ATI or Nvidia??

[Red Beret]

Hey guys, I just bought a built by ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, with 128 MB of ram. I know everyone says it's a good card, but I know Nvidia makes good hardware as well. Now I gotta say, I have never tried Nvidia before, so I don't know anything about it, nor the brand names who make the actual cards...so can anyone tell me any good Nvidia cards, that match in performance with the 9800 Pro, along with the best companies who make them...and some kind of a link would be great. So basically, I need the card chipset name(9800 for example) , version of card, so SE, Pro, or XT, or whatever Nvidia uses, and the maker who makes it...now please recommend some good brand names as well. Thank guys, I only got about a week to return the 9800 Pro, if I find an Nvidia who is good enough. So please post as much as you can. Thanks.

 

[Spartan 1394]

What is your budget?

 

[jolancer]

there is no Nvidia card as good as the 9800 in its class..

however, at the moment all of Nvidia's 6800's are better then anything out.(that is unless ATI drastically improves there driver's for compatability with OpenGL)

6800 is about $290

6800GT is about $390

and 6800 Ultra is about $490
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here are links that helped me... http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2195&p=1 (they have detailed charts in that one)

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2176&p=2

 

[ag3]

ATi has better image quality, while nVidia has better performance (6800+).

 

[U-Toast]

agex000 sais is all in 2 words. Yea the ati tends to generate more clear, sharp images. The 6800 will give u much better frame rates, but the images quality just isnt there, but dont get me wrong, the images are still AMAZING.

 

[Nubius]

If you want image quality, then ATi. If you want performance, then nVidia

I don't know where you get that image quality info from? I guess it depends on the games because in a doom3 review using both the 6800 and X800 more jaggies were noticed on rails and the lines in the floors etc..on the X800 than there was on the 6800 although I heard like in farcry theres better image quality...but come on...can you seriously tell me you'd notice a difference in imagequality with all settings in farcry on high? Probably not...but you'd sure as hell notice lag due to lack of performance...

Don't beat me agex! We'll never resolve our Nvidia VS ATI fight! lol....but yeah I've never had an ATI card and kangaroo posted the stats of the nvidia's FX vs the same class in ATI and yes ATI does outperform nvidia =/ oh man it pains me to say it, but yeah that 9800 pro you got there should be better than any of the equivelant series in nvidia.

For future reference if you decide to get a 6800 sometime down the road some good brands are:

eVGA.........thats about it =) haha I kid I kid, there are some other ones out there I hear MSI is pretty good, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM XFX have heard nothing but crap from those (sry all you XFX users) I had a chaintech 5700 and it burnt out. BUT at the time I had a case with no fans or anything and an open side panel with a CPU sitting at 64C idel so hell I may have caused it to overheat.....but I was browsing the internet and then all of a sudden BOOM! nothing but lines across the screen even from dos prompt...same thing in friends comp.

BTW: Nvidia is gonna come out with the 6600GT which will be like $199 and it uses DDR3 memory! so thats a plus, got 8 pipelines and its 128mb DDR3 btw, and basically the ATI equivelant of the lower end SUCKS BALLS. I didn't know the 6600GT existed and someone linked me to a review and the ATI's equivelant wasn't worth the time of day...nvidia completely blew it out of the water...so you could always wait for that

Conclusion: Stick with your 9800 Pro ::chest pains:: damnit it hurts to say it!

EDIT: dern it u-toast stuck yours in there while I was typin!

but the images quality just isnt there,

..!?! the hell are you talking about? again I want to know what games you guys are playing where there is this INSANE NOTICEABLE image quality difference.

 

[U-Toast]

man u always gota right a whole essay when answering questions! good job, hehe. The thing is with the rad, the image is a lil smoother, but its a preferance i guess. It is definite taht ull get better frame rate with the 6800 series. And it is the best choice. The image difference is very minimal. Its just that each card cant reproduce the exact same image, nvidia has its way, and ati its own, and they arnt the same. Its mostly preference

 

[Nubius]

man u always gota right a whole essay

lol yeah 'The Major' has also told me about that...hehe..I can't help it...I can type as fast as I talk so its real easy to type out a long paragraph without knowing exactly how long it is =P

There..that short enough?

 

[beedubaya]

Agex000 is a die-hard ATi fan who won't be persuaded and Nubius is a die hard Nvidia fan. Lets just take a look at the facts. ATi had its day in the sun with its 9800 series, and that 9800 Pro is a very good card. My friend has that card and he cuts through Far Cry and Doom 3. Now, nobody can deny that Nvidia is the only real choice. Although the X800s do render a slightly sharper image in Far Cry, it won't be noticable durning gameplay. Plus, you sacrifice like 30 frames per second for it. Stick with your 9800 Pro or go for a high end 6800.

 

[jolancer]

beedubaya- "Stick with your 9800 Pro or go for a high end 6800."

why do u say go for the high end 6800? doesnt the normal 6800 also beat every generation card b4 it outa the water?

to Agex000- i dont believe that u can see a difference between the image quality of x800 and 6800... would u mind posting screen shots, or linking to screen shots.