GeForce or Radeon?

Eldritch · 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?

eCK0 · 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.

Varaj · 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.

kryyst · 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.

Eldritch · March 09, 2006, 11:46:35 AM

Quote from: kryystNvidia 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

darkfire · March 09, 2006, 12:35:20 PM

Quote from: EldritchI 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.

eCK0 · 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

Eldritch · 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.

Aelfinn · March 09, 2006, 01:10:41 PM

I personally prefer running a Geforce video card on an Nforce motherboard.

Eldritch · March 09, 2006, 01:17:31 PM

Quote from: AelfinnI 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.

Cynosure · March 09, 2006, 02:00:22 PM

Quote from: VarajI 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.

Knightcrawler · 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.

obryn · 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

Eldritch · March 09, 2006, 02:03:02 PM

Quote from: KnightcrawlerYeah 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.

kryyst · 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.