Gaming video cards question

[cheez203]

Hi guys. I want to buy an ATI radeon hd 5550 card but Ive noticed there are cards like sapphire, ati and visiontek and others which all have hd 5550 in them. What is the difference? Are they all the same? Is the one with plain ATI more legit?

Thanks in advance, I want to buy the best card for my money.

 

[Rydian]

ATI/Nvidia design and make the main chips of a card, then release a reference design and the chip to these other companies like sapphire and BFG and such.

These other companies produce the PCBs and put it all together (with RAM and a heatsink and cooling fan if needed and all that jazz) and then sell them.

While performance may vary slightly between them, in essence it's all the same card, the only noticeable differences are the size, how well the cooling is, and the warranty/support you get (varies by company).

 

[cheez203]

Thanks. you really explained it well! Ive decided to go with the xfx radeon hd 5550. Thanks again!