My Dealings with Sapphire

[bandikoot]

As the recommendations for manufacturers are decided here, I decided to post this here rather then in the “bad” forum. Besides, it’s not really a bad review. At any rate, earlier this year I purchased a Sapphire 9800pro and after a month and a half of good operation the HSF died and artifacts appeared. Rather than try to replace the HSF with another on my own, taking the chance there had been some permanent heat damage and the card was toast no matter what I did, I decided to RMA the card. Too much time had passed on the online purchase so I was left to deal directly with the company. I decided to do as much as possible by e-mail. The replies were prompt and after a couple I had been assigned my very own personal helper, after which a reply took only half an hour or so. I had to prove I had actually purchased the card, which required scanning proof of purchase and the side of the box and e-mailing it back to him, at which point I was sent a short form to fill out and then fax it back. At this point e-mail communication ended and I got a call while I was away. I called back and found they don’t have any waiting, you just leave a message and they call back. They called back almost exactly 24hrs later, by chance or by design figuring it would be the best time to catch me I don’t know, and was issued an RMA#. I paid for shipping both ways. I shipped it 2-3day, and they shipped the replacement card 4 days after I had shipped mine to them, so 1-2days processing/packaging, etc time. Evil UPS took a week to deliver it. Upon opening it I found a bright and shiny BUILT BY ATI card in the box. Not too surprising considering they come out of the same plant and just have a different HSF slapped on at the end, but unexpected nonetheless. One word of warning, e-mail and phone support are M-F, 9-5, no weekends or evenings, so hopefully you don’t have a problem at 5:05pm Friday or you have to wait a while. For a company that tries not to deal with end-users if at all possible I’d have to say they did an alright job of it. I’ll give them a 4.5/5.

 

[ufo_warviper]

That's AWESOME that you were sent a "Built by ATi" card.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[bandikoot]

And hopefully it lasts! If this one dies within the life of the warranty it might take some time to explain to Sapphire why I'm tring to get them to fix a BBA card.

 

[speeduk]

**Sends his 9700pro with huge processor heatsink glued to the core back to sapphire to see if they send him back a 9800pro. In the accompanying letter he writes, "it arrived like this, honestly"**

LOL I'm in a strangely good mood.....

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7000747" target="_new"> 3D-2001 </A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=1284380" target="_new"> 3D-03 </A>
<font color=red> 120% overclocker </font color=red> (cheapskate)

 

[varlo]

I deal whit Sapphire every single day and yes there one of the top when it comes to customer satisfaction...not like those -[beep]- at... [evil looking guy pops in front of me pointing a gun between my eyes] ... hummm welll.. those GRRRRRRREAT guys at Samsung.

<b><font color=red>Psychiatrist says I'm crazy but the voices in my head say I'm not 😎 </font color=red></b>

 

[Guest]

I plan to get either a FIC or Gigabyte brand Radeon 9800pro, Sapphire looks kinda risky in my eyes.

<font color=red> Cooltek's Oxymorons: </font color=red>
Happily married/United nations/Women's rights/Small crowd/Business ethics/Computer security/Pretty ugly/Exact estimate/Religious tolerance/Jumbo Shrimp

 

[mito]

I intend to purchase a Sapphire 9800pro 128mb in a few months. Should I try another manufacturer?

/\/\ito

 

[ufo_warviper]

First of all, what kind of overclocking are you going to e into with your new card?

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[mito]

No OC... I'm a "chicken" user!
I really do not intend to overclock.

asus a7n8x dlx, xp2600/333, 2x512mb pc2700, geforce 4 ti4200 64mb, win xp pro, dx 9.0b, nforce 2.45, det 43.45, samsung 40gb 7200rpm
Note: no SP1 and no OC!

/\/\ito

 

[ufo_warviper]

THen the Sapphire Atlantis will probably be fine. THere are several versions of the Sappheire cards. Certain versions are better overclockers than others. HTe Atlantis cards are best kept on stock speeds from what I hear. But I'd wait for one or 2 more reples to reliably confirm this.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!

 

[mito]

The Atlantis is the 9800pro 128mb?
I just read this article:
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/video/Sapphire_Ultimate_2.html

It states that the Sapphire 9800pro has no fan!!! What exactly is a heatpipe??? Also, the 5900ultra outperforms the sapphire 9800pro...

/\/\ito
----------
asus a7n8x dlx, xp2600/333, 2x512mb pc2700, geforce 4 ti4200 64mb, win xp pro, dx 9.0b, nforce 2.45, det 43.45, samsung 40gb 7200rpm
Note: no SP1 and no OC!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mito on 10/04/03 00:53 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

The heatpipe thing is kinda weird, to use it, you need to get a bracket fan mounted to the side, and that heatsink will definitly take up a lot of room. It's overclocking potential would be great, but you said you weren't into that. Look around at newegg.com's video card section, they have all the major brand names w/ user reviews.

<font color=red> Cooltek's Oxymorons: </font color=red>
Happily married/United nations/Women's rights/Small crowd/Business ethics/Computer security/Pretty ugly/Exact estimate/Religious tolerance/Jumbo Shrimp