Question for the Masses :D

Halaman

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Looking to buy a new video card and have been reading up on all the latest between ATI and NVIDIA. I've also been talking to my friends who keep up with this sort of thing and depending on who I talk to, I get various answers. Seems their are people who are pro ATI or pro NVIDIA and have no problems bashing the other side. What I've been trying to do is find some of the facts that I've been told are the reason why they don't like ATI or NVIDIA. So far I haven't been able to find much to support some of the claims against NVIDIA, even searching here on Tom's I haven't found anything that specifically mentions this problem. The problem I'm talking about is a supposed documented fact that a DLL in NVIDA will crash your system on a regular basis.

My current card is a GeForce 5500 and has ran like a champ for me, over the years, but it's getting a little long in the tooth and thou haven't had any huge issues with game play, it's looming with DX10 coming out.

So, can anyone point me to hard facts about this crash problem NVIDIA seems to have, according to my friend who is a hard and fast ATI person.

Thanks for your time.
 

runswindows95

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Running an old FX5200 and an old ATI X300 on all versions of XP, plus Linux, I never had my system crash due to either of them. I know Vista is a major problem for both companies, but then again, I plan on not running Vista till 2008.

Overall, research both companies and figure out the best card for you. Honestly, I'm looking to upgrade the X300 to a 7600GT, but with new DX10 cards due out next month, I'm waiting.
 

eRazor

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I've been on both sides of the ATI/nvidia arguement. I've owned ATI products and I've owned nvidia products. In fact, right now I own an ATI X1600 and a nvidia 7950GT OC in PCIe and a nvidia 6600GT OC in AGP.

From experience I can tell you that there is no such nvidia .dll that crashes your system on a regular basis. I've found the nvidia reference drivers to be more stable than the ATI.

ATI (before the AMD buyout) had horrible drivers and driver support. To this day my ATI displays weird graphic glitches in Unreal Tournement that the 7950 (or the 6600) doesn't.

I also have to say from experience that nvidia tries harder than ATI to correct driver problems. As such, I'm more of a nvidia fan.

That being said, pick a card that you like the specs on and read internet reviews. If you're basing your decision solely on those reviews though, pay close attention to WHO is advertizing on the sites you are reading. Obviously you should take any review of nvidia cards with a grain of salt on any site that's plastered with nvidia ads, and vice-versa on sites plastered with ATI/AMD ads.
 

eRazor

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I plan on not running Vista till 2008.

Overall, research both companies and figure out the best card for you. Honestly, I'm looking to upgrade the X300 to a 7600GT, but with new DX10 cards due out next month, I'm waiting.

Ok, so if you're not getting Vista for another 20 months, why on earth would you waste your money on a DX10 card when Microsoft says there will never be DX10 support for Windows XP?

I guess since you didn't specifically say you were going to buy a DX10 card I may be assuming too much. Perhaps you're waiting for the 7 series price drop? In that case, look at the 7950GT OC or the 7950GX2. They'll come down to the current price of a 7600 soon enough.
 

4745454b

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Listen to what these people are saying. For the longest time I used a TNT2. I wanted to get a real card, one that supports DX9. I suggest you do the same thing that I did.

The first thing to do is determine your budget. I decided I could afford to spend about $75 on a card. I looked at newegg and at the time I could get a 5200, or a 9250. I went and looked at ebay and found a refurbed 9600PRO AIW card for $70 counting shipping. I bought that. Not because it was an AIW, or an ATI card, but because it was the fastest that I could afford. If I found a 5700 or a 5900 for that price, I would have bought that. (notice I said bought and not bid, I don't mind buying things from an ebay store with a return policy.)

I killed that card (dum dum move on my part...) and did the same thing. Determine budget, find best card that doesn't go overbudget. The next card was a 9700pro. After that, it was my current card, an x1800XT. I could have bought an 7900GT, but I heard about their memory problem, and they were slight more in cost with slightly less in FPS. Because I've owned 3 straight ATI cards, am I an ATI fanboy? I don't believe so. If someone came to me and said they had $300 to spend on a video card, I suggest the 8800GTS. If they have $200, its the x1950pro/XT. If its $100, then I tell them to get a 7600GT. What card you buy should depend on your budget and usage. Whether its an ATI or nvidia should be one of the last things on your list.
 

miribus

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I have no rabid enthusiasm for either company, it seems silly to.
Really just get the best performer you can afford for either company.
Toms has a pretty easy guide the last few months (best bang for the buck) or something that seem to be pretty fair and straightforward.

For the record, I use an x1950xtx. if it was available at the time i'd have used an 8800gts 320mb for the same price, not because I'm suddenly "pro nvidia" I'm pro "getting the most out of my money."
I made the right choice at the time, it was the best card I could get.
Now, it isn't.
Big deal.
Pick a "this point and no higher" budget and get the best rated card at that price.
 

blade85

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well put!

stop worrying about what others told you about random files and start counting what your willing to spend. Also let us know what ur going to use the card for (basic computing use, vid editing, extreme gaming...etc).Then we shall give you a list of what we think would be good for you.
 

raven_87

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@ razor

Uhh, I have no issues with any ATI cards and UT & most importantly there hasnt been any significant driver impact since AMD acquired ATI, so I'm not sure where your going, but your advice on stability is quite misleading. btw; a 7950GX2 will NEVER drop down that low....they'll kill production before it gets that low, it would cost to much to turn out chips.

anywho:

As for the cards....go with what suits you best as long as your seriously not loosing ground for being a fanboy. (what prompted you to buy an FX series is beyond me though)


I like Nvidia for the dual display support.... although ATI has greatly improved. I perfer ATI for the F@H and if I could get my hands on an 8800GTX I'm sure I'd perfer them for high end gaming.

Most midranged offers are quite close, I personally lean towards ATI because of my experience with them and what they offer feature and performance wise. - I know most people will be happy either way, so it really doesnt matter.
 

engrpiman

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I have had 4 Nivida cards (5200,5750,6600,7900) and i have no problems. on the other hand i have had friends who have had ATI cards and Nvidia cards go out on them.

It id not so must the chipset as it is who makes it . Go For ASUS, EVGA and other good companies that make quality stuff.

I don't have any solid evidence but I think Nvidia is better hands down.
 

raven_87

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My personal belief in why the R600 hasnt reached market is really quite simple.


With Nvidia's HQ being in California and the physical geography issues that have come into play with the western coast...it was a matter of time before the "destruction" card came into play.

AMD/ATI had begun investing money into Cuban terrorists in the late 90's.
Building enough residual cash through import/export drug materials and agriculture, they began hiring independent contractors to construct channels around the coast and more specifically near NV's HQ. The reason why the R600 hasnt debuted.... all the Canadians $$ is going out west. The plan? Simple, detonate the charges and blame the massive landslide that ends NV as a company and tag it as "California falling into the ocean"

Really its quite genious what their doing.... bringing further meaning to the line "I blame Canada"
 

runswindows95

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Exactly what I'm doing: waiting for the prices to drop. I don't need a DX10 card, but when they hit, the 7 series should drop in price to the point I may be able to get a good deal on one.
 

Wolfshadw

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In a game forum I frequent regularly, I see many postings about nvogl***.dll as having caused a crash. I see it just about as often as I see atiogl**.dll causing a crash :lol: More often than not, that crash is due to improperly installed drivers (installed over older drivers rather than remove old, driver clean, install new).

Me, I have my Media PC (which runs ATI) and my Gamer PC (which runs NVidia). Neither one has encountered an ogl error in recent memory. As already mentioned, set your price point, do your research, and buy which ever fits your budget/needs.

-Wolf sends
 

maximiza

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Well as an opinion I would agree with very one here. It sounds like the crash is being caused by something else then the Nvidia driver. Some odd software conflct is occuring.

As to buying a new card. I would say wait; I have heard a new version of DX10 is comming out which will make current DX10 cards cheaper.
 

eRazor

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@ razor

Uhh, I have no issues with any ATI cards and UT & most importantly there hasnt been any significant driver impact since AMD acquired ATI, so I'm not sure where your going, but your advice on stability is quite misleading. btw; a 7950GX2 will NEVER drop down that low....they'll kill production before it gets that low, it would cost to much to turn out chips.

Who's misleading who here? I never said that ATI wasn't stable. I said they have horrible drivers and driver support. However, stable with a big black square where a projectile graphic should be, in my book, makes a horrible driver.

The GX2 may never go that low (I will concede that), but I can see it coming down plenty before it's out of production. The GT, though, will come down to todays 7600 pricing.
 

raven_87

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Horrible drivers usually means a harp on stability much like what ATI was bashed before the catalysts.

Either way, you've just shot yourself in the foot as their drivers arent anywhere in the same universe as bad as you've claim.
 

Dr_asik

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AMD/ATI had begun investing money into Cuban terrorists in the late 90's.
Building enough residual cash through import/export drug materials and agriculture, they began hiring independent contractors to construct channels around the coast and more specifically near NV's HQ. The reason why the R600 hasnt debuted.... all the Canadians $$ is going out west. The plan? Simple, detonate the charges and blame the massive landslide that ends NV as a company and tag it as "California falling into the ocean"
That's no excuse for nVidia's high council making living chicken sacrifices to please the ATI crapenator god, hey? You NV FANBOY!!!
 

The_Abyss

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For the pure raw power, frame rates, max any game out reason thats why. Windows XP does better with dx10 gpu's than vista does.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6164940/p-2.html

Those figures were based on the old drivers. Current ones perform better than XP.
 

eRazor

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from my experience on these forums and the web in general i can say that you are in the minority of users who think ATI's drivers aren't that great. there are usually only a few people who actually believe and alot of hanger on's who like to jump on bandwagons.

oh and how is monthly driver releases bad?

sure, there may be persistent problems but i cannot think of any problems i have had that aren't fixed with the next driver release, come to think of it i just can't think of any problems.

go figure.

I have had cards that went with persistent driver issues for the better part of the cards life. A persistent driver issue is what makes a driver bad. If an issue is ignored for a half dozen driver releases, the driver is persistently BAD. Is it really that difficult to fathom?

I can't speak to the condition of current drivers because I currently only own one single X1600 that's in a machine that's not used for gaming. I can' however, speak from years of experience with ATI. I've been in the hardware business since ATI was supplying Commodore with their fist chip.

Unlike you, I'm not here to turn this into an ATI vs. nvidia debate. I gave my opinion, take it or leave it.

Case closed, over and out, Elvis has left the building...