Sapphire vs Asus vs Powercolour

[xChaoSx]

Ive owned over 5 ATI cards from rage to pro. Ive only bought cards built and sold by them. How is the quality of the third party vendors such as Sapphire, asus and powercolour? Is Powercolor any good? They seem to me like a low budget cheap version of the real thing.

Thanks in advance for the input!

 

[ia-Ryu]

From what I've read, most will tell you to go with the one that has the best warranty (which I believe is Powercolor who has a lifetime warranty if I remember correctly).

Otherwise go with the one with the best cooler if you don't mind paying a little extra. There's a thread about the HIS coming stock with a cooler that keeps the card 10C cooler.

-Ryu

 

[SinclairSpeccy]

I'm on my 3rd ATI card, my first was a complete pain in the arse, machine would reboot with no reason (had to but a new motherboard to get it working) and now likes to boot into Windows with nice blue lines across the screen on occasion, reboot, still there reboot again they're gone, maybe. This card is an ASUS A9800XT, a search on googe for A9800 +reboot reveales it's not just me.

Almost gave up on ATI but I later purchased a 9800Pro for my dad's machine, and later upgraded the 9800XT to a 1900XTX, both work, never given me any problems, they are both Sapphire...

I'm sure other people will have the opposite opinion, but I will never buy anything ASUS again and until Sapphire balls up they will be my first choice.

p.s. I have no opinion on Powercolor 🙁

 

[michaelahess]

most cards are based off the ati ref standards so thre is little difference except for the cooler. I use saphire's these days, never had a prob.

 

[xChaoSx]

Thanks for replies. But for Quality wise how would you rank them?

 

[michaelahess]

I haven't used all the brands, I HAVE used bfg (good) saphire (great) powercolor (good) ati (great) apollo (great) evga (good) albatron (good) pny (not so good) leadtek (not so good)

This covers many years of cards, not just current ones. I've had very few actually fail, only pny and a couple evga's. I have had fan's fail on all but the saphire's (even some ati's.) I also had a couple of the leadtek 4200's get bad memory probs. I'm sure I've used others, but nothing that stands out in my mind. There is really very little difference for the most part. Like someone above mentioned, go for one with a lifetime warranty, realize though that that usually doesn't cover the fan.

 

[xChaoSx]

so basicly buy the cheapters one of the 3 i mentioned? And how do you judge the fans?

 

[michaelahess]

They change with most models, some even change on the same model card so it's hard to say. I'd say go for saphire just because I've used a bunch lately and haven't had any problems.

 

[bb1]

I have had a couple of sapphires (9250 and 9550) and never had a problem. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. I also have not had a problem wth an ATI 9200 (other than some driver issues with Call of Duty)