Few graphic card question (sapphire, gigabyte etc)

[nukeman8]

I read somewhere here the difference between the different companies doing the same graphic card but using their own boards, that bit i get but what exactly do they do differently?

surely if i brought a radeon 4870 from anywhere its still going to do the same thing, i cant see how much they can do to it, i saw palit (i think it was) came pre overclocked and custom cooling (i think) what else do companies do? what to look out for?

Anyone recommend a good company to buy a 4870 from?

[lukas]

dont buy pre overclocked graphics cards, they charge you 40dollars more for 25 mhz, which you can do yourself via rivatuner.

[nukeman8]

nah not planning to, just wondered what the differences are and any recommended ones

[commandercup]

sometimes companies like Gigabyte make cheapo versions of cards... essential budget versions whch are heavily downclocked and feature lesser cooling whichw ill thus perform worse

just check out the ATI/Nvidia specifications on what the stock clocks are, and then base your decision on that.

also check out what the ATI/Nvidia stock cooling is... that is what you should opt for unless you want better cooling.