Which Brand

[Kewlx25]

I've been out of the loop with buying high end parts for a while. I've kept up on the chips themselves, but Brands I'm not sure of. If I was buying something cheaper, I wouldn't care of the brand, but when I'm dumping decent money, I want the best.

Looking at getting an ATI5870 with my taxes. Should I just stick with Sapphire?

 

[jay2tall]

^dear lord, here we go again. Mr. XFX himself.

To the OP, they are all the same, same cooler, same board, different sticker. You are basically paying for the support of the manufacturer. XFX does have some overclocked models that have modified BIOS clocks speeds, but honestly you can just OC in the ATI CCC Overdrive window. Overclocking a 5870 doesn't really yield much benefit anyways, they are pretty optimized.

XFX does have the longest warranty and some pretty good support. So prices all the same, I'd probably go XFX. Sapphire is the largest manufacturer of ATI cards and I have never had an issue with them. I have an Asus 5870 and my last card was an Asus.

 

[Kewlx25]

Nice to know. My last "major" purchase was for my last computer and was an nvidia 5900fx. It was also an asus, but I did a lot of research because HSF implementation varied a lot and made a lot of difference.

My current computer was a cheap Dell from Best Buy because ANYTHING was better than my xp2500+ with 5900fx. This year I'm replacing the vid card with taxes.. and PSU.. I don't think the 350watt PSU will cut it with a 5870. POS Dells.

 

[jay2tall]

The 5870 has a minimum requirement of a 500W power supply with a 12V rating of 40A.

 

[Kewlx25]

The 5870 has a minimum requirement of a 500W power supply with a 12V rating of 40A.

actually, my POS Dell and its 350watt PSU handles my i7/4GB/ATI4850 just fine. I dought I *need* a 500watt, but that's what I'm aiming for, about 500-550. I need to re-google a post, but someone said they bought an Andtec 500watt that worked well with their Dell of the same model.

 

[Kewlx25]

Best answer selected by Kewlx25.