[james_8970]

If you find any more information regarding this issue please let me know as I'll then be able to support other members accordingly, I'm plan on contacting a number of manufactures regarding this issue. Hopefully I will get consistant information from all manufactures (e.g. ATI, nVidia, HIS, XFX, BFG, Evga, Sapphire etc.). However, it'll likely turn out that I'll have conflicting data and I will therefor be required to dig a little deeper.
A word of warning though, I probably won't have an answer to this problem till the end of the week at the earliest.
James

Edited by james_8970, 19 November 2007 - 11:36 PM.

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That's a very interesting link, James. Two things I would like to point out:

1) That forum doesn't seem to be the official method of dealing with Sapphire support (and mentions so);
2) In particular it seems to be dealing with Althon, so I may deal with a different supplier company here in Australia.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you here, just trying to be as objective as possible to give as best a picture about the company as I can. Anybody can see that the X1950 Pro is not an "upgrade" from the X1900 XT/X cards, and that was agreed by both posters in the relevant link. I think the term "upgrade" needed to be defined better in the threads. I really don't think, however, that a 2400 would ever be offered as a replacement card for an X1900 series card, but if it ever does happen, I'm with you - unacceptable! Nonetheless, I still stand by my original point - if a company has good quality products and poor support, it may be worth looking elsewhere.

My Sapphire-brand product was of high-quality, and I was very happy with it, but personally I never did have to contact their support options.

Enough of my rant about Sapphire Plenty of high-quality brands out there all trying to get their hands on your money, take your pick!

[Troy]

That's a very interesting link, James. Two things I would like to point out:

1) That forum doesn't seem to be the official method of dealing with Sapphire support (and mentions so);
2) In particular it seems to be dealing with Althon, so I may deal with a different supplier company here in Australia.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you here, just trying to be as objective as possible to give as best a picture about the company as I can. Anybody can see that the X1950 Pro is not an "upgrade" from the X1900 XT/X cards, and that was agreed by both posters in the relevant link. I think the term "upgrade" needed to be defined better in the threads. I really don't think, however, that a 2400 would ever be offered as a replacement card for an X1900 series card, but if it ever does happen, I'm with you - unacceptable! Nonetheless, I still stand by my original point - if a company has good quality products and poor support, it may be worth looking elsewhere.

My Sapphire-brand product was of high-quality, and I was very happy with it, but personally I never did have to contact their support options.

Enough of my rant about Sapphire Plenty of high-quality brands out there all trying to get their hands on your money, take your pick!

[james_8970]

Actually it is the official support forums for sapphire. They have done so many times in a rather unprofessional manner.
Regardless of what their policy is, if you pay for a card and need a replacement you should get the equivalent or better (it not your fault they don't have the equivalent in), under no circomstances should it be worse performance wise. If this is not your policy, your not going to get any dollars from me, nor are you going to get any recommendations from me.
If a company does not support their products, it puts the company in question. There will always be lemons, I don't normally worry about the amount, rather how to resolve the issue.
James

Edited by james_8970, 21 November 2007 - 08:50 PM.

[six trees]

I can't find a definate answer of compatiability for PCIe 1.0a to PCIe 2.0. AMD's answers have been vague at best. But what I have found isn't promising.

http://www.pcisig.co...qs/pcie2.0_faq/

So I think I will take a step back and get a 1950pro or xtx
It will still be a big step up from my radeon xpress 200.

[james_8970]

I was looking at that exact page yesterday.

The key information is bolded below

Q4: It sounds as if both speed grades are supported in the PCIe 2.0 specification?
A4: The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling rates, in order to retain backward compatibility with existing PCIe 1.0 and 1.1 systems. Aside from the faster bit rate, there are a number of improvements in this new specification that allow greater flexibility and reliability in designing PCIe links. For example, the interconnect can be dynamically managed for platform power and performance considerations through software controls. Another significant RAS feature is the inclusion of new controls to allow a PCIe link to continue to function even when some lanes become non-operational.

Anyways, from what I have been able to dig up to date, PCIe 2.0 cards can be run on PCIe 1.0, only and only if there user doesn't plan on using crossfire or SLI.
So basically,
1 card = good
2 cards = bad
James

Edited by james_8970, 21 November 2007 - 08:49 PM.

[Dario65]

I just upgraded my puter also only thing that I moved over from the old box was hard drives and I was recommeded the Sapphire 2400 PRO by all but 1 tech I talked to and it works amazing'll on WOW I get 80FPS which in the main city is rare on most peoples puters so I will be disagreeing with you on the opinion that Sapphire's are no good.

[Troy]

Well that's certainly an interesting outcome, especially from this thread! Glad to hear you are happy with your purchase.

It's funny, though, because the 2400PRO is a low-end budget card, you must be running WOW on pretty low setttings/resolutions. As I've said, my Sapphire card was fantastic, so if the support is as described above, I hope you have no need to contact them!

Cheers, Troy

[james_8970]

I just upgraded my puter also only thing that I moved over from the old box was hard drives and I was recommeded the Sapphire 2400 PRO by all but 1 tech I talked to and it works amazing'll on WOW I get 80FPS which in the main city is rare on most peoples puters so I will be disagreeing with you on the opinion that Sapphire's are no good.

Never mentioned anything about the cards, it's their support that is horrid.
Also, WOW is NOT a demanding game. If you played Crysis on high with the card, the game would likely crash. Though I'm glade it work for your needs.
James