ATI or NVIDIA

[Norge]

Well if you visited the old Icrontic video forums before they got hacked you prolly know that I have had problems running 3D games. I've tried Battlefield 1942, GTA3, and Neverwinter Nights. I have an ATI Saphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis 128 MB and the games I try either crash to desktop, restart the computer, or freeze the computer completely. I've tried so many combinations of drivers it isn't funny and nothing works. I even tried my friends Radeon 9500 and the problems were still there. The only thing I can think of to do is try another type of video card. I had an ATI card in my old computer but it didn't work right so I had to take it back for a NVIDIA GeForce. The NVIDIA card worked fine and I've never had a problem with it. In a little bit I am going to test it in this computer. Anyhoo I am thinking about selling my Radeon 9500 on Ebay (nothing wrong with it aside from the fact it doesn't work on my system) and buying a NVIDIA. I guess my question is about NVIDIA cards. What is a good card to go with from NVIDIA. I don't keep track of them as much as I do ATI so I thought I'd ask around first. I'd like to keep the new card within the price range of $150-250. I have an AGP 8x port so I'd like to go with that and I'd prefer a semi quiet one. I've heard that some of the GeForce FX cards are kinda loud. Anyhoo if anyone could give me some suggestions that'd be great.

Norge

[shwaip]

Did you switch to the ATI card from an NVIDIA card without reformatting? A system reformat is usually required when you switch between them.


BTW... if it's a pro, i call dibs :P

[mmonnin]

RMA it. Send it back for another one.

Before I would do anything hardware wise is a complete format of C:. Back up everythind onto D: and reinstall XP. Try an older set of drivers and if it they dont work then uninstall those and try some more.

I dont remember you saying if you uninstalled or just installed over top of the previous drivers.

[mmonnin]

No a friend of mine. He is on XP. He could ghost a fresh copy and then be done with it before you roll back IE.

And he has a Sapphire 9500 Pro.

[Norge]

Thanks for all the information about the GF3 Ti500. Like mmonnin mentioned above I am currently running Windows XP so the Linux thing shouldn't be a problem.

No I didn't reformat in between the video cards. I just swapped em long enough to see if the NVIDIA card would run Battlefield 1942. The game ran well with my 64 MB GeForce 4 card even though I had to turn the graphics down a little bit.

Well I was going to RMA it but I tested a friends Radeon 9500 and had the same exact problems. That led me to believe that it might just be ATI cards are incompatible with my system for some reason. I've tried old and new video drivers as well as old and new VIA4in1 drivers. None of them seem to work. Oh and each time I changed drivers I uninstalled the current drivers before installing the new ones.

I would like to avoid a reformat if possible. How do you tell Windows to use a standard VGA unknown monitor? Do you mean right click on the desktop, properties, settings, then the monitor selection? Currently it is set up with "Plug and Play Monitor on Radeon 9500". The other option is "(Default Monitor) on Radeon 9500 - Secondary". I think I've tried it with both options but I can try switching again if that is what you are talking about.

Norge

Mother Board: SOYO KT-400 Dragon Ultra Black Edition
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
Memory: 3 x DDR 512 (1.5 GB)
HDD: Maxtor 200 GB
CD-Drives: LiteOn 52x42x52, LiteOn 16x DVD-ROM
Floppy: Mitsumi 3.5"
Video Card: ATI Saphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis
PSU: 420W Dual Fan