Curse

EternalTempest · Oct 24, 2005, 08:12 PM // 20:12

I want to start an objective view of nvidia vs ati.
Please leave only constructive criticism / feedback.

Here is my point of view, I prefer Nvidia over ATI.

I agree that both companies make good cards and both are good for gaming.

Ati dual cards won't work / be a market view and now rushing to play catch up.
Nvidia finding a way to get dual cpu support in new official drivers, ati now saying they will have it in a few months.
Ati releasing "paper" launch of new products with no physical stock. Nvidia use to do this but no longer does at present
Ati has historically neglaticed OpenGL drivers until just recently.
Nvidia currently has the speed crown and the new card to compete with the 7800 is still a "paper" product which is about the same speed / slight faster in some cases.

Part of this may be no longer accurate but I had an Rage 128 (vs the TNT and the just new Geforce 256) and also supported my friends 1st version Radeon (VIVO), and later and side job Radeon 7000 and ati drivers vs nvidia drivers. I hated the issues and how touchy ati drivers and mmc software can be. Now I do admit I've not used the newer ati driver this hold true. I do acknowledge that nvidia drops the ball with specific games. I really dislike having to purge everything ati to sometime upgrade to a new driver.

Due to above (drivers and mmc software), I have switched to Nvidia since Rage 128 -> Geforce 256 -> Geforce 3 -> Geforce FX 5700 Ultra and had not the issues I use to with Ati.

I do acknowledge that nvidia has issues with specific games at times that I have experienced. (Red Faction for pc and rebooting windows - game owner says xp is not supported, FFXI and the 6x series drivers with graphics corruption withg my 5700, and I'm aware of the newer 81x official driver and texture issue with 6600 series and gw).

Side Note: I do have an Ati TV Wonder Pro tv capture card in my system and there DAO part of mmc for the tv capture causes conflict with another program I use for software tracking.

Another point, untill the 7800 ati comparible product comes out, FEAR, Quake 4 which is pushing high end cards starting to "slow" down, Ati better have something out soon.

Again I do admit both are good for gaming and I do not want an one sided battle. The best battle is when they keep passing the performance crown back and forth and they compete.

PieXags · Oct 24, 2005, 09:02 PM // 21:02

My first card was nVidia, and it blew up. Whether that was my fault of the fact that it was just a bad card, I don't know, it was a long time ago. Still though, it blew up. Since then, I've been using ATI, and as of right now while the 7800 series might be slightly ahead, an x800-x850 xt will still be enough to play any game around perfectly.

People have problems no matter what card they're using, people with the same card can get RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed up on games that are supposed to run well with their card, I honestly don't think it RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOin' matters. ATI, nVidia, both make good cards that can play anything out there, whatever you prefer or whatever fits into your wallet better is what you should buy, IMO. I personally will be buying the x850 xt pe here soon because they still make it for AGP slots, while the 7800 gt/x is PCI-E only, so that's a no go for me. So long as it plays what I want it to play, who really gives a shit.

EternalTempest · Oct 24, 2005, 09:08 PM // 21:08

If I upgrade my current system (keeping the motherboard - card only), I also have an agp slot, and if the x850 has an agp version that is better then the 6800 (agp) I do admit that I will be buying that.

I myself had the reverse but similar situation had issues with ati cards and switch to nvidia and been happy since so I completely understand your view.

Also with all the different issues with heat, drivers, windows corruption, game files corruption, shareware/spyware issues, failing hardware I completely agree with you on there will always be people with problems.

I just wanted to create a threed as to why I prefer Nvidia vs Ati and give reason other then the typical ati / nvidia sucks argument

that people fall in to.

I still help people and if they ask will just say I prefer nvidia and acknowledge that ati cards can be good to not start flame wars in those threads.

Omega_2005 · Oct 24, 2005, 09:27 PM // 21:27

Nvidia ftw in my eyes, especially the custom-built ones

D.E.V.i.A.N.C.E · Oct 24, 2005, 09:38 PM // 21:38

Well there neck and neck right now; 2 comps using nvidia and ati, nither one has failed, some drivers where bad... but normally had a fix later on.

I personly would like SLI over Crossfire

and would love to be able to afford a 7800GTX
for the newist and best support of these new technologies that will be used in these up comming games.

Old Dood · Oct 24, 2005, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Before we know it ATI will have the upper hand again. Remember the Nvidia 5xxx series? No matter what they did, it could not match the 9800pro. The 9800pro was king for a long time in video card years.

Now Nvidia has the spiffy 7800 series. I will admit they are pretty nice. Just too expensive for me, and they take more power then the ATI card I have now.

I started with voodoo2 cards...moved up to ATI All in Wonder cards(8 meg) then changed to Nvidia when the GeForce came out. I had (still have it) a GeForce 2 32meg card that came with my Dimension 4100. Very nice card at the time. I finally upgraded that to a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128 meg in 2002. Then I got a Dimension 4600 a couple of years ago. I put my Ti 4200 card in that for a while. It was decent...but the system could handle more. So I got the ATI 9800pro 128 meg. It is still in that system. Runs fine. So when I bought this newer Dimension recently with its OEM X600 PCIe card(And it had NO fan..I knew it was whimpy) I reallized I needed something way more powerful. The ATI X800XL was in that price point. Equal to the 6800GT and it was a $100.00 cheaper. It also used all 16 pipes.

It really boils down to performance & price in my book. Both companies higher end cards are just fine for todays gaming. If I was to get a mid-range card I would get a Nvidia 6600GT over the ATI ones.

For all the cards I have purchased over the years I have really never had any problems with the ones I used. I never owned a GeForce 3 series or a Nvidia 5XXX series. Except when I got my Dimension 4600 it came with a GeForce 5200 OEM. Another whimpy card with no fan. The GeForce 4 was faster then this thing. I changed it out the same day it arrived.