Newbie post:

I'm considering purchasing a Radeon 9700 pro with overclocking in mind. My question is, for those who have direct experience with this card, which manufacturer should I go with in order to have the greatest chance of a good overclock?

I've read the reviews, but I'm wary because often reviewers get a card from the manufacturer that may not be indicative of real world overclockability. Of course, I'm aware that just because somebody had good results with a particular card doesn't mean that when I get one in my hands that I'll get the same numbers.

So the major manufacturers that I've seen are: ATI (obviously!), Sapphire (Atlantis [heatpipe] and regular [active cooling] versions), Crucial, and FIC. The Sapphire seems to be the cheapest ~230$, and price is a concern (otherwise I'd get a 9800 pro!).

According to the reviews I've seen, I'd say that the 9700 pro should go from the 325/310 stock speeds to somewhere around 380/350.

Any opinions? I'm open to suggestions for other cards as well in the 200-250$ price range.

P.S. I plan to use stock cooling for the overclock, then eventually upgrading to the Zalman ZM80C-HP Heatpipe VGA Cooler + ZM OP1 Fan, or something similar.

$253 can get you a 9800 Pro 128MB and Sapphire provides a free overclocking utility! It's what I have, although I haven't tried overclocking yet...