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Diamond

A

Anpu

n00b
Joined
Mar 18, 2006
Messages
52
Hey guys what are your thoughts on Diamond video cards? I have never used them, I know that the HD5870s are just the base version right now. I'm trying to decide on picking up one or waiting for say the Sapphire Vapor-X or ASUS cards to come in stock.
 
SiG357 said:
Hmmm....my last 8 cards have all been Diamond. No issues here.
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Exactly, all cards are going to be the same. The brand is for the customer support / RMA process. If you don't have problems it doesn't matter what kind of card you have, but once something goes wrong, that separates the boys from the men (hypothetically speaking).
 
using a diamond for the first time currently. Would not use them again. Customer support is non-existent. Took nearly 5 months to get a stupid rebate and that was after multiple calls and emails.
 
Shadowssong said:
Exactly, all cards are going to be the same. The brand is for the customer support / RMA process. If you don't have problems it doesn't matter what kind of card you have, but once something goes wrong, that separates the boys from the men (hypothetically speaking).
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That is true. But if the card is having problems all the time. It doesn't matter how good the RMA process is. You're still out of a card.

So which company sells quality card with good CS??
 
SiG357 said:
That is true. But if the card is having problems all the time. It doesn't matter how good the RMA process is. You're still out of a card.

So which company sells quality card with good CS??
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you missed the point of that post entirely....

all of the cards are manufactured by the same vendor (the reference boards), and sold by various vendors, Diamond is one of them, all you're paying for with different vendors is the customer service

which is where people are suggesting XFX and Asus, as their customer service is generally good

QA wise, Diamond is going to be no different than anyone else, its just the end-user experience that isn't likely to be as good as more "premier" vendors like XFX, BFG, eVGA, Sapphire, or Asus

to the OP:
I'd either go with XFX or Sapphire, I've never had bad luck with either
HIS is also fairly good, at least they were a few years ago, no idea if they've fallen off though
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
I'm pretty sure that's not correct...
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given that nVidia has been doing this for some time, using a single OEM and just letting AIB partners rebadge them, I don't see how AMD wouldn't do the same?

my point isn't that theres some back channel retail going on where the boards are bought and kids are in a factory putting stickers over another vendor, but the design and production is fairly standardized and handled by a single OEM/group, for example some factory in china that we'll never know the name of, is handed a contract to produce 5870's, some of which are MSI, some of which are XFX, some of which are Gigabyte, and so on

its the same card, sans the end-user experience, unless the AIB partner has permission/rights to change the design, and then they can implement whatever they want (like cooling or circuit changes, or entirely custom solutions (like GTX 285 MARS))

honestly if I'm off-base here, I'd be glad to read whatever you've got to the contrary, but I'm fairly sure this is how it works for graphics adapters (based on how it works for most everything else)
 
IIRC Sapphire make's all of the cards (atleast they used to) and the AIB just rebadge them.
 
obobski said:
honestly if I'm off-base here, I'd be glad to read whatever you've got to the contrary, but I'm fairly sure this is how it works for graphics adapters (based on how it works for most everything else)
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Well, I can't find anything explicitly stating that all video cards are not rebadged products from a single manufacturer, but neither can I find anything to back it up. However, these companies are frequently referred to as video card manufacturers, and as ATI / nVidia's manufacturing partners, which seems to imply they're actually in the business of manufacturing something other than cardboard boxes covered with crappy CG artwork. I thought reference boards were precisely that - references for these manufacturers to use when constructing their own.

EDIT: We're talking about the cards, right? Because of course the GPUs all come from the same place.
 
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LuminaryJanitor said:
Well, I can't find anything explicitly stating that all video cards are not rebadged products from a single manufacturer, but neither can I find anything to back it up. However, these companies are frequently referred to as video card manufacturers, and as ATI / nVidia's manufacturing partners, which seems to imply they're actually in the business of manufacturing something other than cardboard boxes covered with crappy CG artwork. I thought reference boards were precisely that - references for these manufacturers to use when constructing their own.

EDIT: We're talking about the cards, right? Because of course the GPUs all come from the same place.
Click to expand...

yes we're talking about cards
my point is this:
the companies are not designing the circuit board, they're buying a finished product (rights to produce), and then handing that off to another manufacturer (like ECS, Foxconn, etc) and badging it as their own, selling it, and providing customer service

very few of them actually have their own private factories or design boards for resale, but it isn't quite like theres a stream of boards from X brand and a bunch of people putting specific stickers on them, CE is a very interesting field
 
Haha ............. [XFX better resale value: & the box is sweet]
Boy buys card , 6months later sells card ..
FS: xfx 5870 box 280$ with 5870 add 40$ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 320 $ shipped.
 
Just go with XFX. The more people go with XFX, the more sales other ATI partners lose and this will force them to either step up their game or gtfo.

Besides XFX what other solid reputable partner does ATI have right now?
Asus?
 
Sapphire: Horrible support, may of changed in the past 2 years, don't care anymore
HIS: ... Doesn't exist. Support? Emails will take about 1 week, round trip. So dig in.
ASUS: Kill the card once it starts showing problems, save yourself some time
Gigabyte: Never tired them
MSI: Never tried them, either.

These are just my experiences with tech support, however.

Maybe you will have better luck.

Sapphire is ATi's personal favorite.
XFX is argueably the best of the ATi camp, but that's only over the warranty / experiences (none for me, so far).
ASUS is rock solid.

Sapphire makes/designs most of the ATi vendor's cards, so...
They are all the same, physcially. They won't just die on you more if you bought VisionTek over Gigabyte...
They'll be the same, proven, design.
 
obobski said:
Sapphire
HIS
Asus
Gigabyte
MSI


stop shilling.
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MSI, HIS and Sapphire?

Really? With Sapphire you will still need the luck factor. Haven't tried Gigabyte but haven't heard any stories about them either, lets just hope their gpu rma is just like their mobo rma.
 
Thanks Guys for all the input. I was able to get a XFX 5870 at my local microcenter this morning. I wasn't too excited about getting a Diamond, but when I saw it come the XFX stock and be only 10 more dollars than any of the 5870s on newegg I bit on it.
 
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