I've had both and right now my computer is sporting a Nvidia Winfast A360 DDR3.
It;s not bad for now but I may end up getting a ATi Radeon 9800 pro . Any
suggestions?
its a little bit of preference. the best cards from each company are pretty much
the same, but each have different specs that separate them. nvidia needs more
power, is more expensive, and blocks the pci port next to it, but it has new
technology (forgot what its called) that will improve gfx for future games,
although no current games have it. ati is pretty much the opposite of what i
just said, requiring less power, less expensive, and smaller so it only uses the
agp port and doesnt block other slots. it doesnt have the new gfx engines that
nvidia has though.
imo i think ati is better if ur on a tight budget like i am, and since i
designed my comp to be red and silver (red mobo, silver case, silver optical
mouse, red gfx card, red LEDs) i use ati cards.
Ha, funny that you mentioned you comp has a color theme, Zhalfirin. I have the
Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and the card is completely red, so is the fan on it.
What's great about my card is that it has to ability to be overclocked, but I'm
not about to do that.
Not all the top end nVidia cards take up the PCI slot next to them as single
slot cooling is quite common. nVidia seem to have beaten ATi in this round of
cards as the 6800gt is superior to the X800 Pro and the 6800 Ultra is more
powerful than the x800xt PE in the majority of benchmarks.
The best card for the money you're looking to spend would be either a 6600gt or
a x700xt .
I'd wait a bit before buying a new card, mainly because of the new PCI-Express
cards and mobos coming out. If you buy an AGP card now, you'll probably be
kicking yourself later on when if you get a pci-e mobo; on the other hand,
getting both a pci-e mobo and graphics card now is probably a bit
costly.
On the ATI vs nvidia issue; for me its a non-issue. nvidia cards work for better
under Linux than ATI cards, so I'm sticking 100% to my GeForce FX 5600.
ive been looking into pcie cards too. ive read about a mobo that lets u use 2
gfx cards in it, 1 going at 16x and the other at 8x. seems pretty nice
on the topic of ocing, or flashing as some ppl call it, all cards can be with
the right cooling. ocing can save u alot of money if u kno how to do it. lets
take the radeon 9800 PRO 256mb for example. if you buy the card (about $250) and
a fan for it (~50) you can make it go as fast as a 9800 XT, which costs about
$350. so u get the same gfx card and 50 bucks for other stuff =)
Don't let pci-e bother you at the moment, there is no need. AGP will be here for
another couple of years because there are just too many people who aren't
willing to buy a whole new motherboard and graphis card.
PCI-E does allow you to run two graphics cards together. This is called SLI and
is currently only supported by nVidia. It has the advantage of buying one and
then getting a second at a later date.
For the money you're looking at spending, I would suggest just waiting a couple
of months and then picking up a very nice AGP card on the cheap.
Got a HiS ATI Radeon 9800 PRO myself works quite fine most of the time, but
seems most games that are released are optimized for Nvidia so perhaps buying
one of those would be best out of a gaming point of view. I prefer ATI though
and gonna stick with mine for a while.
I've had both and right now my computer is sporting a Nvidia Winfast A360 DDR3. It;s not bad for now but I may end up getting a ATi Radeon 9800 pro . Any suggestions?
I would wait until after Christmas and see what happens with prices. You could end up with a high end card at a greatly reduced price
.
its a little bit of preference. the best cards from each company are pretty much the same, but each have different specs that separate them. nvidia needs more power, is more expensive, and blocks the pci port next to it, but it has new technology (forgot what its called) that will improve gfx for future games, although no current games have it. ati is pretty much the opposite of what i just said, requiring less power, less expensive, and smaller so it only uses the agp port and doesnt block other slots. it doesnt have the new gfx engines that nvidia has though.
imo i think ati is better if ur on a tight budget like i am, and since i designed my comp to be red and silver (red mobo, silver case, silver optical mouse, red gfx card, red LEDs) i use ati cards.
Ha, funny that you mentioned you comp has a color theme, Zhalfirin. I have the Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and the card is completely red, so is the fan on it. What's great about my card is that it has to ability to be overclocked, but I'm not about to do that.
Not all the top end nVidia cards take up the PCI slot next to them as single slot cooling is quite common. nVidia seem to have beaten ATi in this round of cards as the 6800gt is superior to the X800 Pro and the 6800 Ultra is more powerful than the x800xt PE in the majority of benchmarks.
The best card for the money you're looking to spend would be either a 6600gt or a x700xt
.
I'd wait a bit before buying a new card, mainly because of the new PCI-Express cards and mobos coming out. If you buy an AGP card now, you'll probably be kicking yourself later on when if you get a pci-e mobo; on the other hand, getting both a pci-e mobo and graphics card now is probably a bit costly.
On the ATI vs nvidia issue; for me its a non-issue. nvidia cards work for better under Linux than ATI cards, so I'm sticking 100% to my GeForce FX 5600.
ive been looking into pcie cards too. ive read about a mobo that lets u use 2 gfx cards in it, 1 going at 16x and the other at 8x. seems pretty nice
on the topic of ocing, or flashing as some ppl call it, all cards can be with the right cooling. ocing can save u alot of money if u kno how to do it. lets take the radeon 9800 PRO 256mb for example. if you buy the card (about $250) and a fan for it (~50) you can make it go as fast as a 9800 XT, which costs about $350. so u get the same gfx card and 50 bucks for other stuff =)
Don't let pci-e bother you at the moment, there is no need. AGP will be here for another couple of years because there are just too many people who aren't willing to buy a whole new motherboard and graphis card.
PCI-E does allow you to run two graphics cards together. This is called SLI and is currently only supported by nVidia. It has the advantage of buying one and then getting a second at a later date.
For the money you're looking at spending, I would suggest just waiting a couple of months and then picking up a very nice AGP card on the cheap.
for the latest cards.. i've read a 26pages review..
so.. i'll just summarise the conclusion...
overall they said..
X800XT vs GF 6800 ultra Winner : x800xt
x800pro vs GF 6800 PRO Winner : GF 6800 pro
Ati of course Radeon 4 Life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got a HiS ATI Radeon 9800 PRO myself works quite fine most of the time, but seems most games that are released are optimized for Nvidia so perhaps buying one of those would be best out of a gaming point of view. I prefer ATI though and gonna stick with mine for a while.