What's your favorite card from "the other guys" than you typically buy?

GoodBoy

GoodBoy

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I have tended to buy nvidia over the last 10 years, mainly because of usually good performance, better cooling (historically), and less driver issues (historically).

My favorite ATI card, which I still have in a drawer, is an ATI Mach32 Vesa Local Bus.

This thing was my card in a windows 3.1 box around 1994, 1995, and it was smoking fast. Has 512kb ram and another 512kb in these funny add in chips that press into sockets (alternating leads from side to side). I had to RMA it a few times over the life of that old pc, but it was always fast. Plasma gun in doom was like a constant flow. :) in multiplayer games it gave me an advantage for sure.
 
I've owned 3 video cards in my tenure as a PC gamer. Gefore4 ti4200, 7800GTX, and my current card which is a 9800GT. My next purchase will be an XTX 5850. We'll see how it goes. :)
 
I'm a total mercenary, I've jumped ship to the current "king" over and over- the exact opposite of any kind of "fan". To pick one out...I remember buying the Radeon 9800_ and being amazed.
 
My only Nvidia card was a GF ti4200. It was for my wife's computer (I believe I was running a Radeon 9800 pro at the time). It made the computer hard reboot about 3 seconds after launching a 3D game.

Found out with some googling that it was because the ti4200 was pulling slightly more voltage than the AGP 2x? spec, and the VIA motherboard couldn't handle the out of spec power draw. Had to return it for a refund, and picked up another Radeon 8500 IIRC instead.

I did just put a passively cooled 9400GT for my wife's Shuttle. It's running a different OS though which plays much nicer with Nvidia.

I'm not a giant fanboy...just whenever I ended up doing an upgrade, ATI had better bang/buck somehow, or performed better with the games I wanted to play.
 
I remember getting an ATI Radeon 9600XT just so I could play Battlefield: Vietnam as the built-in card in my old HP didn't support it.

When I was finally able to build my own system I went with the now classic Nvidia 8800GT. Upgraded to a GTX 260 eventually.

Likely going to swing back to ATI with either their 5870 or 5970 around march if Nvidia doesn't "produce the goods". I already have my 3 monitors on the way for Eyefinity (or "surround gaming")...the pain is in the waiting.
 
From an 8500gt>8800gt>4870>GTX260>8600gt>4890. Not a a big ATI fan and most likely next card will be GF100 prolly in december '10
 
I've owned nothing but ATI cards in my main machines.
RAGE 128 Pro > X1600Pro > X1900XT > HD 3870 > HD 4850 Crossfire > HD 5850 > HD 3450

I did have an XFX 8800GT that I used in a secondary machine for folding. It was a solid little card that handled any WU or game that I threw at it for a 19" widescreen monitor.
 
Here is all I can think of in recent memory:
First computer: Some sort of old Trident video card.
Old Athlon XP machine: SiS integrated -> TNT2 (PCI) -> FX5200 (PCI)
Old 754 Athlon 64 machine: FX5200 (PCI) -> Radeon 9600 Pro (AGP) -> GeForce 7600GS (AGP)
Current AM2+ machine: Radeon HD 5750

There is a special place in my heart for my 9600 Pro.
 
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kpedge said:
I'm a total mercenary, I've jumped ship to the current "king" over and over- the exact opposite of any kind of "fan". To pick one out...I remember buying the Radeon 9800_ and being amazed.
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I don't think it's being mercenary, it's just being a sensible consumer that likes to make informed purchases. You just buy whatever meets your needs when it's time to upgrade.

People get so tribal about their GPU's, it's just another excuse for a fight (along with religion and football and nationality, or whatever ridiculous excuse someone comes up with to attack another person).
 
dug out my old Symmetric (by STB) GLyder TX Gold a few days ago, that card is still badass in my book (for that matter, so is anything 3DLabs based, REALiZM 800 is still on my wishlist)
 
Lets see, I had a Radeon 9600 Pro, then a 7800GS, then a X800XT AIW, then 2 original 8800GTS' in SLI, then 2 8800 GTs, then a 9800GX2, then a 4870 512MB, then a 4870 1GB, then a GTX 260, then a GTX 280, and now a HD5870..

ATI has been my Alpha and Omega so far..
 
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Hmmm.
My history...
GeForce FX 5200 --> X1950XT --> HD4850 --> HD4850X2 --> (laptop) HD4870X2

As you can see, I haven't been building for very long >.<
 
Happy with every card I have bought from both companies.

6800gt, 7600gt, x1950xt, 9600gt, all suburb cards at when I bought them were best bang for the buck.

My Q6600x9600gt sli setup is pushing 2 years old now and I still have no reason to upgrade aside from wanting eyefinity. and looking into my crystal ball that shows me the gimped down graphics of games of the future like BF3 and Diablo 3, I'll need no upgrade. 5+ years out of a gaming system is a nice feeling.

My SSD upgrade doesn't count but damn it added new life to a 2 year old computer.
 
Almost every card I've bought in the last decade or so has been an Nvidia card...and had Fermi not taken so long I'd probably still be using one. However my Radeon 9800 pro was one of the best cards I've ever owned. It's up there with the 8800 GTX on my all-time list.
 
obobski said:
thats like a Ford Ka to a Shelby GT500 in one jump
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Haha, I know. I hung on to that FX 5200 for a loooong time.
I had insufficient funds to upgrade, haha. That was on my old Socket A build, then I built a Socket 939 system, then an AM2+ system, and now I'm on a laptop.
 
My favorite? urgh, I guess the 9600. That was a damn good card, and the first chance I got to play CS:S and Doom 3 reasonably on my own PC. So more than just the hardware, that card really represented a lot of awesome fun gaming. After that I picked up a 6600GT which was nice, but disappointing.
 
I started with voodoo cards, then moved on to nvidia (I have a gf 1, gf2 mx440, gf3, gf4 ti4600, 6800ultra, 7950gt, 3x9800gtx, 3xgtx260)

But I think my two favorite cards were the radeon 9700 pro, and my shiny new set of 5870s. The 9700 pro lasted so long, and it really dusted anything else in it's price range at the time.
 
Been an NVIDIA man since the GeForce 4 series.. so much so that I can't deny that I purchased the GeForce FX 5900 XT for $190. :( GeForce4 MX440 -> GeForce 4 Ti4200 -> GeForce FX 5900 XT :( -> GeForce 6600 GT -> GTS 250 -> HD 5850

I've wanted an ATI card ever since I had that bloody miserable 5900.. NVIDIA marketing and TWIMTBP overcame any possible research interest I had. I'd been lusting for the 9700/9800 ever since I plugged the 5900 in.

I would have gotten the X700 XT but I got pulled away with the hoopla about Shader Model 3.0c, the lack of AIBs for the X700 XT, and the more attractive price of the 6600.

But the 5850 is a damn good card. Really, really impressive for the wattage, which was a very important factor for me.
 
My first computer came with a voodoo unknown back them and still unknown. It was a gateway 555mhz something something.
Once I bought my own computer, a Sony vaio with a 1.8ghz p4 and a tnt2 32mb I never went to anyone but Nvidia.
tnt2>ti4200>6800>8800>gtx260>hopefully sli with another 260 or this so called fermi
 
I was a die hard Nvidia for for years because I loved my Riva TNT (am I dating myself with that comment?).... but I eventually got a Radeon 9800 (AIW, to be exact) and since then its whatever I think is the better deal.
 
In total, I've owned a 9600XT, 6500gt(I believe, didn't actually buy the card), 9800gtx, and finally my 4890. I'm split down the middle on purchases, but I'd have to say my favorite card(one that I've never owned mind you) would have to be the 8800GTX(if I'm allowed to do this, heh). Talk about legendary performance! I wish I was still big into pc gaming circa 2006, because owning one of those would have been amazing around that time!

My favorite of any of the cards I've owned had to be the 9600XT. I know it wasn't a 9700pro, but damn was I pleased with that card all of 2004/2005 =). It totally wiped the floor with HL:2/CS:S/BF 1942 and other games at 1024x768 with settings cranked up. That and the AMD 2500+ were legendary computer part purchases. I owned the 2400+, which wasn't much of a difference from the 2500+ iirc?
 
MrWizard6600 said:
My favorite? urgh, I guess the 9600. That was a damn good card, and the first chance I got to play CS:S and Doom 3 reasonably on my own PC. So more than just the hardware, that card really represented a lot of awesome fun gaming. After that I picked up a 6600GT which was nice, but disappointing.
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9600XT was the shit :p. The 6600GT was a good card for its time, but maybe a 20% upgrade over the 9600XT, right?
 
zero940 said:
9600XT was the shit :p. The 6600GT was a good card for its time, but maybe a 20% upgrade over the 9600XT, right?
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bit better than that as I recall
6600GT was generally considered to match or best the 9800's, probably closer to 30-40% faster than the 9600XT, plus it had a few extra features like SM3.0
 
6800GT.

revolutionary card. I thought I was running some good stuff w/ my Radeon 9600 but the 6800GT came along
 
Well I guess that would be the 5870. I'm normally an nVidia guy. However, I have a 5870 right now. It is all kind of fast. I will likely dump it for a Fermi, or Fermi's successor though, as it also has a bad case of the gremlins and gray screen crashes occasionally.
 
I'm usually a nVidia guy and have been ever since my first GPU upgrade from a TNT2 Riva to a GF3 Ti200 (I still remember being amazed by the crisp textures in MOHAA), but I've dipped my toes into the red back when ATi released their Radeon 9xxx cards and I plan to do the same thing if my brother decides to build a new gaming rig.

zero940 said:
My favorite of any of the cards I've owned had to be the 9600XT. I know it wasn't a 9700pro, but damn was I pleased with that card all of 2004/2005 =). It totally wiped the floor with HL:2/CS:S/BF 1942 and other games at 1024x768 with settings cranked up.
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This. I remember it was a beast for a mainstream GPU back in its day and it could play anything I threw at it. However, I initially bought its retarded cousin, the 9600 SE, by accident mainly because I was still a noob to the whole video card market. While it was still an upgrade to my aging Ti200, it really couldn't hold a candle to many of the new DX9 games back then.

Then I upgraded to a 9800 pro which was such a beast of a card that it had me playing games from Halo:CE to Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and BF2. It has been sitting on the shelf for the past year or two, but I've recently pulled it out of retirement for a Windows 98 gaming rig I've built from other spare parts.
 
Always bought Nvidia cards (for about 12 years now), but whenever I see an ATI X800/X850 card for cheap, I buy it to use on customer builds/upgrades, as they are so much cheaper than an equivalent Nv card.
 
I think in the PCs I have built for myself, I went:
5700 Ultra - 6600gt - 7800gt - 8600gt - 4870 1gb

I really liked my 6600gts, and had them the longest (I think) of any video card.

My current favorite card is the 4870, as it is the first card I have spent nearly $200 for. All the cards before it were ~$100, so the 4870 really shines to me :p

Oh and the 9700gt I had in my laptop also kicked ass!

I bought/recommended nvdia for the first several years after my interest sparked in PCs, however now I think I will stick with ATI for several years and will continue to use them in all the builds I do for customers.
 
What I honestly don't get is, why do people "typically buy" anything?

Buy the best card for the money you're willing to spend...

I've switched from Nvidia to ATi at will (and I have both right now - a 4870 and a GTX 280) - use the one that does the best at your price point.

The one exception to this I've found is if you're a serious linux user - ATis drivers there still are a bit lacking, but they're getting better.
 
GushpinBob said:
I'm usually a nVidia guy and have been ever since my first GPU upgrade from a TNT2 Riva to a GF3 Ti200 (I still remember being amazed by the crisp textures in MOHAA), but I've dipped my toes into the red back when ATi released their Radeon 9xxx cards and I plan to do the same thing if my brother decides to build a new gaming rig.



This. I remember it was a beast for a mainstream GPU back in its day and it could play anything I threw at it. However, I initially bought its retarded cousin, the 9600 SE, by accident mainly because I was still a noob to the whole video card market. While it was still an upgrade to my aging Ti200, it really couldn't hold a candle to many of the new DX9 games back then.

Then I upgraded to a 9800 pro which was such a beast of a card that it had me playing games from Halo:CE to Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and BF2. It has been sitting on the shelf for the past year or two, but I've recently pulled it out of retirement for a Windows 98 gaming rig I've built from other spare parts.
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I'm planning on getting a legacy rig going from my heydey. It'd be something like an AMD 2500+, 1gb of ddr 400, 9800 pro and 120gig hard drive with a 17-19 inch crt :p. That's a badass 2003-2005 gaming machine right there.
 
I had a Rage 128. What a POS that was. After that, I went nVidia with a TNT2 Ultra (With a Monster 2) , Voodoo 5 , GF2 Ultra , then a Ati Radeon 9600 Pro, which was a nice card, and then back to Nvidia with a 8800 GTS 640MB and now a 260 GTX Core 216. I'd say I prefer nvidia due to better experiences with driver packages and compatibility.

I would not be averse to an ATI (Or AMD as you will) in the future, but right now I'm very happy with the 260 Core 216
 
Onboard unknown --> 3DFX Voodoo 3 (still have it) --> GeForce4 MX440 --> Faulty Radeon 9700 --> Radeon 9800 --> Radeon X700 --> Radeon 4850 --> Quadro FX1400.
 
Cerulean said:
Onboard unknown --> 3DFX Voodoo 3 (still have it) --> GeForce4 MX440 --> Faulty Radeon 9700 --> Radeon 9800 --> Radeon X700 --> Radeon 4850 --> Quadro FX1400.
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Oh lord, don't start these lists. I generally only lose to Kyle and Mark.
 
My favourite card was definitely the Gigabyte GeForce 8800 640MB GTS, back when I bought it in 2007, it served me well. Its a shame I sold it but it doesn't really matter because it was aging and becoming slow.
 
First card I bought was a Diamond Viper 770 (Riva TNT 2) back in 1997 or 98 then a Voodoo 3 and a Geforce 2 GTS, Geforce 4 Ti4200 then a Geforce 6600 GT to a Geforce 7800 GT.. Geforce 8800 GT, and currently a 4870. I'd have to say my favorite out of the bunch were the Geforce 2 and the Geforce 4, I was able to play Doom 3 at 800x600 with the Geforce 4 when it came out. :)

All of which I still own, except for the Geforce 4, I don't know what happend to it. Probably got lost in a move. I think I might have given it away. Oh and the 8800 GT which I traded for a pair of Sennheiser HD570 Headphones.
My next card will probably be a 5850 or the next generation Fermi cards depending on price.
 
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