Abit, Gigabyte, Asus, or Sapphire?

[mort88]

I need to get a new budget priced card for a new pc (moving up from
Geforce2). I've been looking at Newegg for days trying to decide which
one is right for me, but I'm finding similar cards (AGP 4x/8x Radeon
9250) priced nearly the same. I'm not familiar with the Sapphire brand
or how Abit's and Gigabyte's graphics cards are. Can anybody help me
decide which card manufacturer would be better in quality? If you had to
choose between Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire with all else being equal,
which would you buy?

 

[First of One]

Sapphire's parent company, PCPartner, actually does some manufacturing for
ATi. Its cards are essentially clones of ATi-branded cards, which means
quality is solid.

That said, when in life is "all else being equal"? If prices are the same,
look at the bundles. Maybe one brand packages a game you like. Look at the
warranty.

 

[patrickp]

I need to get a new budget priced card for a new pc (moving up from
Geforce2). I've been looking at Newegg for days trying to decide which
one is right for me, but I'm finding similar cards (AGP 4x/8x Radeon
9250) priced nearly the same. I'm not familiar with the Sapphire brand
or how Abit's and Gigabyte's graphics cards are. Can anybody help me
decide which card manufacturer would be better in quality? If you had to
choose between Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire with all else being equal,
which would you buy?

I've had several 'Built by ATI' cards, one Sapphire card (9600 Pro)
and one ASUS card (9600XT).

Original ATI cards have been excellent

Sapphire, very good - performed as well as an ATI card, but wouldn't
run MMC TV/Video In app - I think this may be planned behaviour for
MMC with OEM cards.

ASUS - rather disappointing; not as good 2D as the other cards and
seemed to do slightly better with ASUS' own versions of Catalyst
drivers than ATI's - which means, of course, you're always a version
or so behind. The same limitation as the Sapphire card with MMC, of
course.

YMMV Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[First of One]

Asus STILL has inferior 2D image quality? In this Anandtech article from
2001, comparing GF3 cards, the Asus was criticized for having poor 2D. Looks
like Asus has not improved in this aspect.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1507&p=7

 

[patrickp]

Asus STILL has inferior 2D image quality? In this Anandtech article from
2001, comparing GF3 cards, the Asus was criticized for having poor 2D. Looks
like Asus has not improved in this aspect.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1507&p=7

Well, this was about a year and a half ago; I didn't keep the card
long. But yes, 2D was the worst I've seen on an ATI based card.

Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Tom Goodman]

I need to get a new budget priced card for a new pc (moving up from
Geforce2). I've been looking at Newegg for days trying to decide which
one is right for me, but I'm finding similar cards (AGP 4x/8x Radeon
9250) priced nearly the same. I'm not familiar with the Sapphire brand
or how Abit's and Gigabyte's graphics cards are. Can anybody help me
decide which card manufacturer would be better in quality? If you had to
choose between Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire with all else being equal,
which would you buy?

I'm running a Sapphire Radeon 9200 SE, 128Mb, came with 3 full games and
runs well with Nebula Digitv card. Using latest ATI catalyst drivers.
Can't help about the MMC tv/video, since i have never heard of it.

 

[Ed Medlin]

I'm running a Sapphire Radeon 9200 SE, 128Mb, came with 3 full games and
runs well with Nebula Digitv card. Using latest ATI catalyst drivers.
Can't help about the MMC tv/video, since i have never heard of it.

Sapphire has been around quite a while and has a good reputation. They make,
basically, ATI reference boards for the most part. I would not hesitate to
buy one.

Ed

 

[Shawk]

Well, this was about a year and a half ago; I didn't keep the card
long. But yes, 2D was the worst I've seen on an ATI based card.

Just swapped my Sapphire 9800Pro for an ASUS X800XT PE and I haven't noticed
any difference in 2D quality at all. Was the problem with text, photo's,
what? Ta.

 

[First of One]

The problem tends to manifest itself at high desktop resolutions
(1600x1200+) displaying fine text.

Some manufacturers use cheap low-pass filters and related circuitry, so the
video signal contains more noise, resulting in ghosting and blurry text.
Back in the Geforce3 days, Asus and MSI were notorious for this. Then the
press started taking notice, so all manufacturers improved their components
to a certain extent since the Geforce4. Asus might have used better-quality
filters on its flagship X800XT-PE.

Note: just to avoid confusion, all this talk is about *analog* image quality
through either the DB15 VGA port or the DVI port with an adapter. If you are
driving a flat panel through a straight DVI connection, then obviously this
doesn't affect you.

 

[patrickp]

The problem tends to manifest itself at high desktop resolutions
(1600x1200+) displaying fine text.

Some manufacturers use cheap low-pass filters and related circuitry, so the
video signal contains more noise, resulting in ghosting and blurry text.
Back in the Geforce3 days, Asus and MSI were notorious for this. Then the
press started taking notice, so all manufacturers improved their components
to a certain extent since the Geforce4. Asus might have used better-quality
filters on its flagship X800XT-PE.

Note: just to avoid confusion, all this talk is about *analog* image quality
through either the DB15 VGA port or the DVI port with an adapter. If you are
driving a flat panel through a straight DVI connection, then obviously this
doesn't affect you.

Exactly the situation, First. I like to use a 1600 x 1200 desktop,
and was doing so then. It wasn't bad enough to be unusable, but was
considerably less distinct than with previous ATI cards (7200 VIVO and
a Rage 128 Pro before that), and when I subsequently got a Sapphire
9600 Pro, the display was back to what I had before - maybe even
better.

And, yes, this was (and still is) with a CRT monitor.

Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Shawk]

Exactly the situation, First. I like to use a 1600 x 1200 desktop,
and was doing so then. It wasn't bad enough to be unusable, but was
considerably less distinct than with previous ATI cards (7200 VIVO and
a Rage 128 Pro before that), and when I subsequently got a Sapphire
9600 Pro, the display was back to what I had before - maybe even
better.

And, yes, this was (and still is) with a CRT monitor.

Thanks for that. Using 1280x1024 on a 21" CRT and all's fine so far. Might
experiment with 1600x1200 to see but that's just curiosity.. it'll go back
down to 1280x1024 when I've done.

 

[Mark]

Sapphire has been around quite a while and has a good reputation. They make,
basically, ATI reference boards for the most part. I would not hesitate to
buy one.

I have had two Sapphire cards. The first did not work at all and the
second exhibited a load of analogue interference at 1024x768
resolutions and above.

I had the same interference problem with a Crucial radeon card.

I have had two Connect3D cards now and they have been fine.

Regards,
Mark.

 

[Harry]

I need to get a new budget priced card for a new pc (moving up from
Geforce2). I've been looking at Newegg for days trying to decide which
one is right for me, but I'm finding similar cards (AGP 4x/8x Radeon
9250) priced nearly the same. I'm not familiar with the Sapphire brand
or how Abit's and Gigabyte's graphics cards are. Can anybody help me
decide which card manufacturer would be better in quality? If you had to
choose between Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire with all else being equal,
which would you buy?

I have a Sapphire Radeon 9550 256Mb. I flashed the bios to a 9600Pro
and it works like a dream.

Harry

 

[D. Corn]

I need to get a new budget priced card for a new pc (moving up from
Geforce2). I've been looking at Newegg for days trying to decide which
one is right for me, but I'm finding similar cards (AGP 4x/8x Radeon
9250) priced nearly the same. I'm not familiar with the Sapphire brand
or how Abit's and Gigabyte's graphics cards are. Can anybody help me
decide which card manufacturer would be better in quality? If you had to
choose between Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire with all else being equal,
which would you buy?

Save yourself a bunch of aggravation by staying away from
ATI. A very
good card can be had in the Leadtek Winfast with an Nvidia
chipset
for less than half the price.
Support will actually answer emails too.

 

[D. Corn]

Sapphire's parent company, PCPartner, actually does some manufacturing for
ATi. Its cards are essentially clones of ATi-branded cards, which means
quality is solid.

That said, when in life is "all else being equal"? If prices are the same,
look at the bundles. Maybe one brand packages a game you like. Look at the
warranty.

You are an idiot

 

[First of One]

And I'm supposed to give a shit about what you think? Evidently I'm not
enough of an idiot to troll the ATi newsgroup with a premium Astraweb
account. Do yourself a favor, FOAD.

 

[D. Corn]

And I'm supposed to give a shit about what you think? Evidently I'm not
enough of an idiot to troll the ATi newsgroup with a premium Astraweb
account. Do yourself a favor, FOAD.

Like I said, you're an idiot