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New diamond cards, any good?

D

Delorian

Senior member
Hey all, I've kept my good ol GeForce 2 Ti for a LONG time now and it's served me very well until now. I know I'm gonna need a newer card to keep up, but I'm kind of unsure which card to go with. Anyone who loved fast video back 6-7 years ago should definitely remember Diamond Multi-Media Cards. I had two of them, An ancient but sweet at the time 1 MB VLB diamond (I don't remember the model #) and a diamond viper V770 ultra agp w/32 megs ddr. Both cards were great back in the 3dfx/Riva days. Now it seems as though Diamond is re-entering the video card business after taking an extended vacation and is producing both nvidia and ATI cards. I was wondering if anyone had tried either of these and if these new diamond cards are any good, and would you choose ATI or Nvidia (for diamond or any other brand). I know the current cards they have out are in the (mid-low range) but I just got a processor and mobo upgrade and am trying to save a few bucks, so that's right up my alley.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
differant company entirely, this is not the diamond you knew
Click to expand...

Where did you pull that out of?



Check it..

Whether or not someone "bought" the diamond name is irrelevant. Thats the "Diamond" Logo that I remember.
 
The company "Diamond" has changed hands so many times. It's really is no longer a company, just a logo. Although I can say I have had my share of Diamond sound, video, and modems in my day. They all were top of the line. Diamond in my opinion used be like the creative labs of soundcards, although they didn't make their own gpus.
 
Originally posted by: Chucko
The company "Diamond" has changed hands so many times. It's really is no longer a company, just a logo. Although I can say I have had my share of Diamond sound, video, and modems in my day. They all were top of the line. Diamond in my opinion used be like the creative labs of soundcards, although they didn't make their own gpus.
Click to expand...

So a fictional company is producing vid cards. Why does the amount of times a company changes hands define whether its a company or not.
Whoever owns Diamond now has the Diamond Multimedia company name and all the rights to it. Its like me going to PNY and purchasing them.
Of course I would keep the same name because its known. I would produce the same products because they were proven. So only difference would be "under new ownership" and that only matters to stockholders. Hopefully, they will produce great parts like they used to.

 
Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
differant company entirely, this is not the diamond you knew
Click to expand...

Where did you pull that out of?



Check it..

Whether or not someone "bought" the diamond name is irrelevant. Thats the "Diamond" Logo that I remember.
Click to expand...


"Recently, Best Data Products acquired three brands from the former Diamond Multimedia including Diamond Stealth and Viper graphics cards as well as Diamond SupraMax modems. We do not have rights to other previous Diamond products such as MP3 players, sound cards, or other products. These products should be considered end-of-life and out of warranty. "

Taken from: http://www.diamondmm.com/support.html

Best Data Website: http://www.bestdata.com/

I put best data in the same ballpark as i/o magic . They make stuff that works, but doesnt work good as others... and customer service is crap. I recall some stores (staples and officemax) having best data modems free after rebate.
 
?

they hardly make any "stuff". much of what they "make' is simply a rebadged product made by a "brand name" manufacturer.

and what does "free after mir" have to do with quality? there are many inexpensive, but good, products which can be purchased for 'free' after mir.
 
The point is that it's probably not the same team behind the Diamond name, so there's no point in buying Diamond now because of fondness of Diamond past. That's not to say current Diamond cards aren't good. Just don't judge a new book by the old one's cover. Or something. 😉

Anyway, they only seem to offer low-end cards. You'd do better finding a good price on a faster card. What's your budget, Delorian?
 
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
?

they hardly make any "stuff". much of what they "make' is simply a rebadged product made by a "brand name" manufacturer.

and what does "free after mir" have to do with quality? there are many inexpensive, but good, products which can be purchased for 'free' after mir.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? I never related the two sentences. I just stated that i recall seeing modems free after rebate. Read, comprehend, then remark!
 
Why does the amount of times a company changes hands define whether its a company or not.
Click to expand...

Because you aren't talking about a Diamond card, you are talking about a DR board that has a Diamond logo. For another example- look at Hercules. The Hercules we have today is a shadow of its former self, as it is no longer its former self. The company went out of business some time ago and the Hercules brand name was purchased by Guillemot(sic?) as a tool for them to work their way in to the high end market. When you purchased a Hercules product previously you were getting something extra over the norm- usually a faster product to binning and superior cooling solutions/faster RAM. After the name changed hands, all of those employees who were making sure a Herc board was better then the masses were no longer involved with the company. There acquirers made a vague attempt at emulating some of the former Hercs traits, but they quickly gave up on that and decided to make the boards look cool and call it a day. All of the engineers that were involved in giving Hercules the name it had, were no longer involved with the brand when it collapsed.

For another possible example nothing is stopping CreativeLabs from releasing A3D-4 support in their next sound cards, they own the rights to even go so far as calling it a Vortex3 based solution. We would all know that it was a farse as those who were fond of what Aureal was doing in the market know their engineers have nothing to do with Creative(most of them are at nVidia last I was aware). Actually, CL put them out of business with legal fees so those that were big fans of Aureal likely wouldn't even look at a CL product until they had to- probably the reason why they never did use the A3D name.

BFG Technologies is gaining quite a bit of marketshare, at some point it is possible that they could purchase the Gainward name as Gainward is another company that has built a reputation customers will pay extra for. They go over spec on their PCBs and offer assured levels of overclock, and they don't void your warranty in these limits, that have given them a strong name. BFG could buy the Gainward name, can all the employees and then release a BFG board with a Gainward name. Would it really be a Gainward card? No. The people that made Gainward what it is wouldn't be involved. This is much like the situation with Diamond(although I have to say I never thought their gfx cards were top of the line, they were run of the mill offerings that had a good price and broad market penetration- they certainly weren't in Herc's league).

Atari is now inside the Epic family- UT2K4 is being published under the Atari label IIRC- I can assure you that Nolan Bushnell has nothing to do with that project 😉
 
Here's a review of a new Diamond card I came across a couple weeks ago.

Diamond Stealth S80 Review @ HotHardware.Com

* Radeon 9200SE Visual Processing Unit (VPU)
* Core Clock Speed 200MHz

* 128MB of DDR RAM
* 180MHz DDR / 360MHz Effective Speed
* 64-bit Memory Interface

$67 shipped at Newegg

Performance is pretty low, but then what would you really expect from a 9200SE. Their S90 FX5200 based card would be a better deal speed-wise, it's $79. But then a Sapphire 9600 is only $15 more than that..

Diamond's prices seem relatively high compared to other brands with equivalent products, at Newegg anyway. I suppose some people are willing to pay extra for the Diamond name, if that means anything nowadays.
 
Originally posted by: TheMouse
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
?

they hardly make any "stuff". much of what they "make' is simply a rebadged product made by a "brand name" manufacturer.

and what does "free after mir" have to do with quality? there are many inexpensive, but good, products which can be purchased for 'free' after mir.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? I never related the two sentences. I just stated that i recall seeing modems free after rebate. Read, comprehend, then remark!
Click to expand...

what am i talking about?

I put best data in the same ballpark as i/o magic . They make stuff that works, but doesnt work good as others... and customer service is crap. I recall some stores (staples and officemax) having best data modems free after rebate.
Click to expand...

you made a statement about quality of thier prodcuts, immediately followed by one (in the same paragraph) regarding "free products", which means that either a) the statment is used to reinforce the previous statement, or b) they are completely unrelated and the don't belong in the same paragraph (or the same post, for that matter) and you have no clue how to write.

that's what i was 'talking' about. 😉


 
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
Originally posted by: TheMouse
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
?

they hardly make any "stuff". much of what they "make' is simply a rebadged product made by a "brand name" manufacturer.

and what does "free after mir" have to do with quality? there are many inexpensive, but good, products which can be purchased for 'free' after mir.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? I never related the two sentences. I just stated that i recall seeing modems free after rebate. Read, comprehend, then remark!
Click to expand...

what am i talking about?

I put best data in the same ballpark as i/o magic . They make stuff that works, but doesnt work good as others... and customer service is crap. I recall some stores (staples and officemax) having best data modems free after rebate.
Click to expand...

you made a statement about quality of thier prodcuts, immediately followed by one (in the same paragraph) regarding "free products", which means that either a) the statment is used to reinforce the previous statement, or b) they are completely unrelated and the don't belong in the same paragraph (or the same post, for that matter) and you have no clue how to write.

that's what i was 'talking' about. 😉
Click to expand...

you have no argument. grammer is never of importance in these forums. My statement reguarding their quality is based on the fact that I own 4 of their 56k modems. I wasn't writing a paper, I was stating my opinions as they were being formed. No one pays attention to writing format on here.. not even you. Which is EXACTLY why in your response to my opinion, your paragraphs both start with lowercase.. and your second paragraph starts with the word "and". So, we can conclude that a) You are coming up with bogus excuses to make it look like you have an argument, b) you're a hypocrite, and finally c) you dont know how to write, yourself.
rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: TheMouse
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
Originally posted by: TheMouse
Originally posted by: CaiNaM
?

they hardly make any "stuff". much of what they "make' is simply a rebadged product made by a "brand name" manufacturer.

and what does "free after mir" have to do with quality? there are many inexpensive, but good, products which can be purchased for 'free' after mir.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? I never related the two sentences. I just stated that i recall seeing modems free after rebate. Read, comprehend, then remark!
Click to expand...

what am i talking about?

I put best data in the same ballpark as i/o magic . They make stuff that works, but doesnt work good as others... and customer service is crap. I recall some stores (staples and officemax) having best data modems free after rebate.
Click to expand...

you made a statement about quality of thier prodcuts, immediately followed by one (in the same paragraph) regarding "free products", which means that either a) the statment is used to reinforce the previous statement, or b) they are completely unrelated and the don't belong in the same paragraph (or the same post, for that matter) and you have no clue how to write.

that's what i was 'talking' about. 😉
Click to expand...

you have no argument. grammer is never of importance in these forums. My statement reguarding their quality is based on the fact that I own 4 of their 56k modems. I wasn't writing a paper, I was stating my opinions as they were being formed. No one pays attention to writing format on here.. not even you. Which is EXACTLY why in your response to my opinion, your paragraphs both start with lowercase.. and your second paragraph starts with the word "and". So, we can conclude that a) You are coming up with bogus excuses to make it look like you have an argument, b) you're a hypocrite, and finally c) you dont know how to write, yourself.
rolleye.gif
Click to expand...

heh.. there's a difference between choosing to use proper capitalization and the inability to articulate a cohesive thought. regardless of grammar or spelling, the one important thing in forums it to get your thoughts/opinions conveyed correctly. that's the whole point of a forum. why bother sharing your opinion if you can't unable to state it properly?

a) i make no excuses, and make no argument. i simply pointed out that one thing you said had nothing to do with the other.
b) do you know what hypocrite means? you call me one, yet i have not contradicted myself in any way. you're reaching for an insult, and it shows.
c) actually i do, but that's not really the point, is it? 🙂

 
A sad day it is to see that the once proud Diamond MM company is no longer what it once was. The Best Data Diamond Stealth cards have flopped in reviews as in terms of performance. If the card was cheap (maybe 40 dollars) it might be worth a look for a true budget finder but as far as getting a performing card for a decent price the Stealth line definitely isn't in the running. The Vipers may well be much better cards when they are released, as they were originally geared towards gamers, I don't believe the price will reflect the card very well. I might wait just to see what the Vipers have to offer but I think my best bet is to stick to an asylum card for now. They seem to offer some of the best value out there. Thanks to all for your responses and help. If there are any good deals on a certain asylum card let me know!
 
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