Whats the diff?

[Wicked Klown]

Whats the diff between OEM and reatail besides price. I was looking in to getting an ATI Radeon 8500 and was just wondering.

[foxmulder]

The original ATI retail is clocked at 275 Mhz Clock/275 Mhz Memory while many of the OEM cards are clocked at 250/250.

Hope that helps

[Wicked Klown]

yea it does thanks. you can O.C. it right I mean to me I can't tell the diff between 250/250 and 275/275 if I had to so I guess it a money saving choice right.

[foxmulder]

If you want my personal opinion I don't think the difference in speed is worth a big price difference. Just remember that other manufacturers than ATI may have different warranties, software bundles and I think some may lack a TV out connector. These are not huge issues to me but you should get the specs on the card you want to buy and compare them to ATIs card before you make a decision. That way you won't be dissappointed.

[Wicked Klown]

I know the place I'm going to get it from and it is listed as ATI. And pricewatch has it listed as ATI as well.

[Cisco Kid]

Whats has been said above is pretty much on the ball.

1) OEM may use lower quality ram on the card- leads to less overclockabilty

2) core at 250/250 vs retail at 275/275, meaning chance to overclock may not be as good as a retail card

3) for the small diff in price retail gives a better software bumdle and warranty

IMHO I would only buy retail video cards and it is a toss up when buying cpu chips. I have an OEM T Bird 1.2 and it overclocks very well but I had to buy a fan for it.

If you read some of the other threads some people have bought OEM and overclocking em has been lame , will not even do 275/275.

Also ATI sells the technology to another manufacturerer who in turn may do whatever they want with it so you need to do your research before you buy so you aree happy with your choice. Also buy an OEM from a well known vendor and manyufacturerer not some unknown company:D

Cisco Kid:cool:

[Wicked Klown]

most likely I'm going to be buying it from www.buyaib.com have you guys ever heard anything bad about them. and from what I know it`s an ATI OEM card at least that's what it says I could be wrong but any help would be nice.

[funnyperson1]

get the OEM from Newegg.com because buyaib.com took like 2 weeks to et me my ram and on reselllerratings.com they had a rating of 1.6/7 get it from newegg if youre going oem.....