ATI or nVidia?

[JulesMaximus]

I can get a ATI 9800 Pro or an FX5900 (non-Ultra) for about the same price (within $20). I am curious what opinions are on the differences between these two excellent video cards-please, no bashing, just honest opinions. I looked at the latest reviews on Toms Hardware and the FX5900 beats the ATI 9800 Pro in almost every category for fps so I'm leaning towards the FX5900. I was originally going to try to stay under $250 but the jump in performance for the extra $100 has me rethinking this.

Or should I just wait a couple months and see what is new and improved in the world of video cards at that time.

Damn, when is Doom III going to be available?

 

[McArra]

Doom is said to be released in spring of 2004. I'd choose 9800Pro because it seem to be better with non-standard-benchmarking games such as GTA:vice City, Unreal II, Warcraft III etc. The review i'm refering to is in www.gamepc.com, in the 5900 shootout I think. Apart from that NVidia is not playing fairly these days with the in game cheating. And 980Pro Shaders are much more powerfull (for future games). Anyway, both are great cards, so, it's up to you.

 

[SickBeast]

if you're buying a high end card for doom 3 i would reccomend against it. it looks like it's going to take the R420 or greater to run the game nicely. if you wait until the fall you won't be disappointed; i've read that both ati and nvidia will be offering 16-pipeline cards, which is double that of the 9800 and 5900.

right now your best bet would be the 9700 non pro, and only if you play games like unreal 2, ut2003, and splinter cell.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Well, I'm playing UT2k3 with a Geforce3 TI500 card right now and it looks pretty good to me. Maybe it would be much better with another card but it certainly isn't slow or choppy on my system. AMD Athlon 2800 XP+ Barton, Nforce 2 motherboard and 1 gig of RAM.

I may just wait a while longer and see what comes out in the next few months.

 

[oldfart]

Doom III in Spring 04

Half-Life 2 in Sept 03.

 

[NYHoustonman]

I still don't think either HL2 or Doom 3 will need what you guys are assuming, but that is yet to be seen. IMO, anything 9700+ would be great. I, myself, am getting either the 9800 np or pro for HL2.

I would definetly go with the 9800 pro if I were you. Better performance, and, IMO, at this point a better looking future.

 

[Pete]

Firstly, I wouldn't base my video card purchasing decisions on THG reviews. Secondly, I wouldn't buy a new card for HL2 or D3 until the games are released and you see benchmarks on the actual games.

But if you must buy now, the 9800P seems to be the better card in almost every way (despite what THG thinks).

 

[videoclone]

Get a Nvidia Geforce FX 5900 ... Its better then a CRAPPY POINTLESS STUPID WORTHLESS SLOW ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

hehe

ATI make all the worst cards that glitch and crash and have heaps of problems ... avoid them like a plague!!!