Radeon VII - PowerColor or Sapphire?

McClintoc

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I just got a $100 Amazon gift card and have been wanting a Radeon VII but didn't particularly like the $699 price tag. With the gift card I only pay $599 out of pocket so I am going to pull the trigger. The catch is, it has to come from Amazon. I really want the MSI card since my mobo is MSI but on Amazon it's $769. My only $699 choices on Amazon are PowerColor or Sapphire. I've owned quite a few Sapphire cards in the past so I am leaning towards that one. Should I go with it or is there any good reason to get the PowerColor?
 
Right.

PowerColor is okay. I mean they are mostly just the same card anyhow.

But I had a lot of trouble selling a used PowerColor Vega 64. Resale value was not good.
 
This will be my sixth Sapphire card out of 15 total cards owned over the years. I've never had a problem with them. But that just means I've never had to deal with their warranty service.
 
Honestly, those cards are built solid. I haven't seen any serious defects except for some having a fan rattling issue here on the forum. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Sapphire is perhaps the most reputable of the AMD parnters. That choice would be easy for me.

Powercolor packed their 580 and Vega cards with nothing but cardboard. Sapphire at least used foam! My Powercolor RMA experience was abysmal, but I’ve never had to RMA a Sapphire.
 
Sapphire is perhaps the most reputable of the AMD parnters. That choice would be easy for me.

Powercolor packed their 580 and Vega cards with nothing but cardboard.

Yep. I went from a MSI Vega 56 to a Powercolor 64 and the difference in overall quality of the packaging and card aesthetics was significant.
 
I had issues with a powercolor card. Performance was lacking. They had promoted some overclocking software at the time (their own). I asked them about it and the told me overclocking voids the warranty. Go Sap.
 
AMD does the same thing. Even though their drivers include overclocking software, it voids the warranty if you use it. Go figure.
 
AMD does the same thing. Even though their drivers include overclocking software, it voids the warranty if you use it. Go figure.


it's more of a protection clause due to people abusing warranties back in the day when there were no baked in protections. basically as long as the reason the card is being RMA'd doesn't have anything to do with overclocking or using a modified bios that bypasses the built in limitations then you're fine.
 
Its a matter of warranty more than anything, as all Radeon VII are reference designs purchased directly from AMD by OEMs, they just slap their sticker and move along.
 
It would be truly epic if an AIB like Sapphire produced a custom Radeon VII. One can hope...
 
I did have a good experience with Powercolor in 2015.

I'd also vote Powercolor. I had an excellent RMA experience on a card a few years back. The rep was greaf, got a new card super quick.
 
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