Straight Dope on Newegg Radeon 7500's?

[Auric]

What does the $130 model have that the $95 one does not? The latter's picture shows the same connectors thought the title in bold does not. I'm really thinking of getting one soon, though the AIW 7500 is tempting also.

 

[eplebnista]

The cards are the same, just made by different manufacturer's. The card that has the ATI sticker on the fan is probably made by ATI, while the other card with the blue/white sticker was manufactured by another company that uses ATI's chips. You might email Newegg about the pictures though, because the $95 one has the ATI sticker, and I've run into a few errors before with their listings, as it seems like the ATI made card would have the higher price.

My $.02,
eplebnista

 

[PCHPlayer]

You need to be very careful with the ATI line. Most e-tailers do not make the distinction between "Built by ATI" and "Powered by ATI". This is especially true on price watch. The only site that is completely clear is Axion Tech. They actually list the manufacturer as Power Color.
I just got a AIW 7500. Great 2D, good game performance and the TIVO like function is really cool. I have not played with the video capture stuff yet. I probably paid top dollar at Best Buy, but what the heck. I am very happy with it.

 

[Killrose]

There are two offerings, those made by Ati and those powered by Ati. The Ati's are the Retail Box and the Plain white box Ati. The OEM/powered by Ati are made by a company other than Ati and I would stay away from those. Someone a month ago bought an OEM/powered by 7500 cheapy (the one with-out TV, DVI out) and reported that the ram was like 6ns and the core/mem clocked rediculously low.

Buy the Made by Ati 7500 for $95.00, and not the OEM/powered by Ati. I just looked, and the one you want is in the Ati section, though confusing because it mentions powered by the Ati Radeon 7500 chip. But as long as it say's Ati on the PCB and the fan go for it. Mine is great.

 

[Auric]

Thanks for the info gang. I am aware of the "Powered by" and "Built by" thing but Newegg makes it confooziating. I gathered from the reviews that the $95 one is made by Saphire and now has 4ns Hynix RAM, but looking at the pictures again as y'all mentioned it has the ATI sticker. Arg! What really concerns me is if it is not like the picture at all and lacks the TVO Hydravision stuff since the bold title text does not mention it like the $130 one. Plus, as said why would a non-ATI one cost so much more. That is darn near retail too. I did e-mail them but got no response.