But I prefer ASUS, MSI and Sapphire for the overall quality of their products.
what information are you basing this on?lower qualty components?XFX used to be good. Now a lot of people are having problems with their 'lifetime' warranties not being honored, not to mention they use lower-quality components than reference at times to cut costs while not telling anyone about it. I think they're a dishonest company; therefore, I wouldn't recommend them (for now). In any case, there's few companies that have use these practices.
what information are you basing this on?lower qualty components?
No. You do have to check the model numbers of the cards you buy though. Ones that end with "AR" have the lifetime warranty. Ones that end with "KR" have a 3 year warranty, and you have to pay an extra fee to get it extended to lifetime.
ok cool, so let's keep the ball rolling. is there any good reason to go above 1 GB of VRAM on a video card? (single monitor)
Thanks for the correction.
Based purely on Anandtech's benchmarks (6950 vs 6950 1GB)... there's really no difference:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/331?vs=293#
Although, I do recall hearing that some newer games tend to favor more than 1GB of RAM. Personally, I just went with a 2GB card. There's a fairly sizable cost difference, but oh well.
Not to be offensive at all but MSI and sapphire equated with "quality" gave me a good laugh. Try RMAing with MSI and Sapphire sometime...probably change your opinion.
To be fair, to each his own. Obviously experiences differ.
You WILL have a marked benefit in CrossFire at resolutions 2560x1440 and higher with 4xAA/16xAF, so if you use these very high resolutions it can pay off.
Probably, because when more games start using more/better textures and higher precision depth and color buffers, then 2 GB will be a good idea.ok cool, so let's keep the ball rolling. is there any good reason to go above 1 GB of VRAM on a video card? (single monitor)
After paying $650 for an 8800GTX From eVGA and getting screwed over because I forgot to register the card within 30 days, I will never buy from them again. The card never worked right, but it was kind of hard to tell with nVidia's awful Vista drivers. It's not like the registration date even matters when they give you a lifetime warranty anyway. :\
I usually buy XFX now as they're one of the few companies that provides a decent warranty and it's transferable to a second party. I've got a 5870, 6950 and a low-end 5450 from XFX, and all of them work rather well.
XFX used to be good. Now a lot of people are having problems with their 'lifetime' warranties not being honored, not to mention they use lower-quality components than reference at times to cut costs while not telling anyone about it. I think they're a dishonest company; therefore, I wouldn't recommend them (for now). In any case, there's few companies that have used these practices.
You didn't register the card, that's your fault.
Is the double-lifetime warranty a 'sham' as well because XFX REQUIRES you to sign-up within 30 days (sound familiar?) of purchase? Don't believe me? Check their site: http://xfxforce.com/en-us/features/doublelifetimewarranty.aspx
The limited hardware warranty for Graphics Cards lasts for a time period of two years.
If you register the product online at http://www.xfxforce.com/ within 30 days of purchase, your limited warranty will be EXTENDED for the duration of your life. Registration within 30 days of the date of purchase is a condition precedent to receiving the lifetime warranty.***
Well, technically that's not correct. I did register my product, but not within this window. My issue with the 30-day requirement is that it doesn't seem to have a purpose. As long as I register with factual information, there's absolutely no difference at all!
here's the rather unpleasant truth with the 30 day requirement: it is to weed out stupid people who can't read/follow simple instructions.
otherwise you are right, there is no real purpose to the requirement. however, there's no real legitimate reason why you didn't register either, since it doesn't cost you any real effort nor do you have to go overly out of your way.
Its purpose is like you said, to weed out stupid people who dont register. And the purpose besides that is to save money, didn't register ? Tough. We keep the $ and dont have to honor the warranty. Its a shady practice but nearly all video card companies do it.
But still it all depends on who you get in touch with over the phone. If you go the lazy route and try to RMA via the internet they will decline you asap if you didn't register, call on the phone and the rep might overlook it and tell you to register the card and call him back [friend's experience with EVGA right there btw, always call 1st].