Anyone went from nvida to ati or vise versa and did you like the change?

I've bounced back and forth between them both (leaning more towards Nvidia) since day one. Whatever seems like the best for me at that particular moment.
 
I used both ATI and nVidia during the past years and for a bit favoured ATI but now using nVidia and like them more.
Although in my HTPC I have an ATI and in my new HTPC build towards the end of the year it will be an ATI as well.
Gaming PC is nVidia and the new build will be nVidia as well.
 
LAiN_OfTheWired said:
I went from a Radeon 3870x2 to an Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX+ to conserve energy.

Believe you me, I am dissatisfied.

Let's not start the flames before I explain something.

The 9800GTX+ definitely is saving me money on the energy bill. It definitely does perform about the same (2k less on 3DMark06 and about 200 less on 3DMark Vantage, but performs better in Gears of War for Windows and Crysis Warhead for obvious reasons). It overclocks nicely. Here's the fault: not ONCE did I EVER have ATI drivers crash on me in Windows Vista. Literally. Not one freaking time. Every Nvidia driver I have tried (7 or 8 different sets) has crashed on me at some point, at least once, but some MANY times. I've had my 9800GTX+ for just over a month now.

In short, the card is spectacular, especially since I got a 1GB version for $151 after shipping, and sold my Radeon 3870x2 for $150. The bottom line is, though, that the headache is simply not worth it. I have heard lots of friends bitch about their Nvidia drivers crashing in Vista, not a single friend with an ATI card has made a peep about their drivers.

I will definitely stick with this card, I plan on putting it in SLI when an AM3 980a SLI board comes out that supports DDR3. When its time to upgrade to a DX11 card, you bet your ass I'll be looking at ATI cards again, though, unless Nvidia has a clearly and vastly superior card at the right price.
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Microsoft all but blamed the bad reception and crash stories about vista on Nvidia's crappy drivers for Vista.
 
I just switched from 2x 8800GTS' to a single 4870 and wow. The 4870 is an amazing card. Under water it peaks @49C after 10 furmark passes and I just got 16,882 3Dmarks in 06.

Crazy performance for the $153 I paid. Got another one on its way!
 
I use both. Currently I have a Radeon X1900XT in my main computer and a 9600GT in my HTPC.

If the HD 4670 was available when the 9600GT first came out, I would probably have bought it instead since it uses about 13w less power for basically the same performance depending on the game. The 9600GT is good enough mainstreaming gaming card in case I decide I want to play games on my HTPC.
 
4870 was good, i had a bad company (palit) and jumped ship to nvidia. Still like ATI though.
 
I have no problem with either company. I've had a x1400 on a laptop that was great, and then a 7900gt and 8800gts on desktop. Never had any problems with any drivers. Right now, I'm leaning towards ATi for their price/performance for my next upgrade. Although Nvidia could change that anytime they want :).
 
ATI>ATI>NV>ATI>ATI

Sandwiched. :p Ended up on the hd4870 512mb. I am happy with the change. I had an 8800gt and 3870 at the same time. I preferred the performance and image quality of the 8800. Bought the 4870 (could not believe the performance jump from the 3870) never looked back. I am relatively happy with the change although at 1920x1200 I sort of wish I had around a gig of VRAM. In the past, Nvidia had the edge with its 640mb and 900mb card IIRC. Now both seem to be using 512mb, 1gb, 2gb.

At this point in time, the companies seem to be neck and neck. ATI seems to have fixed its AA performance issues, and Nvidia seems to have responded to its competition by lowering prices.

Subconsciously, I prefer ATI. Nvidia seems to be a little too focused on rebranding older cards while letting thermal issues persist with their mobile GPUs. Consciously I would simply buy the best card I could afford. There is, however, a little voice inside my head that says, "Avoid Nvidia whether you want to or not." Guerilla marketing? Maybe.
 
Currently running both the HD4870-512 in one rig and the GTX260-192 in the other. Both are very fast but I do notice a smoother framerate with the GTX260. The min-max framerate on the HD4870 can be quite significant at times whereas the GTX is more consistant across the board. Not one issue for me with Nvidia drivers.
 
I went from a 7800GT to a 4850, and I'm not happy at all.

Yeah, you read that right. I can't use DVI under Vista under any circumstances, and it's not an isolated incident:

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagev...d=96981&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

There just isn't a solution for this, and I'm more than a little unhappy about it. Fortunately, the price/performance is good enough for me to continue using it under XP, but I'm still waiting for a fix :mad:
 
I've always used a nvidia card,would someone send me a 4870 to help me in deciding to change my mind???
 
Talonz said:
I went from a 7800GT to a 4850, and I'm not happy at all.

Yeah, you read that right. I can't use DVI under Vista under any circumstances, and it's not an isolated incident:

http://forums.amd.com/game/messagev...d=96981&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

There just isn't a solution for this, and I'm more than a little unhappy about it. Fortunately, the price/performance is good enough for me to continue using it under XP, but I'm still waiting for a fix :mad:
Click to expand...

don't feel crapped on, Nvidia still hasn't fixed their HDMI issues. still waiting here
 
My friend is trying hard to convince me to try ATI. I am looking at my future options.
 
I've had nvidias for along time since the tnt cards and i made the switch to to ati once i got my x1950pro for a pretty good deal. I put that in another system and it still runs good. Now i got a 4870. I like ati cards better overall now. Price/performance is good. Ati always had better image quality. I remember even in the 9800pro days i had geforce fx 5900 and the 9800pro my friend had just ripped it apart. Ati has better legacy support also on older videocards. They at least update them every so often. In nvidias they just stop completely after its older.
 
8800GTX to GTX280 to 4870x2.

I was a Nvidia ''fan'' since the first day, but had too much problems with the GTX280 and drivers, even after a clean install. Nv*.dll something crash in games, BSOD, ''you card doesn't have enough power'' or something like that at start-up, random reboots.... So I was fed-up, and made the switch to the 4870x2.

Since then (last august) I didn't had a single BSOD or crash in a game (with 8.7, 8.8, 8.9 until 9.3). 4870x2 and drivers are working flawlessly for me since day 1. :)

I'm really surprised at ATI rock solid stability in my system, since I read so much complaining on the web about ATI's drivers... But in my case, there is no problems at all. :)
 
LEVESQUE said:
8800GTX to GTX280 to 4870x2.

I was a Nvidia ''fan'' since the first day, but had too much problems with the GTX280 and drivers, even after a clean install. Nv*.dll something crash in games, BSOD, ''you card doesn't have enough power'' or something like that at start-up, random reboots.... So I was fed-up, and made the switch to the 4870x2.

Since then (last august) I didn't had a single BSOD or crash in a game (with 8.7, 8.8, 8.9 until 9.3). 4870x2 and drivers are working flawlessly for me since day 1. :)

I'm really surprised at ATI rock solid stability in my system, since I read so much complaining on the web about ATI's drivers... But in my case, there is no problems at all. :)
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I have had plenty of issues with nvidia drivers but so have a LOT of ATI owners. it seems kinda like luck of the draw almost. lately I have been liking ATI over Nvidia mostly due to the price/performance and features. but I can't say ones drivers are better then the others, it more of a case of pick your issues.
 
I, personally, like both brands...

First started using nvidia (personal, non-worstation solutions at least) with their junky FX 5200, then went to ATi 9600 pro > ATi 9800 pro > nVidia 6800 GT > nVidia 7800GS> ATi x1950 pro> nVidia 8800 GT> nVidia GTX 260

really, the only reason why I went with one over the other at any time was due to price vs. performance of the cards. I'd gladly buy from either vendor, but have noticed that nvidia seems to have better drivers on average
 
When I'm ready to buy, I get the best card for the money regardless of brand. My last 5 cards have been TNT, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9800 Pro, 8800GTS, and GTX 260. The 9800 and 8800 were clearly superior to the competition in their day, the other 3 purchases could easily have gone to the competition had the sales and/or rebates been in the other company's favour on that particular day.
 
ellover009 said:
Hey guys I've been considering upgrading my vid card. I just moved to an x58 platform with an i7 920 processor and 6gb ram. I still have my old 8800gtx evga, it is still a nice card. I've considered selling my old card and try to get something newer a 260 or a 280gtx but my friend keeps pushing the idea that I should try ati maybe a 4870 or a 4870x2. I am a bit concerned since I have never dealt with ati drivers and there are concerns about stability and graphical quality since I've never used them.
Anyone want to share observations and thoughts when they switched sides? Graphical quality and stability.
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Went from ati to nvidia to ati and stayed. ATI is much better than nvidia from several reasons, mostly drivers as long as you follow the instructions on what you need (.net) and installation. After you get .net right, the rest is gravy....
 
My primary rig has GTX 260 SLi.

The HD 4850 1Gb cards in my secondary computer are good in Crossfire with one catch. There is nothing fair or foul I may do to get Crossfire to work with any driver later than 8.10. That's no Crossfire option available in the CCC with; 8.11, 8.12, 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3.

When talking single card I'd say pick a card based on the games you like to play. When talking multi-gpu, I'd say go nVidia. They get driver profiles out faster for games and I've never had SLi not enable with later/newer driver sets.

A guy at guru3d says some people are experiencing the Crossfire issues with newer drivers because of the BIOS on some ATi cards. I can't confirm this as I've been ignored by AMD and Gigabyte.

It's not a big deal if you play old games, and any new games will = no Crossfire support, and likely degraded performance with it enabled.

Below is a thread at the official AMD forums talking about the missing Crossfire option with later drivers on some cards-

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=262&threadid=104951&enterthread=y
 
I have upgraded my whole system and its been long time having the 7800GTX need something newer but i can still run the games i play, just wonder which direction to go, i'm certainly going to wait for the 4890 so i can see how prices drop. I don't game as much as before so i don't need the biggest and baddest something that my psu can handle since the SAS drives takes a lot of juice.
 
Ive owned a couple of GTX260s in sli and 2 4870s in cf and I do have to say that the ATI cards have much better AA, but the Nvidia drivers seem to be more stable for more games, now. That wasn't allways the case, the GTX200 series drivers were pretty bad for a while. I really miss CCC. It's a give and take really, neither is perfect.
 
After having nV products from a GF2 MX (Awesome free card for some CSS hehe ) and going all the way up to a 8800gt, my best experience was the 6800nu AGP 128mb (Well, the 6800gs I unlocked was more epic) and that thing just flew. I got it to benchmark match 6800gt's in 3dmark03 ;) Good times.

The GX2 was a big fail. Soured me a LOT.

And then the 8800gt... It died.. I got rid of it and went red.

This 4850? Nothing but net. Total perfection since I got it installed. nV's drivers are slipping.
 
I've never owned anything but Nvidia cards until my current 4850. I'm really happy with this card. I have tweaked the fan speeds to lower the GPU temps but that's it.
 
i went from all nivida to my current card and ive had no issues with it at all. the catalyst control centre seems to crash alot but i never use it after i set it up.

as far as the card go the 260 and 280 are much better then the 4870. im not 100% sure on how the otherone performs as its a multi gpu card, never bothered with them as there abit up and down in perf.
 
BM00 said:
Unfortunately a thread of mine was deleted by the server problems this board is having. I went from an ATi 4870 512mb -> evga/bfg gtx 285 (3 of them...one after the other) and now full circle to ATi again with a 4870 1gb version. (saphire blue pcb - nonstock cooler design)

The main reason I'm back is the huge issue of noise. Basically, the GTX 285 makes ridiculous amounts of "squealing" or "whining" when under virtually any 3D app AND on the 2D desktop (moving around a zoomed in picture - all 3 of them did this)

I build extremely quiet systems and noise is a very key issue to me. So, until nvidia starts making their cards with digital voltage regulators or just cuts the squealing out by going all digital, I'll continue to only consider ATi.

And subjectively, the GTX is faster by a bit, but by no means worth twice as much. IQ is better on ATi + it's absolutely silent.

Happy to be back with a 4870. I recommend you buy a card locally if at all possible and "try it out". There's advantages to B/M stores such as Fry's or Best Buy.
Click to expand...

I hear this complaint sometimes, and while I'm sure you do, I have never heard squealing or whinning from any of my nvidia cards. My Ati cards didn't either, so I'm not trying to be a closet fan boi, but you sure you didn't get duds?

EDIT

Although I must admit, Nv drivers are a tad annoying lately. I had to some crashing for almost 2 months until I uninstalled EVERYTHING Nvidia, did driver cleaner in regular mode and safe mode, double checked the registry myself, and then did a clean install. Now it's all good but sheesh....
 
Comte said:
Went from ati to nvidia to ati and stayed. ATI is much better than nvidia from several reasons, mostly drivers as long as you follow the instructions on what you need (.net) and installation. After you get .net right, the rest is gravy....
Click to expand...

See, this is what starts fights. You state this like it's fact, when really it's just your opinion based off of a bad experience or two. You really should say that you've had nothing but bad experiences with them, you wouldn't reccomend them, et cetera.

If you say that, people with brains won't read your post and think, to themselves, "wow, look at this idiot dispensing advice like he's installed every single video card, with every single driver set, on every single windows configuration" ;)

OP, like some have said here, both has advantages and disadvantages. IF....IF you get a good, clean, driver install from either company, I'm sure you'll have a great experience. Sure, you might get a dud card once in a blue moon, but that happens with everything, not just vid cards.
 
I shifted back to nvidia mainly because of the pricing the last ATI card i had was a X850XT-PE it was 2x more expensive than the 7900GT at that time and i took a blind eye on the 7900GT and opted for the X850, realizing my mistake at a later date i decided to sell the X850 to another person looking for the exact same card for the 7900GT's cost. Since then ive been with nvidia again from 8800GTS 320 / 8800GT 1GB / GTX285 1GB.
 
ATI. Better aftermarket cooling options. Cleaner image quality (I notice). Less flexible, but more reliable drivers from my experience (I never use dual gpu cards or setups though). More straightforward with the public. Better control panel.

I'll go with N if a card has superior bang for buck, but if performance/price is close I always go ATI.
 
I switched my 4870X2 (sold to pay some shit, after i had to get a new gaming card) to GTX 295... pretty happy with the performance increase
Also ATI's fan is noisier at same % compared to Nvidia

I like ATI CCC better than Nvidias Control Panel... aside from that, PhysX is a nice bonus
But the switch has certainly NOT cemented any fanaticism on me
 
Brownstone said:
I switched my 4870X2 (sold to pay some shit, after i had to get a new gaming card) to GTX 295... pretty happy with the performance increase
Also ATI's fan is noisier at same % compared to Nvidia

I like ATI CCC better than Nvidias Control Panel... aside from that, PhysX is a nice bonus
But the switch has certainly NOT cemented any fanaticism on me
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that same % is not the same rpm.
 
Nvidia:
Better partners (EVGA, BFG, etc.)
Better Single GPU's
Better Multi CARD scaling
More/Faster Driver updates
More financially stable company (AMD brings down ATI)

I have had a 8800gt g92 since they came out and have been very happy with it. That being said this last xmas i tried going red and picked up a 4850x2, only to be extremely pissed with the driver issues i experienced, after a week of tweaking i returned it. I don't like how ATI puts out cards early without extremely stable drivers, thats not to say Nvidia hasn't done this as well before, but to my understanding and to the reviews i have read ATI is the culprit in this stupid mistake more often. (some will rebute that the 4850x2 is a Sapphire only card and you shouldn't blame ATI, well i've read reviews the same issue happened on the 3870x2 and other cards ATI has (google it))
 
I had a 4870 512mb that could get to 830mhz core and was considering crossfire but in the end found a cheap gtx280 and couldn't be happier.

Although there isn't too much difference between the 2, the extra 512 ram really helps.

I find the image quality is pretty much the same, performance is definately increased, i heard all about the Ati drivers being crap but i had no issue at all with them not even with new release games so go figure.

Also my e-peen scores went up :p
 
In the last year I've gone from an 8800GTS 512MB to a 4870 512MB to a GTX 295. Each card has been a great, and I have been happy with each purchase. Each maker has its performance strong points, game preference, and driver quirks, but across the board there really is no difference.
 
i used ATI cards in crossfire for a long time because i hate nvidia chipsets so much..... but now i've got an x58 i got to experiment properly. in vista 32 i had no problems with ATI, but soon as i switched to 64bit they were a bit ehhh.... using SLI now in vista 64 on x58... runs like a dream.
 
I've gone back and forth numerous times, but I always try to stick with the company that I feel has the better overall design approach at a given time.

It used to be nVidia for a long time, then the 9700 Pro-era hit and it was ATI. Then the GeForce 7xxx/8xxx series gained traction and it was nVidia again. Now the Radeon 4xxx "feels" like the right product and that is what I own now.
 
It went like this for me:

nVidia (RIVA 128) => 3dfx (Voodoo 1 & 2) => nVidia (RIVA TNT, Geforce 256, Geforce 2) => ATI (9700, 9800) => nVidia (7800, 8800) => ATI (4870)

I'm still waiting for my 4870 (along with a bunch of other parts) to arrive in the mail. :D
 
Rage 128 Pro -> Geforce 4 MX 440 -> Radeon 9700 Pro -> X800 Pro -> x1950XT -> 8800 GTS -> 4870 512mb -> 4870 1GB

I've always kind of prefered ATI over NVIDIA. The mx440 card I had was awesome though, because it overclocked really well. I've always been happy with my ATI cards. I just went green a few times because ATI was having some problems.

I remember the days of my 8800gts though. I really was kind of disappointed by it. It ran all my DX9 games great, but DX10 it totally sucked. It was a 320mb version. I was really upset to find out that the touted DX10 capability was useless unless I jacked down settings. At the time it really didn't matter because everyone was eating Apple marketing bullshit and MS still had a lot of patching to do.

Then again I was pretty pissed off x800 Pro wasn't capable of dx9.0c. But, I think that was negated by the fact a BIOS flash turned your x800Pro into an x800 XT.

But, I know NVIDIA fanboys used to love to toot their driver horns all the time, but I used to get nv4_disp.dll BSODs ALL THE TIME. I had the card at stock settings too. The ATI drivers with the 4870 have been great. I've yet to see a BSOD from them. Plus, I much prefer ATI Tray Tools over Rivatuner, which is an added bonus.

I really haven't looked back to NVIDIA since I bought my 4870(s). After the initial "wow this thing kicks ass it's so much faster than my old card" stage I've always found myself happier with ATI.

ATI isn't perfect, however. I've had to RMA TWO cards. The powercolor x1950XT AGP died on me and stopped my computer from booting, and the MSI 4870 1GB cooler sucked and kept giving me grey screens. In fact if it wasn't for that x1950 dying, I woulda never had that 8800GTS. It did lead to my opty 165 system which was the best 250 dollar upgrade I've ever made to a computer.
 
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