Need new video card, can't decide NVidia or ATI (positive input only, NO Fan Boys)

Naustica, I think the thread is going pretty nicely so far. Nice to see for a change. Are you going to muck it up now? Or put in some good info.

Your call.

Good Choice on the 5900 wurrmmm. I am happy with mine. Who knows what my next card will be. Depends on whatever works for what I need it for.
GM

 

[VIAN]

I'd get the 5900 Ultra over the 5950 Ultra because its already out, its cheaper, and there really is no performance difference between the two.

 

[psxjunky]

A general comment - I have owned both ATI and nVidia cards and am not biased towards either; but with the newer ATI cards I have had too much problems with the drivers and ATI doesn't seem to give a damn about a generation old cards once a newer version is out. Image quality seems to be slightly better with ATI though.

Never had any issues with any nVidia cards.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I'd go for a Radeon 9800 pro or non-pro or a GF 5900 non ultra. Best deals out there right now IMO.

 

[reever]

Originally posted by: Wurrmm
I could almost care less about new games comming out. I will worry about new games 6 months from now when the new NV4x and R4xx come out. For now, I think I am going to stick to an NVidia card becasue it will do everything I want it to do for the games I already have. So basically it is down to either the FX5900 Ultra and FX5950 Ultra. I will most likely get the first casue it is alrealy lower in price, I can get the Asus V9950 for $437 and it comes with Gun Metal. I might not want to wait a month for the FX5950.

Nvidia cards aren't the only one who will play every game you have now. It all matters on the games you are playing, non overly popular games and RTS and non-fps type games will most always run faster on ATI cards, then with FPS its a straight draw down the middle

 

[Viper96720]

Isn't the 5950Ultra just an overclocked 5900Ultra or is there other changes?

 

[Jeff7181]

A friend of mine just bought a 9800 Pro when he heard that I got an FX5900... he wanted to "one up" me. So when he got it installed he put the Catalyst 3.8's on, and was going to run some benchmarks and watch his 9800 Pro "crush" my FX5900... and it might have, if he could run any 3D applications.
Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying this is an ATI issue... it might be a crappy card, I don't know what manufacturer made it. Or he may not have uninstalled the Detonators from his Ti4600 properly before he put this in, although I'm pretty sure he did a clean install of Windows.
Yes I know, many of you never had a problem with your ATI cards. Great. But my friend just had a problem with his... my cousin had problems with his 9600 Pro (which he later returned for an FX5900). On the other hand... I've had 5 different nVidia cards, one from every family from the GeForce 2 on up to the GeForce FX. Never had to do more than stick the card in, turn on the computer, and let Windows install drivers for it.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
A friend of mine just bought a 9800 Pro when he heard that I got an FX5900... he wanted to "one up" me. So when he got it installed he put the Catalyst 3.8's on, and was going to run some benchmarks and watch his 9800 Pro "crush" my FX5900... and it might have, if he could run any 3D applications.
Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying this is an ATI issue... it might be a crappy card, I don't know what manufacturer made it. Or he may not have uninstalled the Detonators from his Ti4600 properly before he put this in, although I'm pretty sure he did a clean install of Windows.
Yes I know, many of you never had a problem with your ATI cards. Great. But my friend just had a problem with his... my cousin had problems with his 9600 Pro (which he later returned for an FX5900). On the other hand... I've had 5 different nVidia cards, one from every family from the GeForce 2 on up to the GeForce FX. Never had to do more than stick the card in, turn on the computer, and let Windows install drivers for it.

if he couldnt run any 3d apps at all, i suspect he did in fact get a fvcked up card

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
A friend of mine just bought a 9800 Pro when he heard that I got an FX5900... he wanted to "one up" me. So when he got it installed he put the Catalyst 3.8's on, and was going to run some benchmarks and watch his 9800 Pro "crush" my FX5900... and it might have, if he could run any 3D applications.
Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying this is an ATI issue... it might be a crappy card, I don't know what manufacturer made it. Or he may not have uninstalled the Detonators from his Ti4600 properly before he put this in, although I'm pretty sure he did a clean install of Windows.
Yes I know, many of you never had a problem with your ATI cards. Great. But my friend just had a problem with his... my cousin had problems with his 9600 Pro (which he later returned for an FX5900). On the other hand... I've had 5 different nVidia cards, one from every family from the GeForce 2 on up to the GeForce FX. Never had to do more than stick the card in, turn on the computer, and let Windows install drivers for it.

I've had over 10 nVidia cards myself. Never had a problem getting any of them to work either. Of course, the 4 Ati cards I've had all worked without issue as well. Same procedure for all of them. Uninstall the old drivers, remove old card, put in new card, install new drivers. No magic wand needed with either brand. 3dfx cards were the same for that matter.

 

[rbV5]

if he couldnt run any 3d apps at all, i suspect he did in fact get a fvcked up card

I'd say probably didn't follow a proper installation.

Never had to do more than stick the card in, turn on the computer, and let Windows install drivers for it.

That would have left you without OpenGL support more than a few times, so OK if you say so.
Edit: Well maybe an exaggeration, but its not like you couldn't just do the same thing with an ATI card(not that I'd ever want to). I do know the XP native drivers had no OpengL support for ATI or Nvidia cards however.