SoulSe Posted March 28, 2004 Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 Pity we can't have polls in the hardware section, none-the-less: I've been threatening to upgrade my graphics adaptor for some time now, my piece-o-shite MX440 is not doing the rest of my system justice. So, the decision is ATI vs. Nvidia. I know we have discussed this many times before, but there are always new cards on the market so I'd like to revisit it. Factors: - Nvidia's propriety drivers seem better. - 2.6 kernels have built-in support for Radeons (still new though). - I only have around $170 (American) for this. - Games are the biggest consideration (naturally). - I'm looking for better performance in NWN and UT2004 So, what say yee?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sttroopers Posted March 28, 2004 Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 (edited) I'd get THIS. Edited March 28, 2004 by sttroopers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nggalai Posted March 28, 2004 Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 (edited) Factors: - Nvidia's propriety drivers seem better. - 2.6 kernels have built-in support for Radeons (still new though). - I only have around $170 (American) for this. - Games are the biggest consideration (naturally). - I'm looking for better performance in NWN and UT2004 So, what say yee?!? Hi SoulSe, first--both NWN and UT2004 are highly CPU limited games, unless you're one of the sad blokes (such as I am) who wants to run at his/her TFT's native resolution which is 1600x1200 or beyond. ;) So should you play at 1280x960 or even below, don't expect any miracles from a new VGA, in those two games. Anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering excluded from that rule of thumb, of course (the MX440 sucks big time at both those features). Second: if you can, wait for another couple of weeks with your purchase. Obviously I can't get too much into details (NDA rock), but both ATI and NVIDIA will present new video cards in the near future. Of course, "launching" cards and having them on the shelf are two different things, but: New video adaptors also mean lower prices for old ones. If there's a new performance/feature king on the hill, you'll get the current crop a couple of 100s cheaper simply because, well, there's better stuff out which doesn't justify the higher price tags on the old boards. Also, at least one of the two competitors will release a whole top-to-bottom line of boards, virtually replacing all boards on its roaster right now, hence ... you get the idea. To phrase it more directly: For $170 (US) you'll soon get video cards that eat the current 170 range boards for breakfast, and then some. So if you can: wait. If you can't, my personal advice in your specific case would be an NV board, simply because both Bioware and Epic are part of the "It's Meant To Be Played" programme by NVIDIA. It's not too bad in the case of Epic (not much more than the splash screen, i.e. marketing), but NWN won't show all graphics effects on non-NV-boards. The joys of coding in OpenGL and sticking NV boards in the devs computers ... If I do a head count in our Linux subforums at 3DCenter.org, there's far more people complaining about ATI support than NV right now. But then, more of the geeks at 3DCenter prefer ATI at the moment, so those numbers don't have to indicate a general "issue" with ATI boards. But if I interpret the postings correctly, getting an NV board up and running for gaming on Linux seems to be a lot less of a hassle than an ATI card. 93, -Sascha.rb Edited March 28, 2004 by nggalai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted March 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 I'd get THIS. Good one! Only problem is ordering from online American stores means running the risk of import duties :| Thank you nggalai for your post - perhaps waiting would be best, although I'm not a big fan of waiting for anything when it somes to my system, because there'll always be something better in a few weeks... that's just me, bus might hit me tomorrow and I never had a cool graphics card :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted March 28, 2004 Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 Nvidia always and forever! Any FX series, depending upon how much you want to spend. I have a FX5200, which is considered bottom of the line, and it is an excellent card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capnkirby Posted March 28, 2004 Report Share Posted March 28, 2004 I reciently was in your position as well, I always told myself and anyone else who would listen that ATI was the way to go. That was before I moved 98% of everything I do to Linux. The ATI support for linux is still young and needs development, where as Nvidia is much more solid. When it came down to it, I bought Nvidia, a FX5200, which while a lower model, is still a very solid card. If you were only looking at windoze, I would still prefer an ATI as the performance for the dollar is much better than that of Nvidia, but with Linux in the picture, it's Nvidia all the way..... Capn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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