9800Pro - ATI or Sampphire?

[codeflux]

considering upgrading my 9700pro to 9800pro/128 - yeah, i know, marginal, but i'm seeing mad overclocks on 9800pro (like 500 on GPU) and my 9700pro tops out at ~400 on GPU with a voltmod.

so, is there any difference (in quality, overclockability, performance) between a 9800pro made by ATI and the same made by Sapphire?

i figured i'd ask first, just in case. i don't see any difference myself... this upgrade will run me in the order of $100, so it ain't that big of a deal. i want this to last me until RV420 comes out (or whatever the new core will be called).

here are the links: Sapphire for $268 and ATI for $298.

sapphire is OEM, ATI is Retail (who needs it?) - for a $30 difference

 

[Akuma]

Same card, Sapphire actually produces most of the BBA cards too.

 

[Roost426]

A 9700 pro with a 400mhz core is plenty to hold you over until the next gen.

 

[Hades16x]

9800pro with 500mhz gpu ?!?!? where and with what cooling? Prommie2 modded to a gpu?

 

[ZigZagZeppelin]

If u wanna volt mod the Pro any will do:

Here's a 9800 Volt Mod Guide:

http://www.fastlanehw.com

IF NOT, the retail ATI cores overclock highest (mine does 490 stock on air) Sapphire's oc highest on memory. The R350's performance is GPU driven & not reliant on memory bandwidth so much (like the R300's were).

So buy the retail ATI if you're a serious benchmarker.

 

[codeflux]

Originally posted by Cloud15x
9800pro with 500mhz gpu ?!?!? where and with what cooling? Prommie2 modded to a gpu?

that was here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=714208

hercules 9800pro at 500/360 with 1.9v on GPU. he used an athlon heatsink with what looks like a delta fan to cool it. i'm running water, so i should be able to get there too.