Photo's are different but it's the same card with a re branded Bios and shiny sticker on the HSF. The Leadtek photo shown looks like the 256mb version.
Nvidia makes all the cards and simply sells them to the companies to badge, bios and sell.
BFG along with EVGA typically get the slightly cherry picked cards making for safer overclocks.
The DS3 mobo mentioned in that review is one of the better conroe budget boards (budget because it uses an older 965 chipset) and it is twitchy with a bunch of parts (corsair ram) so is more the motherboard than anything to do with a Leadtek bios.
BFG has a better warranty system along with EVGA but aside from that though I'd go with the cheapest one you can find.
For reference my two 7959GX2's I just got rid of were Leadtek, the 8800GTX I now have is BFG. _________________
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Ha! The links were a test to see if you were paying attention, and you passed! (oops)
The Leadtek seems to be the most inexpensive so I'll go for that one- thanks.
Although, that ATI looks like a very good deal, is it purely down to the amount of pixel shaders and a slightly higher clock speed?
The reason that new card and the x1900 xt (harder to find these days) are always my first choices for those who aren't insisting on Nvidia is due to a few things.
Anti Aliasing (AA) and HDR lighting, apart from the new 8800 series older Nvidia cards cannot have these together. The list of HDR games isn't huge (Oblivion, HL2 Episodes, Far Cry) but it always annoyed me. And this is only something we'll have more of in the future.
Anisotropic Filtering (AF) quality. As hard as this pill is for me to swallow as a 10 year Nvidia buyer and owner, ATi simply looks better for that generation. Their post processing is far ahead of Nvidia and no matter how high you go ATi stays looking better.
And lastly, Drivers. The things that always kept me firmly in Nvidia's pocket due to their excellence. Currently they aren't of the same high quality we've had for the past couple of years. They are directly on a par with ATi, being simply good.
All of these cards will last you a near identical period of time, they cost nearly the same, just a few minor things make ATi pull ahead. If you can't decide my advice is always go with the one you have faith in/trust the most. Because in the case of the only real differences between these cards the only way you'd ever know is if you had seen them side by side.
Which I think for you is Nvidia mate. _________________
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Looks like they have had some more in during the last 24 hours. Yes Farslain, I have been in Nvidia's corner since I built my first PC. The only time I have had an ATI was with this Dell (waiting for the shudders).
Soooo, I think as you say, it is probably best to go with the ones I have a track record with, and now the BFG is back in stock:
With a lifetime warranty, I think thats the one I'll end up with. With any luck it will last me 18 months to 2 years and then DX10 will be well and truly established and I can pick one of those. I simply don't see the point in a DX10 card yet as most developers have only had maybe a year at the max to start playing with it.
However....is that ATI a better card than the BFG? It has more pixel shaders and a faster clock speed.
Not really better, just a strong alternative. I simply wanted you to see that you have options. The only better things are that which I listed above being Image quality (IQ).
You cannot compare core/mem speeds and architecture between the cards as they differ so much.
You'll get two years, plenty of people still have Nvidia 6800's and ATi X800's and that is 3 years of solid hardware.
DX10 is redundant right now, and frankly it will be until probably next Winter at which point I'm sure there will be 10 or so titles and about the same backwardly patched.
The best reason to get a DX10 card is because you want the performance in all software until then. But anyone who says/thinks any of the current cards won't give that to you in ample supply is stupid or dillusional.
There always needs to be early adopters, otherwise the industry doesn't move forward. _________________
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raptor had a faulty bfg that he had overclocked within the margins they set, a courrier arrived with a replaement card and swapped out there and then, always go with a company that honours their warranty mate. _________________
Aye most RMA services require you to ship your item first and recieve an update at a later date, a week or three. Yuck.
Good ones will send you a replacement and ask you to return yours in the same packaging.
BFG and EVGA deffinately have the better warranty services and are among 4 companies that have RMA sites in England, making it that much easier.
Good choice, you won't be dissapointed.
Oh and if you need help with getting your old drivers removed clean and recomendations on current new best drivers to install with the new card just ask. _________________
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stuff that usually has a lifetime warranty is usually the ones that are shit and break down all the time, please learn from my mistaks, you can ask jerry stu and dave about the computers and computer parts iv been through _________________
thats cause ash all you computer stuff had no serial numbers n sold by a random guy named Stu (cough) at 3 am outside a Pc shop which got robbed the previous nite _________________
Thanks for the vote of confidence Convilement. I am now merrily looking forward to getting a new card every few months until 2009 when it will be time to upgrade. I'll the fake one last PCB death, have it replaced and sell it 'as new' for f**k all. Result.
Farslain, thanks for the offer of driver removal advice. Is is not simply a matter of uninstalling the ATI 'control panel' and 'display driver' through Add/Remove programs?
When ready to install the new card:
Do the normal add remove program files.
Reboot into Safe mode (F8 at system post 'beep') and run that program to clean out the registry trash.
Shut down system and remove the card.
Now you're good for the new card.
_________________
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