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Powercolor ATI Radeon vs ATI Radeon
- Thread starter farmercal
- Start date
Fern
Elite Member
Firstly, Powercolor (or was it Sapphire?) made a 128bit (not MB) instead of a 256 bit card. Obviously the 128 bit is way slower. Those were sold at a big discount fro obvious reasons. Stay away from those.
Secondly, I got my BBA (built by ATI) 9800 pro for $200 (with 3 yr warranty). I don't think a Powercolor is gonna sell for $100 (@50%). So maybe the BBA you're looking at is overpriced?
Third, Powercolor does not have a very good reputation. I steer away from them based on other's experience/comments
If the cards are 256 bit, 9800 pro with 128MB of vid memory, they should have at least the true 9800pro core (if not the XT core), they could differ in memory (ex. Samsung versus Hynix) which has some importance for OC'ing. Some of the more expensive versions can come with better cooling (hesatsink & fan). Maybe even a game thrown in. Mostly these differences are important for OCing (other than a free game).
My .02
Fern
Secondly, I got my BBA (built by ATI) 9800 pro for $200 (with 3 yr warranty). I don't think a Powercolor is gonna sell for $100 (@50%). So maybe the BBA you're looking at is overpriced?
Third, Powercolor does not have a very good reputation. I steer away from them based on other's experience/comments
If the cards are 256 bit, 9800 pro with 128MB of vid memory, they should have at least the true 9800pro core (if not the XT core), they could differ in memory (ex. Samsung versus Hynix) which has some importance for OC'ing. Some of the more expensive versions can come with better cooling (hesatsink & fan). Maybe even a game thrown in. Mostly these differences are important for OCing (other than a free game).
My .02
Fern
I've got a Powercolor 9800 SE which softmodded to 9800 pro with 380/680 and OCed to 408/720 with little effort and no artifacts. I think $152 for a card that can go to near 9800 XT speeds bought several months back is pretty good. I have had no problems at all with my powercolor card, though I've heard many more bad things about sapphire, but then again thats just what I've heard
You may also be looking at a ram difference, with the manufacturer not being the same, a cheaper 128mb brand 9800 pro would be nearly half the price of a BBA 9800 pro with 256mb.
Yes a 3-yr warranty is nice but if my card dies after a year then it's not worth that much anyhow. Within 3 yrs I'll be upgrading my card anyhow, so I think a 3 yr warranty is nothing to go out of your way for
You may also be looking at a ram difference, with the manufacturer not being the same, a cheaper 128mb brand 9800 pro would be nearly half the price of a BBA 9800 pro with 256mb.
Yes a 3-yr warranty is nice but if my card dies after a year then it's not worth that much anyhow. Within 3 yrs I'll be upgrading my card anyhow, so I think a 3 yr warranty is nothing to go out of your way for
Fern
Elite Member
Ackmed, that is silly, and you know better. There may be some validity to your post were we talking cpu's cuz Tom's is thought of as having an Intel bias. BUT, we're talking vid cards here so it's irrelevant.
THIS site is starting to look "not respectable" Here we have someone asking a legimate vid card question, and he's being told to run out and jump on this card w/o knowing the price, or that other sites are not "respectable" (i.e., don't bother checking other sources). (BTW, Not trying to pick on anybody individually above.)
If someone researched exactly one source b4 buying a card and was disappointed. He'd prolly be flamed here as a nOOb for not checking multiple sources (what? I read the reviews at Newegg.com, they said it was good!)
BTW, peeps posting their experiences is helpful and valid in my opinion. WHICH is exactly what we should be doing here other than learning from fellow members (unless you wanna hang in P&N or OT)
farmercal Post the price of the cards, something seems wrong the price delta you quoted of 50%. You can also compare prices with pricegrabber or some other price/feature comparison-type site to see if they are in-line with the norm.
Peace,
Fern
Its not silly. Toms is not regarded by most hardware enthusiast as a respectable site.
Your own quote of them proves this. Calling Gigabyte, "Gigapuke" is just plain bad form. And not professional at all.
Saying Powercolor does not have a good reputation because Tom's said that in a article, is ignorant at best. One site, does not make a call for everyone.
"This site" is not the site, its the forums. So your blabbering about that is not relevent.
Trust in them all you want, I dont read them, and have not for years. They've proven time and time again not to be trusted.
Your own quote of them proves this. Calling Gigabyte, "Gigapuke" is just plain bad form. And not professional at all.
Saying Powercolor does not have a good reputation because Tom's said that in a article, is ignorant at best. One site, does not make a call for everyone.
"This site" is not the site, its the forums. So your blabbering about that is not relevent.
Trust in them all you want, I dont read them, and have not for years. They've proven time and time again not to be trusted.