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Can software make your decision?

V

VIAN

Diamond Member
May belong in the software forum, but, oh well.

I have to say, I've been thinking about drivers and ATI has made such improvement with drivers. That even if it's not the best performing card, but near the best, I might pick it over Nvidia.

Now, with the introduction of A.I., a really cool new feature in my opinion, it is more clear that great software may sway my money to the red instead of the green.

The fact that they upgrade their drivers monthly.

Also, ATITool makes it easy to OC. Another great addition to the pluses to owning an ATI card.

I know that ATIs hardware is rock solid and I know that the software is rock solid and they keep making it rock solid with every driver update. Good for us.

I'm not saying Nvidia leaves it's cheese out in the wind. Their performance is definitely competetive enough.

What I'm saying is that these things are very positive to me and may offer a better reason that maybe a couple of more frames per second.

Could the software sway you?

And for those of you Nvidia guys, any software benefits that you love from Nvidia.
 
Doom3 was the appetizer, HL2 is the main course.

D3 was an entertaining release but I wouldn't buy a videocard based on it. That said the 6800/6600 series cards hold their own regardless of software, as do the X800/X600 series (besides perhaps the x800pro until it's price is lowered).
 
ATI has improved immensely in drivers over the past 2 years, no question.

What looks really nice now is the X800XT, which supposedly is more than just a limited release.


Basically it boils down to this (at this exact moment in time, in this current generation):

Nvidia:

Better at Linux (nonfactor for most users)
Better at OpenGL
SM 3.0
6800GT > X800 Pro

ATI:
Cards run cooler (generally speaking)
X800XT > 6800GT in DirectX games
Driver improvements over previous generations (AI, Temporal AA, CCC ... hey, they're trying stuff at least)


I'd say, for the moment, it's a toss up between the 6800GT and the X800XT. 6600GT/X700 are a ways off, due to both being PCI-E solutions at the moment.
 
drivers do make a big difference

ATI is improving vastly and I am currently using ATI but I still think Nvidia has definitely had the better set of drivers until now. Glide made 3dfx wonderful, detonators were excellent and catalysts are good, they just took a while before it got to this point.

Nvidia also has cheaper solutions than ATI generally right now so value is definitely in nvidias favor.
 
I'd choose nvidia at the moment because you cant play games like Doom III at high resolutions on any of the High-End ATI cards. Not to mention the 6600GT is actually available, just in very limited quanties.
 
I still perfer Nvidia's drivers to ATI's. NV may not release official driver sets as much as ATI but they still have a few WHQL'd drivers on their FTP site here and there and they work great, for me atleast. ATI's getting better I spose but I don't think they are there yet.
 
I think drivers for the most part are a push between them, and they both have their issues.

I know right now that every driver after 61.77 fubur MPEG-2 video playback on my 6800, especially HD mpeg files, low cpu but the software crashes and the video is a slideshow. I think its related to the newely enabled PVP, which desn't appear to be working correctly on 6800. I also have an issue with 1080i syncing with my Widescreen display using VGA. Even the built-in custom timing utility is fubur with active pixels way-off the chart when trying to configure interlaced resolutions. Powerstrip doesn't seem to work with the later forceware drivers either. I've not yet been able to get it right after a couple months of trying untill I just give up. 480p does work out of the box. My AIW rig is easy to configure for my display, and has the benefit of YPbPr output as well.

Up untill just recently I couldn't play COD without it crashing with my Radeon card unless I reverted back to Cat 3.10 drivers. There have been times where I couldn't play every game with a single set of drivers(after Cat 3.10 set), while I can't recall a game my 6800 had serious issues with, at the moment, I believe that is not the case with my Radeon, all my games now are playing quite well including Doom3.

Software probably makes a bigger deal with AIW vs Personal Cinema. Unless you get the 5700 model which includes FWMM ( I've heard it is quite a bit better than their prior software bundle), the AIW has quite a bit better software package with MMC+ Pinnacle, enough that it could swing your decision on the software package alone.

Something like a hauppage PVR card, the software makes all the difference. With its retail software, its a poor solution...with a good software like SageTV or BTV..its an excellent solution, so a bundle with the right software "should" sway your buying decision.
 
I still perfer Nvidia's drivers to ATI's. NV may not release official driver sets as much as ATI but they still have a few WHQL'd drivers on their FTP site here and there and they work great, for me atleast. ATI's getting better I spose but I don't think they are there yet.
Click to expand...
Do you play on ATI cards?

Just checking your claims, seeing that your sig has an Nvidia card in it.

In my experience, the drivers pretty solid, although when new features are introduced, such as the CCC, it didn't come bug free and I've experienced quite a few, but it shouldn't be long before nearly none exist.
 
I'll just chime in to agree that ATi's catalyst drivers are really excellent. I remember back when I had a Rage II chip and the drivers sucked. I've been using ATi since the 8500 and am very satisfied with their drivers right now. I'm not so sure about the new Control Center though. That thing sucks up memory and resources like mad, in addition to being unstable.

Nvidia's drivers are pretty good as far as I can tell. Tried out a 6800GT, but couldn't deal with the lack of smoothvision-like capabilities.
 
I've had experience with both drivers, and I must say I am more pleased with ATI's drivers, I like their monthly release schedual, and how they improved performance significantly in the last 4-5 sets of drivers (even on my older 9800 Pro), their Temporal AA support even for older hardware and their new CCC. Not saying nVidia's drivers are bad in any way, just saying I "Prefer" ATI's. And By the way I haven't had any problem with either, they're both stable for me.
So I must say the software can pretty much sway my decision on which card to get.
 
Originally posted by: VIAN
I still perfer Nvidia's drivers to ATI's. NV may not release official driver sets as much as ATI but they still have a few WHQL'd drivers on their FTP site here and there and they work great, for me atleast. ATI's getting better I spose but I don't think they are there yet.
Click to expand...
Do you play on ATI cards?

Just checking your claims, seeing that your sig has an Nvidia card in it.

In my experience, the drivers pretty solid, although when new features are introduced, such as the CCC, it didn't come bug free and I've experienced quite a few, but it shouldn't be long before nearly none exist.
Click to expand...

My last card was a 9500 Pro... if that counts. I've had my 6800 GT for about 2 months so I havn't used the last two cat drivers, but before that I upgraded them every release. I'm not saying the drivers are bad by any means. Much better than some peices of hardware I have owned. I just perfer NV's and have had better luck with them. I also like that installing right over top of Nvidia drivers works just fine for me. To get ATI's drivers to work correctly, I always had to go through the whole driver cleaner process. Sure it takes about 5 minutes and isn't hard to do but its a pain IMO.

Some people like the Cats better some people like the FW's better. I just perfer the FW's.

If you think im an NV fan boy I'm far from it. I had preordered a X800 Pro for $340 but then I got on the $300 PNY 6800 GT deal so it came down to price for me nothing else.
 
Understandable. Everyone has different experiences.

I had the complete opposite affect. I installed my ATI drivers right on top of the old uninstalled nvidia drivers. Never had a problem.
 
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