ATI versus NVIDIA

Overheal

I'd like to know. Because I for one have been fairly brand loyal to Nvidia as a matter of incidence. My oldest machine had a Voodoo 2, but when I got out of the 90s and into the light my first real card was a Geforce 4 MX 440 - which turned out to be a constant pain in the You-Dont-Have-A-Pixel-Shader-Ass and then I got an FX 5500 which served me a lot better, and still sits in my room running away on the games and dreams of yesteryear. My laptop too has the Geforce 8400M GS, which, apparently, is defective, and prone to explode on me some time in the future.

So Then my cousin wants to build a new machine now and I wanted to help him. All he says to me is "not ATI."so with that I sent him off with a GTX 260

The simple fact is I don't know a damn about ATI and, judging from my past experiences with Nvidia where its only really gone right about 40% of the time, I figure now is the time that I need to learn. And potentially switch.

So as of right now: Overheal is Graphically Agnostic.

Someone please tell me what ATI can offer me that nvidia cant? And can someone explain to me the grading system on ATI? I dont know anything about these HD and X Pro denominations at all.

AlmightyCushion

The real answer here is it depends. The real way to decide which card is best for you is pick the cards that are in your budget and check out benchmarks for the resolution you'll be playing at. The new ati cards (the 4850 and the more powerful 4870) offer very good value compared to the nvidia cards at the moment so they would probably be the way to go. What's your budget and what resolution you plan to play at?

Overheal

oh no im not shopping at the moment im just trying to suss out ATI's real reputation. I mean anytime I sit down to fix a computer and see a catalyst driver running in the taskbar I have to look at it funny because I dont know a whole lot about it. As for the cousin who is shopping, hes in it for the gaming through and through: hes afraid of ATI because like me, he doesnt know one damn thing about them: his current impression being ATi and AMD are inferior brands for seemingly no concrete reason other than hear-say. I think he'd be better off with the 4870 over paying so damn much for a GTX but it occured to me during our conversation I had no talking points about ATI as a brand.

AlmightyCushion

The new ati cards perform very well and give the nvidia cards a good run for their money dispite being cheaper. They're great value for money. That's all I'd really need to know.

PogMoThoin

I have ther new ATI 4870, first Ati gpu I've bought after having several Nvidia's. Great choice 2, its a monster. Eats anything I throw at it @ 1920x1200 and even plays Crysis on high settings @ 1920x1200 with a constant 30+ fps. Serious value for money in Ati at the monent, cost me €209 15% less performance than the GTX 280 which Nvidia originally priced at €560 before they dropped prices to compete

conzy

If you have 150-210 euro to spend go ATI 4850 or 4870

If you have more money than that... Do you want to spend it on surplus performance?

uberpixie

Overheal wrote: »

oh no im not shopping at the moment im just trying to suss out ATI's real reputation. I mean anytime I sit down to fix a computer and see a catalyst driver running in the taskbar I have to look at it funny because I dont know a whole lot about it. As for the cousin who is shopping, hes in it for the gaming through and through: hes afraid of ATI because like me, he doesnt know one damn thing about them: his current impression being ATi and AMD are inferior brands for seemingly no concrete reason other than hear-say. I think he'd be better off with the 4870 over paying so damn much for a GTX but it occured to me during our conversation I had no talking points about ATI as a brand.

Sometimes Nvidia cards are better sometimes ATI cards are better.

I have bought accordingly when upgrading.

I have had 3 nvidia cards and 2 ATI.
One nvidia card died on me, I have had one or two small driver issues with both brands per card.

Tbh anything you hear about ATI having crap drivers is rubbish. Both companies have been dodgy in the past equally on drivers,ATI at least update their drivers regularly once a month and had the better Vista drivers when Vista was launched.(Nvidias were rubish and caused random crashes in Vista). Nvidia however have much better Linux support if linux is your thing.

Personally I have always favored ATI. They ususally seem to make cards that last longer than Nvidias, Nvidia always seem to go the brute force method which is great in present games and benchmarks but suffers in the long run i.e. 5900, 6800 and 7900 series of cards, all fell down in the long run in comaprison to the ATI 9700/9800, X800, X1800 and X1900 series when games got more shader intensive.

Custom PC did a huge roundup of cards a couple of months ago, the old ATI cards came out very well in comparison to the old Nvidia cards.

Though Nvidia did it right with the 8800GTX which is still a great card to this day 2 years on. (their best card ever probably)

The present ATI 4850 and 4870 are the best cards for price/performance on the market and they look like they will have good legs and will last you a good year and a half.Try find a bad review for the new ATI cards.....

Nvidia do not seem to have much up their sleeve atm. True the 280GTX is a bit faster but is much more expensive. You get a lot for your €230 on an ATI 4870and a huge amount for €160 for a 4850.

I never understand people who only buy ATI or only buy Nvidia. You buy what is the best bang for your buck at the time. Never stick to a brand.

Anti

uberpixie wrote: »

I never understand people who only buy ATI or only buy Nvidia. You buy what is the best bang for your buck at the time. Never stick to a brand.

Agreed, Its the same with people buy a ford focus, then buying another one 2 years later even though there are much better and cheaper cars !

Blazer

Anti wrote: »

Agreed, Its the same with people buy a ford focus, then buying another one 2 years later even though there are much better and cheaper cars !

+1
don't be a fanboi..besides everyone knows they're blinded to the truth and haven't a clue..eg Apple (worst ever), PS3/Xbox, AMD/INTEL, NVIDA/ATI , Linux/ Windows( all should be shot-both camps)

PogMoThoin

Anti wrote: »

Agreed, Its the same with people buy a ford focus, then buying another one 2 years later even though there are much better and cheaper cars !

The other side of things, my minds completely made up............"I'll never buy another Creative product, no matter how good or cheap". Creative's tactics disgust me.

papu

ati´s Crossfire has MultiMonitor Support ... BIG ++
and crossfire X

also

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

AMD’s new ATI Radeon HD 4800 series provides shader powered antialiasing features! We examine in-game IQ and AA scaling. We’ve got all the information on using the Edge-detect Custom Filtering AA and what it will do for you in-game. If you are not sure how to best leverage your new 4870 or 4850 video cards, we show you how.

Nothingbetter2d

it also depends on what chipset your mobo has.... if your mobo has an nVidia sli chipset then nvidia is the better solution equally if your mobo has an ati/amd chipset then ati is the better option. if your mobo chipset is neutral (intel or via) then its completely up to you what way to go

PogMoThoin

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

it also depends on what chipset your mobo has.... if your mobo has an nVidia sli chipset then nvidia is the better solution equally if your mobo has an ati/amd chipset then ati is the better option. if your mobo chipset is neutral (intel or via) then its completely up to you what way to go

No it don't, makes no difference with a single card.

Cuddlesworth

PogMoThoin wrote: »

No it don't, makes no difference with a single card.

It was also proven a while ago with hacked drivers that any chipset that could do SLI could do Crossfire and visa-versa. So in actuality his post makes no sense beyond the implementation of "platforms", which have not been introduced to the market yet.

Cuddlesworth

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

it also depends on what chipset your mobo has.... if your mobo has an nVidia sli chipset then nvidia is the better solution equally if your mobo has an ati/amd chipset then ati is the better option. if your mobo chipset is neutral (intel or via) then its completely up to you what way to go

Intel isn't neutral, they support crossfire and would support SLI if Nvidia let them. Currently that have to use bridging chips on the new x58 boards and there is controversy as to the actual value of having them.

TerrorFirmer

papu wrote: »

ati´s Crossfire has MultiMonitor Support ... BIG ++
and crossfire X

also

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

This man is ATI embodied, do not listen to him. I remember a year or two ago when the board was rife with 8800GTS/X owners one man stood out alone as a proud 2900XT owner. That man....was papu. :P

papu

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

This man is ATI embodied, do not listen to him. I remember a year or two ago when the board was rife with 8800GTS/X owners one man stood out alone as a proud 2900XT owner. That man....was papu. :P

doesnt dispute the fact that crossfire has multimonitor support and Crossfire X works with different cards :P