Visiontek or ?

[Guest]

I found the cards pretty good for the money after installing one in a customer's pc. His was a box, cd, graphics card.....just what I like. Soon after I purchased a TI-200, and TI-500 moving away from Asus and/or ATI as my cards of choice.

My first ti-500 came home and first thing I noticed a few days later after install was the driver hit on TI-200 so obviously I looked closer. Sure enough I got a TI-200 in my TI-500 box. I called Best Buy who SWORE the card was from the factory and they never "reseal"...ya, right. Anyway Visiontek replaced it with the TI-500 with no questions asked.

Last month I needed an RMA for extreme fan noise fromt he graphics card in my son's computer.....tried cleaning it out....didn't want to do the ole' trick with a drop of 3 in 1 oil because the card is so new.....they issued RMA and said send card, we'll send one back. Luckily I refused because the advanced RMA took 3 weeks! Now today, my "other" GF3 TI-500 is doing it also....very loud noise at initial startup....time for another RMA, anyone else had this problem with Visiontek? Just when I thought I'd be able to count on a company close to home I'm disappointed by this cards fan. My older GF cards had a serious fan on them.......and looks like the new GF4 has a good fan again. Sure I could yank off the heat sink compound and put on a BLOB....but wtf, I only wanted to do business close to home. Ironically I only buy stuff from retail vendors since Visiontek.....typically I get Asus....or some other great cards but I have to admit it sure is great to do a trip to Best Buy, get a card, cruise home. It HAS to be quality because "other" GF cards by manufacturers that don't do OTC retail sales are the same price so Visiontek had to cut corners somewhere.

I emailed them this morning and await the response which I'll put here for future edification.....hopefully if all goes well I'll follow through with a new card, if not another post and "copy/paste" any comments people have here on the community here.

Bob

 

[Rob423]

wow, My uncle bought the VisionTEK GeForce3 ti500, and he loves it. He hasn't told me anything about loud noise or anything like that. I am building a new system and was gonna put the VisionTEK GeForce4 ti4600, is the fan on there Better.. i don't want to spend that money and get noisey ass hardware.

Later, Rob

Once you go AMD, You never Go back!!

 

[Guest]

The TI-500 as well as the 200 make a noise mainly at boot up until the fan moves a bit. It seems inherent since Visiontek has begun mailing fans to people who complain instead of RMAing the entire card.

More important to you is the newest card the 4600 has a hell of a fan...notice no heat sinks on the Samsung 128 of memory as industry standard on these new cards. I find it quite superior to the TI-500 in many ways other than just the fan. The board is thicker and it fits snug in the AGP slot a bit better than some others. My 3D Mark 2001 bench went up 1,500 points....to 9770 without overclocking. So to answer your question is it quieter, absolutely cannot answer that until it is in a while.......is the heatsink/fan better, absolutely so.

Biggest gripe is the card reminds me of the HUGE ole' Voodoo cards of the past. Remember those huge graphics cards?? If you have a small tower you may find it a little cramped if your inflow of air is on the bottom. I have a Lian Li 60 which is a long tower so all is fine with mine, just make sure you have ample length in your next case and you'll be happy.

Bob