Engineering sample video cards

[syee]

I was looking for a video card, and one of the people in the FS/FT forum offered to sell me a 6800GT. However, it's an engineering sample model.

My question is - is buying one of these worth it? I'm guessing a sample obviously wouldn't have a warranty. Would there be any performance benefits in buying this? Is there usually greater overclockability with an engineering sample or should I haggle down the price because of the fact it is an engineering sample?

 

[edmundoab]

hey if people can collect old 3dfx eng. samples.. why not these types..

 

[MercenaryForHire]

QS/ES cards (qualification sample / engineering sample) cards are usually the ones sent to the reviewers - the cream of the crop, the monster OCers.

I had a FireGL QS - clocked to about 150% on the core and 133% on the memory - while being passively cooled. :beer:😀

- M4H

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
QS/ES cards (qualification sample / engineering sample) cards are usually the ones sent to the reviewers - the cream of the crop, the monster OCers.

I had a FireGL QS - clocked to about 150% on the core and 133% on the memory - while being passively cooled. :beer:😀

- M4H

MercenaryForHire makes a logical point, when a company like ATI or Nvidia sends out a sample for a review they check it a million times before sending it out of the door, it must be " the cream of the crop", because alot of readers are going to determine either they buy it or not according to that review done about that specefic card sent out.

One downside though is that sometimes the engineering samples are prototypes, and might not be sometimes the final version of the card, so if certain components were moved aroud in the final version, your version might not be compatible with some cooling solutions, because those were designed for the final version.
Or in a different scenario the engineering samples might not be compatible with newer versions of the companies drivers, again backing up my opinion with "if certain components were moved aroud in the final version", but if none of the issues I mentioned aboveexist in this card your getting, or if they do and that's not an issue then jump on it.

Last but not lesat, does it have a warranty covering it ???

 

[syee]

nope...no warranty. That was my only concern about it. I didn't think about it not being the final rev. of the card.

The guy selling it has put an Arctic Cooling cooler on it, so it should be the same PCB layout as a final version.

He's been using it in his machine for the last year, and he claims it OC's to 6800 Ultra speeds. He's selling it for $190 which isn't too bad a price for a 6800GT.

I'm really looking only to get a video card to hold me over for a year until i upgrade to an A64 setup. Still a bit of life left in my Athlon XP 2600 🙂