Gainward graphics cards...your opinion

[WanganDreams]

Hey guys, GOT MY PAYCHECK!

Time for some computer upgrading. My question is what you guys think about Gainward graphics cards? A particular one that I'm currently looking at is this one: Gainward FX PowerPack! PRO/680 TV/DVI GeForce FX5200 256MB 8X AGP. I wasn't able to find many user reviews on it and I'm not very familiar with the brand. It seems to be the cheapest one on the market of 256MB.
I guess I will use this card mostly for 3d gaming.

Whats your opinion? Thanks in advance!
-GhostVR4

 

[emad]

just keep in mind that some companies just slap on extra ram in order to get rid of stock. This generally leads to benchmarks being the very same as the 128 meg version of the card.

 

[WanganDreams]

Originally posted by emad
just keep in mind that some companies just slap on extra ram in order to get rid of stock. This generally leads to benchmarks being the very same as the 128 meg version of the card.

How can you find out if that's the case?

-GhostVR4

 

[emad]

look for benchmarks and compare prices. The only 256 meg graphic cards that actually utilize the memory are the Radeon9800xt and the Nvidia counterpart. I've seen Sapphire do it with the Radeon 9600 and a few other small companies have done it but no names come to mind. Sorry.

 

[WanganDreams]

Thanks emad!

Ill take a closer look at those specs.

Anybody else have experience with this brand or this particular product?

Thanks for any input!
-GhostVR4

 

[Cobraboy]

I remember reading a few threads on the bit-tech.net forums about at least 3 people who had trouble with Gainward I think it was. Their cards were buggered through no fault of the person, but an attempt to get the card RMA'd resulted in something like a 3 month wait.

I've never had to deal with them but all the stories I've read haven't been very good by means of customer relations...

 

[2ez2KiLL]

my fx5200 is ****ty but its great for cs.. never go lower than 70fps @ aztec at 800x600 16 bit.. i can also run 1024x768 fine with 60+ fps in a full 32 player server...

btw.. my card is overclocked w/ stock cooling