About to pull the trigger on this GTX 275 Or go AMD?

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Limp Gawd
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143183


Is there ANY other card worth looking at in this price range on the ATI/AMD side? Im really not a fanboi of either company, I just want the best card for my money and I decided on the 275 because most of the games I play seem to brand that "best played on Nvidia"

I just want the best performance/drivers for my games. I am upgrading from a 8800GT.
 
the 4890 is the ATI equivalent. many benches will actually favor the 4890 over the 275. i prefer nvidia right now b/c of their drivers, but that is all personal preference. you can't really go wrong either way.
 
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the 4890 is the ATI equivalent. many benches will actually favor the 4890 over the 275. i prefer nvidia right now b/c of their drivers, but that is all personal preference. you can't really go wrong either way.

Yeah speaking of drivers.. Its funny Nvidia had the largest chunk of BSOD in windows due to their drivers.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/

So you want shit to explode in your face Go nvidia. FTW!

Man the driver issues are such horse shit.

Go with what is the best bang for your buck. I would personnaly go with 4870 and wait until october for the new gfx refresher.
 
Personally I think whatever you can get your hands on for the best price (equivalent cards; i.e. 275 vs 4890) and which your system supports (sli or crossfire; drivers related to OS) is the best choice. Note that the 4890 is slightly smaller in physical size, which is potentially important if you have issues with fitting stuff in your case.

Overall, I believe the GTX 275 and the HD4890 are both good. There is no clear winner.

Unless you want to fold.
 
If you ever see yourself experimenting to dual booting Linux, stick with the Nvidia brand.
 
The best drivers for the ati cards seem to be modified or homebrew. The cards are great but the hassle usually isn't worth the extra 20 bucks you save going with one. I'd stuck with nvidia for the hassle free solution.
 
The best drivers for the ati cards seem to be modified or homebrew. The cards are great but the hassle usually isn't worth the extra 20 bucks you save going with one. I'd stuck with nvidia for the hassle free solution.
Hassle? I've used the standard ATI drivers since I got my 4870 and I've never had a single problem with them. In fact, I've had far more problems with nVidia drivers than I ever had with ATI's.
 
If you ever see yourself experimenting to dual booting Linux, stick with the Nvidia brand.

ATI's Linux drivers have improved greatly over the past year. I have zero problems with ATI's Linux drivers in Ubuntu. ATI has also actually committed to open source drivers, and seems to be sticking with it. Its been a couple years since I've used Nvidia's Linux driver, so I can't directly compare the two, but I would definitely recommend ATI cards to Linux users.

The best drivers for the ati cards seem to be modified or homebrew. The cards are great but the hassle usually isn't worth the extra 20 bucks you save going with one. I'd stuck with nvidia for the hassle free solution.

Thats crap. ATI's official drivers have worked perfectly for me since the launch of the 4850. Who actually uses modified drivers anymore, anyway? Do those relics still exist? Not that they were ever anything more than tweaking of the default options - they didn't actually alter driver behavior or anything like that.
 
Sheesh, can we cut the x driver is better than y drivers crap?

For raw performance, GTX275 and 4890 are toe-to toe.

Personaly, I'd choose a 4890 as they are cheaper than the 275s and can overclock very well.
 
Yeah speaking of drivers.. Its funny Nvidia had the largest chunk of BSOD in windows due to their drivers.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/

So you want shit to explode in your face Go nvidia. FTW!

Man the driver issues are such horse shit.

Go with what is the best bang for your buck. I would personnaly go with 4870 and wait until october for the new gfx refresher.

Fail. Way to reference 2 year old data when everyone knows the drivers have been made extremely stable since then.
 
ATI's Linux drivers have improved greatly over the past year. I have zero problems with ATI's Linux drivers in Ubuntu. ATI has also actually committed to open source drivers, and seems to be sticking with it. Its been a couple years since I've used Nvidia's Linux driver, so I can't directly compare the two, but I would definitely recommend ATI cards to Linux users.



Thats crap. ATI's official drivers have worked perfectly for me since the launch of the 4850. Who actually uses modified drivers anymore, anyway? Do those relics still exist? Not that they were ever anything more than tweaking of the default options - they didn't actually alter driver behavior or anything like that.

It seems a lot of other people disagree with you. ATI has had issues with drivers for as long as I can remember aside from the 9800 pro, and the hotfix for the 4850 card powering down (it was over heating because it ran at full power all of the time) was first fixed by third party modified drivers.

Maybe you picked up your card after the hotfix was in place in the drivers, but that was not always the case. Also for sometime crossfire was disabled in their drivers, later it was reenabled. In its launch the crossfire functionality worked flawlessly but the 4850 cards ran hot.

The point of all of this is ati has issues keeping their drivers clean and supported.

Which is all valid because the guy has to choose between two equal in performing power cards. If ATI drivers are suspect but nvidia runs clean then the choice is clear.
 
I just got a GTX 275 and love it! No regrets at all. It overclocks really great too. OC results in Sig
 
Yeah speaking of drivers.. Its funny Nvidia had the largest chunk of BSOD in windows due to their drivers.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/27/nvidia-drivers-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-20/

So you want shit to explode in your face Go nvidia. FTW!

Man the driver issues are such horse shit.

Go with what is the best bang for your buck. I would personnaly go with 4870 and wait until october for the new gfx refresher.

I would say that's because so many people bought nVidia cards over ATi at that time. I don't have problems with either driver set on a 4870x2 or a GTX280 in 2 different rigs.
 
i would wait for the new release from both and grab the card you want for cheaper as that will drive the price down
 
As stated before, the 4890 and GTX 275 are direct competitors, and win some lose some depending on the game. You can't go wrong either way on performance.

As I type this, the XFX 4890 is a whole $5 less than the BFG GTX 275. The cheaper 4890 cards are from companies I would not buy a video card from, either because they have a poor track record of honoring their mail-in rebates so they really aren't that cheap, or because they have terrible support (including not having a lifetime or better warranty). So I declare the two cards even on cost as well as performance.
 
These two cards are so close in performance that you can't go wrong with either one. It comes down to what do you prefer, or what is going to be cheaper at the time of your purchase.
 
Maybe you picked up your card after the hotfix was in place in the drivers, but that was not always the case.

Nope, I got mine pre-hotfix. Running at full power never once caused it to lock up or misbehave in any way whatsoever.

but the 4850 cards ran hot.

1) Not a driver issue
2) Not an issue in the first place, they were built to prefer quiet operation over lower temperatures. Not ideal for overclockers, no, but there is a manual fan control in ATI's control panel.

The point of all of this is ati has issues keeping their drivers clean and supported.

So does nvidia. Between my friends and I, we have had MORE nvidia driver issues than ATI issues. We have also had more nvidia cards die and need to be RMA'd than ATI (in fact, none of our ATI cards ever died. My 9700 Pro is still alive an kicking, my 7900 GT died after 1 year). Granted, this is a relatively small sample size of ~4 nvidia cards vs. ~7 ATI cards, but the point still stands.

If ATI drivers are suspect but nvidia runs clean then the choice is clear.

Yes, the choice would be clear IF that were the case. But its NOT. The *FACT* is that BOTH sides have driver issues.
 
Most people don't experience Nvidia driver issues, this is simple fact. Sorry your sample didn't turn out that way and I just don't agree with your "fact." I know what happened with the 4850's.
 
the 'driver' issues people keep spouting on about, are a non issue, for BOTH companies.

dont listen to their horseshit.

to the OP:

Just pick whichever card is within your price range, you cant go wrong with either.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143183


Is there ANY other card worth looking at in this price range on the ATI/AMD side? Im really not a fanboi of either company, I just want the best card for my money and I decided on the 275 because most of the games I play seem to brand that "best played on Nvidia"

I just want the best performance/drivers for my games. I am upgrading from a 8800GT.

if most of your games then Nvidia may well be a good options. but just because its a TWITMTBP game doesn't mean that Nvidia has the upper had (though most of the time its true). If you need support for the latest game the day it comes out Nvidia does do better there.

Nvidia drivers are no better then ATI. anyone thinking that needs to have EDID stamped on their forehead. and forced AA crashing and a few other things. ATI has their issues but as said above driver preference is basically a lot of fanboyism now days

price for performance still goes to the 4890. esp if your not brand sensitive (you can get a sapphire toxic 4890 for 230) . but they are close enough as not to be much of an issue. esp if your over clocking. if your not OCing then some of the overclocked cards are damn good, for around 230 your get stock or better GTX285 performance. (I think they have some 275 oc models but are proud of them). still this is splitting hairs here. The GTX275 is almost a perfect match to the 4890 now that the price of the 275 has come down.

edit: also forgot to mention that if your fold the GTX275 will get you a good deal more, a plus for me.
 
I used to work for Nvidia. Their internal process for their drivers is a hellscape. The dsign guys are bright, the driver authors are bright. The QA.. well.

The place is essentially a start-up writ large. If any of you have worked for a software startup, you will understand what I mean. Everything is duct tape and baling wire, with crap bolted on the side.

That said, I still buy Nvidia cards, because I'm sure ATI/AMD is every bit as bad (and perhaps worse. The merger process always results in a bigger ball of crap as two things are mashed together).
 
Most people don't experience Nvidia driver issues, this is simple fact. Sorry your sample didn't turn out that way and I just don't agree with your "fact." I know what happened with the 4850's.

Most people don't experience ATI driver issues, this is also simple fact.
 
I went with the ATI 4890 after much debate. Picked the Sapphire Vapor-X because it is reportedly the quietest of that model. It also has hdmi out and displayport. :)
I think the GTX 275 is also a fine card, but its extra length does not appeal to me for my case. (10.5" Nvidia vs 9.5" ATI).
 
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To all the ppl talking about driver issues.:cool:
I've owned cards from both,and nethier one has given me any big issues.
small ones yes.and as bad as i hate to say it nvidiea has given me most of those. yeah i used to belive the driver talk too but the truth is i had a radeon x800 256mb from aug05-aug-07 and i must say i never had a problem:eek:
The only thing keepin me on the green side right now is physx
 
You people haven't seen driver issues until you've run an AGP S3 Savage 4 video card in an ALi-based Super 7 motherboard. Then again, it could be the crappy hardware. :LOL:
 
When I read about all the so called "driver issues" I just have to laugh because I build so many PCs and different configs and I never had anything major that cause me to say I hate X or Y company because their drivers suck.
Aside from an ATI Radeon 64SE, I have been very happy with both camps. I am pretty much an Nvidia guy because of 3D and Physx but that is about it.
 
To all the ppl talking about driver issues.:cool:
I've owned cards from both,and nethier one has given me any big issues.
small ones yes.and as bad as i hate to say it nvidiea has given me most of those. yeah i used to belive the driver talk too but the truth is i had a radeon x800 256mb from aug05-aug-07 and i must say i never had a problem:eek:
The only thing keepin me on the green side right now is physx

I am in a different boat. I could care less about physx until they do something with it. and the nvidia EDID bug has been one of the most annoying ones I have ever had (easy solution for me once I found it but others might find it harder to deal with) I have to remind myself that plenty of people have had issues with the red cards as well. and to be honest what bugs me about the bug (sorry, pun intended) is Nvidia's attitude about it. they blame hannspree (and other monitor manufactures) for the issue while ATI and intel cards/chips work fine. I have been a green fan for a long time but they are working hard with renaming and this to make me otherwise. I can understand well how dan felt about his 4870X2
 
Go for it.

Nice round of cards these 200 series.

I love some of the retarded comments BTW. Emo fanboys.
 
I consider myself a Nvidia guy, but to be honest if I was buying a card strictly for gaming I would buy the stock XFX 4890 1gb over any other card out there right now. However, since I Fold on my GPU on a daily basis I really can't consider any ATI card since they stink at Folding.
 
You people haven't seen driver issues until you've run an AGP S3 Savage 4 video card in an ALi-based Super 7 motherboard. Then again, it could be the crappy hardware. :LOL:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

So true so true. I laughed my ass off.
 
I consider myself a Nvidia guy, but to be honest if I was buying a card strictly for gaming I would buy the stock XFX 4890 1gb over any other card out there right now. However, since I Fold on my GPU on a daily basis I really can't consider any ATI card since they stink at Folding.

What's the benefit of Folding again? Isn't it just some community massively parallel processing project using idle cycles?
 
they both are good cards and like some ppl said they both have there good drivers and bad
 
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