OC AIW 9700, is it worth it?

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:32 am

What is the quality difference in a card like ATI vs a sapphire or nvidia vs bfg etc?

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:45 am

Saphire make ALL high-end cards for ATI (even "built by ATI" cards)

With NVidia, all GTX cards are made the same, and each "manufacturer" just puts their sticker on them.

I'm not sure if that's the case now.....

All makers are the same....unless your getting a factory OC version...

Lookout for the likes of BFG/Evga ect. --> they give lifetime warranties!!!

It really comes down to the bundled games etc.

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:02 pm

yup, also MSI has a good bundle, but when you consider the card it really isn't worth it, as the quality isn't that of Sapphire or XFX.....buying XFX is good because of the double lifetime warranty, so if you go to sell it, make sure you've already registered the card, and when you get it to them, they can register it too and have the lifetime warranty as well.....now that's a good deal IMO

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:18 pm

just so i am clear, they would be the exact same card but the only idfference is what program/game bundles come with it?

Kerii · Post by **Kerii** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:43 pm

There's also the matter of the heatsink.

Some use stock heatsinks (not always a bad thing, like with the excellent cooler on the 6X00, 7X00 nVidia series cards), whereas others use better custom (or sometimes worse) cooling solutions.

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:44 pm

this better illustrates what comes with the X800GTO in AGP for Sapphire, for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102002

And this one is what comes with the 6600GT from MSI (the better bundles are reserved for PCI-E, so if you're going for the whole 9 yards, you may want to do some upgrading):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127170

not the best bundling on the market, but it does well. Personally, I'm more for functionality rather than the cool swag I get with the card (unless it comes with CoD 2, heheh)

EDIT: oops, my bad, you were asking the difference between them, not what comes with certain ones, lol........sorry, but still good info if you wanted to know, lol.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:46 pm

Cards with big bundles are normally more expensive!

So your actually paying for the "free" game

Make sure not to pay too much if all they offer is Duke Nukem ;)

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:16 pm

Well everyone, thanks for all the help!! between this thread and THIS ONE I finally decided to get an ATI x850 pro. 259 to my door from Isquared. I will be sure to let you all know how it goes!!

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:04 pm

awesome man, hope you enjoy......happy OCing

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:41 pm

think i should do some aftermarket cooling on it before i do any sort of unlocking/OCing?

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:48 pm

by all means, YES!!!! You want to keep GPU and mem temps down to prevent artifacting, burning up your card, etc, so heck yeah I would recommend aftermarket cooling.....I would say something by Arctic Cool (maker of the NVSilencer series, but they also make ATI cooling solutions too that are great).....of course, if you want to go crazy (and I think I posted this earlier in this thread) you could always go for the insane cooling mod sbohdan did on his 6800LE.....see no reason why it wouldn't work with an ATI card as well....also, remember AS 5 is your friend with GPU's too. Yeah, definitely go with aftermarket cooling........you won't regret it

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:36 pm

well, got the card in yesterday. threw it in there and i was rocking away!! went from 2300 3dmark (with the 9700 AIW) to a 5500 with the new card. im happy. let you know more info after i tweak and stuff.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:44 pm

bigblockmatt wrote:well, got the card in yesterday. threw it in there and i was rocking away!! went from 2300 3dmark (with the 9700 AIW) to a 5500 with the new card. im happy. let you know more info after i tweak and stuff.

That's over 100% increase

I guess we won't be seeing you around for a while

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:16 pm

haha, hopefully i will be hitting up lots and lots of BF2. I only got just over 50 hours logged on, I NEED MORE PLAY TIME! I also reformatted last week but forgot to copy my saved game in COD2 (which i was almost done with) so now i have

to play that all again...

sbohdan · Post by **sbohdan** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:12 am

so what card did you finally get? we can help you with the OC

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:44 am

Did you forget? lol, if you read his sig it says:

ATI Radeon x850 pro (flashed to xt/pe)

So looks like he's done all the OC'ing he can

Dan

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:26 pm

DMB2000uk wrote:Did you forget? lol, if you read his sig it says:

ATI Radeon x850 pro (flashed to xt/pe)
So looks like he's done all the OC'ing he can

Dan

ya, i should have posted. i flashed the x850 to xt/pe. i am very happy. I tried to O.C. it more with ATI tool...didnt do too well.