General versus

[secretanchitman]

to be honest, i prefer nvidia.

all of the ati cards ive used (9200, 9600XT) always screwed up windows. yes, i ran driver cleaner. yes, i went into safe mode. yes, i had people do it for me. never worked, so i just disliked ATi ever since then. also, ive seen their driver interface and all the programs/crap that comes with the catalyst drivers...bleh. nvidias is just 1 driver for all the cards. yes, the geforce2MX and some other low-end cards arent supported anymore, but thats because they're obviously old.

ati makes some great cards, no doubt about that. but i just prefer nvidia because their purevideo is great and their drivers are definitely a HELL of a lot better than ati's.

 

[rotarychainsaw]

Nvidia.
Linux drivers.
also, when I got my 6800gt the only thing ati had out was the 9800 or whatever the old gen cards were.

 

[BoomerD]

My only real complaint about ATI is the lack of warranty. Once upon a time, they supported their products for 3 yrs. Now, only 1 year. As mentioned above, with today's hotter running cards, that's not showing a lot of confidence in their product IMO. YES, they make the chips and also make the product, which I wish nVidia did as well, and different nVidia vendors offer differing warranties, but the minimum among "quality" manufacturers seems to be 3 yrs, and a couple are offering lifetime and even double-lifetime warranties. That makes the card more valuable, because it increases resale value. I don't know about the rest of you, but buying a used card maked me nervous, because as we all know, "it was only driven on Sunday, by my grandmother, who NEVER overclocked it". Ya just never know what you're getting with a used card, and having the opportunity to have some mfgr warranty is a big plus for a used card.
Drivers have been mentioned. I wouldn't know the first thing about hacking drivers, and honestly, I don't think I should have to. That's ATI/nVidia's job, not mine. I want a card that will play the games right out of the box, without a bunch of messin around.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

I generally preferred ATI because the image quality and third party apps such as ATI Tray Tools. However, I've found nvidia drivers to be easier to deal with, abet not released as often as ATI's.

 

[SolMiester]

Hmmmm, I'd have to say after years of Rage graphics chip on office pc, a tend to stay away from ATI, their drivers were rubbish, and thats when you found the right one.
I was a glide bunny with 3dfx until Nvidia bought them out. After admitting that the TNT2 was better than my voodoo's, I went with NV, however cant remember ATI having anything out to compare too at the time.
After going thru original GF to T14600 and comparing the hassles my mate had with drivers/performance etc with his (7 & 8 series), I stayed clear of ATI.

Now ATI has the crown, I am still NOT interested...Warrenty is pants and run too hot.

 

[hans007]

i think for me the minor differences in performance dont really matter that much.

i tend to think for low end cards the ati ones are cheaper and more likely to be passively cooled. i've also noticed ati cards tend to have quieter fans i fthey do hav efans.


but yeah in general i'd get an nvidia card , even though i was pretty appalled by the aeg thing and thought that was horrible. nvidia does have much better linux support if you use that (and i do occasionaly) and they also seem to have slightly less bloated driverse (the catalyst control panel sucks in my opinion)