Which 9500 Pro to get?

[TeLoS]

Buying a Radeon 9500 Pro hopefully within the next 6 weeks or so.........

For arguments sake.......

Can anyone list which version is the best down through the worst....

For example

1. Powercolour
2. Sapphire
3. Hercules
4. Connect3D

etc, u get the point, i know my list is proberly not correct nor does it list all of the variations.

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

 

[Socket eh?]

1.Sapphire/BBA
2.Hercules
3.Connect3D





74.Powercolor

 

[james.miller]

absolutly avoid powercolor like it's.....no, wait.Worse than......the plague. absolutly the wrost brand you can get.

BTW, Socket eh?, i woun't rate powercolor that highly

 

[TeLoS]

That bad eh?....

I think i've seen a Gigabyte Radeon somewhere to....where does this rank?

 

[TeLoS]

OMG even Crucial do Radeons.......

 

[Mad-Monk]

Seems to be very anti PowerColor in here!! Got the 9500pro powercolor here. www.microdirect.co.uk have them for £130.
No problems with it...apart from the 'rolling lines' problem when using the VGA connector, which has affected many 9700/9500s, regardless of brand (even ATI made). like others, I use the DVI connector to work around this problem. The new series 9600/9800 etc has apparently resolved this issue.

 

[james.miller]

ive never seen these "rolling lines" on any ati cards before. On mine or my friend. I have problem with my two monitors interfering with eachother, but that has nothing to do with my radeon. This is the first i've heard of this problem actually.


powercooler are the devil because:

1) the use cheap components that are more prone to failure
2) the dont run their card at the correct clockspeeds: e.g they have a 9700pro that doesnt run at 9700pro speeds.
3) they have many different models that do nohing but confuse people
4) they use lower-rated ram on their card's (except, i think, the "ultra pro II evil commando", or whatever its called
5) They have the highest failure rate of any powered-by-ati card.

 

[Mad-Monk]

quite a lot of ppl have it. check this thread out

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33672888

 

[TeLoS]

So Sapphire are proberly the best choice followed by Hercules then right?......

 

[USAPGAPRO]

I say get a "Built By ATI"

 

[OC Noob]

GET THE CHEAPEST ONE!


Well, except for Powercolor. Sucks to be screwed.

 

[Mad-Monk]

Actual ATI branded cards aren't available in UK, so you'll have to go for one of the other brands. Actually, the PNP ID number of the Powercolor i have indicates that it is 'Built By ATi'. Whatever 9500 pro brand you choose, you cant go wrong really, although i wouldn't pay the £50 extra for the Hercules card.

 

[Supertrucker]

its been said on here that saphire makes bba cards so you may want to research that, they tend to be high quality without the highest price. i dont know how crucials 9500/9700 series cards are, but after what they did with the 8500 i dont trust them.