Pondering a switch to ATi

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Dethred

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Well, pending some more reviews of the 3870 X2, I will probably be switching to ATi/AMD again, although its been 7 years since my 7200 radeon.

My big questions are:

1.) Are there any companies that provide about the same level of service as XFX or EVGA on the following terms?
-Lifetime warranty? If not, what kind of warranty?
-Customer service. This is a big one, as EVGA has started to fail me on a regular basis and its very annoying.

2.) What complications will I have on the same Vista X64 installation changing from Nvidia to ATi drivers? I know ATi has been known to release poor drivers, so what would the situation be there?
 
1) I think almost all manufacturers provide 2 year warranty for their ATI boards, atleast thats what I see on all their cards here in Europe. In normal case a 3D card is pretty much dinosaur tech after 2 years so IMO thats as good as life long warranty. Cannot say nothing about the service quality, I have only had to change one ATI card in my whole life and thats was very long time ago.

2) You can throw that old "ATI drivers suck" down the drain, in fact the ATI drivers have been very good for the last couple years. People can hate CCC all they want , it doesn´t make the actual drivers any less good. And there are plenty of 3rd party solutions to use if CCC bugs you, ATItraytools and Atitool are the most popular ones.
 
I believe Visiontek and Powercolor have lifetime warranties.

I like CCC more than Nvidia's control panel.
 
I actually just went back to ATI after using a 7900GS for the past year. And am currently running with a x64 Vista setup. No problems with the drivers and CCC loads faster than I've ever seen it load before. I'm actually keeping CCC this time as it loads smoothly. And iirc ATI has a monthly or so driver release unlike NVidia?

In the distant past I used to use ATI branded cards, but they don't sell them directly anymore. Since then I've used Sapphire which I've had no problems with, HIS which was the same model as the Sapphire but pci-e which I was kind of let down by as they didn't enable the temp sensor on their version of the card. And I haven't had my current MSI for long enough to say anything about them, but it seems perfectly solid.

I can't say anything for customer support, as well I've yet to have a graphics card fail on me *crosses fingers* Hope I didn't just jinx myself there.
 
Thanks for the input, now I just need some people to chime in with personal experience with customer service for certain providers. Why not Sapphire?
 
I could be wrong, but I don't think any of the ATI card manufacturers allow you to change the fan and stuff like EVGA and XFX allow you to do. Although I'm not sure if they can actually tell or not.

It would be great if XFX and EVGA made/sold ATI cards also, like MSI does.
 
Dethred said:
Thanks for the input, now I just need some people to chime in with personal experience with customer service for certain providers. Why not Sapphire?
Click to expand...
Sapphire has crap customer service. That said, I bought a Sapphire card anyway. I don't really think any of the ATI manufacturers have as good service as XFX or BFG or anything, but honestly, I've owned EVGA, XFX and BFG products, and while the lifetime warranty is nice (I guess), none of them struck me as having great customer service... I don't think there are any graphics card companies that really stand behind their products to the extent I would like.
 
Dethred said:
Thanks for the input, now I just need some people to chime in with personal experience with customer service for certain providers. Why not Sapphire?
Click to expand...

I've had a X1950GT from Sapphire... I had to RMA is, and received it within 3 weeks with no hassle.
 
I want to switch to it to but I have this gut feeling telling me that the 9800 GX2 will be the better option once it releases. I don't want to make the mistake of pulling the trigger & that does end up happening. I did that with my 8800GTS & the GT's were announced shortly after my purchase, gah.

-DarkLegacy
 
I'd honestly switch to ATI in a heartbeat after all my troubles with nvidia the past year. That is, if they offered the same level of performance as recent/future nvidia cards in the same price bracket.
 
vanilla_guerilla said:
you said this last year too. and your time frame is getting longer. and your , lets call it "luck" with vid cards/mainboards has to be worst i have ever read.


http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1181433
Click to expand...

Thanks for the valuable input into the thread. But since you're trying so hard, I'll take the bait. Well, considering the HD2900 sucked, I stuck with Nvidia, and guess what, my 8800GTX had to be RMA'ed because the drivers kept failing to respond randomly in Vista.

Sure you can call it luck, considering EVGA recommends an RMA after speaking with Tech support each time. I game a lot, and if there is a single problem with my hardware it gets sent back until I get a decent replacement. I have seen tons of people, and actually know people that have issues similar to the ones I've had, and don't RMA their cards, they seem to tolerate it. I, on the other hand, will not tolerate even an occasional screw up from hardware that I spend $500 on.

Ironically, all those saying its user error have been proven wrong each time, as eventually I get a 100% functioning replacement free of the previous problems. For instance, when my 8800GTS was screwing up I installed the replacement card in machine that had been having trouble literally minutes before... and low and behold: no more problems. Same thing happened with the 8800GTX, replacement worked 100% on the exact same driver, OS installation, and hardware config. I got my fiance an 8600GT for her machine and after about a month the card wouldn't display anything 3d, not even aero, so its waiting on a replacement that has taken close to a month through EVGA's EAR.

I am now reconsidering going to ATi because the 3870 doesn't look like total shit. Any more rude off-topic assertions?
 
I'm in the equal opportunity hater bracket here. I've had numerous issues with my hd 3870 but no problem with my predecessor 7950GT KO SC (still works and in cold storage).

On another PC< I've also pull my hair out when my 6600GT crapped out after a few months. I put in a X1600 PRO and it works almost flawlessly.

Now the only thing I can count on is the manufacturers. Never ever get the "cheapest" batch of the X1234GTXPRO because usually it has a short warranty, crappy customer service, or horrible gluejob on the card itself.

Therefore, I don't recommend Diamond, PNY, or any cheapo brand. Stick to the brand you've counted on the most even if it's Nvidia.
 
Well, I may have to do that, but I was hoping that ATi had some manufacturer that could at least compare to the warranties and service of the big Nvidia guys. I wouldn't be worrying about this if I didn't actually want the 3870X2, but I think it'd be a decent upgrade for a low cost after selling off my GTX.
 
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