ATI or NVIDIA? Which is Better?

Xientie · 7 Oct 2010 at 07:51

I made a seperate thread about having a sli for the 480 and Steve258 suggested that I could have 4x the 480 in a single system since. At £1520 it is a lot more than I had first antticipated, but still within acceptable purchace levels, provided of course that I sell my first born babe and possibly severe a limb. Incidently I was scanning over the 5970 to see how many sli it could support, but I couldn't find it. Do ATI cards run use different abbrivations for their sli? How many could I put into a single system?

Also a big thank you to Coupe69 for providing those links, they were most helpful. I had thought to thank you there and then, but something came up.

Green Team... Nvidia?

OCDStevo · 7 Oct 2010 at 08:00

Nyoron said:
As mentioned by me and some others in this thread, it's ATI's new series of graphics cards that will be released soon.

They will pressumably be better than the current 5000 series that ATI offers with the 6970 being their new top performing card.

The 6970(Antilles) is not expected until Xmas from my understanding and I'd expect that may well depend on many other factors as we do not even know as yet if it will be 2 X Barts GPU or 2 X Cayman GPU.

The Barts based 6XXX is expected (but not confirmed) for a release of some sort at the end of this month (press event on the 18th and some sort of release on the 24th as far as I'm aware).

The Cayman based 6XXX was mentioned to be a month behind the Barts release.....

Phoenixdancer · 7 Oct 2010 at 08:31

ATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATIATI ATI ATI ATI AMD

Shouldnt have asked such a silly question

Duesix · 7 Oct 2010 at 08:35

I am personally waiting for the new 6 series, i replaced my 295 with a 5870 and i have been happy with the results. I have not had many driver issues but i did have driver issues when i went with another 5870 in cross fire. These only lasted a month and i sold the second card as i realised i played games which did not warrant it.
I also like my rig to be quiet and i can only afford to cool one card at a time

Xientie · 7 Oct 2010 at 08:53

Phoenixdancer said:
Shouldnt have asked such a silly question

No offence Phoenixdancer, but spamming the letters ATI doesn't really tell me why it is better than Nvidia and it is something of a put off towards an ATI card...

snaggster · 7 Oct 2010 at 09:56

For speed and power efficiency, then its got to be ATI. If you want a card that always works well, Is fast, and will be able to do extras like cuda, physx ect then go with nvidia.
I perfer the green team but thats just down to personal taste. And i think that after you have owned a gtx295, you will get annoyed with ATI's drivers.
I would say your best bet is to stick with the gtx295 for a while and see what nvidia bring to the table for christmas.

Freddie1980 · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:05

Nyoron said:
As mentioned by me and some others in this thread, it's ATI's new series of graphics cards that will be released soon.

They will pressumably be better than the current 5000 series that ATI offers with the 6970 being their new top performing card.

I should point out the HD6970 hasn't been confirmed or announced at the moment it enjoys life alongside the GTX485, GTX495 (and other imaginary video cards) where they life a happy existence in peoples minds.

The pending release of the Radeon 6000 line does muddy the waters for buying a video card at the moment I can’t imagine stores like OCUK are happy at the moment as it’s customers are holding back the cash and playing the waiting game.

robgmun · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:09

The last ATI card was the X1950, which hardware wise was a soild little card. But the real reason i went off ATI was the horrible bloatware of the drivers.

At the time i had 2Gb of Ram on an XP machine. I was a freak when it came to tweaking the settings so it used as little memory on boot up as possible, 150Mb was the best i could do.

Then ATI released the CCC control panel, it was unnessary and bloat. The next PC i bought had two 8800GTX's in SLI and just stomped over everything, so i stuck with that, it had 8Gb of ram so i wasn't so anal about memory use as before.

Just bought a HAWK and seems soild as well, Nvida make solid cards and drivers, never any problems.

Relentless81 · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:12

I'm in the same situation! Just waiting to see what ATI bring out this month and what Nvidia do to there line up or prices in reponse but i'm leaning to Nvidia as i've always had Nvidia cards

Phoenixdancer · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:38

Xientie said:
No offence Phoenixdancer, but spamming the letters ATI doesn't really tell me why it is better than Nvidia and it is something of a put off towards an ATI card...

Lol I know

Anyway, I suggest waiting a month for AMD's new cards, will run cooler use less power and most likely be faster then nvidia s best cards

Porcelina · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:40

Xientie said:
No offence Phoenixdancer, but spamming the letters ATI doesn't really tell me why it is better than Nvidia and it is something of a put off towards an ATI card...

It is not so much an argument for ATI as it is a brilliant illustration that fanboyism obliterates intellgent debate each and every time.

Phoenixdancer · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:41

Porcelina said:
It is not so much an argument for ATI as it is a brilliant illustration that fanboyism obliterates intellgent debate each and every time.

Hush you puppy

Xientie · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:43

Fanboyism? What is that... is it even a word, what does it mean?

flopper · 7 Oct 2010 at 10:43

depends,
some game favour nvidia some games favour ati.

I wait for the new amd 6000 series as its coming out this month.
ati, isnt anymore.

both cards from either developer works fine.
if your into fps like battlefield, amd seems to be the better choice.

Xientie · 7 Oct 2010 at 11:11

Phoenixdancer said:
Lol I know

Anyway, I suggest waiting a month for AMD's new cards, will run cooler use less power and most likely be faster then nvidia s best cards

Well thank you Phoenixdancer, I shall keep your suggestion in mind, but to be honest with you I might just purchase a new graphics card now. Maybe a cheap single £200 one that I can give to a friend once my other one is fxed.

Porcelina said:
It is not so much an argument for ATI as it is a brilliant illustration that fanboyism obliterates intellgent debate each and every time.

So is a kind of fanaticism not unlike that of a football supporter. Though albeit a lot less clingy, obsessive, prone to anger, criminal acts, violence and other undeseriable traits expected from a fanatic suffering from blind fanaticism.

flopper said:
depends,
some game favour nvidia some games favour ati.

I wait for the new amd 6000 series as its coming out this month.
ati, isnt anymore.

both cards from either developer works fine.
if your into fps like battlefield, amd seems to be the better choice.

I tend to deviate away from games that include realistic real world violence as it's main feature. The only modern FPS games that I own are Medal of Honor games and even then I mostly only play them due to some sense of nostalgic loyalty. Aim more towards high fantasy strategy games like Fallout 3 and Crysis.

coupe69 · 7 Oct 2010 at 11:34

flopper said:
depends,
some game favour nvidia some games favour ati.

both cards from either developer works fine.
if your into fps like battlefield, amd seems to be the better choice.

To be fair there are more games that favour Nvidia nowadays, you don't get too many games with the ATi logo at start up anymore, in fact I can't remember the last one I played that did?

As for your battlefield argument from the benchmarks I've seen there doesn't appear to be much in it? Have you also got some decent unbiased benchmarks for all these other first person shooters that favour ATi?

Yet again I smell misleading misinformed fanboy biased bs

uv · 7 Oct 2010 at 12:30

Threads like this should be closed from the get go, all it does is promote ridiculous arguments, it's flame-bait at best.

TheRealDeal has got it right - neither brand is betterthan the other, the best card for you depends on what features you want, and what price/performance bracket you're looking in:

TheRealDeal said:
1) ati 5970 (dual gpu card and fastest on the planet)

2) nv gtx480 (Fastest single gpu)

3) ati 5870 (Fastest single ati gpu. Its around 15% slower than gtx480)

4) nv gtx470 (Fast card with nice price. Will beat a gtx480 if you overclock it.)

5) ati 5850 (Fast card. Will beat a 5870 with a good overclock.)

6) nv gtx460 1gb ( Probably the best bang for buck and will overclock to atleast over gtx470 speeds)

I will end the list there as you want a top performing gpu.

This list is how it goes in terms of speed and price number 1 being the fastest and also costs the most. If i were in the market atm though i would not buy as ati are about to release the 6 series of cards which should see them have the fastest card in every segment.

Your question which is better ati or nvidia can not really be answered as they both have there strong points.

shaffaaf27 · 7 Oct 2010 at 12:51

i would say 7-10% in favour of the GTX480 rather than the 5870, but yeah, agreed.

Final8y · 7 Oct 2010 at 13:25

robgmun said:
The last ATI card was the X1950, which hardware wise was a soild little card. But the real reason i went off ATI was the horrible bloatware of the drivers.

At the time i had 2Gb of Ram on an XP machine. I was a freak when it came to tweaking the settings so it used as little memory on boot up as possible, 150Mb was the best i could do.

Then ATI released the CCC control panel, it was unnessary and bloat. The next PC i bought had two 8800GTX's in SLI and just stomped over everything, so i stuck with that, it had 8Gb of ram so i wasn't so anal about memory use as before.

Just bought a HAWK and seems soild as well, Nvida make solid cards and drivers, never any problems.

You didn't have to install CCC at all so that's down to you.

Klo · 7 Oct 2010 at 13:32

robgmun said:
The last ATI card was the X1950, which hardware wise was a soild little card. But the real reason i went off ATI was the horrible bloatware of the drivers.

At the time i had 2Gb of Ram on an XP machine. I was a freak when it came to tweaking the settings so it used as little memory on boot up as possible, 150Mb was the best i could do.

Then ATI released the CCC control panel, it was unnessary and bloat. The next PC i bought had two 8800GTX's in SLI and just stomped over everything, so i stuck with that, it had 8Gb of ram so i wasn't so anal about memory use as before.

Just bought a HAWK and seems soild as well, Nvida make solid cards and drivers, never any problems.

Wasn't so much bloatware, more your fetish