ATI 4870: XFX vs SAPPHIRE

It really comes down to which you want, better customer service and warranty or better performance.

I would go with the Sapphire because it has one of the best no reference coolers made for ATi cards. I want performance, cooler for overclocking and the fact the card looks fairly nice is great. Once the Vapor-X 5870 comes out I will likely get it (unless they make an Atomic in which case there is no way I am missing that.)

darkvine, the SAPPHIRE card I posted is not the Vapor-x one. Still, do you think it's a better option?

Another thing you have to take into consideration is the fact that you are comparing the NEW Sapphire 4870 vs. an old deativated XFX 4870.... XFX is about to release the REV.2 version of the card you posted so you can either go with the sapphire or wait till the new XFX 4870 is released.....

Well, I won't be overclocking, so it is irrelevant in my case.
Then, the NEW XFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] XFX%204870
Isn't a dual-slot design and so will heat up the case...
How long is SAPPHIRE's warranty?
ATI's 5000 series is way out of my budget...
The only concerns I've got with the SAPPHIRE is warranty, support, and heat exhausted into the case.

The warrenty is 2 years and they are fairly good about it, but like Ovr said once that 2 years is over your screwed.

Don't worry to much about pumping it into the case, it runs so cool that it won't do much. Weather or not you are overclocking you should get the best cooling cooling possible in case you do or just so it doesn't heat up your case. And running cooler if you plan to play for long amounts of time could save your card in the long run.

Well, thank you all for your suggestions.
The XFX has a horrible cooler as OvrClkr said, and I agree; so I am leaning towards the SAPPHIRE.
I'm quite sure the 4870 is not going to receive a price cut, especially since the 5850 (cheapest ATI Evergreen GPU) will sell at $300. And the 4870 has gone down a LOT in price since January (like $100 less?).
As to the warranty, is there other ATI manufacturer with lifetime warranty?
Anyway I think that, if the warranty expires and the card goes bad in 2 year's time, I'll be happy to get a new one...
One last thing, since I live out of the US and a friend of mine will be getting the card for me, I'll have to buy it by the first week of October. Will "rumoured" price cuts be applied by that time?
And how do you RMA (under warranty) with newegg? Do you ship the GPU to them or to the manufacturer? Do you have to pay for the shipment?

Well that makes it even worse (if you ever have to RMA the card) but, if you play your cards right and make sure you take care of your hardware then you should be fine. I suggested a card that might not be as powerful as a vapor-x but does have a flawless warranty. So you decide what will work better for you in the long run...

As far as the rumored price "cuts", it will happen eventually, of course not anytime soon.... Look at AMD's x4 965, it is still priced at 245.00$ and many are ditching AMD for the new i5 750.

Neweggs warranty is 30 days from the date of the purchase. After that you deal with the manufacturer.....With XFX , BFG and EVGA you do not pay shipping, or shall I say I have not paid any shipment fees other than when I traded in my GTS 250 for a GTX 260. All 3 companies sent me a UPS or Fed-Ex label to cover the shipping charges. Not that I have had to RMA a whole lot but in about 14 years I have had 3 cards go bad out of 10.

I'll have to make up my mind on either the XFX; Sapphire or Visiontek:
-XFX: Good warranty, underpowered cooler...
-Sapphire: Good cooler, 'mediocre' warranty.
-Visiontek: Good warranty, good cooler, but only 512MB...

If only Visiontek had the 1GB version at a cheap price!!!

Well, I'm actually balancing the Visiontek vs the Sapphire. My apologies for bothering you with my 'dilemma'.
The 2 year warranty of the Sapphire just doesn't bother me a lot.... and on the other hand I think the 512MB Visiontek will handle my resolution just fine...

Final suggestions?

1440x900.
I think that the price difference between 512 and 1GB is too small; and that this card is fast enough to require 1GB....

Well; I'll just pick the 4870 over the 4850; and the 1GB over the 512MB; so that it is overkill, even if my Athlon X2 bottlenecks it, hoping it'll be fine for the following year and planning on a CPU upgrade. My monitor is new so I'll stay at this res for a loong time.
Anyone knows when the first DX 11 game will hit the market?

I'm with an Athlon X2 5200+ 2.7GHz (cannot overclock; overheats terribly).
And an Asus M3A which did not receive support for 45nm CPUs.
I might upgrade both next year.

PS: The Sapphire 4870 has gone up $10!!!!!! :S

Well, it seems like more budget-oriented ATI 5770 cards are comming in October. I'll wait.
As to the CPU, where I live, $1 dollar = $3.9 local currency; yet $1 dollar i the US has the same value as $1 local currency in my country. This means that any hardware I buy is almost 4x as expensive to me than to US citizens.
I'll aim at an i5 or at a Phenom II (if they lower prices).
The CPU is Ok, just no possibility to overclock.

Yeah, I thought so, and it should offer similar performance to the 4870. Competition with nVidia could also lower prices in future months.
Well, thanks a lot for your help, especially OvrClkr, you've been quite helpful.
I hope I end up making a good decision.

Why are you guys saying XFX has a lifetime warranty?

From their website...

"HARDWARE PRODUCT WARRANTY DETAILS

WARRANTY PERIOD: XFX warranties hardware Product for a period of one (1) year from purchase from an authorised XFX reseller (proof of purchase will be required)."

And Sapphires is, as you say, 2 years.

Steve

Hmm, if you look in XFX warranty page and choose North America and Radeon HD it's got the same paragraph that says 1 year.

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/Help [...] eview=true

Very strange.

Steve

Ah OK.

They need to get their web sites sorted then because the warranty information depends on the main site entered and has no relation to the drop down menus once you are on the warranty page.

At least this thread now lets people in Europe know that Sapphires warranty is double that of XFX.

Steve