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Other Games, Development, & Campaigns => Other Games => Topic started by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 10:30:45 AM

Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 10:30:45 AM
I currently have a Radeon 9200 and am thinking of upgrading my video card in the near future. I have noticed in the tech forums for many games that Radeon cards seem to be the ones that are always popping up with problems. I have also heard that Nvidia has much better driver updates and support. I was thinking of getting a 9600 or 9800 but with these issues I am not sure now. So what are the opinions here? Which card do you use and why? I want to spend $200.00 or less so any recomendations?
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: eCK0 on March 09, 2006, 10:36:39 AM
I use an nVidia 6800 Ultra.  I picked nVidia for the SLi technology, though if you're not planning on spending about a grand to run dual cards, then that's not  a factor you should look at.  In reality, there's no real big difference.  ATi has some nice hardware accelarating tweaks, but those are more for fun (render any game like the matrix, etc.)  Personally, I'd go with another nVidia, I've had little to no trouble with it and it runs great.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Varaj on March 09, 2006, 11:01:39 AM
I have had more problems with ATI cards than I have had with nVidia cards.  As for performace they seem to be generally close enough to each other for that to not be a large issue.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: kryyst on March 09, 2006, 11:40:41 AM
Nvidia cards typically have better driver support and work with greater success with most games.  So I suggest Nvidia.  As for the specifics of which card just depends on when you are buying it the longer you stall the better a card you'll get.  Some loose lines are that you want around 256mb of video ram and the fast the video ram the better.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 11:46:35 AM
Quote from: kryyst
Nvidia cards typically have better driver support and work with greater success with most games.  So I suggest Nvidia.  As for the specifics of which card just depends on when you are buying it the longer you stall the better a card you'll get.  Some loose lines are that you want around 256mb of video ram and the fast the video ram the better.
I was thinking a 256 meg card. Actually I was thinking of the MSI brand 6600. I have the nforce2  motherboard by MSI so I figured might as well get the card from same manufacturor. I can get this for $176.00 at a local shop.

Product details:  (NX6600-VTD256) (RETAIL) (GEFORCE 6600) 256MB DDR / 8x AGP / HDTV-OUT / DVI / VIDEO IN - VIDEO OUT
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: darkfire on March 09, 2006, 12:35:20 PM
Quote from: Eldritch
I was thinking a 256 meg card. Actually I was thinking of the MSI brand 6600. I have the nforce2  motherboard by MSI so I figured might as well get the card from same manufacturor. I can get this for $176.00 at a local shop.

Product details:  (NX6600-VTD256) (RETAIL) (GEFORCE 6600) 256MB DDR / 8x AGP / HDTV-OUT / DVI / VIDEO IN - VIDEO OUT


Was a Radeon fan, but issues with drivers has got me trying out a GeForce for my new card. A suggestion though, you might want to look at the 7800 GT instead of the 6600, the price jump is worth the added power and it'll be more future proof than the 6600.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: eCK0 on March 09, 2006, 12:41:57 PM
Or you could wait just a little while longer and get the 7900 to be hitting shelves soon.  Looks like a great improvement. http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTAwMSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 12:47:41 PM
I also plan on getting new ram. I have to keep the purchase of both in the $200.00 range.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Aelfinn on March 09, 2006, 01:10:41 PM
I personally prefer running a Geforce video card on an Nforce motherboard.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 01:17:31 PM
Quote from: Aelfinn
I personally prefer running a Geforce video card on an Nforce motherboard.
That would make sense to me as well. But this was a store built system and they went Radeon for some reason.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Cynosure on March 09, 2006, 02:00:22 PM
Quote from: Varaj
I have had more problems with ATI cards than I have had with nVidia cards.

Same here. During the past few years, I've dealt with three different nVidia cards and one ATI card, and the ATI card gave me lots of problems, mostly due to hardware conflicts, but also due to crashes with certain games.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Knightcrawler on March 09, 2006, 02:01:22 PM
Yeah nVidia cards are usually a bit better.  There's many games that are opimized to run on nVidia cards.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: obryn on March 09, 2006, 02:02:57 PM
I'm an nVidia fan, too, overall - also because of competent driver updates.

Keep in mind that ATI and nVidia trade places for the lead spot regularly.  I think ATI is technically on top now, but they've also had a history of bad supply problems and vaporware releases.

Check http://www.hardocp.com for the latest news.  They're pretty reliable.

-O
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Eldritch on March 09, 2006, 02:03:02 PM
Quote from: Knightcrawler
Yeah nVidia cards are usually a bit better.  There's many games that are opimized to run on nVidia cards.

I believe WoW which I am now playing is one of them.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: kryyst on March 09, 2006, 02:13:44 PM
More and more games are becoming Geforce prefered because ATI has been having a horrible track record on their drivers, especially for their newer cards.  The one big advantage ATI usually has is that they are usually cheaper for an equivollently powered GeForce. Geforce had a huge wake up call driven to them by ATI about 3 years ago.  Since then they've learned from their mistakes and are making the superior product.  However for some reason on non-PC's ATI is usually wining the race.  Many consols have ATI chipsets, Apple has been heavy with ATI for years and their graphics are phenominal.  ATI's problem is pretty much entirely software based.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: eCK0 on March 09, 2006, 02:16:04 PM
One thing that I love about nVidia, is that in they're latest product, they not only provided better benchmarks, as would be expected, but they also provide a more effient card.  It runs cooler and with less energy used than many of todays leading cards.  I think that's a step in the right direction.  Kudos nVidia.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: IronWolf on March 09, 2006, 05:06:26 PM
I went the NVidia route on the system I built about a month ago.  As several are saying here, various Internet forums just seemed to speak more highly of them.
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Reefer Madness on March 09, 2006, 06:33:40 PM
I like the Geforce cards, but you need to shop around, there are several different companies that make them and soem of them do shoddy jobs...do some research on the cards to make sure they have a cooling system you want...i been shopping around and looking at the 6600 gt's and run into ones with just a heat sink, or just a fan, or both, then some people complain about the fan noise and so on...I like Asus Geforce cards, but they are usually on the higher end...but I've never been let down by them...
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: Knightcrawler on March 09, 2006, 09:27:58 PM
Best high end nVidia cards would be BFG (http://www.bfgtech.com/) with the best low to mid being eVGA (http://www.evga.com/products/).
Title: GeForce or Radeon?
Post by: IronWolf on March 09, 2006, 10:53:47 PM
Quote from: Knightcrawler
Best high end nVidia cards would be BFG (http://www.bfgtech.com/) with the best low to mid being eVGA (http://www.evga.com/products/).


The one I just picked up recently is an eVGA.  It has worked well so far under Linux.  Been pretty decent for the limited game playing I do - some Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 4.