Who makes the best ATi Video Cards?

[David]

Poll requested by wanna_b_rich_13

[Speed_Mechanic2]

I'ld say Sapphire, since they have made the cards for all the other companies listed :) - Although this is changing somewhat. Except Asus.

[Oni]

My BBA hasn't let me down yet :)

[9mmCensor]

ATI itself makes darn good stuff.

[JigPu]

Toss up between ATi and Sapphire :) My BBA 8500 was awesome, and my Saphire 9500 is too :D

Too hard to choose...
JigPu

[stan03]

#1 ati themselves
#2 Sapphire because they are the same and somewhat cheaper

EDIT: JigPu your sig just made my brain spin in circles...

[Blue_Dragon1521]

Ati thenselves are the ones who make the best video cards..

[resoluteK]

I really like the Asus'.. they just need to start making more of them.

[Evnas]

ATi has my vote

[Yosk]

ATI = Goodness :) !!

[Molybdym]

I voted for Saphire, but then again I have only owned this 9500np.
ATI makes the best, but the Saphires seem to be exactly the same, only less expensive;)

[USAPGAPRO]

ATI best

[1-Man-Army]

ati :D

[Agent_Mull]

Sapphire, Thats the only thing ive owned, and as far as i can tell its pretty good.

Edit: I now own a BBA 9600xt. This thing is great, the only thing is, is that ATI uses 3.2ns ram and sapphire uses 2.8ns. But the quality of the BBA cant be beat.

[q149]

PowerColor then BBA

[Clutch_Head]

ATI gets my vote. love both my rage fury pro, and my AIW 8500 128.

c_h

[diddydo75]

gotta be ati,
have a powercolor 8500 at the moment and the clocks are way low 230/186ddr.:(

[flyhigh]

I voted ATI because i am using it. But as i know, Sapphire is also quite good.

[Yuriman]

I voted ati. Ive owned both ati and sapphires, but I just love the BBA box. Plus they OC good.

[wanna_b_rich_13]

How are many of you making these votes?

Is it from one be able to overlclock better? from using many and just liking one over the other? jumping on a bandwagon? or best performance/price for a card?

I would choose ATI simply b/c I feel ATI devoloped these and would know best. After seeing the poll I am starting to think that Sapphire may be almost better since they are very similar to ATI and of course more importantly cheaper.

[JigPu]

My vote is based on experience with both a BBA and Sapphire card. Both were awesome cards, so I voted for the one that I think was slightly better (not gonna tell since it was basically coin flipping :D).

Sapphire is very comparible to BBA cards. Sapphire actually builds some of ATi's cards for them, so buying either are very similar since there's a good chance it came out of the Sapphire factory :)

JigPu

[bettsr]

ATI please

[Makkarah]

Since there's no option for me, I'll just say HIS.

[ZGOZZ]

http://www.ati.com/designpartners/media/images/r9800xt_board-lg.jpg

This card is sweet.

[caddyg1]

I vote ATI w/ Samsung memory. I found out that anyother card without sammy mem wont overclock very well at all

[Dragonprince]

Id say Retail ATI is the best. Sapphire is a very close second...the rest are "also" rans:rolleyes:

[mrnuke]

BBA is the only way to go if you want to get high core clocks

[fazz33]

where excalubure :( i use one (its awsome, super nice oc on 9600pro 490/348)though they are porbably mostly unheard of its pretty good company, oh and nice samsung ram

[wanna_b_rich_13]

Originally posted by fazz33
where excalubure :( i use one (its awsome, super nice oc on 9600pro 490/348)though they are porbably mostly unheard of its pretty good company, oh and nice samsung ram

Never heard of them. I thought I covered most of them.

[David]

Originally posted by fazz33
where excalubure :( i use one (its awsome, super nice oc on 9600pro 490/348)though they are porbably mostly unheard of its pretty good company, oh and nice samsung ram

PM a mod if you need the poll edited.

[fazz33]

mehh doesnt matter but...i also have a sapphire 9200 it work really good for the time i had it so i will vote sapphire, oh and i forgot my 9600pro is HIS Excalibur (spelt it wrong before) here is its main site http://www.hightech.com.hk/html/VGA.htm

[E_tron]

It isn't in the pole, but don't get an HIS built card. They get artifacts at stock speeds(which are already lower than ATI's spec). They don't OC well at all. I've seen 3 HIS cards and they all follow the same path.

I say "Biult by ATI". I have a biult by ATI 9500 PRO and it can do 360/310 with stock cooling.

I bought saphire 9500NP and it didn't OC well(310/280). I couldn't even get the 8 pixel pipelines out of it. Maybe this was a bad card, so i am not against sapphire.

[fazz33]

i have an HIS it overclocks like crazy im 4th in 9600pro oc list. I think they make nice cards.

[AmpCoder]

I say ATI..

[slater3333uk]

I would say sapphire but bare in mind that we cant get BBA cards in the uk so im not including them in my desision:)

[mattspalace]

I've been pretty happy with my Tyan Tachyon..but it doesn't really overclock any higher than any of the others.
The hardware monitoring is a nice option though. I'm not sure if Tyan still includes hardware monitoring on their 9800's or not.

[cf79]

BBA!

Yeah, I'm using a Saph right now.. Sue me. It was $40 cheaper and performs just as well.. :)

[vkvenom]

My ATI has been kicking ars !

[Axis]

How about FIC? I like mine.

[craig588]

Kinda funny all you guys saying either its very close between Sapphire and ATI.

Sapphire makes some of ATIs BBA cards for them.

Sapphires cards are identical to BBAs except they are like 10-20$ cheaper.

[da-gokesta]

ill stick with BBA for support reasons

[Topo]

Went with ATI themselves..

[USAPGAPRO]

ATI, themselves for sure.

[Chowdy]

I like my Sapphire, but if i had the money i'd pop in a Hercules card. Man they are sweet.

[G-smooth2k]

I vote for ATI

[Cowboy X]

Retail ATI :)

[xcelerator]

BBA :) 9800XT @ 443.25/382 stock cooling

[sQUiRLy]

Retail (Best Buy) ATi 9600pro.

[fartem]

ati is the best

[devvingiorgio]

Always was fond of Powercolor and Asus. don't like what Asus did with their proprietary XT Overdrive software you need :-(

[fibonaccov]

Call me stupid but the Gigabyte or Hercules ones would have been worth mentioning...

Also, the HIS' 9800 128mb is neat:
http://www.ocprices.com/index.php?rev_id=183&page=4&action=reviews

--fib

[Fever]

In my mind, if ATi designed it, they must be able to build it best. ;)

My vote goes to ATi.

[NovaShine]

Originally posted by craig588
Kinda funny all you guys saying either its very close between Sapphire and ATI.

Sapphire makes some of ATIs BBA cards for them.

Sapphires cards are identical to BBAs except they are like 10-20$ cheaper.

BBA cards are made in a factory owned by Sapphire. You're just paying for the extra label BBA over a Sapphire...

[CdyRls]

I currently have a gigabyte 9200 card which I never had any problems with, although I just purchased a 9700pro built by ATI themslves, I think they make the best

[Talon101]

ATI of course!

[lancingfury]

you do realize why saphire cards are 10-20 bucks cheaper, right? HINT: hl2 comes with the ati 9800xt, ut not the saphire 9800xt

[Arkangyl]

my sappghire'e been great to me so far; 445 to 455 on the core (watercooled) and 800mhz on the memory (no cooling) and I'm runnin just fine....

[M4D]

Sapphire are about the best i've used so far :D

I've yet to hear a "Reasonable" complaint from anyone using a sapphire ...

[Band of Sisters]

HIS makes a damn good 9800 Pro and it overclocks like crazy. Every review that I have seen gives it raves and it must be good since ATI advertises it on there site.

[menace]

ati retail

[enduro]

Sapphire makes great cards, but they cheap out on some of them. I bought a 256Mb graphics card from them and found out that 128 Mb of that card is dedicated elsewhere. Granted, I'll cut them a little slack, I knew that they were going to do something like that, because the card was on sale for $70. You get what you pay for and that's true here.

[dark_15]

MY vote is for ATI

MY Vote for WORST Card is GECUbe!

[robjen]

Been running ATI for 6 years now, and no poblems

aiw radeon
aiw 7500
aiw 9600
radeon 9500 pro

[TheGhengisKhan]

well, my Powercolor 9800xt that I bought on the classifieds here is kickin some serious bootie, seeing as the PC one is exactly the same as the "built by ATI" one in every aspect, down to the exact same sticker on the plastic part of the HSF, I'm VERY happy :D

http://www.ghengis-khan.com/Images/3dmark03.jpg

[aNTiChRisT]

Interesting, so Sapphire make the best 3rd party cards... But ATI have some of thier cards made for them by Sapphire? Looks like the best bet is sapphire seeming as how my mates sapphire 9800 clocked to 432core with an arctic cooler... o_O

~t0m

[Polargoat]

my vote is for ATI

my pro is almost up to his xt :D

[apu318]

Ive had bad experainces with Powercolour. One of the card's that someone had on another forum actually caught fire! And Powercolor would have nothing to do with it. They did not even cover it under warrenty. I have an Asus 9600XT and im pretty happy with it. Overclocks pretty good. Get to around 570-585 VPU and ive successfully overclocked to 480mhz ram but Im sure I could go higher. I LOVE the VIVO. Its darn good. Temps stay pretty cool and the card itself looks awsome. The ramsinks are in the shape of the word asus. Only downside is I cant put another fan on that part without extensive modding. Performance of the card is good. Ive experianced alot of crashes and driver problems with it. I suspect a hardware problem. I guess it was just the temperature it was shipped in. Mighty cold here in Canada. :)

[SephirothX]

I like Asus.

I havn't been in the game too long, but I felt impressed by Asus' 9800XT, and it looks quite good too ;)

[IYIENACE]

Interesting, so Sapphire make the best 3rd party cards... But ATI have some of thier cards made for them by Sapphire? Looks like the best bet is sapphire seeming as how my mates sapphire 9800 clocked to 432core with an arctic cooler... o_O

~t0m

Sorry but I fail to see how a 423 core clock w/ an aftermarket cooler makes that the best card? Mine will do 472/389 on stock cooling w/ no v mods and if it weren't a little more "pricy" than the others, I'd bet it would be much more common.

[EwoutvB]

Ati themselves IMHO, then just flash it with the bios from other makers.. .hhehehe

[Tony420]

Bba...

475/390 (1.8gpu*modded*/3.0vmem*unmodded*)

*edit* 9800pro
full stock is 450/375

[DexterPunk]

It isn't in the pole, but don't get an HIS built card. They get artifacts at stock speeds(which are already lower than ATI's spec). They don't OC well at all. I've seen 3 HIS cards and they all follow the same path.


err my HIS 9800pro clocks to 450/375 (no artifacts.. prolly could go higher) .. straight out of the box.

BIOS defaults at 370/335 approx.

[CircuitBreaker8]

Sapphire :cool: :thup: :drool: :bang head :beer: ;)

[DMac]

I would always prefer an original ATI, but the second choice would be a Sapphire. A lot of their cards are practically clones to ATI's anyway.

[PLOBBY]

i would have to say ATI...thats all ive owned too...and im all stock right now cooling wise and colt wise with an ok OC

[BPM]

NewB question here...

Is BBA synonymous with ATi when it comes to chips? I know its "Built By ATi", but just wanted to check :D

[Methical_K]

Sapphire :thup:

[mata2974]

I voted ATI, but to modders does it really matter, since we are gonna through away all the fancy fans, molding etc, and stick in a waterblock.....LOL

[SniperXX]

I say ATi. My BBA 8500le in sig has had no probs.

My AIW tho had a cap leak... So now I cant capture vid until I swap it. Luckily my friend has an old shorted out one of the same model so I am gonna swap the caps.

Oh and my Radeon 32MB SDR was awsome @ the time. Still works well, I sold it to a friend who needed a vid card for school. Suits him well.

[veryhumid]

One vote for HIS (hightech).

[Jacobman]

I vote for ATI all the way. I have a 9600xt clocked at 570 and 340, and its still taken games like Doom3 out so im gonna go with ATI. Although people i know have the saphire 9800pro which they flashed to a xt so that proves that both are good.
But you know what they say cant beat the originality

[IZON]

I'd say ATI but since Sapphire are knocking the same cards out cheaper then it's got to be Sapphire. :)

[l3ored]

i got a sapphire 9800 pro because it was much cheaper than the ati. can someone enlighten me on how it is different than the bba in any way?

[Grov]

Asus, since i have one. ;)

[RoadWarrior]

I don't have a lot to do with more modern ATis, mainly due to funds, but I get the impression that "The best" is often on a core type by core type basis. For instance I remember Saphire being best for 8500s for a while, Powercolor seems to be the card to get for moddable 9800SEs, ATi's seem most overclockable for the top of the line, GeXcube seems best now for 9550s, etc etc.

[Fangs404]

1st ati, then sapphire.

[-=TriX=-]

Sapphire makes some quality cards--think I've owned about 4 now and they have all been flawless, my sapphire 9800np even allowed a core oc of 460+ w/ stock cooling :eek:. Their stock cooling may not be much, but who overclocks a card w/ the stock hsf? ;)

[fastcuda]

Mine is by crucial but it says by ATI so I voted them. I just won this in a contest by crucial and Gamers depot, sure hope it plays doom 3 ok :clap:

[Shuzzy]

my vote went to ati themselves. i've owned two ati cards, and both of them have been great.

[*jj]

what most people fail to realize..is most of them are the same I have an Asus but after searching high and low and reviewing everything I could, it seems as very few card makers stray from the "reference " design, it was more of which card was in stock and could be had for a reasonable price. I think the person to ask and whom I did ask was ViperJohn. I think he has used and experienced more ATI designed cards from more manufacturers than anyone (here at least). He stated again that very few card manufacturers will stray from the original reference design. The main differences will be seen in chip variances and ram variances, as you would get from any batch of cards. Just because ATI builds it doesn't mean they didn't use a chip that barely made the grade. It's pot luck really. The design and build are are usually the same except for the manufacturers that use non reference cooling solutions. So really this thread leads to fanboy-ism because everyone will either praise or bash a card based on ownership experience.

[Silent Frog]

I have a ASUS 9600XT.. I like it, keeps cool, and has a awesome heatsink. I was looking at the sapphire but the ASUS had VIVO and was cheaper. Can't buy ATi cards where I go. Soo, ASUS for me. :-D Oh and never PowerColor!!! seen two of the 9600Pros either die, or run really slow :-|... What I've seen of all the cheap ATi brands is they all are the same card, just different print on the heatsink.. they will all do the same i reckon... ATi just makes it cheaper and easier for the other brands, nice ATi :-D

[Sucka]

I've only ever owned BBA and Sapphire, so either of those are great.

[winterhavok]

I feel that Hercules makes the best ATI based cards, but that is just my opinion, I find they are a lot easier to overclock and cool than most of the others, because of the capacitor placement on the pcb of the card.

[Diablo23RD]

Sapphire good price/ocing!

[RAMMAN]

powercolour since theyre X800s seem to overclock the best.

[PSP]

I have to say ATI themselves.
Never let me down once.

[bobburn]

sapphire all the way. I've seen nothing but awesome performance with them and the OCing is great, always get atleast a 20% increase. I've been buying Sapphire for about 3.5 years now and plan on keeping this tradition :)

[spookeboom]

from what ive seen ati seems to be the one

[CunningLinguist]

I thought sapphire was just a branch of ATI.

[mudpark41]

The "Excaliber" is the card made by the company HIS.
The card is the "HiS Excaliber IceQII Model"
I had the HiS Excaliber IceQII 9800 Pro and It was an excelent card. Comes stock with a Rev3 VGA Silencer and Ram Sinks. Flashed to XT Nicely, although I did not get the Temp Sensor.

[andyl33t]

ive had no problems with powercolor

[stratcatprowlin]

I've had two ATI's and no problems.

[P4HTOC]

even though i voted for sapphire. i think that the best are the HIS cards

[ghost_recon88]

ATI pawns! :attn: The one Powercolor I owned was way underclocked and because of that, I hate them with a vengenace.:temper:

[Blackmage]

Um, Have to say Sapphire are the best 3rd party ATI video card Brand , Cards always last long! and always are the ones which come with the good samsung ram! :)

[mysterfix]

I voted for ATI but I give props to Sapphire for there great products and reliability.

[BrutalDrew]

Sapphire

[pp man]

ATI itself makes darn good stuff.


you got that right!!!! :p :attn: :clap:

[Beerfun]

I say Sapphire , Because my next rig might have a Sapphire card in it :)

-Paul

[delorean700]

I voted powercolor, but I would have voted Gigabyte if it was on there.

[Nathan0490]

I would say, #1 Sapphire, #2 ATi, #3 ASUS, **** all the others.

Nate.

[Gabkicks]

i like sapphire :) i 've bought 2 cards from them sofar. my 9600XT 256mb and my x800gto 256mb. both agp. the 9600xt came with the slower memory than other companies, but my x800came with 1.6ns memory :)

[Slaps]

ATI, never had any problems.

[rseven]

As I recall, doesn't the ATI brand now have the shortest warranty? I voted for the Saphire as I thought they were the best on the list, but if the list was longer I would have gone with HIS for their better cooling.

[sulretal]

I had my 9600 XT from ATI for years and it never let me down.

[HousERaT]

Sapphire makes them all far as I know so that's what I'm going with...... my last 4 Radeon cards were all Sapphire by coincidence - 9800pro, GTO² x2 and 1900XT.

[speed bump]

I like BBA becuase its the only brand that I have bought a card from and by the time I was done with it still worked(mainly becuase of warrenty service)

[Rattle]

well I just bought a HIS x1900xt and it overclocks pretty freakin good for a xt, so I say HIS but its not on the list DOH

[Bestmaxx]

i just bought a sapphire 1900xtx, and a sapphire master card, $1200, so i hope they are the best..

[Deanzo]

ATI themselves, But I have a MSI9800pro in my other Rig and it OC great..and was a good price.

[Brood_Star]

Sapphire
ASUS
MSI
ATi
HIS
GeCube
PowerColor
Connect3D
Hercules

[ZGOZZ]

Poll requested by wanna_b_rich_13

Sapphire

[swebarb]

so Gexcube is pure **** then ? stay away from then or ??

[Blkout]

They all follow the same reference design, so no card is better than the other unless you're basing it on the included software bundle or warranty.

[Z_Ghost]

I have the ATI card but seeing as this is my first ATI card I do not think I can say who makes the best but so far I have not had any problems with this one.

[NichowA]

I like how everyone in this thread voted for the brand they have without providing any justification or empirical analysis.

Like a few others have said, cards are generally (apart from rare, select cases) equivalent for a given core. The variation from brand to brand is typically less than the 2-3% variation from card to card. Therefor, the deciding factors should be 1) Price and 2) bundled software. I don't generally want any of the bundled software, so I tend to go for the best bargain (using a refurbished x800xt pe atm and it hasn't missed a beat in around nine months now).

[Gabkicks]

i have bought 2 cards from sapphire. 9600xt and then the x800gto. and both are still running strong :). got em from newegg.

some companies give better tech support than others.

[freakdiablo]

Your missing one: Club-3d. Its a European company, but i don really like it. I mean, I have one of their cards, and the heatsink looks like a chipset heatsink/fan that someone started bashing with a hammer.

[Shell]

1: ATi
2: Sapphire
3: ASUS

But I voted Sapphire because they're the best overall, just because they're cheaper... ATI's hardware is the EXACT same as Sapphire's because they're as good as it could be, minus the sticker, they're the same.

Oh ya, ATI cards are less likely to die on you though since they're tested more then any other manufacturer.

[NettieZoom]

I would have to agree that ATI is number one and Sapphire a close second.

[sephiroth_749]

i like Sapphire becasue thats all ive rally used and they seem to have some ocablity also

[SeasonalEclipse]

Woo for saphhire

[posrx7]

1: ATi
2: Sapphire
3: ASUS

But I voted Sapphire because they're the best overall, just because they're cheaper... ATI's hardware is the EXACT same as Sapphire's because they're as good as it could be, minus the sticker, they're the same.

Oh ya, ATI cards are less likely to die on you though since they're tested more then any other manufacturer.

Same for the same reason

[Quailane]

1: ATi
2: Sapphire
3: ASUS

But I voted Sapphire because they're the best overall, just because they're cheaper... ATI's hardware is the EXACT same as Sapphire's because they're as good as it could be, minus the sticker, they're the same.

Oh ya, ATI cards are less likely to die on you though since they're tested more then any other manufacturer.

ATI does not make their own cards. Sapphire makes them.

[Rattle]

ATI does not make their own cards. Sapphire makes them.


I'm not saying your wrong but I have heard this so many times and have never seen anything to prove it.

A couple weeks back my friend ordered a sapphire x1950xtx it came and said ATI all over it lol, not a single shred of sapphire, not even on the sticker on the card. Now if sapphire makes ati cards how come sapphire cards come as ati and ati cards come as ati lol is it BBA or BBS or BS

Back when the x1900xt/x's came out i had a sapphire x1900xt on release, pealed back the sapphire stickers and was all ati stickers underneath, now if you bought a BBA x1900xt would it be the other way around, ati stickers on top of sapphires...

[mista ting]

ATi themselves oc's like no other :)

[sixtyninthfox]

I have always had good luck with sapphire and asus.

[WorshipMe]

Mostly they are all reference designs, therefore identical, so ATI themselves. But if a partner has a good non reference design, go for that.

[FileAnt]

You might as well call this poll "who sells the most cards?". I voted PC cos I have one. From what Imp said.. it comes pre-overvolted with a nice cooler that cools the drives as well, so it deserves a few votes for that... they are slapped together though.

[netmask]

I vote for sapphire. I own 2 HD2900XTs and never had any issues.

[wingless]

Where is Diamond, Visiontek and HIS on that chart?

[benbaked]

I'm not sure if Powercolor is around anymore, but I have an open-box-from-newegg Powercolor Radeon 7000 that is still kickin', I've since flashed it to Mac and I'm using it in a Mac G5 web server. It still works great.

I also like Sapphire's video cards, but I refuse to buy anymore of their products due to a poor experience with their tech support/RMA department.

I personally like Built By ATi cards the best, I've never had one die on me. I'm still using a BBA Radeon 9800 and A-I-W VE and they are great.

[prime81]

Needa revise the poll and put HIS up there.