Which is better. ATI or Nvidia

[TonTon]

Which card maker is better. Do people prefer nvidia or ati? and why? I know there are lots of manufacturers for the nvidia chipset so list the ones that you feel are better and the same goes for ATI. I'm trying to make my mind up, before I get a new card. My supplier does not have access to kyro right now so that is out. Just ATI and nvidia. Any ideas?

Things to consider. Performance, customer service, driver support, cost, etc....

Thanks. I know the only people that really know about this are the people that frequent Tom's.

 

[rcf84]

ATi
---------
Performance = quake3 at 1028x768-32bit 30fps+

customer service = Its all right, Rage3d.com is alot better

driver support = They still make drivers for the 4year old Rage Pro core

cost = Very good

ALSO a 5 year warranty :*)

Nice Intel and AMD users get a Cookie.... Yummy

 

[TonTon]

Wow! Thanks for the fast reply. That's the kind of information I was looking for, keep it coming.

I've been to a lot of review sites and now it's time to get the actual consumer's review from all of the comp users here at Tom's.

 

[Pettytheft]

In terms of Performance and Driver support the crown goes to Nvidia. A GeForce2 Ultra or GeForce3 are still currently the fastest and most supported cards out there. If your looking to buy right now the card with the longest lifespan is the GeForce3. Hercules, Leadtek, Visiontek cards can all be trusted. There are some others but I cant speak from experience. Good thing about Nvidia is that there are a large array of drivers to pick from. Most are leaked and not supported but they crank them out almost biweekly.

ATI wins the great price for a kick-ass card award. Plus you will recieve the best image quality compared to a Nvidia card. ATI also has the absolute best DVD playback capabilities out now. For gaming this card is no slouch either. It acually performs better in 32bit color than 16. Also ATI's TV out features are also of a higher quality.
Here is a breakdown of some prices of these cards I'll list them in terms of the greates performer on down:

1. GeForce3 $350
2. GeForce2Ultra $260 Unless you want the Hercules Card
3. Radeon64 ViVo $175 ViVo is Video-in Video-out
4. GeForce2Pro64or32 $145-160 Just stay away from the Leadtek32MB version
5. Radeon32DDR $110
6. GeForce2GTS $120

I'll stay away from the sub 100 range for now.

I cant comment on Customer service. Usually that is left up to the dealer. 90% of your support will come from other users trial and errors. Both cards have excellent fan based websights that will provide better support than any company would. The edge in fanbased websights goes to ATI however.

My rankings on the cards performance may be off but just search some of Tom's video card articles.

Good luck.

Blah, Blah Blahh, Blahh, blahh blah blahh, blah blah.

 

[TonTon]

I've already been cruising around checking out what I can at Tom's. I just thought I would get some real user input. And btw thanks for the info. This place is great.

Just some info. I'm looking for a vid card with 64mb ddr ram, vivo, agp(of course).

Ultra is way too exepensive up here in Canada. There are only a few Geforce3 that I see and the board doesn't have a lot of other features like say an ATI board would have. Svideo and rca out and in that sort of thing. Thanks for the info, and keep it coming. I appreciate all the help that everyone has provided thus far and beyond.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TonTon on 05/23/01 01:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[rcf84]

Well the Radeon LE is the best buy out there. The thing is HyperZ is disabled a simply going into RegEdit turns it into a 32mb DDR radeon. Radeon LE sells at $75 at Pricewatch.com

Nice Intel and AMD users get a Cookie.... Yummy

 

[noko]

ditto. Unless you want to run Linux.

 

[noko]

You are right rcf84, check out this article:

Here is a good article about the Radeon LE (FINALLY!!!), which you can compare the mx, Kyro2 and the Radeon LE. Lets just say the Radeon LE is HOT!!!! Look at the Kyro2 numbers too.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1473" target="_new">AnAndTech Excellent Radeon LE review!!</A>

For $70 the Radeon LE is a steal.

 

[killall]

the geforce 2 cards are all good... as are the radeons, it depends on what you want... radeons become ok for higher resolutions, but good enough for good frame rates (as in you wont ever need more your eyes wont handle it ) even though i myself use a geforce 2 (the old gts clocked faster than the pro cards) and couldnt ask for a better card performance is amazing ive heard a lot of good things about the ati cards...

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[TonTon]

Wow, I love this place. Thanks to everyone who replied.

I think I am going to go with an ati radeon. For two reasons, one it's more compatible with the motherboard that I am going to get and secondly it's a little cheaper. And of course people that posted here really didnt' say anything too badly about ATI.

In the end I will never know if I made the right choice or not, but I can always count on everyone here for help if things go sour.

Thanks so much for all the replies. I only hope someday I can return the same amount of knowledge that I have gotten from this site to someone else that needs help.

 

[juin]

1 i am canadian ATi is canadian
2 better quality of graphic
3 less speed but a humain eye can only see 24 frames/sec if i am remember well
4 Geforce 3 is 1500$ in Canada vs 300 for Rageon 64 meg ddr.

 

[TonTon]

Whoaa. Slow the boat down. Where did you see a geforce3 for 1500. Go to http://www.ncix.com. Vancouver based, and it has geforce3 for 500-6??. ATI is Canadian? Interesting.

 

[noko]

I just bought a MX400 and still waiting for it, I also have a Radeon 64 VIVO which I am very happy with. Anyways after going to Nvidia site I was shocked that the most recent drivers are the 6.50 version released back in December 2000! WTF,,, ATI has released a slew of official drivers this year alone for the Radeon, meaning you can get support for very recent ATI Radeon drivers. Now the web is filled with nVidia beta/leaked drivers after the official 6.50 version but no support is given or any promises. Nothing official to help select the right driver. Is someone surpose to use the 6.5 drivers for the GF3? In order to be able to get support from Nvidia? Well I take it the card manufactuers is the one that surpose to give the support but then again they are not the ones making the drivers. They may use the reference drivers to do minor cosmetic changes but the real drivers are being done my Nvidia. Why isn't Nvidia releasing more official drivers?

 

[ejsmith2]

I totally agree. You can find directx 8.0 drivers for Rage Pro and Rage 128 cards.
ATI supports their cards outstandingly......

 

[juin]

Ok

i dont find it but

hercules 3D PROPHET 3 64mg DDR TV-OUT 713$
from microbytes

Elsa gladiac (something like that) geforce 3 ddr tv-out 1500$
From ?????? i dont remember.

 

[SerArthurDayne]

Which is better.... which is better...

Well, for now my opinion rests with Nvidia. I love getting leaked drivers to play with every week or so, and the performance of my Ge2 GTS is absolutely wonderful - especially considering how far it overclocked.

On the other hand, my old Radeon was quite the troublemaker in my last PIII system. Still, it wasn't a bad card...

ATI does make some cool stuff, and so does Nvidia. I really can't wait to see ATI's new gpu though... if it does half of what it claims, the Ge3 and Nvidia may be in trouble

 

[peteb]

I think the human eye refreshes at about 60Hz or so, but it depends (digging way back in my memory now) on whether you are directly looking at it or using peripheral vision.

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details

 

[noko]

What is interesting is that the newer Radeon 64 VIVO Retails are coming with 5ns ram vice the previous 5.5ns ram. In addition people are reporting the stock clock for those Radeon 64's are at 198/198 vice the 183/183 speeds. I wonder if anyone here bought a new Radeon 64 and has the faster ram installed on it. Also interesting is that there is no obvious promotion or markings on the box indicating the increase ram speed. Maybe they don't want to piss off some folks who don't get the faster ram models. Apparently the cost of 5ns ram now is the same as for 5.5ns ram.