ATI vs NVIDIA

[xathras]

I do appologise if this has been a post before I did use a search on forums.

Well I have around £70.00 max to spend on a graphics card for my new system, I have a Asus A7V8X-X, Chieftec Scorpian Case, Panasonic DVD, Liteon CDRW, Floppy of course, Maxtor 60gb 7200rpm, Seagate 20gb 7200rpm, Geforce 4 420MX 64Md SDRAM, 512mb DDR PC2700, Althon XP 2600 333.

Now I dont want to go out and just pick up old card, I have been adviced to go for AGP x8 models as there is a noticeable difference my uncle informs me. He has a geforce fx 5200 now I have heard some bads things and good things about these cards, I have never bought an ATI card but have been hearing goods things.

Who shall i go for (ATI/Nvidia/Other)? What model? Any supplier recommendations.

 

[jfryer]

Check your motherboard to see what AGP it can support. some boards will only support upto 4x, some support only 1x and 8x (go figure). Yours I'm pretty sure is happy with 8x.

Of the two manufacturers ATI seems to have the better driver support at the moment, and without a doubt someone here will disagree

But personally I would go with the best ATI Radeon you can afford, stay away from the AIW series of ATI Radeons, there is nothing wrong with them, but the add to the cost and if you don't so video processing you dont need one.

And check on the asus web site for a compatibility list of supported video cards from your motherboard, also go to someplace like

http://www.rage3d.com

for help on an ATI purchase and possible issues with your MB (I'm not saying there are any issues, but if there are, these guys will know about it)

I have no really loyalty to either ATI or Nvidia, I own 3 machines and I personally have far fewer problems (hardware and driver realted) with my ATI cards then with my Nvidia card, my next purchase will be an ATI just from my experiances.

There is nothing wrong with Nvidia, but like I said, I have less problems with my ATI cards.

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There is no magic, only onions
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[dakota81]

ATI cards are showing more bugs in either the hardware or the software, I'd be leaning towards a GeForce FX. Check out the two screen caps in this article:

http://www4.tomshardware.com/column/20030624/nv_cheating-06.html

 

[cdogg]

There are varying opinions and if you search throughout this website using the search window at the top of this page, you'll find that there have been many discussions on it.

http://www.tomshardware.com

is a good place to start reading if you want more information. According to many magazines and online sites, ATI seems to have redeemed themselves since the release of the Radeon 9000, 9500, and 9700 models. Some might even argue that their comeback started with the Radeon 8500. Before that, they were known to have poor drivers and were easily overrun by Nvidia.

Regardless, the decision is yours to make. The best option for you is to read up on both and compare prices.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein