Switching from Nvidia to ATI

C

Child of Wonder

2[H]4U
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
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Now that my second 7900GT is also toast, I've decided to switch to an ATI card and purchased a X1900XT.

It's been a while since I've switched GPUs. Does the system still need to be reloaded when making the switch or is removing the driver via Driver Clean Pro sufficient?
 
ur newly 7900gt got toast??? how?? it jus came out a while ago! was it due to ur low watt psu?

and yeah u should switch to ati... cuz most people here seems to worship ati!
 
Well you realize the 7900 series cards have had issues. EVGA has a new batch of cards out now that supposedly fixed the issues. I dont know if yours was an EVGA or not but..
 
No, my PSU was fine. I had an Aspire 520W with 35A +12V. Today I received an Antec TPII 550W and same result.

The X1900XT will be a nice step up from the 7900GT and will hopefully not be such a pain in the ass.

The new 7900GT I receive from eVGA will probably be one of the new models that has the problem fixed but my X1900XT is already on the way.

So the 7900GT will be sold.
 
My advice...use control panel to uninstall nvidia drivers.
It's worked for me when switching back and forth.

Heck, I don't even remove the drivers anymore, they really don't interfere with each other.

But...Driver cleaner will not only remove the drivers, it will remove files you need that the drivers didn't even put there to start with.

Driver cleaner is the fastest way to make yourself reformat and reinstall the OS.

In short...driver cleaner is more trouble than it's worth.
 
Child of Wonder said:
Now that my second 7900GT is also toast, I've decided to switch to an ATI card and purchased a X1900XT.

It's been a while since I've switched GPUs. Does the system still need to be reloaded when making the switch or is removing the driver via Driver Clean Pro sufficient?
Click to expand...
I Must Say WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!
 
ATi had the better card this time around.. but come Fall refresh, I'm fairly certain that nVIDIA will have the better card G80 vs. R580+.

I don't think ATi should release the R580+. Seems like a waste really.
 
I was reading that eVGA 7900GT cards have serious issues with artifacting and cards going pop. There was an article on this on the Hardocp homepage a while back. Maybe try a different manufacturer? I've had no issues with my 7900GT.
 
I made the switch from 6800GT to x800xl and there isn't any regret at all... well maybe the control panel but as far as card stability, ATI wins. In fact, I never heard of ATI cards having issues within my area, all I hear about is RMA nvidia this, RMA nvidia that.
 
I have had a few atis go bad,only 1 nvidia that I can recall... I just know sapphire warranty/support SUCKS.. so if you go ati, get a geniune ati card. not to mention ati's are only 1 year warranty now where most nvidias are lifetime.
so far my volt modded 7900gt is doing great (few months old).
 
I had a Nvidia and went w/ a ATI gto2 (which was awesome!) and then went w/ a Nvidia 7900gt which I'm a lil disappointed by the performance in CS:Source.
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
ATi had the better card this time around.. but come Fall refresh, I'm fairly certain that nVIDIA will have the better card G80 vs. R580+.

I don't think ATi should release the R580+. Seems like a waste really.
Click to expand...
How is it a waste? The R600 will be a good card. Same with the G80. They're both going to be good cards its just which has the upper hand. If ATI wants to compete with Nvidia then they'll need to release the R600
 
boomheadshot45 said:
How is it a waste? The R600 will be a good card. Same with the G80. They're both going to be good cards its just which has the upper hand. If ATI wants to compete with Nvidia then they'll need to release the R600
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R580+ is a waste. No one will purchase that card over the G80. It would make no sense to invest in a DX9 level card when G80 is a DX10 level card.. you know with Windows VISTA on the way and the bundle of features the G80 should support it makes the R580+ look like a lame duck (BTW R580+ is an x1x00 level card).

R600 is another matter entirely. It will more then likely regain the performance crown and convincingly defeat the G80. At least that is what is expected given the sheer size of the VPU and the experience ATi have acquired through the x1x00 and Xbox360 VPU's.

G80 is expected to be a 32pipeline GPU with 16 pipelines used for Geometry and Vertex Calculations. R600 is expected to be a 64 Unified pipeline architecture. Which means it will be able to load balance more effectively thus be MUCH more efficient removing bottlenecks in complex games. Each Unified shader can perform Vertex, Pixel or Geometry operations.
 
doox00 said:
I have had a few atis go bad,only 1 nvidia that I can recall... I just know sapphire warranty/support SUCKS.. so if you go ati, get a geniune ati card. not to mention ati's are only 1 year warranty now where most nvidias are lifetime.
so far my volt modded 7900gt is doing great (few months old).
Click to expand...
If you get a VisionTek/ATI card the warranty is lifetime, although they do cost more. I have 1 each VisionTek and Sapphire and I like the VisionTek much better.
 
Powercolor also provides some good warranties as well, so far the 1 year warrenty provided by ATi has no negative affect.

and i share the same sentiment with the R580+, but it would be nice to see how an X1900XTX runs with 2.4ghz memory
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
R600 is another matter entirely. It will more then likely regain the performance crown and convincingly defeat the G80. At least that is what is expected given the sheer size of the VPU and the experience ATi have acquired through the x1x00 and Xbox360 VPU's.
Click to expand...

more than likely? (this is how rumors are started)
 
Nothing against the 7900gt but you have the better card now with the x1900 so I would say it was the right choice.
 
I have had a few atis go bad,only 1 nvidia that I can recall... I just know sapphire warranty/support SUCKS.. so if you go ati, get a geniune ati card. not to mention ati's are only 1 year warranty now where most nvidias are lifetime.
so far my volt modded 7900gt is doing great (few months old).
Click to expand...

That's cuz nobody needs to use the warranty ahahahaha. (subject to experience)

Have 3 ATI cards, tons of friends with ATI cards, never a problem, never an RMA.
 
Sorry to hear you went throught two of those cards. I used to have a 7800GTX 256, which should be pretty similar to the 7900GT, and recently switched to an X1900XT. You won't regret it. The IQ differences are noticable and HQAF is a great feature. I just uninstalled the driver, replaced the card, installed new driver, and it was fine. I expect that thats all you'll need to do.
 
Anyone that says ati vendor warranties suck...and then compares them to evga need to wake up.

I've been thru way more crap with eVGA.

Both ATi RMA's I've made in the past were much easier to complete.

Congrats on teh new card.

I think u made the right choice. ;)
 
foofighter06 said:
Anyone that says ati vendor warranties suck...and then compares them to evga need to wake up.

I've been thru way more crap with eVGA.

Both ATi RMA's I've made in the past were much easier to complete.

Congrats on teh new card.

I think u made the right choice. ;)
Click to expand...

I second that.
 
if games are your *only* 3d apps you use, then the ati card will be fine.

I would not suggest ATI cards for any 3d development due to their incomplete opengl implimentation.

but with games, they are great.
 
Child of Wonder said:
No, my PSU was fine. I had an Aspire 520W with 35A +12V. Today I received an Antec TPII 550W and same result.

The X1900XT will be a nice step up from the 7900GT and will hopefully not be such a pain in the ass.

The new 7900GT I receive from eVGA will probably be one of the new models that has the problem fixed but my X1900XT is already on the way.

So the 7900GT will be sold.
Click to expand...

A TPII 550W has had quite a bit of trouble, especially notorious lately for underpowering the +12v rail. You're not gonna get very pleasing results with the X1900XT.
 
Child of Wonder said:
No, my PSU was fine. I had an Aspire 520W with 35A +12V. Today I received an Antec TPII 550W and same result.

The X1900XT will be a nice step up from the 7900GT and will hopefully not be such a pain in the ass.

The new 7900GT I receive from eVGA will probably be one of the new models that has the problem fixed but my X1900XT is already on the way.

So the 7900GT will be sold.
Click to expand...

fine and Aspire PSUs should NOT be used in the same paragraph
 
Hey.. that Aspire PSU ran like a champ for well over a year. Granted, I wouldn't recommend it to others because it died, but while it was running it did its job well.
 
Just tried out Call of Duty 2 with the X1900XT. Image quality does seem better. Things look sharper, even in the BIOS (which sounds crazy).

It's nice revving up COD2 to 1280x1024, 4xAA and 16xAF and having it run like butter.
 
BBA said:
My advice...use control panel to uninstall nvidia drivers.
It's worked for me when switching back and forth.

Heck, I don't even remove the drivers anymore, they really don't interfere with each other.

But...Driver cleaner will not only remove the drivers, it will remove files you need that the drivers didn't even put there to start with.

Driver cleaner is the fastest way to make yourself reformat and reinstall the OS.

In short...driver cleaner is more trouble than it's worth.
Click to expand...

I agree with this post.
 
Child of Wonder said:
Hey.. that Aspire PSU ran like a champ for well over a year. Granted, I wouldn't recommend it to others because it died, but while it was running it did its job well.
Click to expand...
"but while it was running it did its job well" :rolleyes:
 
BBA said:
Driver cleaner is the fastest way to make yourself reformat and reinstall the OS.

In short...driver cleaner is more trouble than it's worth.
Click to expand...

without a doubt!
 
Child of Wonder said:
Just tried out Call of Duty 2 with the X1900XT. Image quality does seem better. Things look sharper, even in the BIOS (which sounds crazy).

It's nice revving up COD2 to 1280x1024, 4xAA and 16xAF and having it run like butter.
Click to expand...
Nope.. not crazy at all.

This was part of my argument in the Better Image Quality thread. It's due to the better RAMDAC's on ATi boards. ATi retain's STRICT quality control over there cards (not as lose an nVIDIA) which can either be a good thing or bad thing. It's good because ATi suffers from less defective cards and better quality Video. It's bad because board vendors are forced (more often then not) to adopt ATi's reference cooler and strict clock speed guidelines.

ATi has lossened up a tad.. but nowhere to the point of becoming as loose as nVIDIA.

Best way to test is to crank up the res.. you'll notice the image doesn't get as fuzzy as it does with an nVIDIA card. Sharper, Crisper, Clearer image (nothing like Matrox but to most users VERY noticeable when switching from nVIDIA).
Too bad the performance lacks in OpenGL. This is where ATI needs SERIOUS work.

You've just proved a point I was making and flammed for. Then again some people don't notice such things. You know.. some people have bad eyesight and see things as being fuzzy regardless.
 
foofighter06 said:
Anyone that says ati vendor warranties suck...and then compares them to evga need to wake up.

I've been thru way more crap with eVGA.

Both ATi RMA's I've made in the past were much easier to complete.

Congrats on teh new card.

I think u made the right choice. ;)
Click to expand...
I think it's due to the shortness of most ATi warranties. Save for Visiontek and Powercolor (Lifetime warranties).

Some people praise eVGA, funny.. a card shouldn't fail. To praise a company for there great RMA service might sound good to some.. but technically you shouldn't HAVE to RMA a card.

eVGA/XFX/BFG - RMA service is great, products suck and fail consistently (7900 series mostly).

I'm not a fan of powercolor or MSI either. ATi or nVIDIA boards alike.. but XFX, BFG, eVGA have all earned the worst graphics card vendor award IMHO. To have cards fail up to 6 times in a span of less then 6months is RIDICULOUS. I have NEVER heard of an ATi, Asus, Visiontek, Sapphire, Gigabyte, MSI, Powercolor etc board suffering the same issues.

There nice summary.
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
Nope.. not crazy at all.

This was part of my argument in the Better Image Quality thread. It's due to the better RAMDAC's on ATi boards. ATi retain's STRICT quality control over there cards (not as lose an nVIDIA) which can either be a good thing or bad thing. It's good because ATi suffers from less defective cards and better quality Video. It's bad because board vendors are forced (more often then not) to adopt ATi's reference cooler and strict clock speed guidelines.

ATi has lossened up a tad.. but nowhere to the point of becoming as loose as nVIDIA.

Best way to test is to crank up the res.. you'll notice the image doesn't get as fuzzy as it does with an nVIDIA card. Sharper, Crisper, Clearer image (nothing like Matrox but to most users VERY noticeable when switching from nVIDIA).
Too bad the performance lacks in OpenGL. This is where ATI needs SERIOUS work.

You've just proved a point I was making and flammed for. Then again some people don't notice such things. You know.. some people have bad eyesight and see things as being fuzzy regardless.
Click to expand...

My eyesight definitely isn't the best, but I was just floored by how different the BIOS splash screen looked when I first booted up.

I fired up my Linux box with a 6600GT and same motherboard to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me and, no, there was noticable difference. I was shocked.

If it is true that Nvidia is cutting corners for higher FPS, that's gonna come around and bite them in the ass someday.

I'm VERY pleased that I made the switch.
 
Child of Wonder said:
My eyesight definitely isn't the best, but I was just floored by how different the BIOS splash screen looked when I first booted up.

I fired up my Linux box with a 6600GT and same motherboard to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me and, no, there was noticable difference. I was shocked.

If it is true that Nvidia is cutting corners for higher FPS, that's gonna come around and bite them in the ass someday.

I'm VERY pleased that I made the switch.
Click to expand...
The only downside is the fan noise. I couldn;t stand the x1K stock cooler. So I switched to watercooling.
 
Child of Wonder said:
My eyesight definitely isn't the best, but I was just floored by how different the BIOS splash screen looked when I first booted up.

I fired up my Linux box with a 6600GT and same motherboard to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me and, no, there was noticable difference. I was shocked.

If it is true that Nvidia is cutting corners for higher FPS, that's gonna come around and bite them in the ass someday.

I'm VERY pleased that I made the switch.
Click to expand...
It's not cutting corners for higher FPS in this case. It's just lower quality components due to not as much emphasis on 2D sharpness.
nVIDIA builds GPU's for gamers. ATi is sort of a cross between Multimedia Users and Gamers. So of course both have different approaches.

Where a company would cut corners for FPS would be AA and AF wise (texture Filtering mainly). nVIDIA is also currently guilty of this with there angle dependant AF. Have you tried ATi's High Quality AF and High Quality Adaptive AA?

Fire up Battlefield 2 (make sure you have the CCC set to application preference for AA and AF but Adaptive AA and High Quality AF ticked). Select AA and AF in game.. and compare for fun..:)
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
It's not cutting corners for higher FPS in this case. It's just lower quality components due to not as much emphasis on 2D sharpness.
nVIDIA builds GPU's for gamers. ATi is sort of a cross between Multimedia Users and Gamers. So of course both have different approaches.

Where a company would cut corners for FPS would be AA and AF wise (texture Filtering mainly). nVIDIA is also currently guilty of this with there angle dependant AF. Have you tried ATi's High Quality AF and High Quality Adaptive AA?

Fire up Battlefield 2 (make sure you have the CCC set to application preference for AA and AF but Adaptive AA and High Quality AF ticked). Select AA and AF in game.. and compare for fun..:)
Click to expand...

I have a VF900 I'm about to install once I get some new thermal tape or RAMsinks.

Yes, I've been playing Star Trek Bridge Commander and FEAR with those settings on and it looks great.

Once that new cooler is installed I'm hoping the card can just stay overclocked at 650/1550 permanently and I shouldn't need to upgrade for quite some time.
 
Predator_CITF said:
A TPII 550W has had quite a bit of trouble, especially notorious lately for underpowering the +12v rail. You're not gonna get very pleasing results with the X1900XT.
Click to expand...


I've got a TPII 550W and it runs my XTX @ 750/850 just fine. :rolleyes:
 
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