Graphics card manufacturers (ATI 5870) - does it matter?

[Horrgakx]

I've narrowed down to these two cards;
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5870 iCooler V 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [H587FN1GD] Graphics and Video ATI HD 5870 Series
and
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD-587X-ZNFC] Graphics and Video ATI HD 5870 Series

Both exactly the same spec cards, exactly the same warranty, exactly the same price. One is made by XFX, the other HIS.

I've not heard of these manufacturers before and wondered if anyone knew about them?

 

[MercFanUk]

When they don't follow the (In this case ATI) specs exactly, you need to look for things like fan noise and speed etc, how well the card can cool itself, and how quietly it does it. It may have a slightly higher power need, and could be overclocked as standard.

In this case, they both look pretty well matched. Not much else you can do except read some reviews of each card and then decide.

You'll find reviewers will review not just by model, but by brand also, so you should be able to find a review of each card somewhere.

 

[grober]

About Us | HIS Graphic Cards Hong Kong headquartered- China Manufactured.


also Hong Kong based--Don't know manufacture base but probably China.

XFX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Swozza]

I would investigate a little more. Not 100% sure but I think all XFX cards come with life time warranty from the manufacture. If correct I'd get the XFX.

 

[Horrgakx]

2 year warranty on both cards.

Gigabyte, Sapphire, AIT, MSI, Asus... are other manufacturers of the same card, but they are more expensive (why?). Which would you all choose?

This is a search page on Scan.co.uk for the card.

 

[Soltan]

Never heard of HIS, but XFX have been around for a while, they are a middle of the road company I'd say. Never had any problems with their graphics card.

I've certainly enjoyed their advertising, they do some pretty good promo's and pre-release vids on YouTube.

I won't post any links here, but do a search on Youtube for XFX secret weapon.

For the adults among us there is a pretty good spoof of an XFX advert, you'll find it if you do a search for XFX banned, you have been warned

 

[Satch]

You might want to consider the Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X, which has a different (i.e better!) heat sink/fan arrangement than some others.

 

[Swozza]

2 year warranty on both cards.

Gigabyte, Sapphire, AIT, MSI, Asus... are other manufacturers of the same card, but they are more expensive (why?). Which would you all choose?

This is a search page on Scan.co.uk for the card.

I've just checked its US only.....UK shafted again.

Double Lifetime Warranty

 

[jpskiller]

XFX are middle of the road, card will be ok and do the job, the other big makers ie, Asus, Gigabyte use better qual components, so cards will perform better and probably be quieter

 

[Horrgakx]

Well I ordered an XFX branded 5870 card, total just over £300. I should get it today

Can anyone advise on the best way to swap out my 8800GTS for this new 5870 card please? I will do the usual "Add/Remove programs" and look for any nVidia stuff but is there anything else I need to do? I'm on Win 7 64-bit Ultimate.

Oh, and how important is the BIOS? I'm running a motherboard 2 years old now on the original BIOS version. I don't think I can flash it because I don't have a floppy drive.

 

[whizzkid11]

Sorry - although its late - I would AVOID XFX especially for this 5870...

My colleague and a friend of his just ordered two of these a week and half ago from SCAN - both were faulty and both have been RMA'd.

XFX will not allow SCAN to issue an RMA until you have been through XFX support, and that process is long and laborious.

Colleague order the ATI version of the 5870 instead from a different supplier.

The problem my colleague had was pixelation due to faulty memory on the card... his friend had an issue where the card to too heavily to fit in the pci slot when the desktop was upright - lying on it side worked fine, but when stood up it was causing issues. Quite possibly due to dry joints somewhere.

Sorry for the late response, i have just seen your post...

 

[Horrgakx]

No worries, I'll let you know how it goes.
I ordered from Overclockers UK, not Scan. Scan were more expensive.

So, tips on uninstalling the old & installing the new please?

 

[Soltan]

check your manufacturers website, many modern Mobo's can actually be flashed from within Windows. However, most will accept bios updates from Flash drives instead of the humble Floppy.

Oh, and as for the software/drivers, uninstall, reboot, install the new drivers then insert new hardware. Actually Windows 7 is pretty good with new hardware so perhaps you could get away with just un-install, reboot, shutdown and install H/w and start up. If I recall correctly, my Windows 7 picked up my graphics card no problem and even downloaded and installed the Geforce drivers itself

 

[Horrgakx]

I fitted it last night, a smooth install, ran a benchmark prog and also tried Armed Assault II Operation Arrowhead, nice and fast
Seems no mods to the BIOS are needed but I'll give it more thorough tests over the next few days.

Just need to sell my 8800GTS card now !

 

[EVL124]

I have 2x XFX HD4890 cards in crossfire and they have been pretty good - I do have a slight issue with capacitor squeal under certain loads, but all in all, fairly happy.

I do prefer Sapphire/Asus branded cards though as a rule...