ATI, Sapphire, or PowerColor (Radeon 9600 Pro)

[Xorcist]

Just wondering what opinions people have. Should I go with a card straight from ATI, or pickup a slightly cheaper third party version from Sapphire or PowerColor? Any have experience with Sapphire or PowerColor cards before? How is the driver support?

[cbuddha42]

like sapphires but thats just me - normally have pretty good bundles

[rastorize]

I went with Sapphire for my ATI 9500 pro...simply because of the price...had no prior experience with them. The card turned out to be very good...I was able to overclock it very well, it's rock-solid stable and an overall great performer...I'd buy another one. For the drivers, I just used the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI...didn't even bother with the bundled drivers.

[EndobioticChaos]

I've only used ATI myself. From what I've heard, Power Color is definitely a step down, but I think Sapphire is pretty good.

Maybe someone like PeterM or RobRich can tell us the nuts and bolts differences between manufacturers.

[ben-the-slacker]

ATI is the best. But Sapphire also makes awesome stuff. I've got one of their 7000s, works great. Never used PowerColor, so no comment there.

[ragtop]

I bought a power color GF2 mx400 a couple years ago. I ran it mostly 24/7 for quite a while - then I sold it to my sister. She's still using it with no problem. As far as driver support - there's no special features, so it seems they just use the standard NVidia (or ATI) reference drivers. I will say that the cooling fan has held up much better than the Abit and Visiontek cards I've had.

As far as tech support - I haven't needed it, but their web site is very sparse. The older cards are no longer listed there. And according to their site, they charge $20 "shipping & handling" to RMA a card

Overall - if you're just getting a cheap card, PowerColor is probably OK, but if you're spending big bucks for a high end card, I'd stick with the name brand for better support and RMA service.

[Xorcist]

Thanks for all the info guys. I was recently over at ATI's site and noticed they have and interesting "trade in" offer. I can get a Radeon 9600 Pro straight through them for $149.00 if I send them my current video card. Not a bad offer, but with the shipping and all I think it comes out about even. Anyways if anyone is interested, here is the link:

http://mirror.ati.com/shopati/traderebate/tradeup.html