nvidia or ATI?

Unknown-One said:
Shouldn't have to avoid using basic functionality of the graphics card just to keep it from glitching.
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Well, I am using a dual setup and my and all Nvidia cards do not downlock for #@$@$@$. Yes, I can use Nvidia Inspector but still have to do it manually. Nvidia said it is not a problem, nothing like having a toasty and loud card when browsing the web late at night.:p
 
Go with Nvidia. Hardware is good and drivers are good. Just changed from ATI to Nvidia and am very happy. Games run a lot smoother. AMD is not able to beat NVidia on hardware side in terms of performance but they sell their hardware cheaper so its is a good deal, BUT you are still left with their biggest issue which is their drivers.

I had enough of ATI drivers to last for some time...only good set was 10.10e modded and I cannot accept that a guy who is doing it as a hobby can make better drivers that an entire developer team...
 
Iching said:
Well, I am using a dual setup and my and all Nvidia cards do not downlock for #@$@$@$. Yes, I can use Nvidia Inspector but still have to do it manually. Nvidia said it is not a problem, nothing like having a toasty and loud card when browsing the web late at night.:p
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I actually just borrowed a second GTX260 so I could try Nvidia Surround instead of ATi Eyefinity. Not a permenant solution, as I'll be returning the card in the morning, but it's giving me an idea of Nvidia's drivers.

First thing I noticed when booting up is that my system is far quieter with GTX260 SLI than with a single HD5850. Not bothered by the cards being in 3D clocks, at least it's intended behavior and not glitchy.

Nvidia's control panel for enabling and configuring Surround is a much nicer experience than ATi's. Being able to set up bezel management the same way every time by simply typing in a pixel value is a HUGE help. I also prefer the way it handles non-surround resolutions while in surround mode (black side screens instead of duplicating the image).

Other advanteges:
1. All of my older OpenGL titles suddenly started working again, no hacks or work arounds required.
2. DXVA hardware accelerated video works as expected.
3. No more flickering monitors, EVER!
4. Hardware PhysX without patching my drivers.
5. I can use the Hybrid SLI feature of my motherboard, allowing the two GTX260's to shut off compleatly when not gaming. MUCH lower power consumption than the 5850.
6. Nolonger need an active DisplayPort to DVI adapter (which has its own share of issues).
7. Built-in auto-loading 3D profiles for games (Don't need RadeonPro)
8. Built-in 3D driver (don't need IZ3D)
9. Card maintains correct clockspeeds on its own (don't need MSI Afterburner)
10. Significant drop in my number of startup items as a result of the above.
11. I can actually feel my blood pressure dropping a few bars. Hadn't realized how stressed out that ATi card was making me...

The only thing missing (besides DX11) is a way to quickly switch between Surround and Extended Desktop (with display positions saved). You have to manually reconfigure Surround every time you want to use it, which is a pain. I'm going to play with this and see if there's something I can do to emulate ATi's profile switching scheme.

At this rate, my HD 5850 will end up in the FS/FT forum...
 
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Reason I'm considering AMD over nVidia right now is more ram on video card. I'm going to be gaming on 5760x3600 and 2560x1600 and from what I've seen/read ATI's ram allows it to perform better at those resolutions.
 
So.. back to the original topic (page 1) -- is anything actually wrong with your 5770? That should be plenty of card for what you want to do. The problem may lie elsewhere.
 
If you want driver headaches, glitches and failures due to cheap active adapters that are required for multi-monitor use, and more, do what I did and go with an ATI 6-series crossfire setup. If you don't fancy that, be smart and shop Nvidia and be happy with a setup that works hassle free for a few bucks more.
 
Ducman69 said:
If you want driver headaches, glitches and failures due to cheap active adapters that are required for multi-monitor use, and more, do what I did and go with an ATI 6-series crossfire setup. If you don't fancy that, be smart and shop Nvidia and be happy with a setup that works hassle free for a few bucks more.
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This post, plus your signature... You're a man on a mission, I see. ;)
 
This is always a loaded question on this forum and is pretty much just a tug-o-war by each sides fanboys.

I usually go ATI myself but would have been open to nvidia on rig 1 of my sig if it could have pushed triple monitors on one card. I was itching to try a 570 or 580 GTX.
 
Ducman69 said:
If you want driver headaches, glitches and failures due to cheap active adapters that are required for multi-monitor use, and more, do what I did and go with an ATI 6-series crossfire setup. If you don't fancy that, be smart and shop Nvidia and be happy with a setup that works hassle free for a few bucks more.
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Hrm, I have no adapters, no hassles, and I can toggle Eyefinity with a keyboard shortcut. Oh, and no multi-GPU issues, either. Let's see Nvidia match that :p

Seriously, I don't want to run SLI or CF, so NV Surround might as well not exist IMO. When Nvidia can drive 3+ monitors from a single card, then I'll be interested. Until then, Eyefinity > everything else.
 
kllrnohj said:
When Nvidia can drive 3+ monitors from a single card, then I'll be interested.
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The GeForce GTX295 can drive three displays all by itself. You may also drive three displays from ANY single Nvidia cards by using a Matrox TripleHead2Go.

Still might not be what you're after, but there are options...
 
Ducman69 said:
If you want driver headaches, glitches and failures due to cheap active adapters that are required for multi-monitor use, and more, do what I did and go with an ATI 6-series crossfire setup. If you don't fancy that, be smart and shop Nvidia and be happy with a setup that works hassle free for a few bucks more.
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So have two video cards instead of one 6970 w/ a display port adapter?

You tried the adapter and it doesn't work well?
 
Unknown-One said:
The GeForce GTX295 can drive three displays all by itself.
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Still two GPU. Yes I said "single card", but I clearly meant "single GPU" given that I stated I don't want to use SLI/CF.

You may also drive three displays from ANY single Nvidia cards by using a Matrox TripleHead2Go.
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Not at all the same thing and you know it :p
 
kllrnohj said:
Not at all the same thing and you know it :p
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I don't see why a TripleHead2Go isn't applicable. It does allow you to run three displays from one Nvidia card, as per your requirements. I imagine a single GTX580 with a TripleHead2Go would be a nice setup.
 
arachn1d said:
So have two video cards instead of one 6970 w/ a display port adapter?

You tried the adapter and it doesn't work well?
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I have two 6850s (purchased for $155 after rebate each), there's a thread in the AMD forum. Many people have problems with these adapters including high failure rate, wrong native resolution options or it coming up incorrectly on bootup requiring a reboot, no video displayed if adapter is connected when computer is booted up, and bezel compensation disabled in CCC, and more. I have video glitches in games, and performance issues in others like Civilization V which I shouldn't based on the performance of these cards in benchmarks and experience w/ my technically slower 4870x2 which ran fine.

Nvidia has always had more mature drivers w/ intuitive interfaces, and they don't disable the video outputs of the second card like AMD does w/ the 6* series.

This is the second time I've been trapped by the great benchmarks and low price of the AMD cards, lol! In the real world, peace of mind and reliability are worth a few bucks. Were it not for the hassle and 15% restocking fee, I'd definitely be trading in.
 
oOUdieOo said:
alrite i ended up just building a computer that was 12k that came with 4 gtx 580's i should be fine for a while.
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uhh wat? BTW Nvidia ftw. nvidia drivers > ati drivers

It's a matter of just getting your gfx card to work correctly, seems nvidia has been doing that right lately.
 
Dudenell said:
It's a matter of just getting your gfx card to work correctly, seems nvidia has been doing that right lately.
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If by lately you mean the last ten generations, yeah. ;)

My only beef with Nvidia is their confusing card naming system (average Joe really can't figure out whats high or low end w/o reading articles) and occasional renaming of last generation tech and pretending its a refresh. So they aren't perfect, but the "user experience" is generally better.
 
AMD seniority number in the video side, the Nvidia optimized game a little more (not necessarily optimized for the Nvidia card and run a good N), all rely on performance to speak, A N card card game is the dominant open 5,5, A Card some of the advanced architecture, and AMD will be released in October leading DirectX 11 graphics card, graphics card market is about to lead. I admire the Nvidia marketing strategy in China, because he can make the most of people do not know A card,
 
For a single monitor AMD and nVidia both are quite capable. Price AMD wins, performance top end nVidia wins but AMD is competative. For me it came down to a multi-monitor setup. I want to run 3 120hz monitors and AMD just cannot as you have to run displayport on one of them so I was forced to run nVidia sli instead of X-fire.
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
I would probably steer you away from the 480 at this point in time, now that the 570 is out. With that said, you probably don't need a high end GPU to play WoW -- buy mid level and pocket the change.
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Yes and no. My GTX 275 definitely has issues getting over 40fps in many areas with the game maxed out. Of course, running shadows on 'good' as opposed to 'ultra' nearly guarantees 60fps. It depends what your standards are.

Unless you're getting a 6950 and flashing it with the 6970 BIOS, I see little reason to go AMD at this point. NVidia offers more consistent performance and better drivers for the same price. Under $200, the GTX 460 is king. The GTX 570 rules at $350. In between, the 6870 is hardly worth getting, though the 6950 is very attractive with the possibility of flashing it into a 6970.

On the other hand though, the AMD cards are definitely more power efficient. Sadly, this doesn't really translate into quieter cards, since the stock AMD coolers really seem to be lacking.
 
Is that taking into account high resolution gaming? In that case AMD's memory amount will make the 6950 and 6970 perform better.
 
Single monitor, single card - Nvidia
Multiple monitors, single card - ATI
Multiple monitors and video cards - Nvidia

This would be my plan of attack. I wouldn't deal with ATI until it was absolutely necessary i.e. cheap multi-monitor gaming.


tc17 said:
ATI is better than Nvidia despite what anyone claims here.
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You're also making a claim.
 
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ex0du5 said:
Yes and no. My GTX 275 definitely has issues getting over 40fps in many areas with the game maxed out. Of course, running shadows on 'good' as opposed to 'ultra' nearly guarantees 60fps. It depends what your standards are.

Unless you're getting a 6950 and flashing it with the 6970 BIOS, I see little reason to go AMD at this point. NVidia offers more consistent performance and better drivers for the same price. Under $200, the GTX 460 is king. The GTX 570 rules at $350. In between, the 6870 is hardly worth getting, though the 6950 is very attractive with the possibility of flashing it into a 6970.

On the other hand though, the AMD cards are definitely more power efficient. Sadly, this doesn't really translate into quieter cards, since the stock AMD coolers really seem to be lacking.
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Yes and no. You can get Asus HD5850CU TOP for $165 after MIR and Newegg gift card, overclock it to HD5870 and crossfire it. It think for $330 is it absolutely worth it. I am a casual gamer so my opinion does not count.;) I play at 2560x1600.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Single monitor, single card - Nvidia
Multiple monitors, single card - ATI
Multiple monitors and video cards - Nvidia

This would be my plan of attack. I wouldn't deal with ATI until it was absolutely necessary i.e. cheap multi-monitor gaming.




You're also making a claim.
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Why would you get 2x GTX 570's over 2x 6970's when the 6970's scale better and also have more memory? That doesn't make sense to me.
 
arachn1d said:
Why would you get 2x GTX 570's over 2x 6970's when the 6970's scale better and also have more memory? That doesn't make sense to me.
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Probably due to all of ATi's driver issues.

Crossfire + Eyefinity has never worked as well as single-card Eyefinity, and then there are the issues with PowerPlay and OpenGL and Profile Switching and Overdrive, etc, etc, etc. The additional performance from the 6970's can easily be outweighed by the potential headaches.
 
arachn1d said:
Why would you get 2x GTX 570's over 2x 6970's when the 6970's scale better and also have more memory? That doesn't make sense to me.
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Unknown-One said:
Probably due to all of ATi's driver issues.

Crossfire + Eyefinity has never worked as well as single-card Eyefinity, and then there are the issues with PowerPlay and OpenGL and Profile Switching and Overdrive, etc, etc, etc. The additional performance from the 6970's can easily be outweighed by the potential headaches.
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Yes, the Crossfire driver issues are the problem. I've had 5870CF, 5850CF and 5970, I was stuck using 10.4 drivers until September(10.9) and black screen flickering and CTDs was still present.
You'll have to wait until AMD releases a hotfix and the crossfire profile to get decent performance. New game releases suffer until AMD send out an update.
AMD has a big CF engine but they can't get the power to the ground where it matters.
 
Unknown-One said:
Probably due to all of ATi's driver issues.

Crossfire + Eyefinity has never worked as well as single-card Eyefinity, and then there are the issues with PowerPlay and OpenGL and Profile Switching and Overdrive, etc, etc, etc. The additional performance from the 6970's can easily be outweighed by the potential headaches.
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Are people having issues with 2x 6970's right now with eyefinity or is this just more of a "rumor that spreads?"
 
arachn1d said:
Are people having issues with 2x 6970's right now with eyefinity or is this just more of a "rumor that spreads?"
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arachn1d said:
I've read that nVidia has the same problems with 2 cards and Surround ....
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What you've read or experienced are two different ways to look at an argument. I only speak from experience when dealing with Crossfire. I'm not going to take a chance with the 6900 series after what I went through with the 5800 series. You can read the forums and see what people are saying. Go to the AMD section and see if people are having issues or enjoying their cards.

I rather buy the cards and judge for myself.
 
WorldExclusive said:
What you've read or experienced are two different ways to look at an argument. I only speak from experience when dealing with Crossfire. I'm not going to take a chance with the 6900 series after what I went through with the 5800 series. You can read the forums and see what people are saying. Go to the AMD section and see if people are having issues or enjoying their cards.

I rather buy the cards and judge for myself.
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I just want the best FPS I can get for the money for a 3 monitor setup and I feel like the memory on the 6900 series will do a lot better than the 1.3 gigs of the 570.
 
arachn1d said:
I just want the best FPS I can get for the money for a 3 monitor setup and I feel like the memory on the 6900 series will do a lot better than the 1.3 gigs of the 570.
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The extra ram will give you more fps across three monitors since you can run higher AA settings.
One card with three monitors is fine.

Like I said, buying the cards is the best way to test them. Forums members can only help but can't make the decision for you.
You feel that 2GB will give you the best experience then go for it.
 
WorldExclusive said:
What you've read or experienced are two different ways to look at an argument. I only speak from experience when dealing with Crossfire. I'm not going to take a chance with the 6900 series after what I went through with the 5800 series. You can read the forums and see what people are saying. Go to the AMD section and see if people are having issues or enjoying their cards.

I rather buy the cards and judge for myself.
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I think ATI fucked something up with the 58xx series and CF, because even with the drivers that people with 58xx were having tons of CF troubles, 57xx CF continued to be good. 68xx CF has so far seemed quite good, I'm anxious to see how 69xx CF is working out. 2GB VRAM + CF sounds like a real winner for Eyefinity if it doesn't have the 58xx's broken scaling (which initially it doesn't seem to), not to mention the 69xx seems to scale much better as the resolution increases compared to the 570/580.

Unknown-One said:
I don't see why a TripleHead2Go isn't applicable. It does allow you to run three displays from one Nvidia card, as per your requirements. I imagine a single GTX580 with a TripleHead2Go would be a nice setup.
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Oh, I assumed you knew the downsides of TH2G, but apparently not. First, there is the resolution limit. I run 1920x1200 monitors, TH2G can only drive up to 1680x1050, and that is with the $300 digital version. Second, there is the cost. For $300 I'd just buy another damn card. Third, you can't turn it off. Spanning (Eyefinity, NV Surround, TH2G, etc...) is awesome in games, it sucks ass on the desktop. If I can't toggle it easily, then screw that. I need the card to actually drive 3 monitors so I can get extended mode, TH2G can't do that.
 
kllrnohj said:
I think ATI fucked something up with the 58xx series and CF, because even with the drivers that people with 58xx were having tons of CF troubles, 57xx CF continued to be good. 68xx CF has so far seemed quite good, I'm anxious to see how 69xx CF is working out. 2GB VRAM + CF sounds like a real winner for Eyefinity if it doesn't have the 58xx's broken scaling (which initially it doesn't seem to), not to mention the 69xx seems to scale much better as the resolution increases compared to the 570/580.
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Yeah, there seems to have been a hardware or silicon niggle of some sort with the 58xx series cards where it relates to multi gpu scaling. I don't think it was drivers, since while the drivers have improved performance a great deal, the 58xx cards still do not scale as well as Nv cards. On the other hand, the 57xx cards and 6xxx cards do seem to scale on par with Nv cards.
 
kllrnohj said:
Oh, I assumed you knew the downsides of TH2G, but apparently not.
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Nope, I know the downsides compared to other triple-monitor schemes. That doesn't invalidate it as a potential option, though. It DOES work.

kllrnohj said:
First, there is the resolution limit. I run 1920x1200 monitors, TH2G can only drive up to 1680x1050, and that is with the $300 digital version.
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Yes, the Matrox TripleHead2Go is limited to 5040x1050, but it's not the only device of its kind.

The Mview, from Mviewtech, is a clone of the TripleHead2Go with greater capabilities. It can run three 1920x1200 monitors. Granted, it's still $300.

kllrnohj said:
Second, there is the cost. For $300 I'd just buy another damn card
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Eh? No you wouldn't. You said yourself you didn't want SLI... or have you changed your mind?

kllrnohj said:
Third, you can't turn it off. Spanning (Eyefinity, NV Surround, TH2G, etc...) is awesome in games, it sucks ass on the desktop. If I can't toggle it easily, then screw that. I need the card to actually drive 3 monitors so I can get extended mode, TH2G can't do that.
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Not true. Assuming you plug everything in correctly, you can switch between spanned and Extended Desktop mode with an Ultramon profile. Note, you will need a second video card for this, but it doesn't matter what it is. Even an 8400GS will work.

DVI Port 1 on Card 1 to DVI Mview
DVI Port 2 on Card 1 to DVI Left Monitor
DVI Port 1 on Card 2 to DVI Right Monitor
DVI Port 1 on Mview to VGA on Left Monitor
DVI Port 2 on Mview to DVI on Center Monitor
DVI Port 3 on Mview to VGA on Right Monitor

Windows will now see three monitors (Two 1920x1200 screens and one 5760x1200 screen). When you feed the Mview 5760x1200, it displays across all three monitors, but if you only feed it 1920x1200 it stops sending signal to the left and right monitor and acts as a pass-through to the center screen. We're going to use this to our advantage.

Create one Ultramon profile with the two 1920x1200 screens (Left / Right) enabled, and the 5760x1200 screen (center) set to 1920x1200. This will give you normal Extended Desktop mode with three 1920x1200 screens connectd via DVI.
Create another Ultramon profile with the two 1920x1200 screens disabled, and the 5760x1200 screen enabled at full resolution. This will give you spanned mode.

I spent quite a bit of time with the TripleHead2Go and SoftTH before Eyefinity or Surround existed. I know the ropes, and I also couldn't live without extended desktop mode ;)

Edit: It's worth mentioning that switching between Extended Desktop and Spanned modes is actually smoother with an Mview/TripleHead2Go than it is with Nvidia's current drivers (they take forever to switch, and you have to reconfigure surround from scratch every time).
 
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Both cards you mentioned are good for WoW. But I say go for ATI since it has better power consumption and less heat.
 
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