Which card is better for OpenGL and quiet (ATI 4870 or Nvidia 280GTX)?

[hajime]

I plan to buy either the ATI 4870 or Nvidia 280GTX. Price is not a factor here. Could you please let me know:

1. Which card is better for running OpenGL related applications?
2. Which card is better for 3D animations/real time manipulations of 3D objects,
CAD, movie making, etc?
3. I know that the 280GTX does not support DirectX 10.1. Will there be a problem?
4. Which card is quiet? I used to use a Quadro FX at work. It was very noisy.
5. How is the noise level of 280GTX compared with 260GTX?
6. Which manufacturer do you recommend (MSI or ASUS)?
7. Which card comes with better drivers for Windows VISTA 64-bit and linux?
I cannot find any driver for the 4870 in ATI's website.

Thanks.

 

[guderiancol]

Nvidia for sure. I have 3850 ati card and opengl drivers from ati are very bad.
I have nvidia 5700 agp, works fine with last gforce driver, ya 3850 can run crysis but the older not.
Dont buy ati if you are thinking to play opengl games, ati is good for directx.

Beleave me, im very dispointed with ati drivers, check out catalyst and opengl games there are all my posts about that.

 

[coozie7]

All the cards you`ve mentioned are quite quiet, certainly not noisy.
With Nvidia, I`d suggest either BFG or EVGA for thair long warranties and customer support (good and excellent).
Can`t comment on modern Nvidia drivers, I`ve been using ATI for two years but for games at least, Open GL ATI performance seems less than good.
And you really should think about the Quadro range, it`s better suited to 3D apps, although it is just a little expensive

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

OpenGL is fine with both, anyone who thinks otherwise is living in the past.

There isn't this big divide anymore where it's A only or B only, especially not in the workstation area you seem to be focusing on. Both are quite capable, and it's more about individual apps than just OGL. What nVidia does have is a large OGL extension library, but that doesn't always makeup for the performance differences. Even in th most OGL optimized environment it's a toss-up, notice 3DSMax favour nV, Maya favours ATi in OGL;
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Ultra-HighEnd-Workstation-Graphics-Card-Shootout/?page=7

And that FX5700 got schooled in OGL games by the R9500Pro so it's far from just drivers, the only game the FX5700 held a candle to it was in the nV optimized game Doom3 where there was an nV specific path and render method.
BTW guder, what OGL game are you having problems with with the HD3850 that there is even current support for under the FX5700 (which is no longer in the nV unified driver)?

If it were true that it always perfers nVidia, then explain the underwhelming performance of the nV solutions (which are supposed to be driver maximized) in QuakeWars;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd4870-1024_11.html#sect4
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14990/11

As for the quiet issue, NONE of them are quiet, for quiet solutions you need to go to lower end models.

Drivers are easy to find on their website, click on the 'drivers' tab, there are many for Vista and Linux, catalyst 8.11 for both (the Vista drivers take you to their gaming site's download section, linux drivers are resident on the AMD host).

The main thing is to look specifically at the applications you use, because it's that more than API that will determine which is a better fit. Some apps prefer one or the other, and both have solid solutions the GTX and HD4K series are both great), although if you're looking for quiet, you're likely going to be looking at the GF9600GT vs HD4670, in which case for the specific options you are looking at I'd go with the HD4670.

 

[guderiancol]

Ok im again, i was out.

Opengl games with ati run very bad, that happend with catalyst in all video cards 3xx, 4xxx . Mine is 3850 i just installed 8.12 and im come back to my old nvidia card to play mohaa and Rtcw. 8.12 doesnt fix nothing..
Mohaa and rtcw crash in single player mode. RTCW runs very uggly in multiplayermode see you below:
http://www.vgaforum.com/album.php?albumid=4&pictureid=18,
http://www.vgaforum.com/album.php?albumid=4&pictureid=20
Lmao 5 fps and 15. Yea good fps and nice opengl driver

There are, in the web, a million of complaints about that, nothing in the world of comparatives and benchmarks, im talking about real word, if is it rigth to call gaming world.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1375562
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1015939.html
Google it
No english here... sorry, but i try.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Mohaa and rtcw crash in single player mode. RTCW runs very uggly in multiplayermode see you below:
http://www.vgaforum.com/album.php?albumid=4&pictureid=18,
http://www.vgaforum.com/album.php?albumid=4&pictureid=20
Lmao 5 fps and 15. Yea good fps and nice opengl driver...

I notice you didn't post picture #19 with 30 FPS that was actually the battle, not the 15FPS while waiting to spawn.
Why would you skip that one? I wonder...
Also that doesn't show the graphics card or even the system it's hooked up to (a Pentium III is it ? ) so really FPS means nothing without the ability to confirm what those screen-captures represent. Esecially when showing something like a spawn point and then whatever that other shot was.
I also notice that that picture was uploaded in September, so how does that relate to Catalyst 8.12?
And how does your old AGP cards relate to the CURRENT PCIe cards, and how does your old game relate to the current apps, especially the workstation apps the OP asked about in question #2?

There are, in the web, a million of complaints about that, nothing in the world of comparatives and benchmarks, im talking about real word, if is it rigth to call gaming world.

There are a million complaints about both companies' products, many about how bad the FX sucks/sucked.
Considering your issues sofar I wouldn't be surprised if your problem is the same one that generates the most complaints, and the reason why your new card doesn't work well, but slapping your old card in again does. YOU DIDN'T PROPERLY CLEAN OUT THE OLD nV DRIVERS.

Saying that all ATi drivers suck because of your limited experiences, would be like saying all nVidia cards suck because the FX was such a crap series of cards.

 

[guderiancol]

I notice you didn't post picture #19 with 30 FPS that was actually the battle, not the 15FPS while waiting to spawn.
Why would you skip that one? I wonder...
Also that doesn't show the graphics card or even the system it's hooked up to (a Pentium III is it ? ) so really FPS means nothing without the ability to confirm what those screen-captures represent. Esecially when showing something like a spawn point and then whatever that other shot was.
I also notice that that picture was uploaded in September, so how does that relate to Catalyst 8.12?
And how does your old AGP cards relate to the CURRENT PCIe cards, and how does your old game relate to the current apps, especially the workstation apps the OP asked about in question #2?

There are, in the web, a million of complaints about that, nothing in the world of comparatives and benchmarks, im talking about real word, if is it rigth to call gaming world.

There are a million complaints about both companies' products, many about how bad the FX sucks/sucked.
Considering your issues sofar I wouldn't be surprised if your problem is the same one that generates the most complaints, and the reason why your new card doesn't work well, but slapping your old card in again does. YOU DIDN'T PROPERLY CLEAN OUT THE OLD nV DRIVERS.

Saying that all ATi drivers suck because of your limited experiences, would be like saying all nVidia cards suck because the FX was such a crap series of cards.