Video card upgrade - advice wanted

[azruial]

Hi, I'm new here and I'm pretty bad with hardware stuff. I need to upgrade my 3-year-old+ Nvidea GeForce4 64MB PCI card, but I want to keep it pretty cheap if I can (I may add a new PC in 7-18 months anyway). I found what APPEARS to be a great deal on an ATI RADEON 9800, the only problem I see is that it is manufactured by SAPPHIRE, not ATI (I am told that this is bad). Has anyone used a sapphire card, or have any input in general?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

[Masque]

Sapphire is a good manufacturer. I have a 9600 Pro Atlantis in one of my machines (won it through this site, as a matter-of-fact :approve: ). No issues....been rock-solid for me. Keep in mind that if you're current system is only capable of supporting 4X AGP, that is all you'll see from your card, even if it IS 8X. Not a noticeable difference though. Your memory size and speed is going to be your biggest push.


BTW, in hindsight....:wave: Welcome To TechSpot! with your first post. Hope you get the info you need here.

 

[azruial]

thanks for the reply, I just head from someone else that the SAPPHIRE ATI 9800 ATLANTIS is a total rip-off and isn't close to the normal 9800