Is there a big difference between ATI 9700Pro and OEM?

Civic2oo1x

Senior member
Jan 29, 2002
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I see that the ATI version of the 9700 Pro is selling for around $330 on newegg. And then I see Power Color 9700. Is there a big difference in performance between the two?
 

filmore crashcart

Senior member
Dec 18, 1999
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Be very careful with the PowerColor...... they have been selling a card with a pro ID that is basically clocked at 298/264. Some places are up front about the core speed, but not all places. If you want a real pro card, I would call this place and get them to tell you what this card is clocked at.
 

Civic2oo1x

Senior member
Jan 29, 2002
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Ok, but I see other cards like the Sapphire and Crucial which are cheaper then ATI's offering. Are they the same thing?
 

filmore crashcart

Senior member
Dec 18, 1999
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I know nothing about the Crucial card but the Sapphire, which I have, is basically the same thing. When you start dropping in price, you start loosing game bundles, fancy cooling, etc.,.. You need to decide what you want with the card and go from there. Make sure that they advertise the card's core and memory speed. PowerColor is the only one I know so far that pushed an oem, supposed "pro", card on the market that is not clocked to pro speeds. After I got this card and returned it because it wasn't a real pro, I checked sites that were selling it and not all of them were upfront about the core/mem speed. They'll lead you to believe that it is an authentic "pro" card.
 

majewski9

Platinum Member
Jun 26, 2001
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Actually I think the saphhire card is the fastest around. They all are pretty good!
 

stryder2929

Senior member
Oct 23, 2002
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saphire, crucial, hercules, ati and most of the others (not powercolor) are all the same

only difference is appearance and some cooling variations...

you'll be fine with all of them


hercules is supposed to be the best one for overclocking followed by the ati and saphire

i have the ati and love it
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
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Biggest difference, as has been the trend in recent years, would be Memory speed and quality of RAMDAC (2D quality). Its pretty clear the cores are identical (as they seem to be identical to the 9500/pros). With a BIOS flash, you should be able to get the core to at least Pro specs, but the RAM probably won't be able to handle Pro speeds.

Chiz