WOW my first ATI in seven years

Boy am I going to get flammed by my fellow Nvidia Fans. Sorry Folks ,I just poped my first ATI in seven years into my machine...WOW the graphics are so much cleaner. In fact I'm so impressed I'm ordering a X2 for my gaming machine....

What was this first ATI card? The 3870?

The picture quality for the 8800GT is similar to the 3870. And that's not slightly slower, in certain games it's a lot slower. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/v [...] -x2_9.html

In any case, while the 8800GT's price is very close to the 3870's, the better cooling may be worth the price.

I have nothing against ATI. Just stating what I read about the cards. With the price of the 8800GT becoming so low, it's hard to recommend the 3870 anymore.

If you have the time, could you post screen shots of in game scenes where the difference in quality is prevalent?

I do both, I use my machine for apps and games. Framerates are great but not everything to me. If any of you have the ability to try the 8800 and the 3870, just load the drivers, and load a windows Dreamscene and then try a game....Yes it might run slower in some cases but to me again I look at overall picture quality.

Which is a great price if the 8800GT 512MB isn't $199.

i have NEVER seen any difference on the desktop(well take that back....my old PCI 4 meg card looks fuzzy, but it looks just fine on a CRT....its only LCD's that do not do well with old analog cards...), but ATI tv out is excellent.

Glad to here you like the card.

and NO a screenshot will not show a difference....things may just look better with a color profile/settings from card to card....

Well, I have a need to say something,

I bought the 8800 GT, and then 2xHD3870, for many reasons. After comparing the two, I was really blown away with the Image Quality of the HD3870 compared to the GT; especially the colors. There is no question, that the GT is a slightly faster card overall, especially at 4xAA (NOT necessarily at 0xAA and 8xAA), but the HD3870 won me over, and it plays all my games the way "they should be played".

So, I gave away my GT to a friend. And, I realized that 2xHD3870s were overkill for my resolution, so I also gave the second away.

Just my 2 cents.

i've owned mainly nvidia cards, with my 2900pro as my first ati card. when i took my 7950gx2 card out and popped in the 2900pro, there was a definite difference in image quality. my next build will hopefully hd4k series x2's. we'll see though.

I also have had the same experience/opinion. I've own three different ATI cards (the old 9800pro, x800xt, and my current card the X1900xtx) and I've owned two nvidia cards (FX5200, and 7800gtx). In all cases, I felt the ATI cards had better image quality. The best way to describe the better image quality is cleaner, clearer, sharper, and richer/brighter colors. Performance wise that's a different issue, but when it comes to the way the graphics/picture looks, the ATI cards just give it a better or nicer look.

I agree screen shots won't do this comparison justice. The only proper way to really experience it and judge it is by popping a nvidia card in and then switching it with an ATI card. Believe me you'll see a difference.

Well from my (short experience) between an HD 3870/ 8800GT 8600GTS/2900PRO

switching between the two companies cards some things i like about ATI and somethings i like about Nvidia

For one ATI's overall driver interface is x10 better then that stupid Nvidia one, ATI INCLUDES AVIVO, whereas Nvidia you have yo buy Purevideo(which is BS)
gaming wise nvidia wins because they simply have the driver support for many games, and many developers support Nvidia, the reason the 8800GT wins so many Evilonigiri, is because most those games, take Company of Heroes for instance, are simply programmed for nvidia cards and hence work the best. Look at HL 2 ATI cards stomp nVidia's offerings simply because Vavle supports ATI.. and Call of Juraz has always been an ATI favorite.
As for picture quailty, thats a subjective view to me, i dont see ANY difference between the two though it is said that ATI has better but using both a 2900PRO and HD 3870 i didnt notice anything different.

What a waste of forum space. Didn't we really see enough of these posts already?

lol

ive never noticed a difference in ATI vs Nvidia in image quality maby my eyes are f*ckd but i work with both ATI and Nvidia and there is no difference.....

however if you are using a different port say DVI over analog then i would agree that the ATI card using the DVI would look better.

I also did notice something when I changed from a 7600GS to a Radeon 3850. It seems the 7600GS visuals when playing oblivion seems to be a little "foggy", while the 3850's seems more vibrant.....

xbit labs is noob bate imho. They arse around with the drivers until all games look like crysis in terms of system requirements and performance. For a start ive got a stock 2900pro and in game max EVERYTHING at 1400x900 S.T.A.L.K.E.R averages like 40fps, absolute min. fps - believe me i know an area with real low fps - is 27fps (system: e6300 @2.6, 2gb, xp 32, cat. 7.12) according to xbitlabs it should hardly run at all. Try linking to just about any other review of the 3870, 3870x2 or any card for that matter, the difference is stark. Think your off on the cooling think too, don't 3870s run (marginally) cooler than the 8800gt?

Ive seen this image quality thing come up a few times recently, more vibrant colours on ATI or something. Maybe static screenshots don't really show what people are on about.

I see absolutely no difference with ATI and Nvidia card PQ.

What do you mean by "looks cleaner"?

I switched from SLI 7900GTX to a lowly hd2900pro and I can say that the colors for the 2900pro are richer than that of the 7900s.Oblivion also runs smoother (shimmering isles) than both those cards.Since 3DFX all my cards have been Nvidia until now.

On the nvidia powered machine try going into the nvidia control panel under adjust desktop colour settings, and adjust the digital vibrancy setting right up see if that makes it look closer to the ATI.

theres alot of variation between models, too (and drivers). Im not looking for the absolute best colors, but I hate distractions on the image like banding of gradients (of atmospheres, in tunnels etc), random (rare but present) flickering areas (this is most mysterious), and 'shimmering' screens like chainlink fence. Nvidia used to be known for taking shortcuts. I'd like to try ATI against my 8800gt to see if it helps these minor annoyances without bringing other issues.

I concur with most here. Even though I was disappointed with the drivers of hte ATI cards the image quality and "feeling" was much more rich and colorful... I went from a 7800GT

I thought by better graphics you meat better textures and stuff, not color, my bad.

I have never owned an ATI in my life, perhaps I should one day.

Just my 2 cents, I haven't had an Nvidia card since the 6800 was king. I do now own an 8800 gtx, but I have had more Ati cards by far. I agree with the above, to me Ati has better colors and a sharper/crisper image in games. And the icons on my desktop have aliasing that i never had with Ati. But after running Nvidia for a while, I don't notice it much anymore. And my 8800 is alot faster than any Ati card that was around when i got it.

Were not talking about color, were talking about image clarity on the edges of a 3D dimensional object. Imagine having two telescopes and telescope 1 has a somewhat fuzzy image with rough edges around the moon, now imagine telescope 2 having a crisp, clearer image with smoother surfaces giving you a better image or texture.

Think of those circles of red rings in the pictures I have provided as how sharp or distorted a texture will look at on any give 3D object.