Difference between card manufacturers?

[Morwing]

Hello all readers,

I've been thinking of purchasing a new graphics card, most probably a Radeon product. But I'm somewhat baffled by the numerous card manufacturers, and foremost, the price differences between them. How does a Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Pro 128 MB differ from a Hercules 3D Prophet Radeon 9500 Pro 128 MB? Or does it all? Is the 40 € price difference just because of Hercules is a bigger brand than Sapphire is?

40 € is a nice sum, and if possible, I'd like to save it... So is it a safe bet to go after price, and skip the brand?

- Jan

 

[cleeve]

Brand doesn't really matter... all 9500 PROS are clocked the same and will perform the same.
Sapphire even makes Ati's own cards, I believe.

The only difference is if you plan to overclock. Some manufacturers use RAM that overclcoks better. Not sure which ones, tho.

------------------
Radeon 9500 w/256 bit memory bus @ 367/310
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
3dMark03: 3439

 

[Morwing]

Thanks for your reply, cleared something up, that had been troubling me =)

- Jan

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

The Hercules likely comes with built-on Ramsinks and such. The question is whether the differences warrant the extra cost to you. If you DON'T overclock then it likely won't make a diff to you (also if you were a DIY moder).

Here's the THG reviews of the <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021104/r9700pro-cards-10.html" target="_new">Hercules</A> and <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021104/r9700pro-cards-13.html" target="_new">Sapphire</A> 9700Pro cards, expect similar differences in the 9500Pro, but you'd have to look for specific reviews to be sure. The THG article just gives you some head-to head background on the brands.

In general the Hercles is slightly better build, but unless you REALLY want a Hercules, and are REALLY serious about overclocking [although if you were you'd likely mod the HSF and Ramsinks yourslelf]) you likely won't notice the difference. Check for reviews using Google, then see if you think the slight bonuses are worth the extra cash (40euros being a fair bit of change).


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[xeenrecoil]

I really like Hercules products, they have always been great cards, and it totally pissed me off when they stopped making Nvidia cards after the GF3 titanium series, i was so dissapointed -=(

XeeN