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buying an ATI product - buy from ATI direct or an OEM

ok , so i hate when i unsuccesffully google things, that is ground zero of dumb computer users...my question..

i am going to buy the ATI Radeon X800 XL - i can get some serious discounts by instead buying it from sapphire or asus or 3dconnect, do i pull the trigger and buy from them instead of ATI, their prices are much lower, is it worth the ssavvings or do i lose alot of quality...????

here is the list of all the manufacturers i would price shop if indeed i wont lose too much quality from buying from them..

http://www.ati.com/partnerprogram/sipp/profiles.html

maimon22

I like Sapphire. They manufacture the cards that are branded as Built-By-ATI too. I've only ever used Sapphire and BBATI cards. I think that most makers are decent though. If it doesn't work, you can always return it and within the same line like the X800XT, they're all going to perform nearly identically since they use the same drivers and have the same cores and speed of memory, etc.

finnstone

ASKER

but why are they cheaper??

finnstone

ASKER

are there any online comparisons of sapphire versus direct ATI performance? thanks!

nick1059

All video cards that are branded by ATI use ATI's Chipsets, each mafctr,. use their own PCB and add ATI's chips to the board. I prefer the ASUS boards if im using a "Powered by ATI" video card. They use a 6 layer PCB (circuit board) instead of the cheaper 4 layer.
You can also find video card comparisons ay tomshardware.com

finnstone

ASKER

toms site does not compare the ati to its OEM counterparts

finnstone

ASKER

i read that ATI does not even make thier own brand!! i read some forums that say they agreed to stop making them altogether and it is just a pricing ploy that they actually market a built by ATI card!!

i also read some more of that hint here

http://www.forumplanet.com/planethardware/topic.asp?fid=2527&tid=1168591&p=1

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

mysticaldan

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finnstone

ASKER

thanks, what do you think of connect3d?

mysticaldan

Havent used it although like normal ATI based cards its in the top 5 and in certain tests ranks 1,2,3 also but then considering that ATI has few partners that shud be expected. Each one of the partners are good. Companies like ASUS and MSI are known for their good circuitary and build so i prefer to stick with them.

Dan