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ATi or Nvidia?

Malk101

Malk101

Malk101

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24 May 2011
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188
Location
Cleveland
I have around 200 to spend on a decent graphics card, been looking around for at least 2 months at the cards on offer but cannot decide.

I see a lot of recommendations for the 6950's but i have never owned an ATi card in my entire pc life, always used nvidia (i know fanboy :D), but recently i have been swayed slightly towards an ATi card.

Without turning this into a ATi v's Nvidia slagfest, why should i choose an ATi card over Nvidia?
 
Malk101 said:
why should i choose an ATi card over Nvidia?
Click to expand...

Sometimes it can be more of a case of which model / cooling solution / warranty within either ATI/AMD or nVidia rather than 'just' the gpu makers themselves.

What models have caught your eye from either red or green camp? :)
 
I'm in the exact same boat Malk lol

At first I was gonna grab me a 560Ti but now I'm going for the ATi 6950, due in part to having a two headed coin and a lot of feedback from here and a few other places elsewhere that this would be the better choice... I have even checked some review sites before ultimately making my decision. Roll on tomorrow and my solely Nvidia life will be changed to Ati !!!!

All in all it's down to your preference but undoubtedly for £200 Ati seems the way to go, if you can stretch a little more that's when options may change but I'm locked at £200 and OC has a great deal on this card http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Good luck!
 
whilst im happy with my new 6950's i must admit that gaming was a lot less problematic (drivers) with a nvidia card. but as cleeccoo has said ati offer much better value for money.
 
The thing that swayed me ATI's way was Eyefinity. If you want 3 screen gaming, go ATI. If you want 3D gaming instead, go nVidia. Although both companies can, in theory, do either you'll have a lot less hassle and more reliable outcome following this guideline.

If you're not interested in either Eyefinity or 3D, go for the quickest card in your bracket - which for 200 is ATI at the moment IMHO.
 
Both brands have their merits. Go with the best performing card that you can get for your budget. Dont forget to check your PSU rating tho.
 
Confused Stu said:
The thing that swayed me ATI's way was Eyefinity. If you want 3 screen gaming, go ATI. If you want 3D gaming instead, go nVidia. Although both companies can, in theory, do either you'll have a lot less hassle and more reliable outcome following this guideline.

If you're not interested in either Eyefinity or 3D, go for the quickest card in your bracket - which for 200 is ATI at the moment IMHO.
Click to expand...

Aside from the fact you need 2 GPUs (or a multi GPU card like the 590) to run 3 screens on nVidia for gaming, it works without any real problems.
 
Confused Stu said:
The thing that swayed me ATI's way was Eyefinity. If you want 3 screen gaming, go ATI. If you want 3D gaming instead, go nVidia. Although both companies can, in theory, do either you'll have a lot less hassle and more reliable outcome following this guideline.

If you're not interested in either Eyefinity or 3D, go for the quickest card in your bracket - which for 200 is ATI at the moment IMHO.
Click to expand...

the gtx 480 is faster than a 6950, or am i missing somthing?
 
Cupra said:
the gtx 480 is faster than a 6950, or am i missing somthing?
Click to expand...

Trouble is, it's £20 over budget for the hot and noisy Asus stock card.

The MSI 6950 Twin Frozr III is £200 on offer, unlocks to 6970 speeds and has a fantastic cooler to boot. :)
 
nvidia imo purely because the drivers are less troublesome

when ever a new game is released from the posts of various forums ATI users always seem to have the most problems and need to wait for a hotfix or update or something

im not saying NV dont have driver problems as well it just seems it doesn't have as many as ATI (going by various hardware forums)

im not a fanboy for either company just posting what i have observed
 
Nvidia for me. I run Linux as well as windows and have found always found that nvidia linux drivers are much easier to install.
 
nvidia for me.i had 3 ati cards and had driver issues with all 3,since i got my 470 i have had no problems at all, will stick with them in the future for sure
 
Rroff said:
Aside from the fact you need 2 GPUs (or a multi GPU card like the 590) to run 3 screens on nVidia for gaming, it works without any real problems.
Click to expand...

To run nVidia on 3 screens you need an SLI compatible motherboard, PSU, 2 GPUs and the game needs to play nicely with SLI (I know 95% do, but that still leaves some). As you correctly pointed out, if you go down the 590 route you can skip the SLI motherboard but the other limitations are still there. Also, upgrades require 2 more GPUs each time.

To run AMD on 3, you just need a suitable single card and either a DP screen or an adapter. Upgrade path is cheaper too (only one card needs to be bought - either a faster one to replace or a duplicate to crossfire).

My point wasn't that nVidia CAN'T run multi-screen, in the same way that pair up an AMD with a 3D TV and it can run 3D games, my point was you will get less hassles and a more reliable ride if you decide which technology you are most interested in and buy the brand accordingly. Hopefully within a couple of GPU generations this won't be the case and nVidia will run multi-screen on one card and the 3D kit out there will be compatible with both AMD and nVidia, but we're not there yet.
 
Interesting replies there, i will only be using 1 screen for the foreseeable future, so rules out the 3d and eyefinity, i would consider buying another card for sli or crossfire sometime down the line as long as my current psu could handle it (enermax infiniti 720w).

I have ruled the 480 out because of heat and power issues, about 4 cards i am looking at:

MSi 560ti twin frozr
MSi 6950 twin frozr III
MSi 570 twin frozr (over budget at the moment) looked at stock msi 570 but do not care for the cooler.
and maybe a 6970 unsure of model yet.

Also i only game on a 1680 x 1050 screen at the moment and upgrading the screen maybe sometime down the line, this might have an impact on what card suits me also.
 
I've never been bothered about the whole Nvidia vs ATI thing. Just buy the best card at your budget. At the moment the best way to spend £200 is a 6950, especially if you get one you can flash to a 6970.
 
The general forum feel: Nvidia if you want slightly more reliable software, ATI if you want slightly more reliable hardware :p
 
Am I in a minority that have never had any software problems with ATI cards?

Just wondering.
 
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