visiontek vs saphire

[cheepstuff]

i have been looking at ati graphics cards for a while and i have been wondeing, what is the big manufacturing difference between saphire, visiontek, gigabit and all of these other companies that make cards off ati's arcatecture.

 

[Outlander_04]

If its the reference design they're identical except for stickers

Manufacturers then usually release their own designs which they'd say have better cooler or higher clock rates or both , but the chip that does the actual processing will be identical

 

[cheepstuff]

so the price difference is all over a slightly different heatsink? amd gives out freeware that lets you manualy change the clock speed

 

[doomsdaydave11]

VisionTek has a lifetime warranty and very good customer service. Heard nothing but good things about them.

Sapphire has a 1 year warranty and sucky customer service. I've heard many reports about them not honoring their rebate process too.

I went with VisionTek this time around, but haven't used their customer service or the lifetime warranty yet. I would definitely go with VisionTek.

Keep in mind that most of the cards that are manufactured generally have identical or at least similar designs, so there is no better or worse chance that the card will die if you go with a "good" company or "bad" company... but if it does... then customer service and warranty makes all the difference. It's good to be safe just in case. Ask yourself if the slight premium of $5-$10 is worth it for the insurance.

 

[cheepstuff]

i have a visiontek hd 4850. all i know is it works hard and the fan is loud. nice for gaming though.