Best GPU brand of Sapphire, XFX, HIS, Gigabyte, Powercolor

[Flying_Nutcase]

Hi,

I'm looking at getting a 6950 and have the options of the following brands:
Sapphire, XFX, HIS, Gigabyte and Powercolor.

Any thoughts about the pros and cons of each? HIS offers a 'Turbo' version. Would this just be overclocked?

Ta for any help here!


Flying Nutcase

[2033cyborg]

I have the sapphire HD 6950 2GB... it's amazing! go for it ( plus anyone can tell you that sapphire does not built crap!)

( use to have the HD 4xxx serie before from sapphire and i played game with it on settings that people use to tell me i could not : crysis, dead space, metro 2033 and others...the card just delivered time and time again... its not only the card it is the way they put it together!)

what ever you choose the 6950 is right up there!

Enjoy!

[Formula88]

Gigabyte all the way, they build some awesome quality hardware and have better cooling solutions than reference cards. I have never had a Gigabyte product fail within 3 years.

[Flanker35M]

S!

I am using PowerColor without issues. Been using Sapphire to0 and XFX, nothing bad to sy about them either.

[l3uLLDoZeR]

I've got the powercolor 6950 2gig card and it's been going just fine for the last 2 months. I do believe this game runs better with nvidia cards from what i've seen on the forums though.

[Blackdog_kt]

I have no real experience with any, but most of what you mention are brands that have a good name for quality.

You could also try MSI which is what i have and i can definitely recommend from experience. I had a 4870 1GB but it was faulty right from the start (turned out it was damaged during shipping) and died on me, so i replaced it for free with a 4890 1GB thanks to their 3 year warranty policy.

Apart from that, they generally use "tougher" electronics and sport bigger heat-pipes at very similar prices to the rest. Finally, many of their high-end DX11 GPUs that are on the market currently (both nVidia and Ati based) have a twin frozr II cooler. That has two cooling fans so it helps a lot with maintaining low temperatures without too much noise, whereas a single fan GPU would have to run it at higher RPM and generate more noise.

I guess you can't go wrong with any of them, some will be clocked a tad faster, others will sport a slightly lower power consumption, better cooling or less noise, some will have an extra year of warranty and prices usually tend to be very similar for most of them, so it's all about which characteristic you value most.

[Flying_Nutcase]

Thx all for your replies. More welcome of course. :-]

[Troll2k]

Back in the ole days Sapphire used to build the Ati brand cards.I am not sure about now.

I have had Sapphire Cards in the past.They eventually died after many years.(out of warranty)

I now have an XFX 6850.It has dual fans and heat pipes for cooling.It is the quietest card I have had.XFX also has a double lifetime warranty(Whatever double lifetime means).My XFX did not come with any cables or adapters.If that is important to you it is something to consider.(I had to dig up a dvi to vga adapter).Also XFX seems to be a little more expensive than Sapphire.

If you are water cooling you might look around and see which card has a custom waterblock.

I can not speak for Powercolor or Gigabyte as I have never owned one.

I would not hesitate to buy either the Sapphire or the XFX.Depending on sale price, availability and overclock options.

[Flying_Nutcase]

I've narrowed it down to a Sapphire FleX edition. My understanding is that the FleX edition has improved cooling (Vapor-X) and built-in support for 3 monitors.

A good choice?

[Tomik]

I have Saphire Flex edition..

Pros:
You can connect three DVI monitors without need of display port
Vapor Chamber-based cooling - quiet and good temperature

Cons:
Not sure about flashing to 6970 BIOS

Edit:
When I started to reply, your post wasn't there, nice :)

[Flying_Nutcase]

I have Saphire Flex edition..

Pros:
You can connect three DVI monitors without need of display port
Vapor Chamber-based cooling - quiet and good temperature

Cons:
Not sure about flashing to 6970 BIOS

Edit:
When I started to reply, your post wasn't there, nice :)

Ha ha, a nice coincidence. My understanding is that the 6950 can be overclocked to 6970 speeds. Can you or someone elaborate on "flashing to 6970 BIOS". Ta!

[Scotch_Bonnet]

Ok...

Gigabyte or Powercolor. They have better cooling solutions allowing you to overclock higher.

Gigabyte over Powercolor because of the better warranty.

XFX has been a great company but they've had a lot of problems on these latest radeons and I wouldn't go near them for a radeon 69xx right now.


As far as flashing to a 6970... don't do it. The are already reports of peoples cards frying because the 6970 bios is sending the wrong voltage to the memory on the 6950s. What you can do is unlock the shaders on the 6950 to give you more performance.

[Doc_uk]

Mine:grin: