That New Card Smell

Zero1Zero1 Independence, MO
edited April 2004 in Hardware
Recently I have been searching around for a new video card for gaming and such and planned on getting one with in the next few weeks, but I have my brother who says stick with XfX and nVida cards and my freind who says ati is the way to go. What I was wondering was which card is more suitable for games such as for example Bf1942 or Call of Duty.

Thanks for the help. :thumbsup:

Comments

  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    The GeForce FX is a piece of crap. The 5950 Ultra is actually pretty fast (altho not as fast as the 9800 Pro/XT), but the image quality still is nowhere near ATi's, and all of the other GeForce FX cards are abysmally slow compared to the equivalent ATi cards, AND they have crappy image quality.

    ATi is the only intelligent choice, at the moment.
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited April 2004
    I have an Aopen Nvidia FX5900 and an ATI 9800 Pro in two systems atm.

    They both cost the same money, more or less.

    The 9800 Pro is by far a better card, although in 3D Marks 2003, the 9800 Pro only had a short performance gain.

    But with the 9800 Pro, I get better res and frame rates in games and it just looks better. And it isn't so huge either, the FX5900 is massive.

    Also, I had an issue with some Forceware drivers, when I removed them, it took out several functions on my OS, such as the RAID drivers, for some odd reason. Much prefer ATI's drivers.

    This is not to belittle the FX5900 too much, I still think it's a fine card and the way prices are dropping, can probably be picked up at a very reasonable price and cheaper than a 9800 Pro, and it really isn't a slouch.

    Clincher for me is I really really don't like Nvidia's agressive sales policy, public image of both companies, to my mind, makes ATI seem better.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited April 2004
    As usual I agree with Flopps and like flopps I have both cards, however while the ati does have better image quality I wouldn't say I have found the difference to be as great Geeky has found. My card fx card is a BFG 5900 soft modded to a 5950.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Have you read the reviews on the GeForce 6800 Ultra? It's not quite out yet, but it appears that it has taken the performance crown back from ATI for the moment. However, ATI will be coming out with their newest generation of cards in a few more weeks, so I'd wait to see. Chances are, the new ATI card will outperform the new nVidia card.

    In the end however, ATI is the winner. Even if it's not by much, the numbers can't be disputed.
  • Zero1Zero1 Independence, MO
    edited April 2004
    Thanks for the help, I think I have my choice and I really look forward to get my card within the next few weeks.

    But I have one more question, are the ATI drivers really big like to download or do most of them come with the card like in the software?
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Most come with the card, but I'd highly recommend downloading the latest Catalyst drivers. http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited April 2004
    I have the ATI 9800 PRO and FX5950 Ultra. The "feel" of both cards is the same but NVIDIA lacks certain hardware support of some 3D rendering. For example...in smartshader 2.0 only half of the rendering tests are available to the NVIDIA product whereas ATI does them all.


    ATI is the way to go.
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited April 2004
    you're definitely going to want to get the latest drivers like trekky pointed out, i think the download comes out to around 28MB, but its in several parts
  • Park_7677Park_7677 Missouri Member
    edited April 2004
    ATi ATi ATi :D

    I'll burn you a CD of all the ATi drivers Joe. Your 56k sucks :p
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited April 2004
    Hey, take him up on the offer of a CD full of drivers. Sounds good to me :D

    Latest drivers are Catalyst 4.4 & Control Panel.
  • Zero1Zero1 Independence, MO
    edited April 2004
    I think I'll do that, after all 56k is the worst thing on the planet right now =/

    Thanks Ross
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    I love my Fx 5950 Great card. had a 9700pro was nothing but hassles same with the 9600xt. Image quality may be a bit under the 9800pro but it makes up for it with the ease of installation.
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited April 2004
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    I love my Fx 5950 Great card. had a 9700pro was nothing but hassles same with the 9600xt. Image quality may be a bit under the 9800pro but it makes up for it with the ease of installation.

    What kind of hassles could you have possibly had?
  • fudgamfudgam Upstate New York
    edited April 2004
    When you guys say "lower image quality", do you mean the fps craps out when you turn on aa and af?
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited April 2004
    fudgam wrote:
    When you guys say "lower image quality", do you mean the fps craps out when you turn on aa and af?

    How the image appears- colors, fsaa/af quality, etc. Not the performance.
  • fudgamfudgam Upstate New York
    edited April 2004
    Got ya
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    Fudgam, basically what croc_ said. I'll see if I can dig up my comparison of the gffx vs the 9700/9800 card
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited April 2004
    Well, rather than digging up my original image (which is probably on my dual athlon system, which I'm too lazy to turn on right now), I just combined 3 of the ones that were in a (quite timely) Driverheaven.com article. Note that the image is a jpeg, it is encoded at medium quality, and it has been downsized, so the details are not as clear as they could be, but I think it's fairly obvious where the problem with nVidia's image quality is :D
  • TemplarTemplar You first.
    edited April 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Have you read the reviews on the GeForce 6800 Ultra? It's not quite out yet, but it appears that it has taken the performance crown back from ATI for the moment. However, ATI will be coming out with their newest generation of cards in a few more weeks, so I'd wait to see. Chances are, the new ATI card will outperform the new nVidia card.

    In the end however, ATI is the winner. Even if it's not by much, the numbers can't be disputed.

    This is like the time Mitsubishi announced the Evo VIII, claiming ~40hp over the fastest WRX, then later that day, Subaru announced a 300hp WRX. Heh.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited April 2004
    ATI (of course)
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