First things first:
1) To powercolor users: notice extreme resemblance to ATI's own boards? Notice the "rev. Axx"? Notice the lack of the ATI's sticker? Well, if u havent figured it out yet - Powercolor does NOT make 9700 boards. They are made in Canada, by ATI, on ATI's plant, and is ABSOLUTELY THE SAME, as ATI's 9700, except for the stickers on the back.
2) Powercolor is overclocked to 9700 PRO just like that. Cmon, they do have the smae chip cooler, and the chip. Not to overclock - is just plain stupid. At least the core.
3) Sapphire is gay. It builds its cards+HSF by itself. Its heatsinks are usually ineffective.
4) FIC is horrid.
5) I got mine yesterday. Awesome performance (Unreal 2 at AA and AF? Hell yeah). I got rolling lines only AFTER the BIO Post report, and BEFORE indows starts up. I dunno what causes it. DOS games (Warcraft 1 and 2, Dungeon keeper 1) run just fine. Also, this only happens under WinME. But it doesnt bother me. Also, CAT3.4 drivers make IGI2 trip (it jerks inside buildings, funky textures outside).
6) The only thing that lacks, is the temperature monitor. I have no idea, what t's my memory and chip are at.
7) THe 6 "Lite" games are not games at all. Think of them as "less, than a preiew"
8) Evo 4x4 2 is okay, but gets really boring in a while, and doesnt show what a card can do. Couple of UT2k3 demos'd be nice.
Cool card.