GPU Wars: Nvidia vs ATI

[arch5]

Title says it all.

Which GPU brand do you think is better- Nvidia or ATI? Make sure to provide a reason why.

Personally, I prefer Nvidia because iv'e used it in all of my computers, and iv'e never really had a problem. I also think they have good performance.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Both of them are great. I tend to use ATI, but i have no loyalty to them. For me the reason i got my HD4850 was that it had to best price to performance ratio. I don't think one is better than the other.

 

[Dynasty]

I think nVidia are better, especially these days, BUT ive had far less problems when I had an ATI card than I do with my 8800gt.

nVidia drivers are a bit...broken, for me anyway. Others have never had problems.

 

[Quixoticism]

I think they are both great. It switches off between who makes the "best card" from time to time. I have owned both and don't have any complaints. I do like some of the features that are in nVidia's drivers.

Which would I buy, which ever gives the best performance for price.

 

[MRG]

I think they are both great. It switches off between who makes the "best card" from time to time. I have owned both and don't have any complaints. I do like some of the features that are in nVidia's drivers.

Which would I buy, which ever gives the best performance for price.

The HD48xx series is excellent. While not the most powerful, it is an excellent card all around & the price to performance ratio is quite nice. Some people here will advocate that nVidia is the better card, while otehrs will say ATI is. I am partial to ATI myself, but have owned nVidia cards & loved them.

-MRG

 

[Top Secret]

I will buy whatever has the best bang for buck at the time. Either nVidia or ATI. Doesn't matter to me.

 

[Ravioli]

Nvidiakthxbye

 

[Blackthorn]

Whichever gives me the best GPU for the lowest price at the time when I want a new one.

So far that's been nVidia. The 8800GT was a ****ing steal and it still performs perfectly to this day.

 

[TwwIX]

I started off with ATI cards than i switched to Nvidia once the 7 series came out. My last ATI card was a 9800 Pro. Great card.
ATI tends to be a bit lazy when it comes to drivers though. You have to rely on 3rd part drivers to get the most out of their cards while Nvidia keeps pumping out new ones every couple of weeks. Nvidia costs a bit more but their cards run a bit cooler, are more power efficient, and support PhysX which is practically included in every game these days.

 

[tesher06]

NVIDIA is the top.

 

[Asus]

Nvidia usually does what they do well. But it seems that Nvidia likes to mainly push their engineers on performance (pure FPS numbers) which IMO is boring. Seems like Nvidia will only branch out and improve other stuff like IQ (image quality) every once in a while. Like with the 8000 series they did.

I think ATI is more interesting because they do different tech stuff that may not push FPS but rather IQ (image quality) or improve or add different types of image modes (AF/AA etc). Also they had their All-in-Wonder line and now just VIVO (Video In/Video Out). Which was for video capture and a quality TV out solution.

In the past it seems like Nvidia's one track mind had got them in trouble. They didn't have other stuff to market so they tried to position themselves to get better FPS by cheating in benchmarks or they made up an excuse to use both 16bit and 32bit floating point (when they mainly used 16bit) while ATI used 24bit for all types of shaders and then on to 32bit floating point with the next series. This was years ago of course. Doesn't reflect the current situation. I don't want to bring up stuff to say Nvidia is bad. But giving examples of why branching out is a good thing. For customers and the company itself.

I have had about equal number of cards from both companies (N:5, A:4). Although I was less eager to switch to the newer and better when I had ATI cards so I kept them longer. (9800, x1900, 4850)

 

[Dinnesch]

If you want a lot of power for a good price, I would say ATI.(currently not, but most of the time)
From my experiences ATI cards are a lot less durable. For example, my brother's radeon 9250 started sparking when playing games, it died shortly after.
The last weeks, I've been having flickering shadows on my X1650. Hopefully this one won't die too! It also gives me random BSOD's at some games. I've also heard of alot of other people who had horrible experiences with ATI.

It seems ATI cards works without any problems in their first 1/2 years but die shortly after that. If they keep alive, ATI will be to lazy to test their drivers on older cards so you still can't game on them(without problems)
My next upgrade will be a laptop so I'll go for Nvidia. These GTX 200 cards are fast as hell

 

[Warped]

Nvidia but only because I've only really known Nvidia.

 

[Asus]

There is always someone who says there are tons more issues with ATI models. Never anyone who says that about Nvidia.
Yet I've never got that impression going through troubleshooting threads here or tech forums. They seem to be split fairly even. The cards with 2 boards linked together seem to have the worst failure rates (not talking about SLI with 2 single cards).

I've had a bad 8800GT (new) which I sent in for replacement within 6 months of purchase. Never had a hardware issue with graphics cards before (Have owned a total of 5 Nvidia's and 4 ATI's although I had the ATIs longer before replacing).
My brother had his old computer flicker repeatedly when he had a Sapphire card in it but it was both 2nd hand and a referb. Never found out was was actually the problem since he had an old CRT that he had saved from the trash bin at work as well.

FYI the quality of the card may vary since they are made by different companies. Both Nvidia and ATI just make the chip. ATI does have their own branded cards but they are made at Sapphire factories so they are really Sapphire cards.

Sometime after ATI released the 9700/9800 they started releasing drivers monthly and their driver quality shot through the roof. Which was...years ago.

If you had a card start on fire it most likely was not a defect from the factory. Either something happened to the card between that online warehouse and when it arrived at your doorstep or you let something happen to it yourself in your case (dust etc).

Here is some actual data on failure rates collected from a retailer. Not all the brands are in there of course.
And you do know Nvidia has issues with some of their chips. Mostly mobile but also desktop.
"HP has just confirmed that 38 different desktop models are plagued with faulty Nvidia graphics cards."
And do you recall the Vista crashes from Nvidia drivers?
Other than the Nvidia issues on some of their desktop and moblie parts, both ATI and Nvidia are very stable...assuming you bought from a quality card maker.

 

[CyberPitz]

Really, I've owned them both consistently. FX5200, 9600XT, x800GTO, x1850, 8800GT. I've never had a card that failed on me or did anything wrong in the time I owned them. They are both great companies and I'd say just go for whatever is the best "bang for buck" at the time.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Nvidia.

 

[Raziaar]

I gave ATI a final chance with this 4890 that I purchased.

It better not fail me. If it fails me, I will never buy ATI again... until I end up buying ATI again.

 

[Dinnesch]

Another thing I forgot to mention: the output quality of ATI is much better than Nvidia. When just using your PC for general purpose(internet, chat etc) the pixels look a lot less sharp with a Nvidia card. I've noticed this with a lot of different Nvidia cards from different price ranges: FX5200, 5900, 6200, 8800GT.
ATI just looks great and very clear, from a 4850 to my stone old Mobility 7000.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I'm loyal to Nvidia. I've never had a problem with clarity or performance but I haven't done my research. I just look at benchmarks to see whose card is faster when it's time for an upgrade.