Buying new PC / ATI or nVidia?

[CanSee]

thought of buying a new PC;
I am rarely gaming, mostly EMU
For graphic design, would an ATI or GeForce card be better?
(refering to colors, gamma value, etc.) or is that the same?

There are ATI Radeon VIVO cards for the 9200 series. What about 9600? Do some models have VIVO? What about nVidia? Would be cool, cuz I have little space for an extra TV in my room.
For DVD playback ATI has this eye candy options I heard of, do nVidia cards have those, too?

TNX in advance

[smcd]

The "All in Wonder" series (9600, 9800, etc) have accessories to hook up external video sources (camcorders, etc), and also have a TV tuner, which can also handle analog cable (don't know about digital), onboard.

[Stezo2k]

The Nvidia Geforce 6600 is the most valuble for money at the moment

brilliant performance and well priced

ATI and Nvidia are pretty much equal with their top of the range cards

Nvidia Excels in Open GL
ATI Excels in Direct X

[sheik124]

ATI Excels in Direct X
The GeForce 6600GT mopped the floor with the X700 Pro in Half-Life 2 in Anandtech's recent test, so your once-true statement has changed with the GeForce 6 Series

[Stezo2k]

The GeForce 6600GT mopped the floor with the X700 Pro in Half-Life 2 in Anandtech's recent test, so your once-true statement has changed with the GeForce 6 Series

Yeah? Didn't expect that, do you have a link for these benchmarks? I did hear that Nvidia was improving direct x performance in their drivers, might be due to that?

[RJARRRPCGP]

For mostly just Nintendo 64 emulation, a processor upgrade is the way to go.

I recommend at least an Athlon XP that can do at least 2.1 ghz (real frequency).
Definitely don't require anything more than a Radeon 9600 Pro or GeForce FX5700 for a video card.

With Goldeneye 007, I recommend at least an Athlon XP that can OC to 2.25 ghz.

[sheik124]

most people don't have the balls to mess with their new toys, with things like OC'ing and what not.
not trying to discriminate racially or anything, but judging by where you're from, i am guessing you don't have all the money in the world to blow on a PC (or any other unneccesary toys) but using Glide64 with your voodoo card should give you some nice results, even with your constrained CPU. if you want a cheap upgrade to go with, the best option would be something like a GeForce FX 5200, a Sempron 2800+, 512 MB of DDR RAM, and an ASRock mobo of some sorts, they make reliable yet cheap motherboards. if you have some more cash to blow, get like a GeForce 6600GT AGP and an Abit NF7-S, a gig of ram, and an Athlon XP Mobile, should be able to push her enough for playable framerates in n64 emus, and it'll do good in current games like Doom 3 and Half Life 2 as well

[AlphaWolf]

Don't ever select a video card based on the brand. They'll always outdo one another at some point in time. Just get the card that offers the best price/performance ratio. Every time I need a new video card, I buy the best one that $200 can buy as an ironclad rule, as that is usually where the best price/performance break is. Hasn't failed me yet.

[soccerboi00]

personally, i think ATI is the best and many of the people with problems posted on the forums are using NVIDEA Geforces. Plus ATI has given their technology to generic companys so they can build an ATI graphics card for cheaper. Like the Xtasy 128MB PCI card I have. I got it for $30 after main-in rebates at CompUSA (they were out of AGP 8x ones, otherwise I would have gotten that).

[sheik124]

personally, i think ATI is the best and many of the people with problems posted on the forums are using NVIDEA Geforces. Plus ATI has given their technology to generic companys so they can build an ATI graphics card for cheaper. Like the Xtasy 128MB PCI card I have. I got it for $30 after main-in rebates at CompUSA (they were out of AGP 8x ones, otherwise I would have gotten that).
Wow, your one of the dumbest fanboys I've ever seen.

1. its spelled nVidia, not nVidea
2. nVidia doesn't even build their own graphics cards, they only supply chips to card manufacturers. And ATI did not give them "technology", they simply sell them VPUs
3. You don't even know what you got for 30 dollars, there is no Radeon Xtasy, thats just a brand sub-name

/rant

[milen]

Nvidia or ATI :happy:
Apple or Orange

If you're not fan of something it dosen't matter which of both.
Consider your price and buy something in range that isn't 64bit. For graphic design you need ram not videocard

[ScottJC]

I just bought an ATI X800 Pro, so I guess I chose Orange :P

Seriously though go for whatever performs better, and because of the X800's price I wouldn't advise going for it unless you are a nutter like me... bought it on an impulse buy, it's arriving tomorrow, can't wait!

[vampireuk]

Really can we please capitalise NVIDIA as that is how it is bloody spelt :P

[Eagle]

Really can we please capitalise NVIDIA as that is how it is bloody spelt :P

Actually its spelled nVIDIA in the logo. But everywhere else on the website it says NVIDIA.

[WildNinji]

I suggest you to buy an ATi, the second best you can afford ;)
Usually the best you can afford is not worth all that money; most of the time the second one is the best buy.

[vampireuk]

Actually its spelled nVIDIA in the logo. But everywhere else on the website it says NVIDIA.

Who worked for a NVIDIA site, who worked for a NVIDIA site, who worked for a NVIDIA site. Get the point? :P

The logo is just used since it looks better than a logo in full caps.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Wow, your one of the dumbest fanboys I've ever seen.

1. its spelled nVidia, not nVidea



Reminds me when some fanboys call an Athlon an Athalon. LOL

[ScottJC]

Yes, it would be a shame if the net didn't have perfect spelling and letter casing wouldn't it?

[mezkal]

As someone who HAS worked in the press I would say that NVIDIA would be very careful to make clear with specific instructions as to how their Corporate Logo is to be displayed, probably even going so far as supplying complete "press packs" of scaled and correctly presented versions of their logos. Some companies even go so far as to supply a font and colour charts that their artwork uses, so that their partners can create similarly theme content which maintains NVIDIA's Corporate Identity.

Now Eagle, by your definition you are comparing the handling of food to the handling of IP (Intellectual Property). Sure you need clean hands for both, but a working and aware conciousness (unless you want to get sued) is ALSO a requirement for the latter. :P

[Eagle]

Now Eagle, by your definition you are comparing the handling of food to the handling of IP (Intellectual Property). Sure you need clean hands for both, but a working and aware conciousness (unless you want to get sued) is ALSO a requirement for the latter. :P


I know, I'm just arguing for the sake of argument, I actually think he is right since everywhere on the website they capitalize it except in the logo. My point there was that just becasue you worked on a website that dealt with NVIDIA products, doesn't make you an expert. I recently started a job working with a major software producer and on the system I am typing this on I have an NVIDIA chipset which I am not allowed to tell you the name of due to a confidentiality agreement. Yet I still don't consider myself an expert.

[vampireuk]

As someone who HAS worked in the press I would say that NVIDIA would be very careful to make clear with specific instructions as to how their Corporate Logo is to be displayed, probably even going so far as supplying complete "press packs" of scaled and correctly presented versions of their logos. Some companies even go so far as to supply a font and colour charts that their artwork uses, so that their partners can create similarly theme content which maintains NVIDIA's Corporate Identity.

They do have rules on how to use the logo.

[sheik124]

grrr, all I was saying is its an I not an E, from now on, I'm spelling it NViDiA to piss you all off

quick quote from NVIDIA's image kit:


Writing NVIDIA
The correct way of writing NVIDIA is in all uppercase letters. The name NVIDIA, when used to describe NVIDIA products or
technologies, should include a registered trademark on first reference. For example, NVIDIA® GeForce.

[vampireuk]

Pointless argument has been removed, back on topic.

[Eagle]

As for the video cards, I suggest ATI. NVIDIA has good cards but the problem with them is their driver support. You might think the driver support is good because they release updates so quickly but in fact, the updates are only to boost speed with the absolute newest string of cards. They never fix any bugs or other problems. I still have a defunct Geforce 3 Ti200 at home and it just doesn't run a lot of games. A few off the top of my head are SimCity 4, Spiderman The Movie, and 2 of the 3 main Lord of the Rings games among others. The games just crash when I start them and NVIDIA refused to fix the problem, they work fine on my brothers ATI.

[Stezo2k]

I still have a defunct Geforce 3 Ti200 at home and it just doesn't run a lot of games. A few off the top of my head are SimCity 4, Spiderman The Movie, and 2 of the 3 main Lord of the Rings games among others. The games just crash when I start them and NVIDIA refused to fix the problem, they work fine on my brothers ATI.

Strange, I was pretty happy with my geforce 3 when i got rid of mine, was running Doom 3 fine and full speed at 1024 x 768 (Med settings) and games like it around the same settings, never had any problems running any games though....

[vampireuk]

They never fix any bugs or other problems.

The same can be said for ATI, they release drivers constantly with new features to please people but the latest versions still have the same bugs from 3.9. I've spoken personally to a member of the Catalyst driver team about the problems and nothing came of it. I've always found NVIDIA drivers to be far more stable.

[fivefeet8]

You can't really compare driver quality when both Ati/Nvidia have their fair share of problems. On that note, I've never had much problems with Nvidia drivers on my geforce 4 ti 4600, Fx5900u, or my 6800 ultra.

[Clements]

Lets not talk about ATi drivers and Linux or OpenGL :P

[milen]

My opinion : both are the same :P . If you like ATI buy ATI, If you like NVIDIA buy NVIDIA

in code:
randomize();
a = random(0,1);
if(a<0.5) { buy ati }
if(a>0.5) { buy nvidia }
if(a==0.5) { bad chance don't buy anything, you're unlucky person }
:happy: