Original vs OEM Radeon 9700 Pro image quality

[Goi]

Hi guys,
I'm gonna be getting a Radeon 9700 Pro soon. Originally I was set on getting an original ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, but where I am they're a bit more expensive than the OEM makes from Hercules, Gigabyte and Creative. From Toms Hardware I read that the Hercules and Gigabyte aren't particularly good in their signal quality(aka 2D image quality) as compared to the other OEMs and the original ATI. Does anyone have any personal experience on this? I'm using a 21" Nokia 445XPro monitor at 1600x1200@85Hz, so signal quality is important too.

Thanks!

 

[Lizardman]

if they have the red pcb then they are the same ones manufactured by ati.

 

[Goi]

Are you sure of that? The Hercules model is greenish blue, and the Gigabyte model is red, but both aren't rated very good in Tomshardware, despite the fact that both are claimed to be "reference designs".

 

[Brian48]

None of this is surprising. In fact, it's expected.

Just because they follow the reference design to the letter, doesn't mean they all get the same parts from the same place. This has been why the image quality on the GeForce has been so inconsistent from brand to brand. It all depends on the quality of the DACs and supporting components, all of which add to the final production cost for the manufacturer. They will assemble their cards using the best components that's within their manufacturing budget, but sometimes, "best" is only adequate because of teh cost. Up until now, ATI has had full (or near to it) quality control over the manufacture of their products. Now that they've opened up their doors to 3rd party vendors, inconsistencies like this are bound to occur.

 

[Sarge1]

Text
$310 for the Sapphire 9700 Pro OEM. I got one and it's great! I think it is an actual ATI board (they make OEM boards for ATI I think). It is a revision 1 with the square black heatsink and fan, only says ATI on the board.

 

[Superman9534]

do NOT Get a Sapphire! I got a Sapphire 8500LE and it was SOO underclocked it wasn't even FUNNY! It was 200mhz RAM instead of 250 and 5.5ns! Newegg took it back since it was under the advertised speed.

 

[Taz4158]

Originally posted by: Superman9534
do NOT Get a Sapphire! I got a Sapphire 8500LE and it was SOO underclocked it wasn't even FUNNY! It was 200mhz RAM instead of 250 and 5.5ns! Newegg took it back since it was under the advertised speed.

Thanks for your hysterical response but the Sapphire 9700 is clocked the same as the ATI boards.