Nvidia or Radeon?

[Maxipoo12345]

Im looking to buy a new video card and i cannot decide whether to buy from Nvidia or Radeon. Both companies seem well accomplished and i cannot decide between the GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI and the x850 XT Platinum.

Any suggestions?

[morganlefay]

From my experience...Nvidia drivers are more stable than ATI.

Although I havent had to install\use an ATI driver in a while...because I have requested Nvidia over ATI...things may have changed???

IMHO...as always

MLF

[©opy®ight]

Nvidia....just my personal favorite. I bought an ATI TV card and had problems installing it.

[Nokia]

There is no major difference in them now-a-days, IMHO it is a matter of personal choice and budget.

As a kind of rule of thumb if a MoBo I install has a Nvidia Chipset i tend to get a Nvidia card. Wether or not this makes a difference I dont know but it cant do any harm so thats what i do.

Although you are right to be getting PCI -E as again IMHO i feel AGP is in the first steps of being phased out.

Both the graphics cards you suggested or fairly similar (although I would give the x850 XT Platinum the edge) and both support SLI which is the latest thing in graphics - so depends on which one you get the cheapest i would say!

Maybe a very silly question and dont think I am implying anything but have you checked your MoBo supports PCI Express, I only ask because yesterday one of my friends asked me to install a PCI -E G/C for him only for me to have to tell him he had an AGP MoBo.

// O yeah, welcome to AO - not a bad subject for a first post!

[UAnimosity]

If money is no object and you want it right now, pickup a 7800gt or gtx. they're the top cards on the market and in sli they smoke everything out there. in the benches ive seen one of these will beat 2 6800's in sli. only downside is you need a pci-e motherboard for that.

I never noticed a problem with ati's drivers, but right now nvidia has the top spot in the gamer card market.

[nihil]

Hi Maxipoo12345 , and welcome to AO.

You say a "new video card" which implies that you have an existing system. Please could you tell us what your other hardware is, your existing card and your operating system.

Why do you want to replace your card? what do you mostly use your PC for?

The reason I as is that a guy asked a similar question a couple of weeks ago, and it turned out that his existing card was way overspecified for the rest of his kit If he had bought what he was thinking on it would have been a waste of money.

The secret is balance, so I am a little reluctant to recommend a particular component without knowing what it is going to be used with and for

[The Grunt]

Originally posted here by morganlefay
From my experience...Nvidia drivers are more stable than ATI.

Although I havent had to install\use an ATI driver in a while...because I have requested Nvidia over ATI...things may have changed???

IMHO...as always

MLF

I've had ATI cards for the last 3 years with no problems... Don't know if I'm just good, or if they changed it lately.

[morganlefay]

Mostly I am going from AutoCad\Solid Edge hardware recommendations...and a couple of years ago...there was not one ATI card listed


But then again, maybe you are just good!!!

MLF

[The Duck]

Bah, is it just me or is anyone else sick of these threads?? Seriously, if he searched google for nvidia vs ATI a million sites would pop up saying the same thing, Nvidia's drivers are more stable... Hell, AO just in itself has had a ton of threads asking which is better... And surprisingly enough, the same answers are given... I'm not flaming morganlefay, what he said is correct... I don't know how he has the patience to keep repeating himself but seriously folks, try using the search...

Maybe I'm just having a bad day

[nihil]

The Duck

but seriously folks, try using the search...

I actually don't think that searching will help. You will get conflicting information depending on who you ask, that, after all is why both companies are rivals?

The issue falls into two preliminary categories:

1. Is this an upgrade?...........if so what is being upgraded, and I mean the whole system.
2. Is it a new build?

With a new build, there is lots of advice around, particularly on specialist sites for gaming, graphics etc. The answer will generally depend on budget and intended use.

With an upgrade, the question is valid. You can search as much as you like, but the chances of finding someone attempting something similar are quite small.

It is a fact that video card upgrades generally produce very little comparative benefit per dollar, compared to other options. The reason for that is that the latest video cards are intended to be teamed up with the latest MoBos, RAM, HDDs and operating systems.

I go back to my original question...............what is the rest of the system?