yet another videocard thread

[unburdened]

I was curious if there is a difference between a ATI powered card and a ATI card itself, for instance, Sapphire RADEON 9800 PRO ATLANTIS 128MB DDR AGP8X. Also if a card is OEM, what exactly does that mean?

Also right now i have an intergrated card, and it lags to high hell, but i don't have enough $$ to run out and buy a new card right now, so i was wondering if it would be safe to toss a ati radeon 7000 in my PC for the time being untill i can afford a 9800. thanks in advance!

 

[ailevation]

:cheers: Okay, all I can tell you so far is that OEM is not as good as retail, that's why OEM is usually cheaper than retail.

As for the "Powered by ATi" manufacturers and ATI manufacturer itself, I don't really know, maybe for profitable reasons? But, some companies like Asus have been known to make cards better and better packaging than ATI I.E. Asus's 9800 XT package vs. ATi's Package.

 

[brink's]

OEM isn't any worse then retail, it just doesn't come with a manual, drivers, etc. It would be safe to toss a radeon 7000 in there but i don't think ur fps will improve that much unless ur playing hl1, quake 2 etc.

 

[RandomPING]

Yea definately just save the money you'd spend on the 7000 so you can get the 9800 sooner. And what brinks said, OEM will usally do you just fine if you know enough about computers to find the drivers yourself. I wouldn't want to go with OEM for an AIW though, just because a lot of that software that comes with it makes all the extra features work.

 

[unburdened]

well i have a friend with a radeon 7000, which he is going to let me borrow, so i won't be paying for it, but i was thinking of just purchasing the ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128mb. As for installing it, how would i go about disabling my old intergrated videocard and installing the new one, etc..

 

[Maskirovka]

you would disable the onboard video in the bios somewhere. hopefully you don't have some crap compaq that doesn't let you disable the onboard video/sound. my girlfriend's computer was like that...it wouldn't even recognize non-compaq ram.

and all OEM means is that you just get the card itself and the cables. it's exactly the same hardware, you just don't get a box, game bundle, manual, drivers cd, etc. i always buy OEM because it's almost always a ton cheaper and you don't need all that crap. i've never regretted buying OEM and saving the money.

definitely slap the 7000 in there though...it'll at least give you some experience with changing your video card, and when you put the 9800 in there, everything will be all set. plus, if your mobo is one of those bastard ones that doesn't let you disable the onboard stuff, at least you'll know now instead of when you're all excited trying to put your 9800 pro in.

 

[unburdened]

there was no way to disable it in bios, atleast that i could see. but i disabled the device through device manager, then shut down, popped the card in installed the drivers, and it's all working now.