Get This...Sapphire cards don't support ATI AVIVO technology

[vikingblade]

WTF is this Bull... I was just about ready to buy a Sapphire OEM X1800 XT

What exactly does this mean.... What features are we losing..

LINK

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Seems to me that Sapphire/other ATI partners should buy the license so they won't lose sales . . .

But yeah this is dumb if it's true . . .

 

[Wreckage]

I just got off the phone with ATI tech support, the rep told me that AVIVO and the DVD decoder software will not work with *ANY* ATI partner cards, only with ATI brand cards (evidently no one else has licences for it). This was not made clear on ATI's web site, now I have a video card that is useless for my purposes.

Sounds like ATI is screwing their board partners.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

This would be a very stupid move on ATI's part since it makes no sense to not sell licenses to your board partners as ATI would lose money as well . . . and considering AVIVO is one of the X1000 series main advertised features, this would be a serious mistake by ATI if this is true . . .

 

[Cookie Monster]

What in the *** is this?!? ATi not letting AVIVO to be used with other board partners? Why are they shooting themselves on their own foot?

 

[vikingblade]

This is serious ******...we need an answer to this NOW...

What does this mean exactly... avivo is disabled/doesnt work? Meaning...

I understand it enhances video quality.. what else... does this effect game performance/image quality? or just playing videos/dvds

i cant understand how a company in such fierce competition with another, would/could secretly disable a feature in their partner products that is highly advertised and valued... this must be a mistake??? its insane!

how can this not be advertised in the cards specs/description/info... it says avivo on every freakin card specs. wouldnt this be false advertising..

 

[Avalon]

It would most likely be a software block. Maybe a way to hack AVIVO functionality on a third party card?

Really stupid if true.

 

[Zenoth]

Just buy a Built-By-ATi one.

The Sapphire X1800 XT has absolutely no differences at all compared to the reference build. Other than a sticker on the HSF with a Sapphire logo. Same frequencies, same reference cooling, same everything.

Differences might be in terms of packaging and warranty. Not worth it. You get a warranty good enough with Built-By-ATi anyway.

Besides ... I never bought anything else than Built-By-ATi when it comes to ATi GPU's. It's easy for me to tell you all this. But I wouldn't see any good reasons to go with Sapphire over Built-By-ATi. Much less Powercolor or HIS.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Just buy a Built-By-ATi one.

The Sapphire X1800 XT has absolutely no differences at all compared to the reference build. Other than a sticker on the HSF with a Sapphire logo. Same frequencies, same reference cooling, same everything.

Differences might be in terms of packaging and warranty. Not worth it. You get a warranty good enough with Built-By-ATi anyway.

Besides ... I never bought anything else than Built-By-ATi when it comes to ATi GPU's. It's easy for me to tell you all this. But I wouldn't see any good reasons to go with Sapphire over Built-By-ATi. Much less Powercolor or HIS.

Cheaper, better warranties, sometimes better coolers?
Sorry, but no point in getting a BBA, unless you need AVIVO and there is no hack to enable it on 3rd party cards at the time you receive your card.

 

[M0RPH]

I doubt this info is accurate but even if it was, couldn't you just flash the card with a BBA bios?

 

[vikingblade]

THE POINT IS...WE ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT HAVE TO FLASH, MOD OR DO ANYTHING TO GET A CARD TO GIVE US WHAT THEY CLAIM THEY ARE SELLING US.

As far as why i was looking at a Sapphire over an ATI.. Sapphire XT can be had for only $514, the ATI is considerably more expensive.

 

[vikingblade]

can someone please tell me exactly what i would be losing or what avivo gives me..

 

[Zenoth]

Avalon, yes, as a fact Sapphire GPU's are usually cheaper, have better warranties, and sometimes pack a better cooling solution.

Thing is ... the X1800 XT from Sapphire, at the very moment (they only have one version of the XT so far) has the BBA reference cooling. Just like any stock speeds XT on the market. Only difference in, or on the card is a freakin' sticker.

The only XT variant with a different cooling is the mega over-clocked one from ASUS. But even ASUS' version at stock speeds use the reference cooling.

My point here is ... when you buy a GPU, a non-Built-By-ATi one, then what is telling you it's better.

Don't you want the card itself to be better ?

Or you just want a "better" warranty, maybe better for a period of two or three months.

Or you want to save what ... 10, 15, or 20 bucks ?

If you want to simply save money, then, hey ... I do understand that. And I say go for it. It's alright.

But if you can financially, technically afford a BBA XT right now, go for it. And then buy a decent third party cooling, like Zalman's VF700. That even Sapphire "better coolers" couldn't beat.

And, personally, I find it difficult to believe that information. It might not be the case. Write an e-mail to Sapphire, or call them, to get the real information from them, if you're so mind focused on getting a Sapphire product, then I believe you should, as a responsible consumer. But that's just my opinions.

 

[M0RPH]

I wouldn't go doing anything drastic like returning the card. I seriously doubt that this is true. It makes zero sense. Sapphire's website is crap but if you go to Powercolor's site you'll notice that AVIVO is mentioned as a feature for all their X1K cards. At Newegg AVIVO is mentioned in the description for Sapphire cards. I think someone got some bad info from an ATI support person, or at least they misinterpreted something that was told to them.

 

[Zenoth]

Here ... vikingblade, that's what I thought, look at this:

Developing the new GPU series, ATI caused a mini-revolution in video-processing, too, by endowing the new-generation GPUs with hardware H.264 and VC-1 encoding and decoding capabilities. These two formats are the basis of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD standards, respectively.

Source: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-x1000_9.html

So, don't worry, Sapphire X1K products all support AVIVO.

It's a feature that's integrated within the X1K's hardware, which means Sapphire couldn't "disable" it, or couldn't "forget about it" even if they wanted to.

 

[rbV5]

Sounds like BS to me. What AVIVO features are unsupported? Sapphire products are Certified ATI products, I seriously doubt they won't support AVIVO. I doubt ATI's DVD decoder is "required" for AVIVO features anyway.

The Sapphire X1800XT clearly shows the AVIVO logo on the side panel Link

 

[Zenoth]

Upon reading more about that ...

I noticed that it's the software needed to actually "use" AVIVO features that's in question here. And not the actual capability of it.

So, my mistake.

Well, Sapphire, Powercolor, HIS ... it still makes no differences though. They're all capable of AVIVO, since it's an hardware feature. They can all do it physically, technically.

But it remains to be seen if the actual software will be "compatible" for other brands.

I believe that Sapphire should, or will release a software made by themselves to support it, if ATi refuses to let them use the first party tools for AVIVO.

And I bet someone somewhere will eventually come up with something that works on all cards.

Besides ... all that information still needs to be confirmed by ATi and Sapphire as well.

 

[rbV5]

believe that Sapphire should, or will release a software made by themselves to support it,

Sapphire bundles Cyberlink PowerDVD, a more advanced version of ATI's Cyberlink decoder. I call shens on the internet post.

 

[vikingblade]

how can this be confirmed one way or the other..

 

[Beiruty]

By the end of this month, all new ATI card will enjoy the new AVIVO, i.e. assited hardware decoding AND encoding of new MPEG-4 Classs codecs.

 

[nRollo]

I pretty much doubt this, as there would be much public outcry about it, not one post on a forum?

BBA cards can't even really be considered now with their abysmal one year warranty plan, so I have to assume most people are buying partner cards so they don't have to worry about flushing hundreds of dollars if their card fails at 366 days>.

I don't have much faith in ATIs business decisions of late, but this would be like smashing their customers faces into the mud while yelling "Eat it! Eat it!".

 

[Hacp]

MAYBe......

SInce its OEM, sapphire doesn't include the software to enable the feature and you have to buy the software seperatly in order to enable it????

Sounds pretty weird

 

[Paratus]

If it's true then it's another case of greed & terminal stupidity.

It's more likely that the transcode ability requires ATI software (at first) that will be free for BBA cards but cost something for partner card owners. Isn't this the same thing Nv did with Pv?


posted via Palm Life Drive

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Paratus
If it's true then it's another case of greed & terminal stupidity.

It's more likely that the transcode ability requires ATI software (at first) that will be free for BBA cards but cost something for partner card owners. Isn't this the same thing Nv did with Pv?


posted via Palm Life Drive

not entirely since NV dont make or sell any cards themselves they just make the GPU's
and the reason you had to pay for the NVDVD decoder thing was because nvidia had to pay royalties to use the dvd decode (something about the guys who invented dvd or something? meant they had to pay them royalties for the decoder or something) which is why you ended up paying for it.

probably the same with ATI, they will also have to pay for the DVD decoder bit, and they'll jus pass on the cost.

 

[Stoneburner]

Does anybody know how avivo works yet? I'd imagine if it used the regular GPU transistors then any card could be made to perform the tasks, but some people think it may be wholly separate.

It's getting harder and harder to decide what to get