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Purp

ATI vs. nVidia

Which type of graphics card ownz?  

56 members have voted

  1. 1. Which type of graphics card ownz?

    • ATI Radeon
      14
    • nVidia GeForce
      34
    • Other - please don`t say other
      2
    • They`re both good enough
      6


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I don't wanna be flamed for being stupid, but I've only had old computers before and never bought a new one, and as I play on Doom more than anything else, I have no idea about graphics cards. Which type of card shall I get? Radeon or GeForce? I don't get it - help!

The site I'm probably gonna end up buying my new computer from is PC Specialist so if anyone can suggest a card that they're selling that doesn't cost hundreds, that would be extremely helpful.

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I personally reccomend nVidia for any sort of graphics, and can say I have never had a non functional nVidia card. Though the lower FX series of GeForce was pretty shitty.

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Infinite Ammunition said:

what sort of games/work do you plan to use it for?

Damn, shoulda know it wouldn't be that simple. Dunno, at the moment I only play Doom. I don't know anything about new games - I was gonna leave thinking about them until after I had the new computer. Isn't one of them just better "in general"?

HobbsTiger1 said:

I personally reccomend nVidia for any sort of graphics, and can say I have never had a non functional nVidia card. Though the lower FX series of GeForce was pretty shitty.

Thank you. Exactly the sort of answer I was hoping for. And so far we have a tie on the poll - one all.

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If you use Linux, even if occasionally, by all means do not choose ATI over nVidia.

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Despite the fact that my Geforce card is very old and obsolete, I haven't had a single problem with it. It's lasted me a good long time. I'd definitely recommend one from previous experience.

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Geforce cards, in my experience with quite a few, are good. The current drivers are problematic which is quite unusual for nVidia in recent years.

Only going on heresay, there are a lot of difficulties with ATI. GZdoom and ATI certainly does not always seem to be a happy combination.

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Enjay said:

Only going on heresay, there are a lot of difficulties with ATI. GZdoom and ATI certainly does not always seem to be a happy combination.

I haven't had any problems with my 3 year old ATI and GZDoom.

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nVidia is known for having better gfx code (something to that effect) with the OpenGl libraries than ATi. However, ATI usually has equal, if not better than nvidia with D3D performance. [Assuming both different products have the same gfx power].

Most OpenGl games: Doom 3 engine, Q3 engine, etc. -nvidia
Most Direct3d games: Half-Life 1&2 (1 has OpenGl also btw), Obilvion, etc. -ATi

There are exceptions, and depends on the card, but this is general. However stuff like GZDoom I don't think it really matters up the chipset, just the power.

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I started off on an nVidia card (GeForce 2 Go 16mb...it actually ran Doom3 once), then moved to an ATi card (9800 Pro 256mb), and finally back to nVidia (6800 GT 256 and a 7800 GTX Go 256). After messing around with both, I still find nVidia to be a better card. I've had less "oddities" with them than when I had my ATi card. This is in both Windows and Linux.

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spank said:
If you use Linux, even if occasionally, by all means do not choose ATI over nVidia.

Only if you want to use OpenGL. Occasional Linux users probably won't mind booting into Windows for gaming, and otherwise the open-source radeon and nv drivers work just fine in 2D mode.

On the other hand, more frequent Linux users will painstakingly research the hardware they buy to make sure it'll work, and from what I hear spank is right: nVidia's drivers are much nicer than ATI's. I wouldn't know firsthand, though. Chocolate-doom is the most advanced game (as far as visuals go) that I run in Linux...

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I myself have had a number of cards from both companies, I had a TNT, TNT 2, Geforce, Geforce 2 MX (blurgh), Geforce 4 (forget which model, who cares anyway) then an ATi 9600xt (this was a good card), then a 6600gt AGp, now an x1800xt 512mb. It is much of a muchness between the two companies, especially at the high end of the spectrum. Go for price/performance rather than being biased towards a company for the sake of it.

As for what to actually get, I assume you're upgrading to PCI-E. Aim for a 7600gt or, if you can afford the extra cash, a 7900gt. Either two of those cards will last you awhile. If you just plan on playing Doom though, stick with what you have atm. (Out of curiosity, what is your GPU as of current?)

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Enjay said:

GZdoom and ATI certainly does not always seem to be a happy combination.

Job said:

I haven't had any problems with my 3 year old ATI and GZDoom.


You're lucky then. Just a few Quotes from Graf Zahl on the matter (from the GZdoom forum)

If you have an ATI card that's an unavoidable side effect of the near clipping plane. NVidia offers a GL extension to get rid of it but I really don't expect ATI to implement this as well.

GL_NV_DEPTH_CLAMP

No ATI card I could get a startup log from supports it.

This release is mostly for testing the fog problems of ATI cards....

EDIT: Since it doesn't seem to work I have disabled the link. My solution has a slight performance impact so I am preparing a new version for tomorrow that contains all the 0.9.13 fixes but not the ATI code.

And, of course, this whole thread http://forum.drdteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=252

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I've used nVidia preety exclusively for as long as I've had a card worth mentioning. I can't think of any major problem I had with a graphics card that was the manufacturers fault really. A couple of minor driver issues I guess, here and there, but both 'sides' get those.

And to be honest I think I've seen more problems with newer games with ATI cards, rather than nVidia. But again you could say that's down to lazy developers, I dunno. It's fairly retarded to argue about this stuff. :P

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I got two computers with GeForce here and one with an Radeon. No real complaints about either. But The radeon got a few issues that I won't bother you with. (it seem to have an issue reading my homemade DDS files if they are not a perfect square in size.)

But if I ever do get to land a job as designer. I will definitely use Matrox for the computer on which I plan to make all models and crap. :O

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Homer said:

Out of curiosity, what is your GPU as of current?

DeumReaper said:

nVidia is known for having better gfx code (something to that effect) with the OpenGl libraries than ATi. However, ATI usually has equal, if not better than nvidia with D3D performance. [Assuming both different products have the same gfx power].

Most OpenGl games: Doom 3 engine, Q3 engine, etc. -nvidia
Most Direct3d games: Half-Life 1&2 (1 has OpenGl also btw), Obilvion, etc. -ATi

I'm currently using old 128 meg ATI cards in my two main computers (which are only 800 MHz and 750 MHz), and in the year and a half I was without broadband the Half-Life engines (and even Steam, the launcher) seem to have moved on beyond my computers and graphics cards. However, after reading your post, DeumReaper, I realise that this is probably because I've been trying to play CS in OpenGL, when I obviously should be trying to play it in D3D with my ATI cards. But still, I want a new computer - I guess you can all understand why.

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I have an ATI Radeon 9700 Mobility on my notebook, and it seems to work pretty well. The main GL programs I use are Prboom-plus and JoeQuake (the GL exes of each), and everything seems quick and without significant visual glitches. I recall Deus Ex looking pretty good on it too.

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If you like Linux or plan to use it, go with a Geforce. Avoid all FX's and do not listen to those that defend it as a "great card".

The Radeon has undisablable quirks and bugs with OpenGL, such as very noisy compressed textures even when you set everything to max quality in the panel, and blender slowdowns, and its suckage with linux. It also has the annoying-ass VPU recovery crap

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Grazza said:

I have an ATI Radeon 9700 Mobility on my notebook, and it seems to work pretty well. The main GL programs I use are Prboom-plus and JoeQuake (the GL exes of each), and everything seems quick and without significant visual glitches. I recall Deus Ex looking pretty good on it too.


Ya my Mobility 9800 was a nice "card." Had a bit of trouble with a few OMG NU games when I used it often, but it still did its job pretty well. Better than the desktop Radeons I've had for sure.

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Grazza said:

JoeQuake


I've been looking for a decent Quake port and this one seems to have everything I want. Thanks for mentioning it.

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If you're running nothing but Windows, ATi is good. Otherwise go with nVidia.

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Nvidia. I have been useing Nvidia cards for years..Nvidia m64, Nvidia Geforce 2 Mx200 and Nvidia Geforce FX 5500 which Im currently useing now. Have not had a problem yet.

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DeumReaper said:

nVidia is known for having better gfx code (something to that effect) with the OpenGl libraries than ATi. However, ATI usually has equal, if not better than nvidia with D3D performance. [Assuming both different products have the same gfx power].

Hang on, does that mean that nVidia is better for OpenGL whereas ATI is better for Direct3D, or does it mean nVidia is good for OpenGL and D3D, whereas ATI is only good for D3D?

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