nvidia or ATi?

[Deja Q]

I used to love ATi until I discovered that for the last 3 years their Radeon drivers were merely mucked up Rage128 drivers.

I then bought a nvidia GeForce 4600 video card.

Nearly bought the 5800FX Ultra ($500) until I tried Linux. Linux is so much more efficient with hardware that the top of the line stuff is not necessary, though the top of the line stuff must FLY. (Though 1600x1200x32-bit color under the 4600 chip is pretty darn good too in Linux, though a drag in Windoze...) Of course, the 5900FX Ultra is out and is now supported by Linux, though I'm very happy with my 4600 and will wait until the next generation arrives, at which point I'll get the 5900FX Ultra at 1/2 the price, hehehe. :D Technology is best when it's last year's model.

[sujan]

1. ati support sucks in Linux

[Liberal Veteran]

4. I think it's more of a matter of ATI's opengl support sucking....

than anything. The opengl support is even wierd in Windows.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. It's a toss up. ATI has better image quality usually....

...and it looks like ATI has the edge when it comes to Half Life 2 due some issues with the programmable shaders. But I have had both a ti 4600 (which recently died) and decided to give ATI another shot due to hearing good things about them. Both cards have their pluses and minuses. I'd be happy with either card.

[Stupdworld]

7. oh?

how could you guage anything for HL2 unless you have that illegal beta that got leaked, leading to the huge delay? hm???

(not like i care, im happy with CS as it is)

[Liberal Veteran]

11. There was a huge article about it in Maximum PC this month...

Apparently there was some big brouhaha over the issue when they did some benchmark tests with Half Life 2 and nvidia performed very poorly. These were totally above the board tests, btw. Nvidia has promised to write some code that will help, but it was a pr nightmare for them.

[david_vincent]

3. I'm using ATi

n/t

[Kellanved]

5. I bought an ATI card

And I'm trying to get rid of it ASAP.
The Linux support sucks, Games crashed frequently (I had to disable accelerated coursors to fix that), when switching resolutions my monitors make strange sounds, sometimes lines appear on my secondary screen, ...

On the plus side: the image looks a bit sharper and the TV support is superior.

I installed a passive cooler today, so at least the crappy original one is no longer annoying me.(I'd have done that with a nvidia card as well). ahh silence!

[Democrats unite]

6. nividia

eom

[BuckeFushe]

8. Have both

4600 and 5200 in 2 systems, 5600 ULTRA this one. Didn't see difference between 5200 and 5600 untill I boosted this up to an AMD 2800 CPU from a 2200. And the difference is MINOR.

Use a 9200 ATI on my "workhorse" so I can do DVD copies (hardware decoder better than the GForce).

All in all, you won't utitilize the power of your card until the software catches up to it and Direct X 9.0b.


My two sense.

[frylock]

9. i just bought an inexpensive xfx 5200 with 256ddr for my rig..

and I'm quite satisfied. I haven't benchmarked any framerates yet, but I can run a full field at Daytona on NASCAR Racing 2003 @ 1024x768x32 without any buffer underuns, even during the big wrecks (lotsa smoke and parts). The rest of my machine is mediocre at best, P3@1000x512PC133 (inherited HP Vectra VL400, not a gamers box by any stretch).

In conclusion, get the nVidia chipset.

[BuckeFushe]

10. Your system is still good

New systems are appliances now. Compaq and HP (same) with a 2.4 PIV or AMD 2600 are 499 without the monitor. I have even recommended new EMachines (AMD 2600, CD-RW and separate DVD) 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, all for 499 with a 3 year warranty, and they have an open AGP slot so the new card will slide right in. Any of them are MORE computer than you'll ever need.

[toddzilla]

12. ati baby

i just got a 9700 pro for the upcoming gaming season.. then of course they delayed everything so i might upgrade again in 4 months when the games i was hoping for come out.. (doom3 and half life 2) although it plays both of these games rather nicely even now in thier un-optimized alpha leaked versions.

i've had ati cards for a while now and i like them quite a bit, they also have great tv-out clarity, which is great when i tape my divx movies.