cant buy real ATI card??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frenz
  • Start date Start date
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Frenz

Greetings from Holland,

I finally know what videocard I want to buy, now I'm stuck with the
following problems:

- Why is it so hard to get a -real- ATI 9800 pro in Holland/Europe?
- What are the best reference cards for the 9800 pro?
- How is the driver support of ATI these days?

(or should I even stick with NVidia??)
(The card installed at the moment is a Ti4600u Asus)

I have been browsing so many sites and most of them have that 3D Club
(crap?)
One store told me Sapphire uses the same things as ATI does but I can't
trust just one oppinion and I usually only buy good brands: Asus etc.


Thank you very much in advance,
Frenzy
 
Frenz said:
Greetings from Holland,

I finally know what videocard I want to buy, now I'm stuck with the
following problems:

- Why is it so hard to get a -real- ATI 9800 pro in Holland/Europe?
- What are the best reference cards for the 9800 pro?
- How is the driver support of ATI these days?

(or should I even stick with NVidia??)
(The card installed at the moment is a Ti4600u Asus)

I have been browsing so many sites and most of them have that 3D Club
(crap?)
One store told me Sapphire uses the same things as ATI does but I can't
trust just one oppinion and I usually only buy good brands: Asus etc.


Thank you very much in advance,
Frenzy
Click to expand...

ATI no longer sell directly to Europe, they are focusing on US and Canada
for their Built-By ATI products.

Sapphire Tech are the ones that actually make the Built-By ATI products for
ATI, so one of the Sapphire branded cards should be equally good, they are
available worldwide.
 
RipFlex said:
Definately go for Sapphire, if you can get it there. Best and only choice.
;)
Click to expand...

I beg to differ - there are other very good brands around fx. Hercules
which has allways made good stuff.

Still if one really must have an ATI simply buy it on-line in US/Canada.

I did so not so much because I wanted an ATI but because I found a shop
that sold ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with a 20% discount as an introduction
offer back when the 9700 Pro was released (at the time there were no
cards what-so-ever in europe regardless of brand).

Kind regards

Bruno
 
iddqd said:
I beg to differ - there are other very good brands around fx. Hercules
which has allways made good stuff.
Click to expand...

Hercules, Crucial, GigaByte and PowerColor all sell good cards, and some
no-so-good specific models.

But you are aware, I hope, that Sapphire makes many of the cards ATI sells
under its own brand name? Sapphire is among the best of the batch in
quality, and certainly in value.
 
Hercules, Crucial, GigaByte and PowerColor all sell good cards, and
some no-so-good specific models.

But you are aware, I hope, that Sapphire makes many of the cards ATI
sells under its own brand name? Sapphire is among the best of the
batch in quality, and certainly in value.
Click to expand...

If you check the ATI US/Canada store you'll find that ATI themselves
sell some Sapphire models.
 
I ordered once from the U.S. and the shipping costs are unpredictable and
very high.
The site said 22 dollar shipping and it became 55 euro that I had to pay in
Holland.

Hercules I remember from the 3DFX time and that was a very bad one. Wasnt
Hercules sold so many times because it went broke?

(Thank you for your info.)
 
Ty, too.
I have found a site that sells Sapphires at an affordable price but I have a
few questions to them about The Atlantis (9800 pro) and the Ultimate (9800
pro).

The difference seemed to be the cooler, one standard, other Zalman. It
differs 72 euro (!) just for the change of coolers..... mmm

I am using Klaxx water cooling set on my Ti4600ultra now and I hope the
Atlantis cooler has been connected the same way, diagonally.
 
-
Frenz stood up at show-n-tell, in [email protected], and said:
Ty, too.
I have found a site that sells Sapphires at an affordable price but I
have a few questions to them about The Atlantis (9800 pro) and the
Ultimate (9800 pro).
Click to expand...
Isn't the 'ultimate' the 256MB version?
 
I just received my new Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro, cost £230 including free
delivery to UK.

The card is manufactured by Sapphire and is identical to their own offering,
it comes with no games however, which I think is reflected in the excellent
price.

Crucial also offer a lifetime warranty on this product, so it's a very good
deal.
 
Frenz said:
I ordered once from the U.S. and the shipping costs are unpredictable and
very high.
The site said 22 dollar shipping and it became 55 euro that I had to pay in
Holland.
Click to expand...
While it may be complex to buy in the US it's not unpredictable - there
is taxes, custom fees and VAT which is to be paied when importing stuff
from outside the EU.

Hercules I remember from the 3DFX time and that was a very bad one. Wasnt
Hercules sold so many times because it went broke?
Click to expand...

When sold many times I think it may be S3 or perhaphs Diamond you are
thinking of. AFAIK Hercules (Only speaking of the computer company here)
has only been sold once.

Back in the days where graphics on PC's was just moving beyond what
could be done when combining "/|-\" and so the thing to have was a
Hercules card. It was either that or CGA (320*200 256 colours if I
recall correctly) or maybe EGA.

Technology progressed and while Hercules was know for great quality they
didn't keep up and eventually went bust. A few years ago the Hercules
name was brought back from the dead by Guillimont which needed a name
people could spell - they are in the business of making quality products
and the things being sold under the Hercules brand is in my experience*
good quality with crisp clear picture quality, good fans and all.

Kind regards

Bruno


* I used to work partly as the hardware guy at a software company so I'm
not just basing my views on what's in my home PC.
 
a bit off-topic but I was mere wondering what currency that 230 pounds is.
When I go to a currency calculator it says GBP 0,7 euro....
 
pounds = GBP


Frenz said:
a bit off-topic but I was mere wondering what currency that 230 pounds is.
When I go to a currency calculator it says GBP 0,7 euro....


were
Click to expand...
 
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