Hercules or Sapphire 9800 non-pro? Does it matter?

[i d o r u]

These cards are both within a tenner of each other at Ebuyer in the UK. The
Sapphire has plenty of decent reviews, and appears to have the overclocking
potential to reach the stock speeds of the significantly more expensive Pro
version.

The Herc card (which are in my experience are usually a fair bit more
expensive than the Sapphires) has no reviews - basically, I was wondering
whether anyone knows the overclocking potential of this card compared to the
Sapphire as the Herc 9800 non-pro doesn't seem to be very common in the UK
for some reason. Herc have a great rep (probably the best of all the
vendors?) so I guess that this will be an even better card than the
Sapphire, if only marginally...

So, to anyone that owns one, what speed ram do they use and what is the
overclocking potential? Shall I pay £10 more and go with the Herc just
because it has been traditionally seen as a better brand than Sapphire?

Many thanks in advance for any help

 

[methylenedioxy]

Hercules, you get a 3 year warranty then.....Sapphire have been dropping
their standards anyway, they are starting to use cheaper memory which is
something they never did before...

 

[Wayne Youngman]

These cards are both within a tenner of each other at Ebuyer in the UK. The
Sapphire has plenty of decent reviews, and appears to have the overclocking
potential to reach the stock speeds of the significantly more expensive Pro
version.

The Herc card (which are in my experience are usually a fair bit more
expensive than the Sapphires) has no reviews - basically, I was wondering
whether anyone knows the overclocking potential of this card compared to the
Sapphire as the Herc 9800 non-pro doesn't seem to be very common in the UK
for some reason. Herc have a great rep (probably the best of all the
vendors?) so I guess that this will be an even better card than the
Sapphire, if only marginally...

So, to anyone that owns one, what speed ram do they use and what is the
overclocking potential? Shall I pay £10 more and go with the Herc just
because it has been traditionally seen as a better brand than Sapphire?

Hi,

well I just got a Sapphire Atlantis 9800 (£216.00 inc vat) last week. It
has Samsung 3.3ns memory on it which seems to be rated highly by the folk @
Rage.3D forums. The card is well made and has a good GPU cooling solution
in place. Even though I am still running the 9800 @Stock speeds I noticed
that the memory chips were very hot indeed so I order 8 (2 x 4) tweakmonster
BGA cooling chips from http://www.thecoolingshop.co.uk that I intend to
epoxy on. I wonder if the Herc card comes with cooling chips attached?.
Doesn't the Sapphire come with a three year warrantee as well. . .

Keep it real, keep it RADEON!

Wayne ][

 

[methylenedioxy]

3.3ns? That's pretty poor.......The ti4200 uses 3.3ns that is BAD memory.

 

[i d o r u]

Hi,

I wonder if the Herc card comes with cooling chips attached?.
Doesn't the Sapphire come with a three year warrantee as well. . .

Keep it real, keep it RADEON!

Wayne ][

Hey,

Yup - I think the Herc has ramsinks so that bodes well for some decent
overclocking.

I have Barclaycard cover so if the price of the Herc drops within 60 days I
get the difference refunded to my account

So it looks as if the Prophet might be the best bet at only a few quid more.

Ta.