Best Brand for ATI Cards?

U

UL

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2000
Messages
462
Seen a lot of buz about XFX and HIS cards?

Just wondering before I grab a 5850... Maybe some one similar to EVGA in terms of customer support, step up, warranty?
 
XFX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> all others.

seriously, youre not going to get any different answers.
 
Visiontek because it's the only American ATI card producer and because it offers lifetime warranties for all cards.
 
All I can see is Sapphire has the WORST customer support and RMA procedures I have ever seen. I'm in Canada so it might be different in the USA but they don't offer end user RMA. If your card dies you have to bring it to the place it was purchased.

My 3870X2 died right about the time that the 4850 came out. I had to drive accross the city to brin my card to the store I bought it from. They sent it away for me and 3.5 weeks later my 3870X2 came back. I brought it home and plugged it in. As soon as I plug it in there's a terrible grinding sound comming from fan. I manage to get into windows and instal the drivers. The card starts artifacting right away.

So I bring it back to the store and the send it back. 5 weeks later I get another 3870X2. I bring it home and my computer wouldn't post with it in. I bring it back to the store and the technician notices something that looks like burn marks on the patr of the card that plugs into the mo-bo.

They send it back and 3 weeks later they get in a 4850 with a note that there are no more 3870X2's and this is my replacement. Obviously I'm pissed off since this card wasn't close in price or performance of my 3870X2.

Luckily the store I bought it from sympathized with my situation and gave my a 4870 on their dollar.

Damn that was a long story. Either way a company that has such poor quality control and non-existant canadian customer support should be avoided.at all costs.
 
XFX double liftime warranty, Vistiontek lifetime warranty, and Power Color 2 year warranty. All better then the average 1 year warranty. I emailed Power Color asking about thier warranty and got an email back within an hour letting me know its 2 years. So atleast they reply which is more then I can say for a lot of the others.
 
I've yet to see statistics on the Sapphire customer service. People love to rag on the largest supplier of ATI cards, but clearly the company is doing ok in its own right regardless.

Sapphire and Asus both design pretty amazing in-house versions of the ATI cards, and that's something that should matter, given that you will wait for them to be introduced in a month or two. The Vapor-X and Toxic versions of the 4890s are still, in my experience, the best versions introduced. They don't have the noice issue and sported a sizable overclock without a huge tradeoff in price.

But hey, different strokes for different folks.
 
XFX has the best warranty and support by far.

All other ATI manufacture have average to bad warranties and support.

Asus (average), HIS (bad) and Sapphire (bad) make some pretty nice unique heatsinks though. I would rate Asus over the other two for support.

I wish someone would list which ATI companies make you ship your defective video card out of the country. I hate this practice; higher shipping costs, longer turnarounds, terrible English.
 
I bought a sapphire 4850 from Newegg that ended up dying. Since it was purchased from Newegg, Newegg's great customer service helped me to replace it and the replacement came in typical shipping time (2 days) after they received my card.

In that respect, Sapphire's product costs the least and if you buy from a store with good customer service then you won't have a headache trying to get a replacement if something goes wrong and I would choose them unless their warranty policy changes.
 
Sapphire all the way. No issues with any of them (I have 4 working right now) and when they come out with the 5870 Toxic or Vapor X come out I will have 2 in CF mode.:D
 
All these "stock" cards are made by the same company(s)....the warranty, modifications, and "maybeeeee" any extra software are the only thing that matters....
 
dekruyter said:
All these "stock" cards are made by the same company(s)....the warranty, modifications, and "maybeeeee" any extra software are the only thing that matters....
Click to expand...

Exactly...

My only experience with XFX is with an nvidia card. My XFX 8800 GT had a faulty fan that was stuck at 100% speed. It didn't have the ability to be controlled by software. They mailed a replacement fan upon inquiry into the subject matter. Pretty solid.
 
XFX.

Never had an ATI video card from XFX though since my last ATI card is the X1900XT; before they decided to switch over to the red camp.
 
I have had several sapphire cards and they are good cards. I did have my 3870x2 lose one of the GPUs and the RMA was ok not fast, but it wasn't what I would call slow either. I like Asus mobos and thier vid cards are good too, but once a newer product is out they seem to drop support for the older hardware very quickly. I generally buy based on features and bundle. I just ordered an Asus 5870 because of the Dirt2 coupon and the voltage tweak.
 
Paradoxex said:
I've yet to see statistics on the Sapphire customer service. People love to rag on the largest supplier of ATI cards, but clearly the company is doing ok in its own right regardless.

Sapphire and Asus both design pretty amazing in-house versions of the ATI cards, and that's something that should matter, given that you will wait for them to be introduced in a month or two. The Vapor-X and Toxic versions of the 4890s are still, in my experience, the best versions introduced. They don't have the noice issue and sported a sizable overclock without a huge tradeoff in price.

But hey, different strokes for different folks.
Click to expand...

have you ever try their customer service before?

they completely blow, and they reply to you like 1 week after you email them.

sometime they didn't even reply, just pure ignorance.

and they ship the replacement card after 3 week of repairing?

if you call that good service, I think you got some problem.
 
I've read nothing but bad stuff in here about Saphire's customer service.
 
SKL1 said:
Hows MSIs CS ?
Click to expand...

MSI have lots of card failing problem from my past experience.
they also reduce the material use on their 4850, which was reported in Asian forum and confirmed.

so I wouldn't bother to try out MSI right now, best option is XFX / ASUS or maybe Gigabyte.
 
shansoft said:
MSI have lots of card failing problem from my past experience.
they also reduce the material use on their 4850, which was reported in Asian forum and confirmed.

so I wouldn't bother to try out MSI right now, best option is XFX / ASUS or maybe Gigabyte.
Click to expand...
I don't understand why they would release a new OCing tool (its called after burner) if their cards are crap.

Do you have a link for the "reduce the material use on their 4850" issue. I cant seem to find anything.
 
SKL1 said:
I don't understand why they would release a new OCing tool (its called after burner) if their cards are crap.

Do you have a link for the "reduce the material use on their 4850" issue. I cant seem to find anything.
Click to expand...

my bad, its HIS one.... but MSI does have lots of defective card in the past, no doubt about it.

use google translator, I am too lazy to add it up.
http://www.coolaler.com/showthread.php?t=202331

this is the original one
20.jpg


this is the "reduce the material use on their 4850" one

19.jpg
 
If EVGA made ATI cards they would be my fav.
XFX's 5870s last 30 seconds on newegg when they become available for a reason. I managed to snag one myself.
 
They also can put different ram chips on the board as well
 
XFX and Diamond hands down. I've used powercolor before in the past and they were solid, and at the time offering a lifetime warranty, the x1900 I have is still chugging along. I put a HIS 4670 in a computer for my Dad and the card was nice but I've read their CS is lacking especially because it's not based out of the USA.

I read somewhere that Diamond has the lowest percentage of bad boards out of any other ATi manufacturer. It's something like 0.85%. They also have USA based tech support and they were extremely helpful when trying to replace the stock cooler on my 4870.

At this point in time with the 5800's, every card you are going to get is pretty much going to to be the same because the board partners haven't had to time to release proprietary models. The hardware is the same so I would make your choice based on customer service and warranty and Diamond and XFX are the two I trust.
 
Surprised Power Color isn't getting any love. least their warranty isn't one year like most. I would have gone XFX if they were in stock though.
 
Copyright said:
Surprised Power Color isn't getting any love. least their warranty isn't one year like most. I would have gone XFX if they were in stock though.
Click to expand...

Now that I've heard some good things about PowerColor, I'll put them on my short list. I've had Made by ATI and Sapphire cards before. One Sapphire had to be RMA'ed (bought from newegg). The card to my knowledge is still working (gave it to a friend).
 
compuguy1088 said:
Now that I've heard some good things about PowerColor, I'll put them on my short list. I've had Made by ATI and Sapphire cards before. One Sapphire had to be RMA'ed (bought from newegg). The card to my knowledge is still working (gave it to a friend).
Click to expand...

Powercolor, Diamond and XFX. :D
 
I swore we already had another thread, with similar question, similar answers...


Still, XFX all the way. You just cannot beat an USA based, double lifetime warranty!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top