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Ati drivers vs Nvidia?

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550W PSU with 32A in the 12V rails is enough to power an HD 4870 or GTX 260. The GTX 260 in idle uses considerably less power than the HD 4870, but in full load, the difference is less than 8W between both in favor of the GTX 260 (AT stock speed)
 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Just thought of something...is it bad to keep turning the fan up and down? I'm planning on keeping it running pretty loud during the day but If I go on at night, I'm assuming I'll have to turn it down because people will be asleep, and I'm hearing these things can get as loud as a blow dryer.

Also need to know if 650W is enough, I was reading reviews on the GTX 260 and someone siad his 680W power supply couldnt handle it. I'm assuming the ATI uses more power.
Click to expand...

650W on a QUALITY PSU is fine, most likely the "680W" wasn't really rated for 680 watts. You won't need more.

Also, the fan will be fine.
 
Originally posted by: JMapleton
Originally posted by: AmberClad
Originally posted by: JMapleton
I prefer nvidia because there seems to be a larger selection of motherboards available.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand your comment...
Click to expand...

There are more nvidia supported motherboards.
Click to expand...

uh NO. there are LESS nvidia supported motherboards.
you're aware that every intel chipset beginning with the p35 (?) support ATI more than nvidia. (crossfire)
 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Get whatever is cheaper. You will not notice a difference in performance.



I really hope this thread doesnt turn into another driver war.
Click to expand...

Well I'm just wondering because my friend told me ATI makes you crash and all that.
Click to expand...

Your friend is wrong. Unless you're going to do Crossfire, Linux, or a X58 board, your experience with ATi and NVIDIA drivers should be largely similar.

The main difference would be ATi gives you the option of DX10.1 and NVIDIA gives you the option of PhysX and stereo 3D. (stereo adds $600 to your cost for glasses and monitor)
 
Originally posted by: nRollo
Originally posted by: eryx24
Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Get whatever is cheaper. You will not notice a difference in performance.



I really hope this thread doesnt turn into another driver war.
Click to expand...

Well I'm just wondering because my friend told me ATI makes you crash and all that.
Click to expand...

Your friend is wrong. Unless you're going to do Crossfire, Linux, or a X58 board, your experience with ATi and NVIDIA drivers should be largely similar.

The main difference would be ATi gives you the option of DX10.1 and NVIDIA gives you the option of PhysX and stereo 3D. (stereo adds $600 to your cost for glasses and monitor)
Click to expand...

QFT!!! nRollo, I am pleasantly suprised hearing this come from you! Kudos for that! 🙂

 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Just thought of something...is it bad to keep turning the fan up and down? I'm planning on keeping it running pretty loud during the day but If I go on at night, I'm assuming I'll have to turn it down because people will be asleep, and I'm hearing these things can get as loud as a blow dryer.

Also need to know if 650W is enough, I was reading reviews on the GTX 260 and someone siad his 680W power supply couldnt handle it. I'm assuming the ATI uses more power.
Click to expand...

I'm running a Q9450, 4GBs, 3 hard drives, 5 fans (~7V each), a DVD, X-Fi and a HD4870 512MB with custom cooling on a Corsair HX520 - that's 520W. It's been running great since day 1 (9 months ago except the HD4870 which I added later). Not a single issue related to power (had a few quirks, mostly resolved).

Hell, I've been running the Quad at 3.2GHz and the Radeon at 800/4000 for some time (not now, don't really need it) and it's been rock stable.

Your 650W will be more than fine. Unless it's some really bad noname POS and the producer put a 6 in front instead of a 4 😉

As for the fan, the stock one was too loud for me at anything over the low 24% 😛 Hence I changed it.

As for the drivers, you'll get a similar experience with both camps. There are a fair share of issues on both sides 😛
 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Just thought of something...is it bad to keep turning the fan up and down? I'm planning on keeping it running pretty loud during the day but If I go on at night, I'm assuming I'll have to turn it down because people will be asleep, and I'm hearing these things can get as loud as a blow dryer.

Also need to know if 650W is enough, I was reading reviews on the GTX 260 and someone siad his 680W power supply couldnt handle it. I'm assuming the ATI uses more power.
Click to expand...

The fan will be fine. In all honesty, you can leave it set to auto, the GPU temps might be a bit high (80C+) but it shouldn't affect anything. As long as it runs stable, then you don't need to push the fan speed higher if you don't want. A lot of people just like seeing their GPU at lower temps that they're used to seeing. For my card, anything below 40% fan is quite quiet, and that keeps the GPU plenty cool. You can see where the fan is set by the factory when you get the card, push it up a few percent at a time until you are happy with the temps, and it probably will still be very quiet... that way you won't have to adjust the fan constantly.

If you have a good 650 watt power supply you'll be fine. A good quality 680 watt power supply would almost be enough to handle 2 GTX260's or 4870's in SLI/Crossfire... it should have no problem with a single card. My guess is whoever wrote that either has a garbage power supply or has some other problem but thinks it is the power supply.
 
Originally posted by: JMapleton
Originally posted by: AmberClad
Originally posted by: JMapleton
I prefer nvidia because there seems to be a larger selection of motherboards available.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand your comment...
Click to expand...

There are more nvidia supported motherboards.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? You should be able to run any modern Nvidia card or AMD card in any motherboard that has the proper slot (PCIE today mostly). Also, I'm willing to bet there are for more motherboards that support Crossfire (AMD) then SLI (Nvidia) in people's computers right now.
 
Alright thanks for the feedback, everyone's been really helpful.

@Spyder, if the graphics card is constantly at 80C wouldn't that eventually cause it to fry or mess up? and how cool will the fan running at 40% keep the gfx card?
 
Originally posted by: instantcoffee
Originally posted by: nRollo
Originally posted by: eryx24
Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Get whatever is cheaper. You will not notice a difference in performance.



I really hope this thread doesnt turn into another driver war.
Click to expand...

Well I'm just wondering because my friend told me ATI makes you crash and all that.
Click to expand...

Your friend is wrong. Unless you're going to do Crossfire, Linux, or a X58 board, your experience with ATi and NVIDIA drivers should be largely similar.

The main difference would be ATi gives you the option of DX10.1 and NVIDIA gives you the option of PhysX and stereo 3D. (stereo adds $600 to your cost for glasses and monitor)
Click to expand...

QFT!!! nRollo, I am pleasantly suprised hearing this come from you! Kudos for that! 🙂
Click to expand...

His friend was wrong, most of ATis driver issues are with CF from what I've read. Had no issues with the 4850 I had recently other than the bug I bought it to verify.

That was my experience with the X1800s I had and the X800XT PE as well- nothing notable, just worked for my uses.

 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Alright thanks for the feedback, everyone's been really helpful.

@Spyder, if the graphics card is constantly at 80C wouldn't that eventually cause it to fry or mess up? and how cool will the fan running at 40% keep the gfx card?
Click to expand...

I doubt 80C will kill the card before you are ready to upgrade. I honestly don't know what 40% fan will keep a reference card at, my card uses a non-reference cooler. Maybe someone else can give you a ballpark figure. But, I think the reference design keeps the fan well under 40%, so if you push it to 40% you should see decent temps. 40% is a about the cut-off range from what I've read. Some peole can handle more, but that is about where it becomes annoying... again, this is just from what I've read, ~40%. My card isn't annoying until about 45% for me, but again I'm using a 3rd party cooler. Someone else will have to answer for the reference. But I wouldn't worry too much about 80C GPU temps, personally.
 
Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Originally posted by: eryx24
Alright thanks for the feedback, everyone's been really helpful.

@Spyder, if the graphics card is constantly at 80C wouldn't that eventually cause it to fry or mess up? and how cool will the fan running at 40% keep the gfx card?
Click to expand...

I doubt 80C will kill the card before you are ready to upgrade. I honestly don't know what 40% fan will keep a reference card at, my card uses a non-reference cooler. Maybe someone else can give you a ballpark figure. But, I think the reference design keeps the fan well under 40%, so if you push it to 40% you should see decent temps. 40% is a about the cut-off range from what I've read. Some peole can handle more, but that is about where it becomes annoying... again, this is just from what I've read, ~40%. My card isn't annoying until about 45% for me, but again I'm using a 3rd party cooler. Someone else will have to answer for the reference. But I wouldn't worry too much about 80C GPU temps, personally.
Click to expand...

About the bolded part, I'm planning on using this computer for a good 4 years, I'm not planning on spending money on it too much.
 
Just thought of something, when I download ATI tray tools, do I still need to download the driver or does it have it installed in it.
 
Let's put it this way: If I had all my money back from buying two 4850s, I would shell out a little more and get a GTX 280(285, 295, whatever is highest). 🙂 The ATI drivers have been pretty bad.
 
Originally posted by: eryx24
Just thought of something, when I download ATI tray tools, do I still need to download the driver or does it have it installed in it.
Click to expand...
ATT doesn't have any drivers as it's only as CCC alternative. You'll find driver only on ATi site if you don't want CCC.
 
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