ATI or NVIDIA?

[Bonfleck]

Curious which of you think your having a better SH4 experience.....Ye sailing with ATI cards or thoust with the NVIDIA spectrum? Ahoy....................B:ping:

[Ark]

I don't have any complaints regarding my 8800GTX. Everything runs great.

[CCIP]

I think that'd very much depend on which exact cards are in question. I don't think anyone would complain about playing it on an 8800GTX, nor would anyone be too impressed playing it on an FX5200.


Both have high-end cards, and both firms' high-end cards will get you places.

Personally, I've upgraded to a GeForce 7800 specifically for this game, and can't say anything bad about it. Been a pretty (if incidentally) loyal nVidia customer for many years now, and for the most part they've kept me happy.

I should note that I hear of people complaining of ATI driver-related issues with the game, though I don't know about these directly. I personally haven't had any problems at all on my two nVidia cards with SHIV (6800 and 7800), and the game is very very stable.

[Overkill]

I have an ATI in my Dell and so far it's worked great with the game. As long as it's a model that's supported by the software you should have around the same performace out of comparable cards from ATI and NVIDIA. At one time or another I've owned cards made by both and been very happy with all of them.

[Camaero]

Chevy or Ford?




Chevy of course. ATI also.

[Fat Bhoy Tim]

Prefer nvidia as it's (generally) faster, even if the graphic quality isn't so high. I always prefer frame rates over graphics.

[Fat Bhoy Tim]

Chevy or Ford?




Chevy of course. ATI also.

To be fair, nowadays when you buy a Chevy that isn't a truck you're fairly likely to be buying something Korean or European.

[Grunt]

nVidia GeForce 7900GT on this machine, runs SH4 with no problem at all.

ATI Radeon X1600 on wifes computer, image quality is better, but obviously slower.

Just a rehash of the old Voodoo 2 vs. TNT2 debate, speed or image quality.

[lemon]

At the moment I have the luxury to have an ATI 1959pro 256MB AGP card and a NVIDIA 7600GT 512MB AGP card.
Tried them both on WINXP 32 and must say that at the moment I stick with the NVIDIA.
The ATI shows a better quality but seem to have trouble with some recent 'games' where it runs so smooth with Grand Prix Legends, a simulation from 1998.
The Nvidia seems not to be that 'crisp' but runs better for me on modern/recent games. Strange tho that I think the ATI card out performs the Nvidia card in Grand Prix Legends.

I have a second harddisk with Vista and must say that XP is a lot better in performance then Vista. I have only used Grand Prix Legends to measure performance but you can notice the difference with both cards. Still the drivers from Nvidia are beta drivers and my audigy drivers for Vista are more or less beta too.

I think if you find a local hardware dealer he may give you the chance to test both, ATI and Nvidia ? Would be the best as there's no ATI is better then NVIDIA as it somehow depends on the kind of simulations/games you play.

IMO :p

[Capt.LoneRanger]

The image quality on 8xxx-nVidia-cards is slightly higher than with previous nVidias. My OCed 7800GT runs SH4 nicely, but depending on drivers self-shadowing and lighting looks pretty ugly (81.20 are the latest drivers, that support self-shadowing over larger distances. Pretty nicely shown especially in LOMAC.)

Currently, the 8800s series have a distinct advantage in speed over other cards on the market. With the upcoming 2900s series from ATI, this will very likely change dramatically, though. As said above, the quality on ATI-cards is also better.

There are also rumours that the 2900s series will be 150-200 bucks cheaper than nVidias 8800s, but will be equipped with a physics processor onboard.:huh:

[gg5056]

I Been Using Nvidia Geforce For Ever.
Now Using Geforce 6200 Agp Ddr2. It Run Slow.
Now Upgrading To Geforce 7900gs, 256gb, Gddd3.
I Get Most Of Stuff At Chiefvalue.con In Calif.
They Have Best Price I Paid 210.0 Geforce 790gs.

[Antrodemus]

Lifelong nVidia fan until I saw the difference in image quality and super-smooth FSAA on an ATi, and been using ATi since. However, the borked Sun glare in SHIV is a bit of a swine, although the jury's still out on whether ATi or Ubi are to "blame".

/that said, ATi have their work cut out for them in producing the 2x series cards, having seen an 8800GTX 768Mb in action... almost twice the performance of a 7800GT PPU. Staggering performance.

[jdkbph]

My $0.02...

ATI makes wonderful video hardware, but lately they can't seem to code a proper driver to save their lives. I'm a big KotOR/KotOR2 fan and I had to toss a perfectly serviceable ATI card and replace with nVidia to avoid losing my sanity.

While some may argue that ATI graphics are a bit flashier in comparison to equivalent generation nVidia (depending on system configuration, preference, &ct.), nVidia cards have always been rock solid stable for me, and generally faster than ATI.

JD

[flintlock]

Either manufacturer is fine, though I prefer ATI. I especially appreciate ATI's video drivers; rock solid and stable without being too unnecessarily bloated. A regular release schedule is most welcomed too. Holding out for a new R600 based part myself.

/taps fingers patiently

[melb00m]

Either manufacturer is fine, though I prefer ATI. I especially appreciate ATI's video drivers; rock solid and stable without being too unnecessarily bloated. A regular release schedule is most welcomed too. Holding out for a new R600 based part myself.

I would say the exact opposite. There are reasons why so many people with ATI cards use Omega drivers.
I tried ATI twice, and both times I returned the card after a couple days. Had endless VPU recovers and errors.

Now I am back with NVidia, and will stay with them. They certainly have better driver support (especially if you´re also running Linux, which I do), and also pay more money to developers to make their games "NVidia recommended" ;)

[Antrodemus]

People's experiences certainly can vary for sure... I used to avoid ATi for the reasons I've already mentioned, but also because their driver support wasn't great, and I'd read so many reports on gaming forums about glitches and crashes, but since switching to ATi about 9 months ago, I've had virtually no problems whatsoever, using an X850XT, standard ATi drivers and CCC from the ATi site. In fact, the only glitch I've encountered so far is in SHIV, with the Sun-glare issue. :doh:

[JSLTIGER]

I swear by my ATI cards...love 'em to death. I don't have a problem with nVidia's cards, I just find that ATI tends to have a performance advantage as well as an image quality advantage.

[NEON DEON]

Chevy or Ford?




Chevy of course. ATI also.

LOL!:lol:


HONDA!:sunny:

[Antrodemus]

Hell YEAH!!!

Honda FTW! :up:

[Capt.LoneRanger]

Either manufacturer is fine, though I prefer ATI. I especially appreciate ATI's video drivers; rock solid and stable without being too unnecessarily bloated. A regular release schedule is most welcomed too. Holding out for a new R600 based part myself.
I would say the exact opposite. There are reasons why so many people with ATI cards use Omega drivers.
I tried ATI twice, and both times I returned the card after a couple days. Had endless VPU recovers and errors.

Now I am back with NVidia, and will stay with them. They certainly have better driver support (especially if you´re also running Linux, which I do), and also pay more money to developers to make their games "NVidia recommended" ;)


You could say the same about lousy drivers for nVidia. Playing IL2 and LOMAC a lot, the latest drivers that fully support all graphics features are 84.21. Even with SH4 you have a HUGE loss in shadows and lighting quality if you use newer drivers. Just been through that, when the new drivers were released. They are faster again, yes, even for my 7800gt, but they even more poorly are able to render shadows, transparency and mipmap-borders. Real pitty. :down:

[Hylander_1314]

I find that my with an AMD processor, the ATI works better, or more stable, where as with an Intel processor, the Nvidia products are better suited to them. This is just my personal observation. I switched over to AMD about 3 years ago, as I liked being able to tweak things which AMD lends itself to readily, where my old Intel set up was a pain to do the same. If Intel has changed that aspect, I may consider an Intel product next time around, and a Nvidia product to go with it, as my next rig will be either SLI, or Crossfire, but I'm still out on the motherboard, and processor, as I may wait for the quadcore to come in price before building the next rig.

What will be the telling issues for me, will be ease of use, and user friendliness for tweaking purposes. As will the differences in video applications between the two makers of them.

[shmall]

ATI had nVidia beat on the picture quality I feel untill the 8800 came along.

If you can not afford the 8800 or newer series then best stick to the lastest ATI offerings :) for better PQ

ATI's R600 should be best of course, if we can afford the price tag lol ;)

but reckon I will buy another 8800GTX for an SLI system when R600 comes along ;)



Simon

[Hitman]

In my experience -currently using ATI X800PRO 256MB- ATI is a bit like the AMD processors, more temperamental but with more performance and cheaper price. NVidia cards I had in the past were rock-stable and performed well, but I believe ATI has a slightly advantage in performance for the money. I have not had problems with my current card, plugged in a Pentium 4, but I had two AMDs some time ago that were a true nightmare, and I'm not sure if I will ever return to them. So yes, it's a matter of personal experience as hardware combinations are almost infinite nowadays. My 2 cents for you on this topic is: Don't buy a system were more than one part has a tendency to be inestable, i.e. don't combine ATI and AMD together unless you are sure that the exact system you are going to have works well for other guys. A Pentium/NVidia combination will in turn be probably the most stable setup possible, at the expense of performance & quality, that is :yep:

[Rotor]

In my experience -currently using ATI X800PRO 256MB- ATI is a bit like the AMD processors, more temperamental but with more performance and cheaper price. NVidia cards I had in the past were rock-stable and performed well, but I believe ATI has a slightly advantage in performance for the money. I have not had problems with my current card, plugged in a Pentium 4, but I had two AMDs some time ago that were a true nightmare, and I'm not sure if I will ever return to them. So yes, it's a matter of personal experience as hardware combinations are almost infinite nowadays. My 2 cents for you on this topic is: Don't buy a system were more than one part has a tendency to be inestable, i.e. don't combine ATI and AMD together unless you are sure that the exact system you are going to have works well for other guys. A Pentium/NVidia combination will in turn be probably the most stable setup possible, at the expense of performance & quality, that is :yep:
Thanks Hitman! - You saved my beauty sleep. I have just bought an Ati1300Pro 512mb to my Intel-system...

[Antrodemus]

Well... to continue the "your mileage may vary" theme... ;) My XP64 3700+ system has quite happily co-existed with my XT850 for almost a year, and run just about anything I've thrown at them... BTW, that's a lot of games.

[CaptainHaplo]

Nvidia or ATI? Are you crazy man? What you need is a rocking S3 Virge GPU. :rock:

Ok - all joking aside - both card manufacturers are excellent. Driver support has been iffy in cycles for both companies - but they both have been fairly solid as of late.

In reality - the question isnt so much which CHIP - as both make excellent GPU's - but which maker of the BOARD you decide to go with can really be the issue. Some are great chips put on horribly designed boards, or with substandard components on the board mated to them. Thus the horsepower of the chip - regardless of manufacturer - is lost.

If your going to be looking at GPU's - read reviews on CARD models, because 2 identical chips by 2 card makers can have drastically different performance.

I have always been an nvidia guy until my last card - an ATI 9800 Pro. I havent had major issues with the card - other than a cooling fan that died and I rewired another to it! I have built boxes with both - and so far my next card will be an Ati unless price/performance #'s give me a reason to switch.

Best piece of advice - game magazine sites do great hardware reviews.... :D

Good Hunting!
CH

[Redwine]

From an ATI user..... :rock::rock::rock:

By an nVidia. ;)

ATI are really bad quality cards. My previous one just switch off sudently, looking it, it was curved as a banano, i change it by my present one.

As lot of problems, games are full of strange giltches. I need to UNDERClock its default settings to avoid the glitches.

To install its drivers is a protocolar procedure. And i never was able to run the original Diver with Control Center...

Luckylly, :sunny: there are the Omega Drivers...

I just hate my friends when i see them just overwrite their present drivers on an nVidia, without uninstalling anything and always all work fine for them...

This is my last ATI card....

my next will be nVidia... :up:

[Mud]

I drink beer when I wanna get drunk and use nVidia when playing games.
But I agree when people say that there are other ways to get drunk :-?

Mud

[Antrodemus]

ATI are really bad quality cards.

:huh:

What utter BS...

To install its drivers is a protocolar procedure.

Similarly chock full of bovine you-know-what.

And i never was able to run the original Diver with Control Center...

I'm beginning to get the feeling you had a bum card.

I just hate my friends when i see them just overwrite their present drivers on an nVidia, without uninstalling anything and always all work fine for them...

...as I did with all my nVidia cards, and as I now do with my ATi card.


:|\\

[GT182]

I just bought SH4 yesterday. :roll: Well, after getting the SH4 mods that are out and seeing all the screeshots, I did it and took the plunge. I know, I said I wasn't getting it until the bugs were fixed and the price dropped. :oops: I'm bad. :rotfl:

I'm running a 2 year old 'puter with a P4 3.2 CPU. I splurged and bought a nVidia 6800Xtreme 256mb/256bit 8X agp GFX card back in February with the 93.71 drivers, and I'm glad I did.

Graphics Settings are:
All on except Windowed Mode.

Ship 3D Damage 100%
CharacrtersDetail 100%
Particle Density 80%
Terrain Objects Density 80%
Terrain Objects LOD Size 90%
Gamma stock at 50%

Realism at 52%. GOtta have those event cameras on and WO doing the target setup. ;)

Looks as tho everthing is running ok so far. I've only run the Sub School Navagation Training. Not much time for anything else for a few days, except after supper for an hour. House hunting has been taking most of our time these last couple of weeks. But from what I see so far ain't bad at all. Now to get a few mods installed seeing I do have Patch 1.02 in.

The best things I have seen so far is the more realistic looking sailors, and the sub visable sub at periscope depth. Those 2 alone kick a**.

[Redwine]

ATI are really bad quality cards.
:huh:

What utter BS...


Not BS... my first one was curved as a banano, and make not good contact, i back it to store, my second one cant run at default core and memory frecuencies without glitches/artifacts, i was enforced to Under-Clock it...

Just ask a game developer, ask in this forum to "homesubsim" developers wich "tip" van gives you about wich trademark to buy...

[Herr Karl]

I had an ATI card with SH3. I had some support problems, such as drivers also. I'm putting together a gaming laptop at this time, so everyones input is really appreciated.

The...AMD goes with ATI and The...Intel™ goes with Nvidia theory could be true, since AMD now owns ATI. Applying this theory would probably help avoid a lot of compatibility issues.

Anyways, what do I know?

Good to see you all....:cool:

[Antrodemus]

Not BS...
You said "ATI are really bad quality cards", which is simply untrue. Maybe you got a bad one (or more), but that doesn't automatically mean that every card is.

[SUBMAN1]

Either manufacturer is fine, though I prefer ATI. I especially appreciate ATI's video drivers; rock solid and stable without being too unnecessarily bloated. A regular release schedule is most welcomed too. Holding out for a new R600 based part myself.
I would say the exact opposite. There are reasons why so many people with ATI cards use Omega drivers.
I tried ATI twice, and both times I returned the card after a couple days. Had endless VPU recovers and errors.

Now I am back with NVidia, and will stay with them. They certainly have better driver support (especially if you´re also running Linux, which I do), and also pay more money to developers to make their games "NVidia recommended" ;)

Omega drivers used to be better when the ATI control panel applet ate 400 MB of memory, but that was years ago. Now it is 2 MB. The people that still use Omega are die hards I guess. I don't care personally.

-S

[Redwine]

Not BS...
You said "ATI are really bad quality cards", which is simply untrue. Maybe you got a bad one (or more), but that doesn't automatically mean that every card is.

Read above, dont listen to me, i only speak "BS", just ask game developers.... and you will be surprised.

[NEON DEON]

I guess it all depends on what you need at the time you purchase.

My Saphire Radeon 9600 XT is in its fourth year.

I bought it because it was Direct x 9 compat and came with 256 mb ddr video ram. It also did not require a lot of juice to run.

My amd 2400+ was not going to set any speed records so I settled for a middle of the road graphics card.

Now here I am playing games some 4 years later with no problems at all.

I don't know about what developers say when it comes to graphics cards.

What I do know, however, is My ATI card has ran every game I have bought in the last 4 years without a problem.

Of course that might have something to do with a quality power supply and enough fan cooling to turn my rig into a hover craft.;)

[TriskettheKid]

nVidia.

No question about it.

[doggydoggo]

I've been a die hard ATI fan since I owned my first PC. I'm ready to switch to the Dark Side. :huh: I upgraded my card to an ATI 9800 specifically for SH4, and the trouble I had to even get the card and it's drivers working properly was a living nightmare. Fortunately, I stumbled across some wonderful folks who adapted ATI's current drivers with the original Catalyst software. Worked like a charm! Then I had to struggle with getting the game to run and changing some settings. It was more work than it should have been, so my next rig is gonna try Nvidia. When you charge a couple hundred bucks for a bloody video card, I expect it to work... at least within 30 minutes! :rotfl:

[NEON DEON]

I've been a die hard ATI fan since I owned my first PC. I'm ready to switch to the Dark Side. :huh: I upgraded my card to an ATI 9800 specifically for SH4, and the trouble I had to even get the card and it's drivers working properly was a living nightmare. Fortunately, I stumbled across some wonderful folks who adapted ATI's current drivers with the original Catalyst software. Worked like a charm! Then I had to struggle with getting the game to run and changing some settings. It was more work than it should have been, so my next rig is gonna try Nvidia. When you charge a couple hundred bucks for a bloody video card, I expect it to work... at least within 30 minutes! :rotfl:

I am a bit confused.

You bought 4 year old technology and put brand new drivers on it?

[codeseven]

The image quality on 8xxx-nVidia-cards is slightly higher than with previous nVidias. My OCed 7800GT runs SH4 nicely, but depending on drivers self-shadowing and lighting looks pretty ugly (81.20 are the latest drivers, that support self-shadowing over larger distances. Pretty nicely shown especially in LOMAC.)

Are you saying the 81.20 is the driver I should use with my 7800gtx?

[Antrodemus]

Read above, dont listen to me, i only speak "BS", just ask game developers.... and you will be surprised.

Why don't you quote me some "game developers" who agree that "ATI are really bad quality cards", then I'll start to pay attention?


Then I had to struggle with getting the game to run and changing some settings. It was more work than it should have been, so my next rig is gonna try Nvidia. When you charge a couple hundred bucks for a bloody video card, I expect it to work... at least within 30 minutes!

Err... you paid "a couple of hundred bucks" for a 9800?!? How much did you pay for this card exactly, and from where? ...and BTW, you should not be even remotely surprised at having to tweak the game to get good performance, the 9800 is two notches up form the bare minimum that the game needs to run.

[vasmann]

I guess it all depends on what you need at the time you purchase.

My Saphire Radeon 9600 XT is in its fourth year.

I bought it because it was Direct x 9 compat and came with 256 mb ddr video ram. It also did not require a lot of juice to run.

My amd 2400+ was not going to set any speed records so I settled for a middle of the road graphics card.

Now here I am playing games some 4 years later with no problems at all.

I don't know about what developers say when it comes to graphics cards.

What I do know, however, is My ATI card has ran every game I have bought in the last 4 years without a problem.

Of course that might have something to do with a quality power supply and enough fan cooling to turn my rig into a hover craft.;)

:up:
I have same config, mmm processor is AMD Athlon XP 2200+ and has no complains at all. But I think to buy new one (computer).

[Steeltrap]

My old rig was pentium with nVidia.

New is an FX-62 AMD dual core with a X 1950 XTX 512Mb DDR4 graphics card, and it cranks through anything.

You tend to get what you pay for.

[AVGWarhawk]

In my experience -currently using ATI X800PRO 256MB- ATI is a bit like the AMD processors, more temperamental but with more performance and cheaper price. NVidia cards I had in the past were rock-stable and performed well, but I believe ATI has a slightly advantage in performance for the money. I have not had problems with my current card, plugged in a Pentium 4, but I had two AMDs some time ago that were a true nightmare, and I'm not sure if I will ever return to them. So yes, it's a matter of personal experience as hardware combinations are almost infinite nowadays. My 2 cents for you on this topic is: Don't buy a system were more than one part has a tendency to be inestable, i.e. don't combine ATI and AMD together unless you are sure that the exact system you are going to have works well for other guys. A Pentium/NVidia combination will in turn be probably the most stable setup possible, at the expense of performance & quality, that is :yep:
Thanks Hitman! - You saved my beauty sleep. I have just bought an Ati1300Pro 512mb to my Intel-system...

I also purchased the Visionteck ATI x1300 XGE 512mb. I love the card. I have always been a Nvidia fan but my taste has changed with this ATI card. It runs this game very well and I'm pleased with the purchase. I also like the catalyst interface. It is very easy to understand and work with when tweeking the card. However, this ATI card is running with an AMD 3200+ and is very stable.

[doggydoggo]

I only paid $50 for my 9800. My point was that decent video cards these days can be $150 to $200. If I spent that much cash on a card, I would want it to be stable and work properly.

Secondly, I understand that game settings need to be altered for performance from time to time, but when you have to go into system setings and dumb everything down just for the thing to be stable, that I have a problem with.



You bought 4 year old technology and put brand new drivers on it?

Maybe I mispoke. I'm using the latest drivers for this particular card, which have been modified to be more stable.

I have been reading however that some folks have been using Omega drivers. I have not heard of this before. Maybe I'll try those and see if it fixes a few isues I have been having. My crew does not seem to understand that when rigged for red, one is supposed to be bathed in the warm red glow.

[Antrodemus]

I only paid $50 for my 9800. My point was that decent video cards these days can be $150 to $200.

Of course, but any video card can only behave as stable as the system its plugged into.

If I spent that much cash on a card, I would want it to be stable and work properly.

??? I don't understand... have you bought a card at that price, and it hasn't been "stable"?

Secondly, I understand that game settings need to be altered for performance from time to time, but when you have to go into system setings and dumb everything down just for the thing to be stable, that I have a problem with.

??? What did you have to change at "system level"? If you're talking about having to drop the detail levels to get it to run smoothly on the 9800, you shouldn't be too surprised... it's 4 year old card after all.

[DeerHunter UK]

I've got an ATI Radeon X850 with 2 gig of system ram and the game runs ok. Unfortunately my CPU (AMD 2600+) lets the side down and the game does bottleneck and slowdown as a result.

[NEON DEON]

I guess it all depends on what you need at the time you purchase.

My Saphire Radeon 9600 XT is in its fourth year.

I bought it because it was Direct x 9 compat and came with 256 mb ddr video ram. It also did not require a lot of juice to run.

My amd 2400+ was not going to set any speed records so I settled for a middle of the road graphics card.

Now here I am playing games some 4 years later with no problems at all.

I don't know about what developers say when it comes to graphics cards.

What I do know, however, is My ATI card has ran every game I have bought in the last 4 years without a problem.

Of course that might have something to do with a quality power supply and enough fan cooling to turn my rig into a hover craft.;)

:up:
I have same config, mmm processor is AMD Athlon XP 2200+ and has no complains at all. But I think to buy new one (computer).

Yes Vasmann,

Our systems are soon to go the way of the dinosaur.;)

[U56_Dragon]

BFG7800GS here, no complaints at all.
Using beta driver Nvidia 93.81
Game runs 40fps. Everything looks great.
:up:

[doggydoggo]

okay Antrodemus, what's with the shots? I could only afford $50 for a new vid card, so I had to go with old stuff. I've had friends pay lots of cash for cards whose chipsets were flops or drivers were poorly designed. It was more of a statement of fact that anything else.

But I simply stated my opinion with the experiences that I have had. If you do not understand that, and wish to nit pick at everything that I and everyone else in this forum says, then you have that right. But no one here has to prove anything to you.

Deal with it.

[Ripper]

^^ Antrodemus is on the mark. You're complaining about a card you didn't buy and lamenting the lack of performance you can't expect to have. :roll:

I would recommend that you try the Omega drivers. I used them on my 9800Pro and would recommend them to everyone, especially if you don't want to install the Catalyst Control Center.

[doggydoggo]

The Omega drivers are kinda neat, so I might play with them a bit. But let's try reading things accurately, shall we. Refer to my posts. I bought the card, unlike what you suggested. I'm not complaining about performance issues and game settings, but rather system stability problems ie. crashes, reboots, even when games are not running. My rig is very stable as I built her myself with much care and research. The 9800 runs fine now, but I simply wasn't very happy with the journey to get there. Am I entitled to my opinion without having to explain everything ten times over?

I wish to keep things friendly here, but I don't see the need to pick apart people's posts and insult their machines or aptitude, regardless of your personal opinions. I am always willing to listen to advice on how to make my pc run better, but only when it is constructive and in good nature.

[NEON DEON]

Doggy,

What 9800 did you get exactly?

9800, 9800 se, 9800 Pro, 9800 xt.

Also how much Ram do you have and what cpu?

[Von Stormin]

My ATI X800XT runs SH4 beautifully... Personally, I wouldn't buy anything but an ATI card...

[Ripper]

The Omega drivers are kinda neat, so I might play with them a bit. But let's try reading things accurately, shall we. Refer to my posts. I bought the card, unlike what you suggested.

Well, you wrote:


When you charge a couple hundred bucks for a bloody video card, I expect it to work... at least within 30 minutes!


which implies that you bought a ~$200 card which you didn't. :roll: I tried running my 9800Pro with SH4 too and I crashed a few times as I was tweaking the settings. In the end, it wasn't good enough for me so I went out and bought a 7900GS. :rock:

Edit: Oh no! The Medic!!

[Doc1234]

I have owned both (Old card ATI Radeon with 256 MB of memory and a new PC card Nvidia 8800 GTW with 768 MB of memory. You know I would have never guessed that a video card witrh 256 MB of memory would start dragging when playing PC games. I only own my PC to play games and what I am finding is that I am having to upgrade and build a new PC every three years :damn: Now I am going to date myself, but I remember the first PC I bought was a 386/33 with 4 MB of memory and a 256K video card!!!! In fact the salesman told me that I would NEVER need more than 4 mb of memory lol....Now I'm running 2 GIGS, for at least three years.

Anyway, both cards rock and are great for games...ROCK ON DUDE:ping: :rock: :rock: :rock:

[fredbass]

I would assume now that since ATI and AMD are one in the same company that if you get an AMD processor then there is a better chance that ATI cards would have a little edge, at least on the newer processors and cards since testing of said newer hardware can be done in house, simultaneously. :yep:

[Roadsweeper]

interesting.......

I used to have an ATI 9800 pro 256MB. Swore by ATI and the 9800 pro was a lovely card, bought it brand new and it kept up for years, and yeah I used omega drivers.

Finally decided to replace it as it was beginning to struggle, about 18 months back or so.

After long studies went for the Nvidia 7950gx2 (1 gig ram), basically 2 7900's strapped together in the factory. Bought that becasue, at the time it was faster than anything ATI had (in the majority of the benchmarks test attributes) and to buy an ATI SLI system, would have cost nearly twice as much.

On XP the 7950 was/is great, stable and mind blowing performance. I can crank everything up to full easily. Running Vista now and I admit I have had problems in SH4, the externa cam doesnt like going underwater, although for that, I soley blame MS and Nvidia for not talking to one another, not Ubi. Its a known fact the nvidia vista drivers are beta and not entirely stable.

Some games under vista run flawlessly some do crash a bit.

But overall, I love my nvidia card, and woldnt swap it for an ATI....

[melb00m]

Reading this thread gives me the impression that it could be right that ATI users tend to have more trouble with their video card, and that´s what I experienced, too.

I´m not saying these are overally bad, but the two times I tried them I had nothing but trouble, and it seems that those still aren´t really solved for everyone.

Of course it might be the case that they run fine in some or even most cases or configurations, but looking at the number of complaints of users with ATI cards in this thread alone, compared to the complaints of NVidia users, it´s safe to say that you have a lower risk of running into trouble when buying NVidia.

[Ragtag]

Well, i was in this dilemma myself this week. Was going to upgrade my system. ATI or Nvidia... Well, i caved in and bought the Asus EN8800GTS 640mb card and man what a difference this was to my old 7900GT. More depth and more colours. I'm very happy with my choice. ATI has a good range of cards. But for now, performance wise, i think Nvidia is one notch ahead untill the new range from ATI is released.

btw, both Nvidia and ATI has troubles with their drivers. There is no "the one is better than the other" here.

My 2 cents and experience :)

[Redwine]

I have this kind of problems with ATI, disregarding the driver version i change, old, new ... from ATI, from Omega...

This problems was present into a X800 XL, X800 XT, X800 XT PE, and even into a X850 XT... finally i decide to stay with the X800 XT PE... not to much performance diference with X850 XT, and lot of low price... in that age i buyed this card.

This problem is present into SH III, SH IV, IL-2 all saga.... plus into the U-Imperial Flottilla pre alpha by Deamon from this forum.

Nothing seems to fix this problem, i tryied all settings into the driver control panel and ingame settings.

The only thing wich seems to avoid it was to underclock the default settings. W XP is up to date, Dx is up to date. Omega drivers seems to help a lot.

But it happens into 4 diferent card models, X800 XL, X800 XT, X800 XT PE, and X850 XT.

I didnt experience it into SH IV up to patch V1.2 was out...

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/3822/sh4img1842007115626750uj3.th.jpg (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img1842007115626750uj3.jpg)

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9698/sh4img2042007145343968fw3.th.jpg (http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img2042007145343968fw3.jpg)

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7742/sh4img204200714541346vy7.th.jpg (http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img204200714541346vy7.jpg)

[codeseven]

Reading this thread gives me the impression that it could be right that ATI users tend to have more trouble with their video card, and that´s what I experienced, too.

I´m not saying these are overally bad, but the two times I tried them I had nothing but trouble, and it seems that those still aren´t really solved for everyone.

Of course it might be the case that they run fine in some or even most cases or configurations, but looking at the number of complaints of users with ATI cards in this thread alone, compared to the complaints of NVidia users, it´s safe to say that you have a lower risk of running into trouble when buying NVidia.

Agreed. I (all of us) have seen the dreaded "ATI vs Nvidia' thread on many forums over the past few years and the general consensus always seems to lean towards ATI cards giving their users more trouble than Nvidia users. ATI seems to always have the edge in the overall looks of a given game but Nvidia always seems to have the edge in actual gameplay, which I think in most gamers opinion is more important. The stats for the upcoming R600 sound awesome and even though I'm an Nvidia user, I'm interested in this new ATI card. We'll see, its tuff to leave stability for looks.