Comparing ati and nvidia

[dragonfly522]

Hi,
I just bought a new motherboard that has ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics with a max. memory share of up to 512 MB. I have an Nvidia Geforce 8300 GS from my old computer. What do I look for when comparing ATI to Nvidia? Do they both have the same kind of features to measure them by? Which is a better card? I may be shopping for a new card.

 

[jerreece]

All this depends on what you intend to do. If you want to play games, the 8300GS is fairly weak by today's standards. Of course, integrated graphics rely on your RAM and CPU to do the work, so that's pretty weak too honestly.

Budget wise, there's some fairly decent cards available pretty recently. What you should buy (if you choose to) really depends on whether you wish to play games, and what monitor resolution you have.

You could get a basic ATI 5570 for $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131343&cm_re=ati_5570-_-14-131-343-_-Product

nVidia's most recent card: GT430 for $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500176&cm_re=gt_430-_-14-500-176-_-Product

These are what I'd call "Budget" cards. Here's a good review that compares the two directly:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3973/nvidias-geforce-gt-430/1

Now, if you want better performance, have a higher resolution monitor, or have more money to spend, I'd step things up.

The GTS 450 and ATI 5770 are good cards to look at in the next price/performance bracket.

Can you give us more information on the rest of your PC's specs? Processor, RAM, operating system, power supply model?

 

[dragonfly522]

Hi, jerreece. Thx for responding. I have an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE (3.2 GHz), a Biostar TA785G3 mobo, 1333 MHz 4GB RAM, Windows 7, the case is a Xion and it came with a PS so I imagine it is a Xion PS. I haven't gotten the PS yet. It's coming in the mail. Do you know of a benchmark website that compares the different cards? I am kind of a person that wants to know specific comparisons, like if the memory between two cards are comparable or not. What specs do I look at?

 

[Twoboxer]

Luckily, most of the work is already done for you. Just know your screen's resolution, your budget, and find the right card here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2761.html

 

[jerreece]

Sounds like you've got a good setup for gaming so far. What video card to choose really comes down to monitor resolution.

You can review numerous graphics cards right here at Toms Hardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/benchmarks,114.html

You can choose by card model, or by game type specifically.

If you can determine the model of the Power Supply ahead of time, this may be important before you order a video card. Just to make sure the included power supply isn't really weak.

Edit: By the way, comparing memory between cards isn't a big deal these days. Most gaming video cards have 1GB of RAM, which is fairly standard for these days. Especially if your monitor is 1920x1080 or higher resolution. You want to compare actual performance though, because even some cheap/lesser cards include 1 GB of RAM, which is fairly meaningless.

 

[dragonfly522]

Best answer selected by dragonfly522.

 

[dragonfly522]

How can I pick the right graphics card based on the screen resolution? I think mine is 1400X900.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey