of them. If a card breaks 4 years from, do you really want its current replacement? Looking at mags I have from four years ago, the 9800pro/XT was the top card, do you really want a x1600pro? (what is that for the 2xxx/3xxx series? The 2400XT? 2600pro?) When parts die, thats the excuse you use to upgrade.

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They may not be the best but are far from the worst. :pfff:

Where did I say they were the worst? I even said I'm sure they make good cards. Please don't go putting words in my mouth.

ewww, I don't want to put words, or for that matter anything else into your mouth. :non:

I didn't say that you said they were the worst so don;t put words in my mouth either, buddy! :pfff:

Reply to FrozenGpu

He's not your buddy, guy!

Reply to arson94

Awesome, thanks for the imput. one last question though- should i get 2 4870s and crosfire them or wait for the 4870x2??

And ive got a MSI horror story for u. Back when i bult this comp last june i bought a MSI P6n diamond. I got it in the mail 2 days later, no problems. put it in my case, no problems. put all the parts in it, no problem . plugged it in and turned it on, caught on fire. I posted a thread hrer on toms when it happened if u dont believe me, but my name was jonj. i RMA ed it and am still using the new one today.

Message edited by jonj320 on 07-04-2008 at 08:33:28 AM

Reply to jonj320

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