Graphics Card Debate

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muttly
  • Start date Start date
M

Muttly

Usually people don't want to start a debat but for once I think I'll try
anyway.
Whats better ATi or nVidia?
Say what you have, why you chose it, and what you want and why.

I've got a nVidia GeForce MX440 128mb ddr. Its the best I could afford at
the time. I don't know what I want thats why I want a debate!!

Martin.
 
Usually people don't want to start a debat but for once I think I'll try
anyway.
Whats better ATi or nVidia?
Click to expand...

Impossible to say without your requirements and budget. High end
gaming? High end OpenGL? Integrated TV tuner? Then you get into
individual specs. How much memory do you need? Raw clock speed?
Support for latest DirectX and OpenGL features? Do you need DVI? VIVO?
TV? Second monitor? How important is noise for you? How much room is
there for the card (you may not use the closest PCI slot). Individual
cards from different makers, and even reference cards differ greatly
in all these respects, whether GPU is ATI or nVidia.
 
Usually people don't want to start a debat but for once I think I'll try
anyway.
Whats better ATi or nVidia?
Say what you have, why you chose it, and what you want and why.

I've got a nVidia GeForce MX440 128mb ddr. Its the best I could afford at
the time. I don't know what I want thats why I want a debate!!

Martin.
Click to expand...

My sense is that ATI seems more popular. I just dont see the NVdia
talked about that much anymore. My beef is the price hasnt gone down
much and instead of lowering the older models like the 9500 Pro they
keep coming out with these new models with half the pipelines . I keep
fearing that the prices will go down on A 9700,9800 ,9900 and 2000 if
they come out with one and what they will do is substitute all the
models with half the pipelines of the hotter 9800 and 9700 models.
 
Usually people don't want to start a debat but for once I think I'll try
anyway.
Whats better ATi or nVidia?
Say what you have, why you chose it, and what you want and why.

I've got a nVidia GeForce MX440 128mb ddr. Its the best I could afford at
the time. I don't know what I want thats why I want a debate!!
Click to expand...

I've heard of a lot of image quality problems with nVidia cards. I'm not so
sure if this is the case with their newer ones though. Still, ATI has always
had a commitment to image quality instead of just shooting only for as many
Mtriangles/sec as they can manage. Some of the stuff on their new cards for
natural looking colours and lighting is just stunning. Of course, they only
sell better because of speed and price, but ATI cards are much better
rounded from what I gather.

Ewan
 
Well what I was going for was either an FX 5900 or a Radeon 9800 Pro. I'm a
gamer and an overclocker so I want the best I can get. Money is a bit of a
problem but I'd rather wait a few weeks and get the best rather than gettin
what I can afford now. I made that mistake the last time and I won't be
doing it again. I just saw today that nvidia released the fx 5950.
 
Well what I was going for was either an FX 5900 or a Radeon 9800 Pro. I'm a
gamer and an overclocker so I want the best I can get. Money is a bit of a
problem but I'd rather wait a few weeks and get the best rather than gettin
what I can afford now. I made that mistake the last time and I won't be
doing it again. I just saw today that nvidia released the fx 5950.
Click to expand...

Where do you live?
I would ideally like a 9800 Pro but they can be super expensive.
I was thinking maybe 9800 or 9700 Pro instead.

However once in a while you see a really good deal.
If you live in the US christmas is coming up - thanksgiving sales and
Xmas sales- I would wait and try to snag a 9800 Pro the real one or a
9800 for ideally $200-250. Maybe some fantastic clearance sale or
holiday sale etc.

They just lowered the price so its $350 & 250 at CCity and $300 &
$178.
 
I live in Ireland and things are very expensive here. When I say expensive I
mean a Radeon 9800XT, the newest version is expected to be on sale for ?600
which is about $650-700 US. Its a totally stupid price but since I've
cousins in the US that don't mind me ordering stuff through them I'll get it
at about half that price after Christmas. A nice place to see very good
prices in Ireland check out http://www.komplett.ie
Martin.
 
Muttly said:
Usually people don't want to start a debat but for once I think I'll try
anyway.
Whats better ATi or nVidia?
Say what you have, why you chose it, and what you want and why.

I've got a nVidia GeForce MX440 128mb ddr. Its the best I could afford at
the time. I don't know what I want thats why I want a debate!!

Martin.
Click to expand...

I think the real question is, which company provides better drivers (for
windows or linux, whatever tickles your OS fancy). A few years ago a bought
a cheap ATi card and the drivers sucked ass, the GeForce2 MX400 I got after
that had great drivers for it. Things might be different now, but it is
still a good question to ask.
 
I live in Ireland and things are very expensive here. When I say expensive I
mean a Radeon 9800XT, the newest version is expected to be on sale for ?600
which is about $650-700 US. Its a totally stupid price but since I've
cousins in the US that don't mind me ordering stuff through them I'll get it
at about half that price after Christmas. A nice place to see very good
prices in Ireland check out http://www.komplett.ie
Martin.
Click to expand...

Yup , thats an insane price. I dont even like spending $200.
As Ive said before and so has everyone else - graphics cards plummet
in price like crazy though the mkt seems a bit more stable the last
year or so.
 
They just lowered the price so its $350 & 250 at CCity and $300 &
$178.
Click to expand...

ON PRICE WATCH - duh . Apparently I forgot to finish that sentence.
Another source are refurbs which may or maynot be a decent deal. Of
course you really have to watch it since you may just be buying
someones elses problems that you wont find out about until later.
 
I was an Nvidia freak for the 3D but ATI caught up with them. ATI 3D is just
as good plus you get excellent 2D quality. Nvidia 2D was ALWAYS bad. I
bought a 9600 Pro for $125 and never looked back. I threw my GeForce in the
trash.
 
Something I forgot to mention was that I want a vivo card. I may be using
the computer as a pvr but I'm not sure yet. I still want to have that
options.
Martin.
 
Something I forgot to mention was that I want a vivo card. I may be using
the computer as a pvr but I'm not sure yet. I still want to have that
options.
Martin.
Click to expand...

You can always add a card. They are actually quite cheap around $50-70
for one with stereo sound and all kinds of other features The
mainthing as Ive posted before is the quality of drivers. Various
cards come with their own drivers and software.

The thing is - which Ive posted before , the cards Ive had use common
chips which can use these generic drivers. That frees the card so that
it can use a variety of 3rd party software like Power VCR 3 II . Some
of the software that comes with cards can be crippled or troublesome.

The problems you might have - well like I mentioned the card AND
software/drivers can sometimes be a real pain in the ass and cause
weird conflicts with your system. Unfortunately you have tear your
hair out and mess around with it until it works. I think if you are
handy at reinstalling things and inserting your card into different
slots and general troubleshooting - possibly using generic drivers and
other software , you have a pretty good chance youll get it to work.
The caveat being some cards like Avermedia it was said by the company
itself - didnt work with the Radeons. However Ive actually read
conflicting things about this. Some owners claimed it did work with a
radeon. The other thing is the movie and tv industry they say (article
in LA times today ) is going on the offensive like the music industry
and will force hardware companies to have stuff to prevent copying and
aggressively suing pirates they say.
 
I just took my brothers GeForce 4 Ti4200. Haha. Is better than what I had. I
hope he doesn't mind. lol
Martin.
 
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