nVidia or ATI

[woltej1]

Which company makes the best overall cards. I know that ATI's 4xxx and 5xxx cards were very good performers in comparison to nVidia, either keeping up with nVidia or beating it, but I'm not talking about performance or performance/dollar. I want to know who makes the best overall card as far as performance/quality/stability/support goes. Lots of people say nVidia is just rehashing it's old cards and renaming them, but is it really a bad thing to stick with a platform you know and improve it? Personally I like nVidia. I currently use a 9600M GT and have it overclocked by over 10% and it is perfectly stable. I'd like to think doing this in a dv7 pavilon notebook, more of a multi-media laptop, is **** impressive. My brother uses nVidia and has very good experiences with them with few problems. I cannot deny the performance ATi has put out recently though, so I want to know your guys' opinions on which company produces the best overall card for performance, overclock ability and stability.

 

[zedman3d]

Sorry, there is no answer to this. The question only results in a non finite amount of answers each more incorrect than the last.

 

[b1gapl]

I agree with zedman. They both make good cards. So it's down to which brand you prefer. I own both Nvidia and ATi cards, and I liked them both. As long as they play my favorite games at exceptional settings, I'm happy. And speaking of brands, ATi and Nvidia manufacture the GPU chips. It's their card manufacturers (such as XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, ASUS, etc.) that make the graphic cards.

You say that you and your brother use Nvidia cards. Maybe it's good to stick with a brand that you do know and prefer. It also wouldn't hurt to try ATi, to experience a different brand for comparison. Who knows, you might like them too.

 

[Yami]

They both have various features, pricing points and performances. It usually boils to, what you need, what you want, and what you can afford.

 

[Slaymate]

Everyone is sooo politically correct

As far as the new Nvidia cards, not enough people at this forum have actually seen or used them to make a valid determination.

If we answer your question going back to the introduction of the GPU then Nvidia is the winner.

If we answer your question without including the Nvidia 400 series and base it on just modern cards then ATI is the winner.

If you ask this question next month we might get a different answer.

 

[wafflehammer]

best overall card as far as performance/quality/stability/support goes

If you're going to go by this you wouldn't go by ait/nvidia it'd be the companies that sell the cards such as evga, xfx, mis, powercooler, etc etc etc.

That being said I personally like the companies that sell nvidia cards because because most of them seem to be more reliable and are bigger names than the ones that sell ati.

When it comes down to it you should base your choice on a lot of factors, not just the best performing card..because sometimes that card could cost a lot more or isn't even worth it. I've said it a bundle around this forum and I still stick with it, the 4850 and gtx 260 can max any game out right now..so anything above them is kinda a waste of money unless you have a huge screen or want to flex your e-peen.

As I said.. a lot of factors, these would include:

cost**
performance
drivers
stock cooling*
company*
company warranty (some cover overclock, some don't...some cover you changing the fan, some don't..etc)*
upgrade ability (evga is the only one I know of personally)*
heat
power consumption
support*
folding
video ports (things like do you need hdmi..and then ATI has eyefinity and nvidia has nothing close)*
space requirements (i've seen a lot more single slot ati cards than I have nvidia)*
board type (as far as I know ati has the best AGP card..but who usees those?? lol..and other reasons)
overclocking/adjusting software (I don't care what you say..but evga precision is a lot more user friendly than CCC lol)

(*= falls to the company for responsibility, **= sometimes the company will have a bit lower price than the others..but the same card will usually be around the same cost range..unless it's like evga vs a no name seller..then the price might have a big difference..but I'd still go with evga/known name seller)

That's about all I can think of...but I'm sure there are more factors. But if you want to get right down to the statistics, according to benchmarks the gtx 480 is about 10% faster than the 5870. Along with that 10% performance boost it is also 10% hotter and cost about 9% more ( I haven't done the math to see cost for average fps..so ATI could easily take that) so you have to look at things like that to see if that card is really that much "better".

 

[Puddle Jumper]

That being said I personally like the companies that sell nvidia cards because because most of them seem to be more reliable and are bigger names than the ones that sell ati.

The vast majority of companies make cards for both sides

overclocking/adjusting software (I don't care what you say..but evga precision is a lot more user friendly than CCC lol)

There are way more options for overclocking ATI cards than just CCC. MSI Afterburner is similar to precision and even supports voltage adjustment for many Ati reference cards. Another awesome option is ATI Tray tools which is a complete replacement for Catalyst Control Center and imo is much better than either sides default control center. Also there is always Radeon BIOS editor if you feel like pushing the limits of your hardware.

 

[wafflehammer]

The vast majority of companies make cards for both sides



There are way more options for overclocking ATI cards than just CCC. MSI Afterburner is similar to precision and even supports voltage adjustment for many Ati reference cards. Another awesome option is ATI Tray tools which is a complete replacement for Catalyst Control Center and imo is much better than either sides default control center. Also there is always Radeon BIOS editor if you feel like pushing the limits of your hardware.

Out of the 21 companies only 5 make cards for both...i wouldn't call that a vast majority

But what I meant was big name video card makers like evga, xfx, bfg, and PNY (I guess they are biggish..more so than others I would say). And out of all of those ATI only has XFX...asus is probably good too..but both companies have that.

I was just saying between ATI and nvidia I'd rather deal with the companies nvidia has seeing how they are bigger names are usually offer top notch support.

Thanks for the info about the over clocking tools. I knew MSI had something out but didn't know how good it was.

 

[james.wired]

Out of the 21 companies only 5 make cards for both...i wouldn't call that a vast majority

You do know that there are more manufactures in the world than just what Newegg carries, right?

 

[veg1992]

There's no answer to this.

Each company has had its fubar's and some have had their major successes, and there hasn't been a time where both companies have been completely winning or losing for as long as they've lasted.

You do know that there are more manufactures in the world than just what Newegg carries, right?

Exactly