9500 Pro Built by ATI vs. Sapphire vs. Powercolor

[joshg]

Which one would be the best, or are all the same? I was thinking of getting a Powercolor RADEON 9500 Pro since it's in stock and retail and fairly cheap at newegg.com.

I've always heard, however, that Powercolor is sort of a "ghetto" brand for video cards. Is there any REAL difference between Built by ATI, Sapphire, or Powercolor?

 

[natopotato]

powercolor cards are ok. their image quality used to be terrible but that may have improved. i'd personally go with the sapphire card as it is cheaper than the built by ATI card. if the extra ~$20 is a non-issue, then i'd pop for the built by ATI card.

 

[NEVERwinter]

you know, actually Sapphire made cards for ATI so their own cards could be as good ATI's. as for powercolor, i don't know, my friend's Powercolor 8500LE can't be overclocked (maybe only 10-15 MHz increas) so I'm not sure about it.

 

[Rand]

Generally I'm not to fond of PowerColor though their not terrible... but when it comes to the R9500Pro it doesnt make a damn bit of difference as your getting a board manufactured by Saphire in any case.

Outside of Tyan's R9700Pro which is directky manufactured by Tyan themselves, and ATi's AIW R9700 which is manufactured by ATi themselves all R300 based graphics cards regardless of vendor are manufactured by Saphire at present.

Decide based on warranty/customer support/price etc as the quality of manufacture will be identical.

 

[natopotato]

Originally posted by: Rand
Generally I'm not to fond of PowerColor though their not terrible... but when it comes to the R9500Pro it doesnt make a damn bit of difference as your getting a board manufactured by Saphire in any case.

Outside of Tyan's R9700Pro which is directky manufactured by Tyan themselves, and ATi's AIW R9700 which is manufactured by ATi themselves all R300 based graphics cards regardless of vendor are manufactured by Saphire at present.

Decide based on warranty/customer support/price etc as the quality of manufacture will be identical.

good to know

thanks rand

 

[lchen66666]

These are all chinese brands. The PCB is actually made by ATI.
Different brand just has different heat sink/fan.

check poppc chinese web site.

They reviewed all 9500, but I have no idea which one is which


http://www.pcpop.com/read.asp?id=610

 

[BFG10K]

The PowerColor boards are actually built by ATi but they're just distributed by PowerColor. You're getting the genuine thing if you go with them.

 

[thermite88]

Link to www.pcpop.com The most useful infromation on this article was on the price. Most 9500 Pro manufacturers started the MSRP at about 1600 Yen (US$197) and several had drop the price to 999 Yen ($120). It may pay to wait for the US price to follow suit.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: thermite88
Link to www.pcpop.com The most useful infromation on this article was on the price. Most 9500 Pro manufacturers started the MSRP at about 1600 Yen (US$197) and several had drop the price to 999 Yen ($120). It may pay to wait for the US price to follow suit.

I can't wait that long. And besides which, Newegg and Mwave are out.

 

[lchen66666]

ATI 9500 Price has dropped to 999 Yen(aroound $120). Not the 9500Pro version.

Anyhow, as article mentioned that all 9500 PCB is manufactured by ATI, so
the quality more and less are similar.

 

[LostHiWay]

Your pretty safe with any brand for a 9000/9500/9700 they're all just about the same.

ATI got pretty strict about specs after the mess with OEM 8500's

 

[thermite88]

The difference is in the software driver. The ATI, Sapphire and PowerColor drivers are not compatible with cards from the others.

We saw from reviews that the driver has major impact on performance. I seldomly heard any comment on the driver qualtiy and scheduling concerning different manufacturers.

 

[thermite88]

lchen66666 said,

ATI 9500 Price has dropped to 999 Yen(aroound $120). Not the 9500Pro version.

PCPOP.COM does not agree with you. They are testing and discussing the 9500Pro's.