Nvidia or ATI?

Tollbooth Willie

Tollbooth Willie

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I'm getting a new computer soon, and I need a good graphics card. What would you guys recommend: Nvidia or and ATI card?
 
look please dont start a ati vs nvidia thread and we need much more info about your computer. also we need your budget.
 
Some pretty good ATI cards are cheap, but so are some Nvidia ones. Like Giant said, we need info about your computer and your budget
 
I'm a fanboy, so my opinion is skewed.

NVIDIANVIDIANVIDIANVIDIA
 
You should also do some research on the net yourself, read reviews, and find out as much as you can on your own.

When is 'soon'?
And are you sure you even need to upgrade yet? What's your current rig?
 
From what I understand (I have no way of proving this, it's just what I usually read), the competing ATI is better or cleaner graphics, while the competing Nvidia is more torwards performance. Also I've heard that the competing ATI card costs a little more. It's really up to you, I personally don't think there is that much of a difference either way.

BTW, I'm on my 2nd ATI, and I've had 1 Nvidia in the past.
 
DietSoap said:
From what I understand (I have no way of proving this, it's just what I usually read), the competing ATI is better or cleaner graphics, while the competing Nvidia is more torwards performance. Also I've heard that the competing ATI card costs a little more. It's really up to you, I personally don't think there is that much of a difference either way.

BTW, I'm on my 2nd ATI, and I've had 1 Nvidia in the past.
Click to expand...

there really is no noticable difference at all i dont see how people think that there is.
 
I also find very little difference. However ATI does have a slight lead by having a seperate AA and HDR buffer. Many HDR games must use the same buffer that does AA, thus you can only have AA or HDR. However the latest ATI cards have a seperate buffer for AA and HDR allowing both. Nvidia does not have this on any current cards.

However affects few games. The only game I can think of off the top of my head would be Oblivion. Other than that there really is no massive performance difference between ATI and Nvidia. They will both display your games great and at great speeds.

Well either way, wait until Nvidia releases its next graphic card, which should be happening sometime this fall. Then prices will drop.
 
giant384 said:
there really is no noticable difference at all i dont see how people think that there is.
Click to expand...
That's what I think, too. I even said so near the end of the post. I'm just stating it because some people may notice things that we don't.
 
Yes, there is. My 9800 pro rendered the textures ALOT and i mean ALOT cleaner/sharper than my nvidia 6800
Click to expand...
Did you set your Nvidia quality settings to High Quality? They default to Quality.
 
First I'd say you will be pretty happy with good cards from either company. In the past there was generally one clear winner but ATM they are pretty close in features/performance. Nvidia's popular models are the 7600gt and 7900gt. ATI's are the X1800GTO, X1900GT, and X1900XT.

ATI can do HDR and AA at the same time with their current cards in games like Oblivion. With Nvidia's cards you will have to turn off one or the other. Source games and maybe Splinter Cell are the exceptions, any DX9 card can do HDR and AA on those games. ATI also has Temporal Anti-Aliasing but most people don't use this setting or know of it.

A lot of people don't care as much about image quality but there is a difference in image quality between ATI and Nvidia's current cards but they are not an issue for most (unless you are an IQ nut like me). If you are an IQ nut then I would recommend checking out ATI's cards. If you have read a lot of gfx articles or forums I'm sure you've seen these samples before.
ATI - Nvidia AF
ATI - Nvidia AF The differences are going to only show up at certain angles. Not on all flat surfaces. What you see are not optimisations but how the different cards handle AF.
nvidia shimmer IMO this is very minor but I guess it really bugs some people. Personally I care more for AF quality.

FYI when looking at benchmarks if you are really interested in a fair comparison make sure the GFX settings are the same in the review. ATI's driver setting default to High Quality but Nvidia's do not. The reviewer would have to change the setting to be the same and unfortunately most don't. Nvidia does take a big drop in performance when changing their setting to HQ (optimisations disabled). HQ vs Quality 7800gt results

I know I pointed out a bunch of good stuff about ATI but the only thing I can think of for Nvidia is if performance is better in the games you play. lol
In the end just pick the card that performs the best in the games you play. Make sure to keep an eye on the graph that shows the resolution you play at. The current cards have been dropping in price too so might find a good deal.

I guess I should link some reviews.
Anandtech
Xbitlabs - has optimizations on

X1900GT vs 7900GT ...flip a coin. I went with the X1900gt because it does better in the games I play, I perfer the IQ and the 7900gt was not available where I bought my card. =p
X1800gto vs 7600gt ...I'd go with the 7600gt unless you really want HDR+AA. TheX1800GTO does not support SM3.0 like the other cards.
 
From what I've seen (and as far as the price/performance ratio goes), cards among the 7900GT/x1800XT line have ATI in the lead, low-end has Nvidia in the lead, and the 7950GTX/X1900XTX price bracket has the two companies within 2-4fps of each other in nearly everything. So really, the performance difference for mid-range and low-range cards is slightly noticeable, and for the high-end cards it is negligible.

But don't take my word for it, find some reviews. Try Anandtech, [H]ardOCP, Tomshardware, etc, and just find a recent graphics card review. They'll put results up on a graph, comparing the performance to other cards in the high, mid, and low-ends.

[edit] One thing that may sway you is the fact that Nvidia's SLI architecture is more mature and more widely supported than ATI's CrossFire technology, meaning SLI-enhanced motherboards are overall better and more widely available than CrossFire boards.

With that said, I'm getting a Radeon x1900XT. It seems to have scored very well, and only a few FPS behind the bleeding-edge (but only marginally higher-clocked) x1900XTX.

[edit2] Asus seems to have posted a much, much better reply than mine :p Read all that stuff, my notes might be rendered useless.
 
Im just going to say my x1800XT runs well.

That's all.
 
If you do go for an X1800XT or X1900XT, put aside some money for an aftermarket cooler. The coolers on these really do make a racket (first hand experience).

One thing i have noticed when comparing my X1800XT to my brothers Gainward 7800GS+ is that the image quality is similiar to the high quality ati option when using the 8xSS aa solution and high quality on the nvidia card. I find however that when you drop the image quality settings slightly, the ati card retains its image quality whilst the nvidia card seems to me to lose some texture quality/clarity.

That said, i sit on neither side of the fence. Owner of 3 ati cards and 4 nvidia cards over the years.
 
No longer are the days when one card held domination over the other, swapping every generation. The two card companies are practically equal in quality in hi/mid/low performers. Benchmark variations are negligible, but it also depends on what you plan to do.

If it's gaming, some games are geared towards certain cards, be it because of engine or sponsorship. Valve likes ATI, Doom 3 engine likes Nvidia.
Just for good measure, check their patchnotes. If your card has a bug on Bf2 and you play it religiously, maybe not the best card to get at the moment. Happy Hunting.
 
Nvidia has AA on Alpha Materials.
ATi has AA and HDR available both at the same time.

But those kind of things are really minor...
 
So, is the 7800GT superior to the 7600GT?

I know it maybe a stupid question but the 7800 was released last year and is based of a 6-series board (me thinks) and the 7600 has architect from the ground-up?

Just wondering anyway, I'm learing towards the X1900GT.
 
PsychoFreak said:
So, is the 7800GT superior to the 7600GT?

I know it maybe a stupid question but the 7800 was released last year and is based of a 6-series board (me thinks) and the 7600 has architect from the ground-up?

Just wondering anyway, I'm learing towards the X1900GT.
Click to expand...

Yes, the 7800GT is superior to the 7600GT. The 7800GT is slightly worse performing in every benchmark than the 7900GT or the X1900GT. I also leaned towards the X1900GT over the 78/900GT, and I'm glad I did... as ASUS mentioned, temporal AA and high quality AF gives the ATI a very noticeable advantage. And while the 7900GT beats the X1900GT on a little more than half of benchmarks, when you consider that most benchmarks are done at the default settings on review sites, nvidia does get an extra performance boost compared to ATI as a result of lowered default quality settings.

I can say personally that my X1900GT is the best graphics purchase I have made. If you go to NewEgg right now, you may still be able to get a Connect3D X1900GT for about $200 after rebates - another pretty good incentive to go that route.
 
Mmmm, temporal anti-aliasing. Been wishing for that feature since I first took my computer animation class two years ago.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I'm probably going to go with a X1600 for now, since I have just enough for that.
 
TollBooth Willie said:
Thanks for the feedback. I'm probably going to go with a X1600 for now, since I have just enough for that.
Click to expand...
What version of the X1600? Pro or XT...
And where are you buying from? I guess I should just ask what price you are paying or what your budget is.
 
Asus: What is the major benefit of temporal anti-aliasing ? I know the prinicipal of it, but i've never used it myself and i was just wondering what the main benefits are to be had from it (i know i could easily find out from a tech site, but in your personal opinion) ?

i.e. does it allow the same level of aa, but with greater performance than non-temporal ?

Shame on me for using this card for 8 months now and not bothering to find out !!

:E
 
If you don't want to raise the resolution any further then turn on AA. It is another way to make things sharper and take away stair-stepped edges on angled lines in the game.

Here are some quick pictures.
Skip back if you want to read the article.
Temporal AA alternates the pattern that masks the edges so the effect is basicly doubled. You won't find screenshots of Temporal AA because it alternates frame to frame and you can't capture it in just 1 screenshot.

The fence on the right in that picture will not have AA applied to it because it is a transparent (alpha) texture. If you have the option for transparency AA or Adaptive AA then that will enable AA to work on the alpha textures.
The rails are an example.
A lot of games use alpha textures for leaves in trees/plants as well.

The bottom 2 pictures are of AF, which I can't play without having on. I hate it when the ground and walls detail are blured into the distance. Playing de_dust with AF makes the ground/walls look a lot better (Source anyway). lol
 
The bottom 2 pictures are of AF, which I can't play without having on. I hate it when the ground and walls detail are blured into the distance. Playing de_dust with AF makes the ground/walls look a lot better (Source anyway). lol
Click to expand...
I'm with you on that one.
 
I just don't like how ATI doesn't perform NEARLY up to par in OpenGL games like FEAR, or those that use the Doom 3 engine. Sure ATI performs better in certain games like Half Life, but overall, Nvidia performs great all around. In other words, I think if you played all the popular games, Nvidia would have a higher framefrate average.

Plus the 60hz bug has never been fixed by ATI. For users like me, who use CRT monitors with high resolutions with high hertz, this is critical. I can't have my monitor switching back to 60hz constantly.

These reasons are mainly why I switched to Nvidia this past spring, after my last two cards were ATI.
 
NJspeed said:
I just don't like how ATI doesn't perform NEARLY up to par in OpenGL games like FEAR, or those that use the Doom 3 engine. Sure ATI performs better in certain games like Half Life, but overall, Nvidia performs great all around. In other words, I think if you played all the popular games, Nvidia would have a higher framefrate average.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you really do have to pay attention to the benchmarks for the games you play. Although ATI has done really well in recent OpenGL games too. X1900gt matching 7900GT in FEAR
A little ahead in Quake 4
Although I think Nvidia still dominates in Doom 3.

Plus the 60hz bug has never been fixed by ATI. For users like me, who use CRT monitors with high resolutions with high hertz, this is critical. I can't have my monitor switching back to 60hz constantly.

These reasons are mainly why I switched to Nvidia this past spring, after my last two cards were ATI.
Click to expand...
Isn't this a MS bug? Anyway have you checked out this tweak guide? nvm you have a Nvidia card now.
 
Asus said:
What version of the X1600? Pro or XT...
And where are you buying from? I guess I should just ask what price you are paying or what your budget is.
Click to expand...
Pro, and I'm probably going to order it from the site. It's about $199.
 
TollBooth Willie said:
Pro, and I'm probably going to order it from the site. It's about $199.
Click to expand...
What 'site'? Do you live in the US? I don't exactly know where Dreamland is. =p
If you do live in the US then I'd check out Newegg. You could get a lot better card for that price. Like an X1900gt. It's about twice as good.
The MSRP for the X1900GT is $299 so that is 100$ savings.
 
Really? Cool. In that case screw the ati website. Oh yeah, Dreamland=Mississippi=USA.
 
I thought temporal antialiasing was motion blur ... in fact I was pretty damn sure.
 
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