how can i tell if vidcard is oem or retail?

[ironxman99]

I am about to buy a new video card. How can I tell for sure whether it is retail or oem when it does not come in a box or anything?

 

[Harvey]

A retail card comes in a retail box. It may contain a slicker manual and the manufacturer may provide a CD that they do not give with an OEM card.

If you are buying it as part of a system, the dealer should give you the box and all the packaging. If someone is trying to sell you a card at a retail price without these things, find another dealer.

 

[ironxman99]

actually I am buying it off of an individual, not a retailer. no box or manual included, but says that its new retail. i wanna be sure.

 

[d33pt]

what is the difference..oem..retail..it's still the same card.. if it doesn't come with a box/manual then it might as well be oem because that is the only diff

 

[Nerd]

It might be retail, it might not be. Ask him if he still has the box, and everything that came with it. Sometimes people tend to throw away the box and things that came with it. I do that sometimes, but never again.

 

[ironxman99]

he has no box/manual. there is a difference in what i'm buying. radeon ddr 64mb oem is supposed to be slower than retail

 

[d33pt]

just clock it up to retail speeds then.. no biggie there either.

 

[dafatha00]

also, the retail card holds the retail warranty, OEM warranties are usually only covered for a 30 day period

 

[ironxman99]

what program can i download to check the speed? so if it says i.e. 160/160, what do each of the #s mean?

 

[d33pt]

that's your ram/core clock speed in mhz.. you can use powerstrip to oc it i think... it's been a while since i've done this stuff..
go in the video cards forum and ask.. ppl there know way more about this stuff

 

[ironxman99]

anyone know the default core/clock speed on a retail radeon ddr 64mb?

 

[ironxman99]

oops.. ram/core speed..

 

[rominl]

yeah, usually retail products have a longer warranty

 

[virtuamike]

<< what is the difference..oem..retail..it's still the same card.. if it doesn't come with a box/manual then it might as well be oem because that is the only diff >>



Very wrong. Depending on who makes the card there is a diffence. For example memory on the Hercules Prophet II MX 32MB retail ran at 183MHz, OEM at 166MHz. True you can clock the OEM up to 183 stable and maybe a little higher, but you could take the retail up to 220, and there's no way the OEM would run that high. Some makers will have TV-out on retail and leave it out on OEM, or in the case of Hercules use fast RAM on retail and slower on OEM. True there are some companies where the only difference is some software and packaging, but don't generalize it to all. Besides you get a better warranty with retail.

 

[ironxman99]

haha everyone seems somewhat confused. i know retail usually has longer warranty. i'm more concerned w/ performance.

 

[ironxman99]

yea, basically i heard that the oem radeon runs at about 160/160 something, while the retail runs at 180/180 something (not exact numbers). there are also oem versions that have VIVO, so that cannot be used to differentiate necessarily.

 

[ironxman99]

soo.. is powerstrip the best way to find out? by checking the ram/core speeds using the program?

 

[dafatha00]

virtuamike is correct, the difference in oem and retail cards really depends on the manufacturer of the card. i'm not sure if ati manufactures two different radeon cards

 

[aznmoshboy]

Retail cards are more expensive than OEM cards.