The V8 Owners Forum -

Can I just say, Ive used Chinese plain bush turbos many times & have never had any problems with them. I would avoid any ball race jobbies, the ones Ive seen just had regular ball races fitted.
Unless you are in competition, the prices of garrett products are not worth it, and the price of the ball race turbos are crazy.....

A proper turbo will always outperform any Chinese copy of the same unit.

the Chinese stuff has improved a great deal though...but not enough that I'd ever consider one when proper turbos the likes of BW and Holset are so cheap.

and unless you need a ball bearing turbo...hardly much sense trying to make comparisons but there is no question they do spool faster, they recover aster during transients and they will handle much higher boost than regular oil journals.