Question about reference cards

glynf

Hey lads,


Posted this in the Graphics sub forum but there's tumble weed floating around there at the moment:).

I'm planning on buying a second AMD card for xfire and have a few questions.

The card I have is the MSI version, I was looking at this AMD version for the second card.

My understanding is that the reference cards are made exactly to AMD specs in the same factory (TMSC?), then sends them to partners like Sapphire and Asus who puts their stickers on, boxes and then sells them. Is this about right?

I'm concerned about the quality of the cheaper cards, if they have to meet the reference design but can use any components they want-do they cut corners with the components on the boards to reduce costs? I think this maybe OK at stock but could mean they won't overclock well?

Thing is it's a €79 difference, but is it worth it to go with a more well known manufacturer? Anyone any info on the AMD cards?

I did google this thoroughly, but seems to be a lot of different answers, mainly based on opinions 7 can't find any decent articles about it.

deconduo

Reference cards are pretty much identical apart from the stickers on them. Just don't get an XFX one because of their terrible customer service. Any other manufacturer is fine.

The only differences come with the non-reference cards, especially the factory overclocked ones. Apart from the better coolers, these will generally be much higher binned and so will overclock more.

Nirnias

Sapphire is a good well known manufacturer! I have 2 Sapphire Radeon cards in another machine and they have been running for over a year with no problems. I had an MSI one that crapped out after a year i think.

There are small differences like each of those 2 cards have different ports to support different monitors

Here is the sapphire version: http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/10_GRPCARD/10_ATI/productdetails/20128057/Sapphire_Radeon_HD7970_3GB_PCI_E/21197_00_40G/default.aspx

glynf

Thanks deconduo, I heard XFX are'nt great. I'm sticking with reference to keep both the same, however I'd like to know why the AMD ones are so cheap-I'm sure you know what they say bout something that looks too good to be true..:D And I don't want to buy a card with inferior onboard memory etc.

glynf

Nirnias wrote: »

Sapphire is a good well known manufacturer! I have 2 Sapphire Radeon cards in another machine and they have been running for over a year with no problems. I had an MSI one that crapped out after a year i think.

There are small differences like each of those 2 cards have different ports to support different monitors

Here is the sapphire version: http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/10_GRPCARD/10_ATI/productdetails/20128057/Sapphire_Radeon_HD7970_3GB_PCI_E/21197_00_40G/default.aspx

Yeah, but its 80 yoyo's more Think all reference cards have 2 x mini dp, 1 DVI & 1 x HDMI?

Nirnias

Im mainly an AMD man to be honest, before 2 days ago i hadnt bought a non AMD component in 6 years. I broke the cycle 2 days ago and bought two Geforce x560 1Gb's cause i thought it was time for a change. Everything else in my rig is still AMD tho :P. Cheap and near same results

Nirnias

glynf wrote: »

Yeah, but its 80 yoyo's more Think all reference cards have 2 x mini dp, 1 DVI & 1 x HDMI?

Its better if you think of it as being 10 euro cheaper than the MSI one :P haha

My Sapphire cards have 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI and 1 x HDMI in them each.

deconduo

glynf wrote: »

Thanks deconduo, I heard XFX are'nt great. I'm sticking with reference to keep both the same, however I'd like to know why the AMD ones are so cheap-I'm sure you know what they say bout something that looks too good to be true..:D And I don't want to buy a card with inferior onboard memory etc.

I'd call the MSI one overpriced rather than saying the AMD one is cheap. There really is no difference between them, nothing to be worried about.

glynf

Yeah, I think the card would be OK, just don't want to end up with something in a Powercolor/VTX3D box with feck all else. Or one of these