ATI is the best right now as far as performance goes, but nvidia is keeping up with rock-solid drivers

i got a radeon 7000 right now but i just ordered a radeon 8500 le 32 meg ddr

I still prefer se they have had a better track record of updating their drivers (and having less problems in games) than ATI. I used to have an ATI card (rage 3d pro) but when trying to play games, it's not good when the "current" driver is almost a year old.

I will admit that right now, ATI has the better price/performance and that they are much better at updating their drivers. If they keep updating their drivers, then I may give them another chance, but for now I will say nvidia.

It's all about the drivers. Catalyst drivers bite. I owned a 9700 pro for three unhappy weeks before dishing out more money to go back to Nvidia. Give ATI another year and things may be different, but for now the drivers SUCK. I'd love for them to step up and make good drivers because the radeon hardware is very very solid; however, ATI has a long and sordid history of making the most fucked up drivers.

personally, i've always gone with nvidia, and as much as I'd like to experiment w/ a 400 dollar card like the AIW from ATI, i don't have the cash, so I'm gonna go w/ a 150 dollar 128 mb nvidia geforce 4 ... i figure, big whoop dee doo, but for ultimate gaming, ATI would pull it in the end w/ the 8 pipe something or other I read about... for 70 bucks GO FOR IT!

Ultimate gaming isn't just about pipelines and frames. Bottom line for me was this: I upgraded from a ti4600 to a 9700 Pro and was so thoroughly unhappy with the experience that I went back to nvidia. This was in spite of the fact that the 9700 is much much faster than the ti4600, and is only a tad bit slower than the 5800 I'm running now.

im going with an ATI Fire GL X1, ill have it by the end beginning of summer ill report on how it performs for games, but i want it for the 3D render ing

Fuck! I can't choose! Umm...err...(goes off into his room swearing)

Used to be a nVidia man, but they really fell far behind in the last two years. Pay $100 more for a card that's as loud as a small airplane, and at best of equal speed as it's competitor? No thanks, i'll take ATI.

I used to be a die hard NVidia fan, but after ATI got their drivers act together last year(?) it's been ATI all the way baby. Those sapphire boards rock. Besides with the new GFFX taking up *2 SLOTS* cause they have to add a noisy, bulky fan is ludicrus...ATI wins, hands down.

It's really interesting how divided everyone is in their video choice.

nice, i'd be interested to see some benchmarks or a rough framerate on a few games. i've never seen a framerate comparison between regular and professional CAD cards. that's one expensive card!

I gotta say the ATIs and Nvidias are just fine either one you choose. The differences seem to be neglible. They will both do what you need to do. I have owned both, I also currently have an ATI in one of my machines and an Nvidia card in my other one. They both do the job. I haven't had problems with either and the set up was just fine for both of them.

My suggestion, check out what is available when you buy the card and get whatever you can afford and seems proper at the time. The technology moves so quickly, it will be out done again as soon as you buy one.

I've always been an nVidia FanBoy, just ordered an FX 5900 to replace my Ti 4200. Comes in tomorrrow so I'll let ya know how good it is then.

BTW, the 5900 out performs the 9800 on the current builds of DooM3, haven't seen anything for HL2 though (which may be the opposite due to the FSAA dilema).

I used to be an Nvidia fanboy then my Ti4600 died so I got a ATI AIW 9700 pro and never looked back. I've found ATI cards have sharper image quality and features than Nvidia cards. Quality and performance are what I look for. So..the choice was obvious. I've never had problems with drivers on both ends. The way things are going with Nvidia, they'll be the next 3dFx.

I went with nVidia, even though i have a 9800 now. The FX 5900 Ultra's are just great but i bought the card thats $200 cheaper and can still handle near as well as the FX.

Simply an ATI

Simply enough, the Radeon 9800 Pro does better at lower resolutions with no AA or filtering on. Yes, it beats out the FX 5900 Ultra with these settings. Crank the resolution and AA up and the FX takes the lead by far. Now, just ask yourself: do you usually turn up the anti-aliasing and resolution on your games past 1280*1024? I guess each card is tailored for a certain type of gamer.

In further news, NVIDIA has shipped a cubic asslode of bad FX 5900 Ultra's to various manufacturers around the world, most of them being huge-name companies (eVGA, PNY, BFG, AOpen, etc.). The card emits an extremely annoying buzzing sound when in operation that does NOT emit from the fan. There is also a monitor-flickering/scrambling issue that usually accompanies those same cards. Good luck finding a good FX 5900 Ultra out there right now; I RMA'ed two of them back to NewEgg in the past month. Yes, that's $450.00 a pop and neither one worked. Right now, if you absolutely MUST have a good video card that's top of the line, go Radeon 9800. If you want to wait a while for the good quality FX's to come out, then crank the resolution and enjoy.

-Lasereth

When people refer to ATI driver issues they usually refer to the Rage cards released over 4 years ago!!! Let it go people! If you`re an Nvidia fanboy praise them, dont just dis ATI.

Although Nvidia has always been a safe bet for good performance and good price they have gotten lazy and careless and have lost the lead in both. They are still trying to coast on past victories!Buying their mistakes only allows them to make more. 3dfx did the same thing and look what happened to them.

ATI for now!

ATI bitches

I have used both nVidia and ATI. Right now I have a Radeon 9800, and until nVidia catches up with ATI I see no reason to switch my current favorite.

Ati Ownz Nvidia

ATI definitly

This is an old ass thread.
Anyway, I just ordered another ATI card last week... 9800 PRO :D

ATI

Since when has ATI owned NVIDIA? NVIDIA doesn't need to catch up, they have a card just as good as the 9800 XT: the 5950 Ultra. Neither one is incredibly better than the other. Certain games perform better than the other card, but neither one is simply better than the other. That's just taking into account the high-end cards...the FX 5700 Ultra is much better than the 9600 XT, so NVIDIA is the owning party here if anyone. I'm an NVIDIA fan, but I'll admit that neither chipset manufacturer is simply better than the other. Both produce incredibly powerful videocards and both deserve the same amount of respect.

-Lasereth

I used to be an nvidia fanboy for a long time until my Ti4600 died. So I decided to try ATI and got an AIW 9700 pro and never looked back. I heard horror stories about their drivers but never had any problems. I've found the picture and color quality of ATI cards to be so much more crisper and vibrant than nvidia cards.

ati = the shiznit

WTF? I didn't post that. Weird..

I have one of each in my computer, so i had to vote "other" :)

I'd agree that until the very latest generation nvidia had the more stable product and support. ATI sits on top for the moment, but all of my 6 AGP gcards are geforce and I've been very happy with their performance and driver evolution/support (the lack of which just about killed ATI a couple of years ago).

Is there any ATI equivelent to buying a GeForce FX 5900 and flashing the bios 2x + overclocking it, effectively making it a 5950 for under 200 bucks instead of 400?

I'm looking at a graphics card for a gaming system and so far, this seems like the best bang for my buck.

Either I'm gonna do this now or I'm gonna get a Ti4200 (cheap and good for price) and wait it out for a bit, but I'd like to hear everyone else's opinion.

nvidia is my current card of choice, good history of driver support, excellent specs, got an awesome price on mine too.

geforce 5950 fx ultra... *drool* i think this discussion will never be settled! i seen it in forums much 2 many times heh, but that 5950 ultra is one BITCH of a video card!

i've got both, ati all in one at work and nvidia at home. the ati software is kind of clunky, in my opinion, but the cards are more or less the same.

ATI, they simply make the best video cards currently. I also don't like many of NVIDIAs business practices, such as killing 3DFX.

I choose NVIDIA because all the cards I have from them do what I ask of them 99% of the time. When they dont I can usually get suport form them easily. I have tried several ATI cards and had minor issues but nothing big. The only real problem I have with ATI is their customer support, I have yet to get any from them. They dont seem to care once they got my money. That is the main reason I dont use them and seldom reccomend them. YMMV.

Currently both brands top of the line cards are pretty much teh same exact level of "Goodness".

9800XT and 5950Ultra , same price, mostly same performance.

Both series 2nd best cards, this is where ATI wins.
9800 Pro kicks the 5900Ultra to the losing position.

So for top of the line, who you can pick whoever you wish.
For general consumer level cards, ATI.

For older generation cards, I'd personally say Nvidia w/thier GF4-Ti4600.

Anything older, it doesnt matter cuz you appearently are not doing this for performance.

I've read completely different. Tom's Hardware has incredible videocard reviews, and their results show that depending on which games you're playing, the 5900 Ultra and 9800 Pro are nearly identical. It all depends on which games you want to play. The 9800 Pro does a bit better in some games, while the 5900 Ultra does better in other games. The same thing goes for the 9800 XT and the 5950 Ultra -- it all depends on which games you're gonna play. Neither card is simply better than the other overall; it all boils down to individual tests that are compared.

From my readings, the only conclusions of "this is better than that" are the midrange newer cards. I've checked a ton of reviews, and the 9600 Pro is slightly better than the 5600 Ultra overall, while the 9600 XT is slightly inferior to the FX 5700 Ultra. Above these cards it's nearly identical performance.

On the low-end newer card range, I've seen that the FX 5200 Ultra is better than the 9200 128 MB, and the FX 5200 is better than the regular 9200 64 MB.

That's just an overview of what I've seen from various reviewers. That's also only including the newer cards from ATI and NVIDIA -- the GeForce 4 series and 9500/9700 series from ATI are very interesting in today's gaming as well. But that's an entirely different conversation. :)

-Lasereth

I tried putting a Radeon 7000 in my HP comp, didn't work. But was probably the cheap $10 mobo HP put in there that had the problem.

My Gainward Geforce 3 is great, but is still a little slow on games (not the cards' problem, I just play more modern games)
Looking into a 9800Pro or a FX5900..