ATI or NVidia?

NVidia or ATI?

Which do YOU prefer?

Comments welcome! Experiences Welcome! Life Stories not welcome!

 

Ya, not as many issues these days but I remember many posts here a few years ago about ATI driver problems, so I went nVidia then and haven't looked back since.

 

NVidia. Every video card I've ever owned except one has been an NVidia, this goes back to a 32mb GeForce2 AGP card. The one ATI card was an 1950GT AGP card and really was an excellent card and gave me no trouble. But this was on my home PC. I have had MANY more problems with ATI cards (and their drivers) than I have had with NVidia. The unified drivers from NVidia are always spot on and trouble-free. Many times I have tried to use a driver downloaded from ATI with a PowerColor or Sapphire card, and the driver would not install, no matter how I tried, tweaked, tricked, or forced, it just would not install. This has NEVER happened with NVidia. Not once.

 

Wow that's one sided so far.

 

I use ATI. Looking at the thread I am wondering why. My last build had an HIS X1950. Pretty good card, nice support with the new Omega drivers. Good community. Debating using a ATI crossfire system in a future build.

But I had a hell of a time setting it up re. driver issues.

 

I've heard good things about the Crossfire ... but I don't know much about it personally because I've never used it, however I've heard even better things about the GTX295 ... the price on the other hand is a different story.

 

Yeah I have no real problem with Nvidia its just I used an ATI a while back and liked it, liked the price and stuck with them ever since.

When I sort out the new build specs a bit you will probably see a thread entitled crossfire v GTX295 which is better

 

Lol fair enough.

 

Nvida

@ rik_na I have a GTX295 and it is without doubt the fastest card i have seen but it needs a good PSU and CPU to get the best out of it.
I run mine 24/7 on folding@home and the only complaint i have is that the card runs hot all the time but according to the stats 83C is normal,you have to have a good airflow in the case to stop other components from getting too warm.

My only other comment is the price is too high but that will come down in time.

 

Yes I should really think in more detail about my next build. I moved countries and my desktop didnt so a new rig is needed. I really wanted to play games like GTA4, test drive and its next incarnation, and Oblivion at full spec and I was impressed with what Crossfire could do with Oblivion hence my thinking. But I am not sure what ATI cards to use and this of course provides the spec that the GTX295 would have to out perform. That said the crossfire drivers would be a nightmare so just for simplicity the GTX295 is looking good. Also dont like the heat issue. I get the HIS range of highish end ati cards because they mod the cards to keep the temp and noise down. Great. As i use cube cases a lot this is good.

 

Well ... I'm not sure about full spec but I tried to run GTA4 on lowest spec on my old P4 w/ HT ... 8600GT ... 4GB DDR2 667 ... and it didn't work ... waiting for the last part for my new system and ill let you know then ... basically its a Core 2 Quad, 4GB DDR2 OCZ 1066, 9800GX2 ... HERES the link ...

 

Nice specs. I would be interested to hear how that works with GTA4. As I am in HK at the mo, I can build to that sort of spec more reasonably than I could back in the UK.

My old sys would not run WOW For some reason even though it was a 3.2Ghz system, an ATI X1950 gfx card and 4 gb RAM so I am looking to go dual core and up the specs again esp in the gfx card area.

 

Well yea, as the thread says I got all that for under $2000 AUD ... mind you, most of it is without warranty because its off E-bay

 

Nvidia bought a GTX 280(they dropped the price one hundred dollars since they made the GTX 285) And besides the thing running, this thing is a MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEST card i have ever owned, i had ONE ATI card, it worked, ya it did what i needed, but it didnt WOW me at all, like this nvidia card. I have owned sooo many nvidia cards, i have a 4200 hundred card sitting in my closet and i recentently found a 64MB geforce 3 card laying around, thing only had a microchip not even fan or heat sink lol.

FPS in my games(MAX SETTIGNS)
Call of Duty 5: 91FPS
Rainbowsix vegas 2: 81 FPS
Everquest 2: 45FPS
Frets on Fire: 250FPS
Oblivion: 72FPS

Insane amount of FPS there considering Movies are shot in 24FPS. so yea seems crazy.

my 3d mark 06 score was 18k stock speed 19.8k 3.6ghz CPU OC and 19.2k at the current speed.

NVIDIA ALL THE WAY!

PS: Tripple channel and core i7 is INSANELY FAST!

 

I feel I should jump in on ATI's side here being a rescent convert from nVidia I can't comment on old ATI cards or their drivers but mine atm is the perfect GPU.

I have heard lots about heat issues, driver issues and compatability issiues with games. I decided to throw caution to the... cautious and get myself an ATI (Sapphire) HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 and I must say I have had no problems with it at all, it is at present sitting at 39C-41C idle and doesn't get past 50C 99% load using Furmark's stability test to burn it, mind you I had to set the fan at 100% to maintain 50C :-D It was very loud indeed, but I cannot imagine a game that would load my GPU that much to need 100% fan. I use a fan setting of 60% during gaming to keep it nice & frosty as my PC is not quiet by any means LOL

As for drivers I have had no issues with them or the Catylist drivers, they come as a package or you can get them each on their own. In fact the only componant that lets down my PC at the moment is the CPU a nasty Phenom 9750 X4 2.4GHz, it rates at 6.12GHz which is only 0.12GHz faster than my old Athlon 64 6000+ 3.0GHz rated at 6.0GHz, you live & learn :-o

I nearly forgot to mention that the stock clock settings are:

GPU Clock:
Stock: 750MHz
Mine: 800MHz

Memory Clock:
Stock: 900MHz
Mine: 1000MHz

I didn't OC it because it needed it but because I wanted to get as much as possible out of the card, I would get more but there are no voltage settings to get me to the max clock shown, GPU Clock 850MHz, Memory Clock: 1200MHz. As it's rated to operate fine at 100C I would be happy to overclock it right up to the max :-D.

I really have no idea why people fit aftermarket coolers to 4870's they will work fine at 80C with pleanty of "wiggle room" LOL, it invalidates you're garentee & is pointless, if it was really a problem get better airflow.

Overall I rate my HD 4870 1GB way over the 9800's, the only upgrades I can think of is either crossfire to get the power of a 4870 X2 with 2 cards or get the 4890 X2 when they make a Sapphire version :-D

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

+1 vote nvidia here. :-D

 

No more opinions??

 

I'm still rocking my first Nvidia. I'll let you know when it craps out.

 

Wow. My friends, I do believe MG is biased towards NVidia Or perhaps NVidia is just the better Vendor ........

Nice turnout fellas

 

I am 100% Nvida.
I have three,a GTX295 coupled to a Q6600 CPU and a GTX260 coupled to a Q6700 and they are both lightning fast.
I also have in the workshop a GTX250 that has never been run.
You need plenty of space to install these cards (they are big) and good airflow is essential but they are worth the effort.
The 295 is still IMO overpriced but is one of the fastest cards around.
The GTX280 is also a fantastic card and can stand a fair amount of overclocking whereas the 285 is a factory overclocked 280.
No doubt when something new comes out the prices will fall and then maybe i will buy another 295 and SLI it.