Any brand of 5870 better than another?

[Ketzer7]

Having used pretty much exclusively Nvidia (read: EVGA) vid cards for the past couple of years, I'm not all that familiar with the various vendors that produce Radeon cards.

That said, I've had pretty good experiences both product and support-wise with EVGA which is why I always went back to them for new generation cards starting from all the way back to the 7900GT up through the 285 and 295.

The 5870 changes things though and I want to give them a try this time around. Only problem is I don't know how the support or product quality is among the various Radeon OEMs.

Is there one that stands out above the rest? I mean, it's pretty much a given the cards themselves are all manufactured and assembled by AMD, or? And then the OEMs just slap a sticker on them and throw them in a bundle box?

I was leaning towards either an XFX or Asus branded one, but I've heard Asus' support is terrible. The other guys I have no idea.

Anyways, would love to hear all opinions out there that can help. Thanks.

[Splave]

"And then the OEMs just slap a sticker on them and throw them in a bundle box?"

^this for now atleast, they will be reference.
XFX has a double lifetime warranty i would rock one of those

[Asylum1]

XFX would be your best choice.
Asus support is lacking to say the least so stay away from those.

[overclocking101]

well sapphire support is excellent. when my HD3870X2 died they ran out of them for rma's and upgreaded me to an hd4870 when they had just come out for free and paid my shipping both ways. HIS support is great but they can take a while to ship the new card back but you get a NEW card in a sealed box not an OEM replacement. visiontek is horrible. powercolor is great with rma's thats all i know. asus is terrible absolutely terrible

[Bail_w]

XFX by far the best for ATI cards. On the other hand, Sapphire charges you a fees (30 USD?) for RMA service :down:

[Sadasius]

XFX would be your best choice.
Asus support is lacking to say the least so stay away from those.

For me it was the other way around. XFX was the absolute worst RMA process I have EVER had the displeasure of doing business with. Double lifetime warranty means jack after awhile when you keep spending money on shipping for defective cards they will keep sending you or....They send you what they would think an equivalent would be in performance (NOT VALUE). At least with Asus I got what I wanted when I needed it. Might have taken longer because they are busier but I have had way better experience with Asus. Plus the Asus model comes with voltage adjustments that is not reference. Which is awesome for OC'ing. Don't let the XFX double lifetime warranty fool you. I have a few RMA tickets that span a couple years for the same card that never worked out of the box! Yeah lovely experience. They will keep sending you duds till you give up and just buy a different brand.

[Particle]

I've not had Sapphire charge me. I just have to pay for shipping is all. I've RMA'd 2-3 cards to them over the years. Every card I've ever bought of theirs seems to die in just shy of a year. The exception to this would be the 4850s I bought. heh

AMD provides reference designs. It is up to the AIBs what they really want to build, however. For now you'll be buying AMD-designed cards but not AMD-built ones.

[JohnJohn]

Sapphire i saw may come with a dirt2 coupon. Check at the time of buying...

[dng]

should i sell my 4870x2 decked out with the artic cooler xtreme and get the 5870? anyone interested? sorry if i'm out of line asking in here.

[Jamesrt2004]

XFX supports changing cooler + double lifetime warranty

[Unoid]

ASUS = has software built in Voltage manipulation. they says the 5870 does 1000mhz just fine.

[Jamesrt2004]

ASUS = has software built in Voltage manipulation. they says the 5870 does 1000mhz just fine.

there suppport is frigging awful

and ALL 5870 (reference design) support software overclock they even got it up over at TPU somewhere

[Sadasius]

there suppport is frigging awful



Much better then XFX. At least Asus sends you back a working product unlike XFX who made me spend an awful lot of money sending their cards back that they never tested before shipping out. I have the proof, do you? I have one ticket going past 2 years now and I have a card coming from them right now in the mail. Here is my tracking from USPS.... "CV008845343US" XFX blows! :down:

[Ketzer7]

Interesting info on both sides, not sure what to do then.. I happened to stumble upon this too today http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=3868755#post3868755

Seeing as how most of them are out of stock pretty much everywhere right now anyways, it's somewhat moot, but still gotta pick one

[Sadasius]

Wow thanks for that link. I just filed a complaint with the Attorney General on XFX (thanks to the advice of Movieman in that link). They will be getting something nice in the mail soon too then! :clap: Yay for justice damn it! :up: If your looking for the form for this yourself who reads this thread here it is....Just print, fill out and send to them. http://ag.ca.gov/contact/business_corpform.pdf

[Ketzer7]

Out of curiosity, did a little more digging at the BBB's website and found some interesting things:

Sapphire? - Sapphire Technology Limited aka Althon Micro, Inc.
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Althon-Micro-Inc-100041075

PowerColor -
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Power-Color-Inc-13139214
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/PowerColor-100075590

HIS - Couldn't find anything :shrug:

VisionTek - they seemed to be based around Chicago and had a couple of different listings
http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/computers-software-and-services/visiontek-in-inverness-il-88005173
http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/electronic-equipment-and-supplies-dealers/visiontek-products-in-inverness-il-88260757
http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/computers-software-and-services/visiontek-in-chicago-il-27000650

I don't know how they go from a D+ and F to an A, but whatever :rolleyes:

Asus -
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/computers-software-and-services/asus-in-fremont-ca-16870

XFX -
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Eastcom-Inc-13204616

Maybe you want to go there too Sadasius ;)

[edit]
Diamond MM aka Best Data-
http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Best-Data-Products-92004648

That's nice big old F :)



So anyways, it seems among these, Sapphire (if it is Sapphire, hard to tell) and PowerColor have good ratings, the rest, meh..

[Sadasius]

Damn man your my new best pal here...LOL :rofl: Got me all kinds of help. I have a feeling things will be resolved very soon though. We will see. I already have 26 pages worth for the affidavit. This will be 27 now too! :up:

Wow it looks like Asus just beat XFX. Asus with a 'C' rating and XFX with a 'C-'. Damn VisionTek sucks huh!?! 'D+'. Best one's are Sapphire, Power Color and HIS apparently. Wow opened my eyes some too. Thanks!

[tbone8ty]

ASUS = has software built in Voltage manipulation. they says the 5870 does 1000mhz just fine.

yeah asus has the voltage tweak which is nice

[Kensek]

Asus RMA has always been fast for me over the years.

VGA turnaround is 2 weeks. No questions asked. Fill out the Online questionaire, RMA number is sent via E-mail in 24 hours. Box up the VGA and label the box with the RMA No. New Card arrives in 10-13 days.

[road-runner]

I had good luck on an RMA with sapphire on a 4870x2, I was surprised they where as quick as there where...

[billdavis]

duh
gigabyte...100 day step up

[dctokyo]

I would go with ASUS, It has built in Voltage manipulation software for the 5870 to give you higher clocks.

[kiwi]

You can flash asus bios on any card and get software voltage tweaks (as long as they use the same voltage regulators) :)

But I am sure there will be software voltage adjustment for all cards soon by RT etc.

In any case I would go XFX, always loved them :D Other brands are not bad either

[Humminn55]

Will never buy another Asus card again after two horrible RMA experiences with them.

First, a 3870 TOP version that began artifacting during gaming. While I got an RMA number quickly, next day after filling out online request, the returned card was the exact same card that had nothing done to it....just reboxed and returned. (Serial number was the same and card was no different.)

Sent it back in second time, got it back in two weeks.....again, same card returned and still artifacting. Third RMA with card, after speaking to L3 tech support, got a brand new, retail boxed card sent back in about two weeks after sending it in for the third time. Thankfully, that one is still working without problems.


Second card that messed up was a 4850. VRM LEDs began lighting up and Asus' SmartDoctor started showing fault in card and needed to be sent in for repair.....card never overvolted or overclocked.

In about two weeks, get card back. Doesn't even put out any video at all this time, and was exact same card I sent in....again, S/N was same as what I sent in.

Second RMA got back the same card, but now it does have video, but it locks up after about an hour of use, and didn't even have to be gaming. Strangely, none of the LEDs on the card ever worked again.

Get third RMA for same card.......this time, again, L3 support had to be contacted. Unfortunately, it sat with them for almost 2 months, despite repeated phone calls and emails asking where it was after about 2 weeks. Finally, on a Saturday afternoon, got ahold of an L3 tech, by himself, just before closing. He located the card and trouble ticket.....it was buried and apparently forgotten. Had to go through the whole what was wrong and what had/had not been done in the previous two RMAs. He personally got a brand new, retail boxed 4850 out to me on the following Monday.

I sold the card when it arrived and swore I'd never buy another Asus video card ever again. Three RMAs for each card to finally get a working one; one set of RMAs cost two shipping charges and 1 1/2 months of time, the other card cost two shipping costs and almost 4 months of time. Horrible service.

You want an Asus card, great. Buy one. Just don't count on Asus for speedy or quality service.

[japanese]

I was just asking myself, doesn't any of you have experience with rma with gigabyte videocards? I'm thinking in buying one, just wanted to see performance numbers first (to see if really it's reference) and wanted to know you guys opinion about rma service!

[sjakie666]

Saphire has good support. After Sending my 4850x2 to their european RMA center a week ago, i got a message from them today that the new card will be send soon to me :D

[mcmeat51]

Well Im just speculating, however Im warey of HIS, I have Powercolor and sapphire cards. I dont want to jynx them so read into that if you will. for whatever reason though, the sapphire runs cooler than the powercolor and the bioses are not interchangeable (foud that out first hand.. :S ). Powercolor are a cheaper brand, but I get the feeling that they are decent quality. I do however miss Gainward. When I used to have NV cards I bought the GW GS and they were always awesome!

[Mabyboi]

should i sell my 4870x2 decked out with the artic cooler xtreme and get the 5870? anyone interested? sorry if i'm out of line asking in here.

personally i would say no, the increase is minimal from a dual card to a single 5870... unless you get 2 5870's... but for anyone with gtx 295's or a 4870x2, i would wait till you see the 5870x2, or the gt300 chips. perfomance at this time would only change by a few fps..

[iandh]

Wow, this thread made me feel way better about the Sapphire 5870 I just got today... I was originally planning on ditching it for an XFX as soon as these things get into stock normally and a coupon code comes out. Maybe not now, think I may hang on to it :)

This card is a BEAST btw, my favorite card of all time (I've been gaming since before the beginning of dedicated GPU cards), runs cool to the touch at idle even. My 4890, GTX 260 and 280 all ran hot as hell on idle, and hotter on load. This thing tops out around 60C.

[mav2000]

Thats nice to hear.

on the voltage regulation side, I guess u could do that with any of the SKU's as they are mostly all ref designs as of now and therefore should come with volterra chips.

[Lightman]

Sapphire i saw may come with a dirt2 coupon. Check at the time of buying...

I can confirm:
Dirt2 coupon (downloadable from Steam) and to get you waiting time for Dirt pass quicker they tossed in Battlestations Midway on top!

[Ketzer7]

This thing tops out around 60C.

iandh, that's almost good and bad. Good that it runs that cool under load, but bad because it almost makes WC'ing it questionable lol :) But on second thought, sure I will still WC it anyways heh

[purecain]

well personally i'd pick asus this time around, for the simple voltage control...and wait for the 5870six2gb version....

i understand how bad their support is concearning rma... but i'm gonna take a gamble...