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Differences between ATI and nVidia these days?

Zaphrod

Zaphrod

Zaphrod

Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2003
Posts
342
Hey all,

I am currently planning on buying an ATI 4890 but have only owned nVidia cards for quite a few years. The last ATI I had was a Radeon 9700 Pro. I am wondering what the differences are in terms of features and extras other than the gaming speed and what modern and frequently updated programs there are for ATI cards for tweaking etc. Also do they currently work with Windows 7 and what is the driver support like for Windows 7, I mean I have looked and they appear to be available but how well do they work? Also when I did have the ATI the actual 2d and 3d image quality was always a little better than the nVidia, is this still true?
 
The people on here will tell you ati/nvidia, it's really all in your head. both are good. I'm sure some games are designed with nvidia in mind (in fact they pretty much say it during loads) but I'm sure same could be said for ati.

Personally I do believe that the quality is a little better on nvidia due to physx...
(ducks at objects that ocukers throw at me from last statement)
 
Sorry, I am guessing you guys posted without reading what I actually wrote :) I am not looking for what people think is the best I am looking for what type of software exists for ATI that is comparable to what is used for nvidia such as OCing and tweaking tools as well as other programs or features that ATI has that are useful.
 
As above no real differences. Nvidia have the nv control panel and ati have the catalyst control centre which can be used for overclocking. Most overclocking utilities ie rivatuner, gpu tool work with both nv and ati. I think rivatuner can also be used to up the voltage on all brands of the 4890 for better clocks.
 
Sorry I didn't mean to open a can of worms and in hindsight I could have worded the title differently as many seem to be replying to the title rather than my post. I need to be clear I have already decided to go with ATI.

TheRealDeal - Thanks that is the kind of info I was looking for, does the catalyst control centre let you set up profiles for games etc?

Anyone have experience with ATI on Windows7 64bit? How are the drivers at this point?

I don't really need to know what features nVidia might have that ATI doesn't but I would be interested in useful features ATI might have that I am not aware of having used nVidia for the last 4 years.
 
well there is a lot of talk about the asus voltage tweak that assists in boosting oc potential, other than that not sure.
I remmeber that ccc does let you set-up fan profiles not sure about games.

I 'hear' that windows 7 drivers seem to function well enough
 
Zaphrod said:
Hey all,

I am currently planning on buying an ATI 4890 but have only owned nVidia cards for quite a few years. The last ATI I had was a Radeon 9700 Pro. I am wondering what the differences are in terms of features and extras other than the gaming speed and what modern and frequently updated programs there are for ATI cards for tweaking etc. In terms of extra features, ATI support dx10.1 while Nvidia have Physx and Cuda. If you want a card, go for the card depending on the games you have and whether those features will come in handy. As for tweaking, the latest rivatuner should work for both cards but ATI has an inbuilt overclocking tool in their control panel,

Also do they currently work with Windows 7 and what is the driver support like for Windows 7, I mean I have looked and they appear to be available but how well do they work? They both release win 7 versions of their latest drivers and I haven't seen anyone complaining so I assume they work well. Not sure about older games though.

Also when I did have the ATI the actual 2d and 3d image quality was always a little better than the nVidia, is this still true?The difference is very little these days. Some benchmarks may compare image quality but you'd be hard pressed to see any difference unless you really zoom into a screenshot
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Today I swapped out my 8800GTX for a new ASUS 4890, and I really like it. Performance is great. The only downside is that the fan is a bit louder than my 8800GTX.

But for the price I paid and the performance I'm getting, I can't complain :)
 
ATI drivers are actually very good now, though I have heard HTPC users complaining that the latest couple of releases have borked a feature they need.

I believe the Asus 4890 comes with an overclocking tool which allows you to surpass the limits built-in to CCC and tune voltages. Don't know if this works with other brands.

Also, +1 to the comments on researching about how much (if any) physx affects the games you want to play.
 
BlackDragon said:
Today I swapped out my 8800GTX for a new ASUS 4890, and I really like it. Performance is great. The only downside is that the fan is a bit louder than my 8800GTX.
Click to expand...

I used this guide to set up better fan control for my X2, almost inaudible when idle (30-35%) and just slightly noisier than the case fans under load (45%).

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1345181

You'll probably need to do it slightly differently because the temp. ranges will be different on a single-GPU card, and it's an older guide which was before the 4890's time.
 
D D Danneh said:
Differences between ATI and nVidia? None, besides the fanboys. They now scream THIS IS CUDAAA!! and DIRECT X TEN POINT ONE!!!! as well.
Click to expand...

LOL, spot on.

It's absolutely neck and neck at a range of price points. There's only gaps at the very high end, or at the very low. Everything in between is just a case of what brand you personally prefer as you can't go wrong.

Anyone who buys a card for features like CUDA, PhysX, or DirectX needs their head checking. :)
 
Zaphrod said:
Sorry, I am guessing you guys posted without reading what I actually wrote :) I am not looking for what people think is the best I am looking for what type of software exists for ATI that is comparable to what is used for nvidia such as OCing and tweaking tools as well as other programs or features that ATI has that are useful.
Click to expand...

I'd say that the way nvidia drivers handle games i.e. with separate profiles for each is a good way of doing it and if you use nHancer it's even better.

For overclocking, most 3rd party software works for both so there's nothing in it really.

With my 4850 I used ati tray tools for everything and now with my GTS250 (the 4850 died and I got store credit) I use nHancer and gainward expertool. Out of the two combinations I'd say that the latter is easier to use as it does most of it for you.

If I had to say which card was better between the two above I'd go with the GTS250 as:

-Its quieter at load
-Uses less power
-I haven't had any problems with a game yet whereas the 4850 wouldn't run Tomb Raider Chronicles with AA enabled without serious glitches
-The pre-configured separate profiles are useful

However with OCUK's deals on the ATI cards at the minute, these minor benefits are outweighed buy the cost.
 
Orangey said:
I used this guide to set up better fan control for my X2, almost inaudible when idle (30-35%) and just slightly noisier than the case fans under load (45%).

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1345181

You'll probably need to do it slightly differently because the temp. ranges will be different on a single-GPU card, and it's an older guide which was before the 4890's time.
Click to expand...

Cheers :)
 
Anyone who buys a card for features like CUDA, PhysX, or DirectX needs their head checking.
Click to expand...

Thats not exactly true. Anyone running DC would probably go Nvidia for cuda. Simply because it works far better than what ATI has to offer, both due to CUDA and down to the actual chip architectures.

Whilst Nvidia cards support physx through CUDA, it is not used in many games at all, but for that matter neither is DX10.1, so neither are really of benifit to most users.

In terms of games, there are a lot more out there that are optimised for nVidia cards, and as such have drivers to this effect aswell, but in the vast majority of cases, this is again marketing hype and realworld differences are negligable.

In terms of driver support, both companies seem to go through phases of producing good driver updates with serious improvements, and then go through a period producing stuff that just cuases more issues than they solve.

Each company has a card at a price point, and save a tenner or so the cards are on a par. So depending on budget, previous expereince, special offers and any brand/fanboi alegences you have then just pick the card that suits you needs.

There are apps out there for both NV and ATI cards, be it their own control panels, branded programs (e.g EVGA precison), or third party tools again it is pretty much level.
 
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