HIS, VisionTek, Diamond, Sapphire, or PowerColor

[CP5670]

Ok, so if I bought a HIS card from Newegg how would the RMA process work? Would I send it in to Newegg and have them give me a new one?

Newegg gives you their own, separate warranty on it, so you can ignore HIS's warranty altogether (which is the same one year length) and just go through Newegg exclusively.

HIS apparently sends you to their North American distributor if you try going through them. Someone here tried to do it a while ago (forget who it was now) and it took them something like four months to get the new card.

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, i forgot that newegg's warranty is one year. anything other than sapphire (before the 2 years is up) or Visiontek you'll never have to deal with their "crappy" service anyway. yet another reason to use newegg, as if we needed any more...

 

[ronnn]

HIS is good around here, as NCIX does the warranty service for the first year. Easy rma and after a year, probably worth little, as prices drop.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Originally posted by: Jessica69


Sapphire....the biggest selling brand. But heaven help you if you need to RMA one.....you'll then get the pleasure of dealing with Sapphire's forums and GreenGekko, the gatekeeper of all things RMA for Sapphire. Naturally, GG will blame everything but the card as being wrong, esp. if you have the "wrong" power supply, at least in his eyes.....and it doesn't matter if your particular power supply is indeed certified for use for your card by ATi/AMD and Sapphire.....he knows better than ATi about power supplies. Of course, his stupidity really shows when you say you have a Corsair HX620 and he blasts it as being junk and underpowered and his PCP&C 610, what you should have used, is vastly superior because it's made better....despite the fact both are essentially identical power supplies--both made by Seasonic. He'll also blame your motherboard, your RAM, the phase of the moon.....anything but the card. Sapphire may be fine as a brand, but the hassle you have to put up with to get an RMA isn't worth it.

Yes GreenGekko is an ignorant fool...to him if it isn't Enermax, then it isn't worth powering a pile of dog crap.....I don't know why Sapphire hasn't canned that bastard, or why anyone would buy anything from them while a hack like him works for them.

unfortunately I am seeing in this thread, that none of the ATI vendors are as good at customer service as vendors like eVGA, BFG and XFX

edit: After taking another stroll over to Sapphire's forums, let me include that all of the regulars on Sapphire's forums are ignorant fools who think they are electrical engineers, but wouldn't know how to look at a diagram and put batteries in a flashlight the correct way.

 

[HannibalX]

I can't speak for the newer ATi cards but my X1950 Pro by Asus is NOT a reference design. Asus has changed the board layout as well as engineered their own cooling solution which results in a much better card than a reference ATi X1950 Pro.

 

[octopus41092]

So, since newegg has their own warranty do they allow overclocking/changing the cooler or does that void the warranty as well.

 

[Hunt3rj2]

Ditto Octopus.

I sure hope so, when you get that warranty you pay extra. I don't think that Newegg would actually balk about it, but they might anyway. Off to go read the fine print on Newegg's warranty.

EDIT: Read the warranty TOS, and it says the warranty will not cover equipment that has been altered. If any company had a warranty policy that allowed you to change the cooler then I think they would have a lot of customers. We need eVga to start selling ATI cards.

 

[taltamir]

so... who is the best?

 

[Hunt3rj2]

Taltamir, I'd say that VisionTek is the best if you aren't going to replace the cooler, and Asus would be best if you are planning to replace the cooler, simply because Asus has better quality (I think.) and also even if you aren't going to replace the cooler or overclock, they have the custom fan control, which helps to lower temps quite a bit.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
Yes video brand matters!

I always buy HIS because I find the ICEQ3 cooling to be very efficent and quiet

excellent point, I'm anxiously waiting to see prices on iceQ 4850's...

btw, my his 3870 has been great though I haven't had any rma headaches, either. of course, I never would be able to rma it since I also flashed the bios and oc'd it (though it's back to stock bios and stock clocks now).

I am waiting for the HIS 4850 with ICEQ or maybe a HIS 4870 with ICEQ to become available

 

[manko]

I saw a report that said HIS ICEQ 4800 cards are supposed to be out by the end of July.

I'm also trying to hold out for different cooling options, 1GB and a slight price drop. The sooner the better.

 

[octopus41092]

Would the ICEQ cooler be better than an Accelero S1 Rev 2 with AS5? Because from what Ive seen the Accelero drops it down to 30-40C. Also, how much more does the card with the ICEQ cooler cost?

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: octopus41092
Would the ICEQ cooler be better than an Accelero S1 Rev 2 with AS5? Because from what Ive seen the Accelero drops it down to 30-40C. Also, how much more does the card with the ICEQ cooler cost?

accelero will almost certainly be better. iceq is an improvement but it's not magic like the accelero, at least for 38x0 it wasn't. expect to pay ~ $20 more.

 

[Munky]

I've owned cards from several Ati manufacturers, and didn't have any problems, so they're all the same as far as I'm concerned. I just go with whomever has the lowest prices.

 

[InCrYsIs]

I just got 2 ASUS 4850's. They are slightly overclocked and newegg has a rebate for 30 bucks. They are sweet!

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Hunt3rj2
Taltamir, I'd say that VisionTek is the best if you aren't going to replace the cooler, and Asus would be best if you are planning to replace the cooler, simply because Asus has better quality (I think.) and also even if you aren't going to replace the cooler or overclock, they have the custom fan control, which helps to lower temps quite a bit.

visiontek and asus, got it. I will be looking for the 4870x2 from them as soon as it comes out.

 

[Bateluer]

Well, I ordered a HIS 4870 . . .because it was the only card Newegg had in stock. Hopefully, it will arrive before the Fourth of July so I can play with it over the long weekend.

Edit - My HIS 4870 just hit Step 5 and had shipped. Looks like I got lucky and got one of the few cards they had. Actually ordered it at work between running on T/S tickets.

The Sapphire 4870 is instock at Newegg right now, but probably not for long.

 

[Magusigne]

I ended up with a Sapphire 4870 from Ebay with the Hotdeal of 200 dollars shipped We'll see how the sapphire works out.

 

[taltamir]

200$ for a 4870 is just pure awesome. great deal.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: munky
I've owned cards from several Ati manufacturers, and didn't have any problems, so they're all the same as far as I'm concerned. I just go with whomever has the lowest prices.

QFT.

Would the ICEQ cooler be better than an Accelero S1 Rev 2 with AS5? Because from what Ive seen the Accelero drops it down to 30-40C. Also, how much more does the card with the ICEQ cooler cost?

Accelero S1 would be better. The IceQ cooler is nice but it doesn't compare to real aftermarket cooling, its more of a "well I can buy a reference card or a IceQ for a few $ more...I might aswell get the IceQ" kind of thing.

 

[imported_Harkonnen]

I say AMD/ATI and its board partners should get off their asses and start offering decent warranties on their cards. Instead of screwing the customer over with crappy service or ridiculous fees to get the warranty honored.

I am really considering getting a 4870 when I upgrade, but I am still leaning over towards nVidia due to their excellent warranties. I mean EVGA covers you if you set the card on fire overclocking it. Is it really too much to ask for AMD/ATI?

The bonuses of EVGA's warranty make me strongly consider a 9800GTX+ instead.

So AMD/ATI and board partners put a lifetime warranty with free customer service and RMA shipping and you will get my dollars for sure!

 

[ochadd]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Ochadd, your card's failure couldn't supposedly have anything to do with you overclocking and reflashing it ?

The restarts were around before I ever tweaked the card. As with all the original 3870s the fan would never spool up fast enough and the thing would over heat and crash. The new fan profile kept the temps down so I cranked it up and didn't see any more crashes than I did at stock clocks with more CFM.

The restarts are very unpredictable and I've pulled 12 hour straight sessions of Mass Effect, Grid, and Assassins Creed since then with maybe one restart in a 12 hour period. Some times none. I had this same system but with an EVGA 7800 GT and didn't have any restart problems.

Even with what's happened I'd still be willing to pick up an HIS card for the right price. All things equal though I'd pick a different vendor and would lean towards Asus as I've been really impressed with their motherboards over the years.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: alexpkeaton
Thank you for that run down Jessica. Very helpful.

Second here too.
Her $0.02 though short but very informative.
Good to know that up front since I've betrayed the ATI camp for so long now.

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: Jessica69
My take on ATi video cards......and this is coming from using a lot of different ATi cards over the years, even before the X800 Pro I still have running in my Mother's system.....

Powercolor is, at least to my eyes, the "poor man's" choice in ATi partner cards. Powercolor tends to cut the number of components on the card to the bare minimum to make them work. Take the 3850/3870 series. If you compare their cards to others, like ASUS, Sapphire, HIS, etc., the MOSFET's on the Powercolor cards are fewer in number and frequently eschew heatsinks that are applied by other partner cards. Powercolor has also sometimes put plain electrolytic caps in place of the solid caps found on other brands....but Powercolor cards tend to be cheaper in a lot of cases.

Sapphire....the biggest selling brand. But heaven help you if you need to RMA one.....you'll then get the pleasure of dealing with Sapphire's forums and GreenGekko, the gatekeeper of all things RMA for Sapphire. Naturally, GG will blame everything but the card as being wrong, esp. if you have the "wrong" power supply, at least in his eyes.....and it doesn't matter if your particular power supply is indeed certified for use for your card by ATi/AMD and Sapphire.....he knows better than ATi about power supplies. Of course, his stupidity really shows when you say you have a Corsair HX620 and he blasts it as being junk and underpowered and his PCP&C 610, what you should have used, is vastly superior because it's made better....despite the fact both are essentially identical power supplies--both made by Seasonic. He'll also blame your motherboard, your RAM, the phase of the moon.....anything but the card. Sapphire may be fine as a brand, but the hassle you have to put up with to get an RMA isn't worth it.

Other brands.....ASUS, Visiontek, Diamond, MSI, HIS, Gigabyte......should be all decent. I've been using ASUS in my last two ATi purchases (2 x 3870 and my new 4850) and have never had a moment's problem with any of them. I do like ASUS' Smart Doctor utility which allows you to control your fan speed without a third party software hack. Haven't heard much negative about Visiontek or HIS either. Diamond and MSI are pretty small players.......both are sold but I honestly don't know many who run them.

Just my two cents' worth of opinion......

Jessica, Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to avoid Powercolor and Saphire when I'm ready to drop some $$. I'll probably avoid HIS too based on some of the feedback from this thread.

It looks like the safer bets are Asus, Visiontek, Diamond, MSI and Gigabyte.

 

[octopus41092]

Ended up getting an ASUS HD 4850 since it was the cheapest and I'm voiding my warranty with all of them anyways.