Poll: ATI vs. Nvidia for a serious gaming machine.

[devotedsniper]

I've pretty much always ran NVIDIA cards, never had one fail and there always up to the job (provided you go mid range or higher), my 460 (the midrange of 400 series) has yet to find a game it cannot run on high to max at 1680*1050 (the only real game excluded would be final fantasy xiv but that requires SLI really to run at the best of the best, still looks amazing though).

I've had an ATI card before and while it was cheaper than a similar NVIDIA card i found it somewhat troublesome, towards the end of it's use it seemed to start messing up (artifacts appearing), and it had never been overclocked in it's life.

I also find NVIDIA cards better supported by games, never had an issue with the ATI card running a game but even so it's not very often you see the ATI logo pop up on the start up of a game where with NVIDIA it's fairly common (although it's not so common now a days, but that doesn't mean ATI has become more common either really, i've seen a few recently though).

To me it weighs up like this in my mind, if you want reliability and good power start at mid range cards go NVIDIA, if you want a cheaper but similar card go ATI but be warned things which are cheaper are usually made out of cheaper and poorly made materials/components (that being said though i had a cheap 750watt power supply which went bang after 4 years, and it was my fault anyway so really it's how lucky you are).

 

[Skorpyo]

Nvidia cards are the most powerful in spec, but they do this by sacrificing stability. Also, if you go with an Nvidia card, keep in mind that you'll require a higher rated power-supply.

ATI is pretty much the opposite. Their cards have outstanding stability, with great drivers and fantastic compatibility, but they are noticeably less powerful than an equivalent Nvidia device.

I personally recommend Nvidia.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Generally I prefer Nvidia, but truthfully it's really 6 of one, half a dozen of another; with it all coming down to personal preference.

 

[BoTTeNBReKeR]

I've had ATI cards for the past 8 years I believe and I really like them. However, ATI does have a reputation of having worse drivers than Nvidia and sometimes this causes problems. Take Rage for example, I've heard the game has a lot more texture popping with ATI cards, though I'm not sure if this has been fixed or not.

So yea, I like ATI cards but I have to admit that Nvidia is probably better when it comes to gaming.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Well, I'm obviously biased, since I have a GTX 580 and love it, but still, I have to quote this guy:

Wow. You are REALLY overthinking this. Seriously, just choose the most you want to spend, and choose the best card for your money based on that.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Feel free to cite specific cards, and their abilities when combined with specific processors or in SLI.

First things first, both SLI and Crossfire don't work. They consistantly deliver more bugs and lower frames rates than single cards whilst also using masses of power (high end Nvidia cards in SLI eat close to 1000W/hr!). So don't bother with it.

At the high end of single cards it's really a wash. Nvidias seem to use memory more efficiently whilst ATIs have more processing power, but both deliver comparable frame rates.
I would buy a HD6970 2GB as they're a good price and can be hugely overclocked (10-15% on the bas clock, more on some really high end ones like the MSI lightning). With more than one monitor they also perform a lot better than a HD6990 despite having half as many cores (go figure).

But really any of the 6970, Nvidia 570 or 580 ranges will work extremely well.

Below £150-ish, ATI 6850 utterly cards destroy everything else.

 

[The_Emperor]

Nvidia any day, they have better support, better software, they cost more though. Most games tend to be optimised for nvidia, and have Phsyx written into the game somewhere.

 

[Alrocsmash]

The new GTX 580s are breaking artifact texture records. Also Nvidia drivers are far higher quality.

Just make sure your case is large enough. The cards are around 10 inches long.

 

[Spoon E11]

I have a GTX 560. A great card for the £150 market. I haven't overclocked it or flashed it. And I'm not going to.

 

[Motakikurushi]

I would say ATI as I've been using it for as long as I can remember, but recently I realised how ass Alice Madness Returns looks on any other card besides an Nvidia, what with the particle effects. I'd complain that developers shouldn't favour development for one specific card but I guess that technically proves it's more capable. I'd have one if they weren't so hideously expensive.

 

[Denamic]

Have to go with nVidia.
ATI always did have driver issues, and the one ATI card I ever had pissed the shit out of me.
Had to change drivers and reboot just to play a different game.
To be fair, they're infinitely better now than they used to be, but they're still bad with older games.

Whereas nVidia cards have never let me down apart from one occasion.
My brand new 8800GT was dead on arrival.
So I sent it back, forgetting to include the game I got with it, Company of Heroes.
And I got a brand new 8800GT within 4 days, including another copy of Company of Heroes, for free.
It's been soldiering on ever since.

I think my old GeForce 3ti still works too.
That was a great card.
Held out so long.
As did my 7600GT.

Also, the included PhysX functionality is badass.

I would say ATI as I've been using it for as long as I can remember, but recently I realised how ass Alice Madness Returns looks on any other card besides an Nvidia, what with the particle effects. I'd complain that developers shouldn't favour development for one specific card but I guess that technically proves it's more capable. I'd have one if they weren't so hideously expensive.

Like I said, nVidia includes PhysX whereas ATI doesn't.
It's not 'favouring' development, it's just making use of something ATI cards doesn't have.

 

[StrixMaxima]

I was a nVidia fan till I got a HD4850GT some years ago. Since then, I'm all over ATI. Runs cooler, demands less from the power supply, and the driver issues are largely a thing of the past. The cost/benefit seems always to shift towards an ATI card. Their mid-range cards are dirt-cheap and GREAT products. Dependable, durable, economic and very customizable, due to great overclocking capabilities.

nVidia has good cards, but they require some serious collection of hardware to work at their best (and at this point, they are more powerful than similar ATI cards). So, if money is not a problem, go bananas and build a powerhouse for your GTX 580. Just remember you need a superior power supply and a 0 Kelvin cooling system (I kid, I kid).

 

[BeerTent]

ATI/AMD driver support went down the tubes recently, even though that's a moot point for now, It got me thinking straight so now my response to the question is...

It purely depends on your fucking motherboard. Always, ALWAYS choose your motherboard first, and base the rest of the system around that.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

price and raw power ==== amd/ati

smoothness/drivers/support ===== nvidia

they are both great, but i'd build your machine based off your processor/motherboard combo, not depending on your video card mostly. there will always be deals/combos on newegg that blow whatever you thought you were going to get into what they are offering.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Spoiler: huge list is huge

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support

$25.99




Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower Computer Case, support up to E-ATX/XL-ATX, come with Four Fans-1x Front Red LED 230mm Fan, 1x Top 230mm Fan, 1x Side 230mm Fan, 1x Rear 140mm Fan


$149.99


Asus VE248H Black 24" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers

$249.99





MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


$529.98
($264.99 each)

2



Vantec UGT-S100 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card


$22.99





PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready Power Supply

$129.99



RAZER DeathAdder Black 5 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Precision Optical Gaming Mouse - 3.5G Infrared Sensor

$49.99


ARCTIC COOLING Arctic Cooling MX-4 AC-MX4 4 gram (g) All-Around Thermal Compound


$12.99




Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX

$54.99




MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$239.99



Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

$219.99




COOLER MASTER R4-L4S-10AB-GP 140mm Blue LED Case Fan

$31.98
($15.99 each)



Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm CPU Cooler and Case Fan

$49.98
($24.99 each)

Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler

$69.99


ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS

$68.99

There's your serious gaming rig. Or rather, there's my serious gaming rig. Which I will be buying sometime before christmas.

not bad but you could easily knock 150 bucks off that price just by simply using different brands on your monitor and sound card, your motherboard, especially a good high priced one, will be more than sufficient on sound quality, if anything get a slightly better power supply (800-850). also that extra cpu cooler will NOT be needed unless you are overclocking to super saiyan x3, your i5 will be more than good enough to handle anything for the next 5 years without overclocking.

now that's just IMO of course, but just saying you can save some bang in a few spots and spend a little more on the power supply for long term usage.

 

[The Virgo]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, OP. In the months ahead I'm hoping to have a new machine built, but I'm not sure whether to get an ATI 5970 or an Nvidia 580. One has extreme benchmarks and is basically 2 videocards put together, plus I'm an ATI guy ... but the other has PhysX ... but then again, currently only a handful of games (those using the Unreal 3 engine) have PhysX. Decisions, decisions ... <:-[

But that's really where it boils down to. Do you want faster games or PhysX?

Here's a comparison.


Good luck!

 

[Mr Jack]

As was posted earlier, check out the Tom's Hardware link, judge each card on its own merits.

This lists the best cards in the respective price slots.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-performance-radeon-geforce,review-32274.html


If you plan to run multiple monitors, I suggest you go for ATI, as Eyefinity is much more mature than Nvidia's technology.

If you want to go for 3D games, this provides a comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks for each manufacturer:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/tridef-stereoscopic-3d-gaming,review-32285.html

On PhysX, it is possible to run an ATI card for rendering and an Nvidia card to do PhysX.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/nvidia-physx-hack-amd-radeon,review-32051-7.html
A low end card is enough for dedicated PhsyX.

On Multi-Card setups. I run two GTX 460's in SLI, and I think it works great. SLI or Crossfire is often a cheaper way to get performance than buying a single expensive card (as you see in the first link). I have not had any issues with drivers, and the games which do not support multi-GPU setups tend to be the ones that do not need the power. However, some people notice something called micro-stuttering, details on which can be found here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,review-32256.html

In the end, get the best card in the price range with the features that you want, and don't be so concerned about the name on the box. Like others have said, make sure that the rest of your system, specifically the motherboard and PSU, are compatible with your chosen solution.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

AMD/ATi by FAR. I don't know what people are talking about with ATi driver issues. The only cards I've ever had driver issues with were NVIDIA cards. Starting with an FX5500, Geforce 6600GT, and an 8800GT. Driver problems with every single one. I went through 3 6600s because the fan kept dying.

By contrast, I've also owned an 9800, a X1600 Pro, a 2600XT, a 4670, a 5770, and now two 5770s in Crossfire. Never had a single issue with any of them. I think AMDs driver program is far better than NVIDIAs. Plus, AMD cards are generally better bang for the buck than nvidia these days. I have two 5770s in crossfire, and I can run any game max at 1080p, and FPS never drop below 35, usually it's in the 40-60 range depending on the game.