Which brand of Radeon 4850?

J

JimmiG

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I'm going to buy a Radeon 4850 soon as was wondering which brand to choose. All of them are based on the reference design, but there might be differences in the software bundle, warranty, RMA service etc.

My choices are MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Club3D, Sapphire.

I have some sour grapes with Gigabyte because my current Gigabyte 8800GT has a very noisy dual-slot cooler, one of the reasons I'm replacing it with a 4850. But I suppose they haven't managed to mess up their 4850 card in the same way, since it's based on the reference design?

Club 3D is cheapest, Asus is most expensive. The others are somewhere in between. Is it worth it to save about €10 by going with the Club 3D card, or will I regret that later if I need to RMA it or something?
 
I'd recommend Visiontek, as others and I have done on various other threads. USA based company, lifetime warranty, and clear heatsink covers (no anime garbage). If Asus, Sapphire, or HIS is significantly cheaper, roll with them.
 
shraz said:
anyone know the difference between the two Powercolor on Newegg?
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One has -H and the other has -RT. the -H shows "Special savings w/ MicroSD card combo, ends 7/15", "HDMI: 1 via adapter," and Packaging information. The -RT doesn't.

The -H is priced at $199.99, the -RT at $206.99.
 
I would go with the Asus....it's what I have and I love the smartdoctor where you can set the fan speed manually or have it increase cfm as it hits certain temperature readings set by you.
 
You can get the ASUS for $150 with a 20 instant rebate in newegg and a $30 mail in rebate. I know thats what im going for even do visiontek has lifetime warranty i doubt i'll keep the videocard active for more than 1-2 years :p
 
My Visiontek 4850 from Best Buy appears to be BBA... (I have a feeling any of them are at this point since they're all stock/launch units)
 
All cards look identical to me except the artwork on the cooler. I don't think the card "manufacturers" actually build the cards, do they? Aren't they all built by the same company, probably in china or something?

Visiontek is not available where I live (Sweden). The brands I mentioned are what will be available monday next week at my local computer store. More might be available at online stores. The Asus card is €190, and the Club3D card is €170. Is the Asus card worth an extra €20, or about $31 US?
 
Whatever is cheapest is the one to buy. Other than that, they are all clocked the same and probably 99% similiar in quality.
 
CorruptedDragon said:
Whatever is cheapest is the one to buy. Other than that, they are all clocked the same and probably 99% similiar in quality.
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Yeah but some people actually give a shit about the warranty and on the off chance that something does happen they want a hassle free RMA process.
 
milkweg said:
Club3D? What kind of lame name is that for a video card company?
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Apparently, they're based in the netherlands (http://www.club3d.nl/). They probably only sell cards within the EU. I've no idea what kind of RMA service or warranty they offer, so I think I'll spend €20 or €30 more and buy from a more well known company.. Maybe Sapphire? Has anyone had to RMA a card to one of the companies I listed? What was your experience? I'd hate having to send my videocard to taiwan or korea and be without a proper videocard for 5 months if it breaks...
 
christpunchersg said:
Does anyone know which brand is "built by ATI" or does that not exist anymore?
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as mentioned in another thread (i forgot which one, sorry), visiontek got ATI's production facilities so they make Built by ATI boards now. Usually first run of their cards is labeled BBA and then they transition to their own non-reference design. I have a 3870 BBA from visiontek.
 
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