Hardware Analysis - ATI vs NVidia

Re: ATI vs NVidia

tingc222 — 2005-08-28T22:14:00-05:00

hmm...seems like THOUSANDS!

just search "ATI nvidia" and look at all the posts

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Adam Kolak — 2005-08-28T21:47:57-05:00

Yeah, ATI is a candian company. There headquaters are in Canada.

I would really want to know how many threads have the title: "ATI vs. Nvidia" or something like it.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

tingc222 — 2005-08-28T21:35:34-05:00

I love my X800XL (Thanks for the recommendation Supreet) And you can't take that away from me.

The VIVO and ATI Rage theater is an added bonus (so is the blue LED fan, compliment of MSI). I tried it and it looks awesome.

It runs at amazing temps too, @~45C idle, ~55C load

Not overclocked. No like overclocking.

Also, It's Canadian! (no offense or anything)

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Thema Guishard — 2005-08-28T21:10:22-05:00

This site has an excellent review on image quality between ati and nvidia.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/imagequalityshootout/page4.asp

Personally, I'm an ATI fan, but I won't be bias.

Based on the images produced by firingsquad:

ATI = Better Antialiasing all around
NVIDIA = Better Anistropic Filtering at far locations and sharper image.

With both Antialising(4x) and Anistropic Filtering (8x) enabled, NVIDIA seems to have a better image than ATI.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

varun rao — 2005-08-16T19:39:33-05:00

Actually Sander, I too was quite intrigued by ur opening statement...about how Nvidia had beaten every single ATI card out there..... Prior to the 7800 GTX.... the X850 XT PE held top spot. Under this category we had 6800U, 6800GT and the 6600GT . Now correct me if I'm wrong, even though Nvidia were the first to release their 6600 adn 6800 series, they were overpriced. When ATI released a well priced product (X800 series) the initial reaction was that the Nvidia cards were priced higher cause they were better. But the fact of the matter was that the X800 XL and X800 XT were cheaper than the 6800GT and Ultra but offered perfomance that was on par.. and sometimes better. Nvidia woke up, took notice of this and dropped the prices on their 6600 and 6800 line up to remain competetive.
Before this the 9800 and 9600 series had literally pulverised the Nvidia FX-JOKE. So from what I can see ATI has always had the reply which would beat any of Nvidias solutions and have always offered more value for money. Its Nvidias position in the graphic industry that has kept their sales going. So it would indeed be incorrect to call any of ATI's solutions inferior to Nvidia's since the only thing giving Nvidia products a reality check on pricing are the Radeons.
ATI's management and marketting may be screwed up and have lost ground to Nvidia..., but the products have been as good and have eventually overtaken their Nvidia counterparts. The same has happened every time in the past and the same shall happen once again with the R520 release.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Supreet Virdi — 2005-08-13T10:45:51-05:00

Sander,

ATI sure lacks in HDR, HDL, SM-3.0, but you cannot say these are the only features that are responsible for better image quality, ATI and Nvidia both renderes screen in their own way. ATI also have some key features which makes image quality merier like, Trueform & 3DC. And the Pixel Version they are using on X800 series card is 2.0b which means that its fully complaint with DirectX 9b, while people think they still support SM 2.0 only.

If I am not miskaten the games you have mentioned are only one (of two or more) to support those Nvidia features?, and game Developers doesn't even utitlize the DX9C to its full potential, there will be plenty of games comming out in 2006 which will fully compliant with SM-3.0, but currently SM-3.0 aren't being implemented. And no way a human eye can see that much detail.

I am 101% agree that Nvidia has the upper hand currently, but this true due to the fact that ATI haven't released a new card based on new cores. ATI is set to release multiple things like Corssfire, R520, RV515 & R530 etc., So, its understood that they are under heavy works. Just before X850XT PE there wasnt' a single Nvidia Card which could compete that monster, Nvidia came out with entirely "new" Architecture, their new core G70 with additional 8 Pixel Pipeline and more Vertex Units, that's why it could take that much lead against X850XT PE which has lesser amount of Pixel and Vertex Units. Otherwise even a 6800Ultra Extreme even on streiods would've been little weaker for X850XT PE.

ATI will support SM-3.0 on their upcomming cards, which means there will be very exciting battle is going to happen. While, this is proved Geforce 7 cards like 7800GTX & 7800GT are good enough for current games but will they able to hold crown against newer ATI cards which will have SM-3.0 and other features?...this is a big question right now. But sure, plenty of people including me will find out very soon about this. R520 is also based on 90nm fabrication, which in terms mean a chip would be good overclocker and would be little cooler than 110nm ATI cards.

Although 90nm is decreased nano-level and supposed to give away more heat, but AMD proved it, 90nm will be scaled to higher frequency without giving away more heat.

As far image quality is concerend, well I dont have ANY regrets whatsoever about ATI and its techniques to make image quality better and merier. I am perfectly happy with the image quality of even 9800PRO which only supports DX9.0, but not DX9b and which I am using from years.

I would like to show you few of my screenshots though:

http://geocities.com/supreet_1/FC.JPG
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/FC2.JPG
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/FC3.JPG
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/FC4.JPG
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/FCP.JPG
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d1_canals_030005.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d1_trainstation_010002.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d1_trainstation_010003.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d1_trainstation_010004.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d2_coast_110001.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/d3_c17_130000.jpg
http://geocities.com/supreet_1/ray.jpg
http://us.share.geocities.com/supreet_1/try1.jpg

If not better

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Shadow_Ops_Airman1 — 2005-08-13T10:03:01-05:00

time to ban this topic, This is stupid, anyways imho i think as long as your happy then who cares, i mean both companies have their Highlights and Lowlights, neither is perfect.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

guru Shane — 2005-08-13T09:52:36-05:00

I think that image quality is more an issue with monitors than it is so much the card. With people's preferences in brightness and all of the other options, (not to even mention what the different default settings are on monitors), then I would be hesitant to base the decision strictly on that. For me anyway, I am more geared toward raw speed and power. Nvidia currently holds this title and has held it since the release of the 7800 GTX. With all of the difficulties that ATI is currently facing, I am seriously starting to wonder about their stability as a business.

With all that aside, the x850's are superior to the 6800's in the majority of games. It has been proven time and time again. If ATI can get their act together, I'm sure that they will release another quality card. Personally, I think that ATI has been trying to do too many things at once. Let's just hope that things get back on track. I know they have made quality products in the past. We'll just have to see what the future holds. I haven't lost hope with them yet, but the clock is ticking. If they don't meet their deadline by the time I have the money for my system, they won't be getting my business. If they think that I'm going to wait on them, they are sadly mistaken.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Mort1616 — 2005-08-13T09:38:01-05:00

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my thread. It's nice to find out more on the comparison of cards than just the raw power. So many times AMD have proved that raw power isn't everything, I lose faith in MHz labels.

Personally:
NVidia may have the best card AT THE MOMENT, but I have faith that ATI will come out of the dark kicking and screaming "we shall not go quietly into the night" and re-claim the performance and quality crown. I'd still consider the ATI for my old games' sake though.

Again a big thanks to everyone for making this thread interesting and useful.

Ben Dyson

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Sander Sassen — 2005-08-12T22:36:55-05:00

Ben,

ATI lacks HDR, High Dynamic Lighting, and SM 3.0, Shader Model 3.0, support which are key features if you want the absolute best image quality. With games like FarCry, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and BF2 these are must-have features, these games don't look nearly as good on ATI hardware. Upcoming games will also use these features to a larger extent, further widening the gap in image quality between ATI and NVIDIA. Currently NVIDIA has the best product, in terms of performance and image quality, period.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Josh — 2005-08-12T15:52:35-05:00

"LOL Josh !!
You missed the "Pure" word though..I am "Pure" ATI WHQQP Ass !!!!!!!!"

Oops, so this is better
I'm 110% Pure NVidia Whoop Ass

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Deadcells — 2005-08-12T15:48:41-05:00

Question...

has anyone run 3D mark 2005 ... what kind of scores should i be getting? Currently hovering around 5500 without any GPU overclock.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Lou Bot — 2005-08-12T15:41:00-05:00

FYI when you post a title with "VS" in it, you are hoping to start a flame war. Beside, Master Chief can kicks Predator's A55 any given day!!!!

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Supreet Virdi — 2005-08-12T15:38:42-05:00

Maxed AGP Voltage?

Pedro, sorry didnt understand that last part a bit.

Re: ATI vs NVidia

Bynar — 2005-08-12T15:36:06-05:00

Stick an ATI silencer rev 4 on an x800, you won't be disappointed.

My X800 XT (stock 500/500), will goto 539/570 with this cooler, although I run it a little down from this at 530/560, and the temps are spot on. Not sure why it won't go to 540 and above on the core, temps are fine, guess its just its limit? Any thoughts people? Would a better power supply help possibly? I've got a 550W qtec cheapo that does the job, but its not brilliant.