ATI Manufacturers

[Balishang]

I was planning on getting an nvidia chipset mobo but i changed my mind so now im going to get an intel chipset mobo. Since these boards don't support SLI i could future proof better by going ATI. I don't know much about ATI cards since I've been strictly following Nvidia cards for the past few months. If i do go ATI, then i will be getting a 4850. What ATI video card manufacturers have good quality cards, reliability, etc...?

 

[The Zune Guy]

Sapphire? They seem pretty good

 

[dhgunit]

Didn't I just make a thread about this yesterday?

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

I've got a Sapphire HD 4850 myself. Very impressed. The fan is variable and at idle it's nice and quiet. It does however, like all 4850s, get very hot. It idle's at around 70°C and at maximum stock clock speeds you'll see temperatures of 90°C to 100°C. While the fan is quiet, many users have complained about the fan speed controller not forcing enough RPM when running at full clock speeds. Many manufacturers (not just Sapphire) have seemingly chosen noise as a priority.

There is a workaround to this for those who are worried, and for those who want to attempt overclocking with the stock cooler. It involves tinkering with a file in notepad and is very straightforward having tried it out myself. Basically, you can override the automatic fan speed algorithm and set your own target speed for the fan, from 0% to 100% (which is extremely loud!). Instructions can be found here: Radeon HD 4850 Heat issues - Guru3D.com Forums .

Having said all this, these temperatures are the operating norm for the 4850. The single slot cooler doesn't do much favours either, but overall, my system still runs fairly cool and the 4850 performs perfectly, untweaked.

There are of course, other good graphics card manufacturers around too.

 

[Apokalipse]

I just say go with whatever's cheapest. They all use the same PCB as far as I know.

And as far as the cooling goes, the 4850's do run hot. Their GPU's are designed to handle a high amount of heat, but you can increase the fan speed through software.

 

[veg1992]

Didn't I just make a thread about this yesterday?

People aren't very familiar with the search feature before they post

Check that thread.. in the meanwhile I'll lock this one