Longtime Nvidia user...... Should I go with ATI?

Scream And Fly

Scream And Fly

Gawd
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
Messages
823
I've been using Nvidia cards exclusively since I stopped working for 3dfx (and using their cards) back in December of 2000. I've always avoided ATI since I've been under the impression that ATI's drivers were always a bit sketchy. Has this changed and is there a reason for me to upgrade to ATI? Just wondering if I'm missing something. Right now I have dual 8800GTs which work fine, but they're getting old now and I game at 1920x1200.
 
I have no problems with ATI or their drivers. If you're interested in a card from them, don't put too much weight into the driver problems. Both camps have had their issues, but it doesn't affect the vast majority of users. I would recommend you wait till the 26th, just in case Nvidia releases a card that is either much faster or has comparable price/performance which might drive down prices some. Your 8800GT SLI can last another couple of weeks
 
Other than possibly waiting for the gtx470/480 to come out and see what it does to the market, wouldn't be any reason not to. Drivers are fine and have been since I switched to ATI with a 4890 in June and then the 5870 in December. If anything they should be ahead of Nvidia with dx11 since it's been working since 5870 release.

Reason I switched was because Nvidia is charging too much. 4890 was ~$50 cheaper than its competitor the gtx275 at the time, and if Nvidia had a card like the 5870 back in October, you could count on a msrp of $500-600 easily. Getting a card like that soon after release for $340 after CB was insane.

I'm just waiting for Nvidia's cards myself, see if they offer a good advantage over a 5870 with a complimentary price, which is probably a pipe dream looking at their record, but if anything hopefully it brings the 5870 down a tad for some crossfire action.
 
Scream And Fly said:
I've been using Nvidia cards exclusively since I stopped working for 3dfx (and using their cards) back in December of 2000. I've always avoided ATI since I've been under the impression that ATI's drivers were always a bit sketchy. Has this changed and is there a reason for me to upgrade to ATI? Just wondering if I'm missing something. Right now I have dual 8800GTs which work fine, but they're getting old now and I game at 1920x1200.
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I have used only two ATI cards in my life, the ATI 9800 XT and the HIS 5970. I can tell you I haven't had ANY issues with their product drivers and anything hardware related. With this HIS 5970 I haven't had:

1.) Gray screen of death
2.) Microstuttering

But I did have a crossfire AA issue with mass effect 2. Which was rectified with the newer ATI drivers.

But as of right now. I would wait with what Nvidia has in store for the competition before you make the jump. Some people are afraid of change or can't understand CCC. But I must admit, I do love AVIVO color over digital vibrance :)
 
Ati has been good for awhile already. Maybe like 10 years ago it wasn't as good. I've had cards back to the 9800pro and its been good. Microstuttering isn't a problem like someone else said unless your overheating like a mad man. Theres going to be 2GB cards out soon so i would hold out for that. Maybe some price drops if fermi comes out soon.
 
Scream And Fly said:
I've been using Nvidia cards exclusively since I stopped working for 3dfx (and using their cards) back in December of 2000. I've always avoided ATI since I've been under the impression that ATI's drivers were always a bit sketchy. Has this changed and is there a reason for me to upgrade to ATI? Just wondering if I'm missing something. Right now I have dual 8800GTs which work fine, but they're getting old now and I game at 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Horrible ATI drivers has been a thing of the past since as far back as the 9700 Pro. Don't pay any attention to the fanboy FUD.

As for a reason to upgrade, ATI is currently the only one with DX11 and Eyefinity (specifically 3 monitor outputs on a single card), and the 5850, 5870, and 5970 are the fastest cards around. At 1920x1200 a 5850 or 5870 is you're best bet. But I would at least wait until the end of the month for Fermi to come out. Hopefully prices will drop.
 
ati has the best offerings with nothing really coming up from nvidia to consider giving it much interest. nvidia really screwed the pooch with the 3xx (aka 4xx) series.
 
yep, the drivers complaint is just a hook for fanboys to hang their idiotic hats on. I have owned both company's cards and have been completely satisfied with both company's drivers. I always buy the best price : performance card possible and the ATI is absolutely embarrasing Nvidia currently in that department. Hell, you can get a 5870, which is about 50-70% faster than a GTX 285 for around the same price.

With measurble and factual evidence of a video cards performance, a video card choice should be pretty simple in most cases. Subjectivity is less prominent because you can benchmark video cards uniformly and scientifically. Following the Price : Performance ratio when deciding on a card is the only rational solution. The point is, there is absolutely no frickin reason to purchase a video card like the GTX 285 for gaming when there are options like the 5870 which is monstrously faster and costs the same. Brand loyalty puts you on the losing side of the coin
 
I bought a 5870 10.2 drivers are great,stable..no chine walking. Low power draw at idle.
 
ATI drivers STILL have no way to set 3d profiles for seperate games like the nvidia drivers have had for many many years now. You want to force AA, AF or another setting the only way to do it is globally which sucks.

This is the biggest reason i will likely choose Nvidia next time around. I would not call them horrible or even bad like some people but they are not as nice as the Nvidia drivers at all. Also the stupid catalyst control center now displays ads on the main page. :mad:

Oh and regardless of what anyone would have you believe the linux driver is still not near as good as the Nvidias, they are way better then they where a couple years ago but not there yet.

Otherwise my 4870 has been rock solid for well over a year now with no real issues at all in windows.
 
Disposed said:
ATI drivers STILL have no way to set 3d profiles for seperate games like the nvidia drivers have had for many many years now. You want to force AA, AF or another setting the only way to do it is globally which sucks.

This is the biggest reason i will likely choose Nvidia next time around. I would not call them horrible or even bad like some people but they are not as nice as the Nvidia drivers at all. Also the stupid catalyst control center now displays ads on the main page. :mad:

Oh and regardless of what anyone would have you believe the linux driver is still not near as good as the Nvidias, they are way better then they where a couple years ago but not there yet.

Otherwise my 4870 has been rock solid for well over a year now with no real issues at all in windows.
Click to expand...

what you are whining about is not "driver", it is higher level user application. Good or bad is really a matter of personal taste. "Drivers" are system level programs, inferior drivers can be the number 1 cause of system crash, or burn your cards, unlike nvidia, ATI drivers are free of those problems.
 
i never saw a driver crash on my 9600xt (laff) or x1900...

thank god this GTX 260 was here to introduce me to the wonderful world of my screen going black for a second, coming back, and my framerate being shit until i reboot while an ominous warning icon looms in the corner hinting that my driver ate shit and it tried to restart
 
Disposed said:
ATI drivers STILL have no way to set 3d profiles for seperate games like the nvidia drivers have had for many many years now. You want to force AA, AF or another setting the only way to do it is globally which sucks.

This is the biggest reason i will likely choose Nvidia next time around. I would not call them horrible or even bad like some people but they are not as nice as the Nvidia drivers at all. Also the stupid catalyst control center now displays ads on the main page. :mad:

Oh and regardless of what anyone would have you believe the linux driver is still not near as good as the Nvidias, they are way better then they where a couple years ago but not there yet.

Otherwise my 4870 has been rock solid for well over a year now with no real issues at all in windows.
Click to expand...

they do have profile per application... check the top right corner of CCC...

also.. you can disable that thing on main pages, and main page will not show unless you have it on again before next time you launch it...
 
Disposed said:
ATI drivers STILL have no way to set 3d profiles for seperate games like the nvidia drivers have had for many many years now. You want to force AA, AF or another setting the only way to do it is globally which sucks.

This is the biggest reason i will likely choose Nvidia next time around. I would not call them horrible or even bad like some people but they are not as nice as the Nvidia drivers at all. Also the stupid catalyst control center now displays ads on the main page. :mad:

Oh and regardless of what anyone would have you believe the linux driver is still not near as good as the Nvidias, they are way better then they where a couple years ago but not there yet.

Otherwise my 4870 has been rock solid for well over a year now with no real issues at all in windows.
Click to expand...

I'll admit the profiles for ATI aren't as robust as the profile options available for nVidia, however, you are not limited to the "global" profile setting. You can create as many profiles as you'd like, the difference is that you have to chose your profile manually.

That, for me is not enough of a reason to pay more for an nVIdia card that is slower and has fewer features.
 
i had a 9800pro back then, still have it around here somewhere. Since then I've been on NVidia's cards exclusively, especially EVGA cards for their service.

Just recently switched to XFX 5870 and have no regrets. Awesome power.
I do feel like I sold out though...
 
shansoft said:
they do have profile per application... check the top right corner of CCC...

also.. you can disable that thing on main pages, and main page will not show unless you have it on again before next time you launch it...
Click to expand...

RamonGTP said:
I'll admit the profiles for ATI aren't as robust as the profile options available for nVidia, however, you are not limited to the "global" profile setting. You can create as many profiles as you'd like, the difference is that you have to chose your profile manually.

That, for me is not enough of a reason to pay more for an nVIdia card that is slower and has fewer features.
Click to expand...

Having to manually switch between profiles CHANGES THE SETTINGS GLOBALLY hard concept i know but switching a profile simply changes the current global settings. You still have to switch back and forth which is a massive pain in the ass.

If you forget to switch profiles and start a game you end up having to exit the game and switch them back.

For those that dont know with the Nvidia drivers you set it by application and the settings automatically apply when you launch the EXE. They had this feature all the way back when i owned a geforece 4 card.

Nvidia is only slower for the price right now they will bounce back and until then my 4870 will do me fine.

Like i said before though if you can look past those minor annoyances ATI drivers are just fine in windows.
 
I'm in the same boat as you and have the exact same cards. I'm going to try to stick it out until fermi comes out and see what it does to pricing. I saw a leaked 6 port 5870 today and have been hearing things about 2GB cards in the near future. I can stretch these 8800GT's out a bit longer for something awesome.
 
ChucklesC6 said:
i had a 9800pro back then, still have it around here somewhere. Since then I've been on NVidia's cards exclusively, especially EVGA cards for their service.

I do feel like I sold out though...
Click to expand...

Why?

There is absolutely no reason to persistently remain loyal to a graphics hardware company. Video cards can be scientifically measured for their performance in a uniform manner. There is no room for subjectivity when defining the gaming performance of a video card. In our current situation, the 5870 from ATI outperforms the GTX 285 by 50-70% in gaming. They cost about the same. Why would it make sense to remain loyal to a video card company when the competition offers a product with such a monsterous performance increase over the "home team."

- To the devoted fanboys -

Nvidia and ATI don't care about you personally. They don't wait by the mailbox at christmas anticipating the arrival of you christmas card. Fuck, they wouldn't be concerned in the least if you sold a kidney on the black market to purchase their products. Why? Because they are companies that are in the business to make money. The only thing they care about is whether your cash hits their pockets.

None of us owe Nvidia and ATI a thing. It is absolutely foolish to devote yourself to this imaginary "team" that brand loyalist like to fabricate in their heads.

Buy the best card for the money. Nvidia and ATI aren't on the sideline rooting for you at your company's father-son picnic. Why on earth would you personally devote yourself and your money to a specific brand for the sake of belonging to an imaginary "team" that you delusional wackjobs fabricated in the first place?!
 
Disposed said:
Having to manually switch between profiles CHANGES THE SETTINGS GLOBALLY hard concept i know but switching a profile simply changes the current global settings. You still have to switch back and forth which is a massive pain in the ass.

If you forget to switch profiles and start a game you end up having to exit the game and switch them back.

For those that dont know with the Nvidia drivers you set it by application and the settings automatically apply when you launch the EXE. They had this feature all the way back when i owned a geforece 4 card.

Nvidia is only slower for the price right now they will bounce back and until then my 4870 will do me fine.

Like i said before though if you can look past those minor annoyances ATI drivers are just fine in windows.
Click to expand...

IIRC, NO... it does not changed globally...

the only difference is you created your own game icon with CCC profile that will trigger the profile setting and launch at the same time.. it will automatically change it back once your application is closed..
 
I jumped over to ATI after a long bout of loyalty, figured price vs performance was the best bet anymore. I think I switched sides at the wrong time, got my 5870 right as 10.2 Catalyst came out, been able to put maybe 8 hours of gaming in total. Nothing but GSOD, BSOD, lockups, stuttering video, etc. Not being biased, just giving my experience. When my card works, its a goddamn dream. But when it doesn't....
 
Disposed said:
Having to manually switch between profiles CHANGES THE SETTINGS GLOBALLY hard concept i know but switching a profile simply changes the current global settings. You still have to switch back and forth which is a massive pain in the ass.

If you forget to switch profiles and start a game you end up having to exit the game and switch them back.

For those that dont know with the Nvidia drivers you set it by application and the settings automatically apply when you launch the EXE. They had this feature all the way back when i owned a geforece 4 card.

Nvidia is only slower for the price right now they will bounce back and until then my 4870 will do me fine.

Like i said before though if you can look past those minor annoyances ATI drivers are just fine in windows.
Click to expand...

Like i said, I'd rather change profiles manually than have an inferior card that can assign profiles by application. You obviously would rather have the opposite
 
FuNiOnZ said:
I jumped over to ATI after a long bout of loyalty, figured price vs performance was the best bet anymore. I think I switched sides at the wrong time, got my 5870 right as 10.2 Catalyst came out, been able to put maybe 8 hours of gaming in total. Nothing but GSOD, BSOD, lockups, stuttering video, etc. Not being biased, just giving my experience. When my card works, its a goddamn dream. But when it doesn't....
Click to expand...

you should RMA your card instead.... that does not sounds right at all for a functional card..
 
shansoft said:
IIRC, NO... it does not changed globally...

the only difference is you created your own game icon with CCC profile that will trigger the profile setting and launch at the same time.. it will automatically change it back once your application is closed..
Click to expand...

Well ill be damned, its not pretty but it will actually work. Wonder when they added this. No way i have missed this the whole time?!
 
If you want the fastest card with the latest greatest tech, then ATi is the only choice. While I don't feel the drivers are as good an nVidia's they are acceptable. I moved from a GTX 280 to 5870 and I'm satisfied with it. Speed is improved, quality is superb, etc.

The 5870 is also quite quiet which makes me happy.

I don't feel ATi is as good as nVidia over all, but I feel they are plenty good enough to use. It is where my money went for this generation.
 
Disposed said:
Well ill be damned, its not pretty but it will actually work. Wonder when they added this. No way i have missed this the whole time?!
Click to expand...

its the profile setting on the top right corner and pick the application, then create a icon for it...
 
thesmokingman said:
Hey at least ATI drivers don't kill your card?
Click to expand...
lol.

I like that AMD kept overclocking, fan, and temperature control in their drivers. I hate having to install extra bullshit on my system, as you have to with NVIDIA's nTuner, etc.

To the OP, a 5850 or a 5870 will do you well :).
 
After switching from Nvidia to ATI/AMD, I have had no driver issues. I added a second 5870 and again, no isses. Yes the profile issue is still annoying, but I just deal with it and get amazing graphics...

I have no loyality to either camp. Whoever is the fastest, I will go with.
 
I'm running an AMD 5970 and I haven't had any problems yet. So far this has been the best ATI/AMD card experience since my X1950XTX's which were nothing short of awesome.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm running an AMD 5970 and I haven't had any problems yet. So far this has been the best ATI/AMD card experience since my X1950XTX's which were nothing short of awesome.
Click to expand...


I am actually surprise they actually have a really well done driver for 5970 at launch...

consider what they did with 4870X2 at launch, but they still manage to make it to perfection along the driver updates..
 
Well the 5970 drivers left out some functionality but the card worked for the most part in games. Now they've got things pretty well squared away. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 5970 to anyone outside of suggesting that they wait for Fermi numbers at this point. It just seems prudent with the launch of the card being just around the corner. If you must have a high end card today though, the 5970 is as good as it gets.
 
I like ATI as a company alot more than Nvidia. Nvidia has made some bonehead moves lately and their CEO is a jackass, but that's never stopped me from buying their cards. I buy the best product for the best price and I don't care who makes it.
 
Buy whatever offers the performance and features you want at the price you are willing to pay. For me it is Nvidia all the way util ATI finally jumps in the 3D bandwagon, then I will have more options.
I do have an ATI for mh HTPC and my wife computers and no problem with drivers so far so dont let that scare you.
 
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