Radeon Card Manufacturer Recommendations?

[Tierce]

I've had my head buried in Nvidia for the last few years and have not kept up to speed on which Radeon card manufacturers are the most reliable and which should be avoided. For Nvidia I always go with EVGA or XFX. First look at the options for ATI, I see ASUS which I know is a quality parts maker, and Sapphire which I know has been making ATI cards for quite awhile. The rest though, Powercolor, HIS, Diamond, Gigabyte, MSI, VisionTek, I do not know anything about their reputation. If someone could illuminate me with their personnel experience, I would appreciate it.

 

[OCGuy]

Ive never personally owned a Visiontek, but that is the brand that people seem to recommend around here, due to a "true" lifetime warranty.

There is a good deal on one for $235 AMIR and coupon code at newegg right now if you were looking at the 4870...

http://forums.slickdeals.net/s...?sduid=115999&t=899721

 

[QuixoticOne]

I'd go with VisionTek due to the lifetime warranty.
Even so, I think they are not as good as XFX or EVGA.
VisionTek seems kind of slow to update their web site, the BIOS for their cards, to reply usefully (or at all) in their online forums, et. al. Basically you're not getting much online "support" you're getting a warranty that may be there when some other cards' warranties have expired, and that's about it.

Now I've heard horror stories about places like Sapphire in terms of support / rebates / RMAs / forum "support", cheaping out on the components on customized board versions, et. al. and because of that I'm disinclined to ever buy their stuff.

I wouldn't buy an expensive GPU with only a 1 year or less warranty. YMMV if it is worth it to you to get a 3 year warranty or something from some vendor.

I've heard that it is a decent idea to buy from some e-tailer like Newegg that often has a 1 year return for replacement warranty / option of their own on some products, so if you have a problem within that time you can get them to exchange it instead of having to deal with the OEM's support / RMA process which can be more slow / painful / expensive than just dealing with Newegg. If you do want that read the fine print and make sure your board is covered by those terms of course.