Need some advice on ATI vs. nVidia on an Xpress 200 board

[Xelloss]

Hi guys - just got myself a combo deal at Fry's on a 3700+ and an ECS RS482-M motherboard. Not a great board, I know, but I'm not planning to overclock right now and it has pretty much what I need. The only thing that bothers me is that I've been hearing rumors here and there of problems running an nvidia card with the ATI chipset.

For video, I'm pretty much trying to decide between the ATI x850XT and the nVidia 7600GT. My main reason for not just going with the x850 is that it supposedly sounds like a vacuum cleaner, and that kind of bothers me. Anyone been in this position? Tried this board with nvidia cards? This board will do just about everything I need otherwise, and it was a steal.

Any advice is welcomed.

I contacted ECS and they said "ask nvidia"... I asked nvidia and they said they had heard nothing. So... I dunno what to think.

 

[ciproxr]

you might one to go on the manufactures message board to check to see if other people had problems running nvidia cards on the board, i have a ati chipset motherboard and i had serious problems with nvidia cards and had to buy a ati based.......I wish someone had told me to check the messageboard b4 i had bought my motherboard.

 

[Bull Dog]

There's no reason as to why a nVIDIA can't won't/wouldn't work on an ATI chipset.

 

[CCityInstaller]

I am running an Asus A8r-MVP (R480 X-fire MB) with an X1800XT. I had ordered a X1800XL that was acting strange, so I pulled it out and used a MSI 660GT for 2 days with zero problems. BF2, CS:S, and FarCry all ran with no problems.

 

[tuteja1986]

you can also run sli on that board with leaked sli patch lol http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1334

 

[Xelloss]

Er, SLI seems unlikely, seeing as it has only one PCI-e slot. And as far as I know, this board uses the ATI southbridge as well. Thanks for the tip though.

I wouldn't think there would be problems either, but I've heard a few people on these very forums complaining about it. Not sure if it was drivers or what. It could also be not so much an ATI issue as that ECS just makes crappy boards. Well, I mainly got the board as a gamble - with tax and everything factored in, the combo cost me $25 more than the CPU alone off newegg. I figured it was worth a shot, and if the board sucks too bad I can buy something better and maybe build a Sempron for my girlfriend with this thing.

Still, I'd rather get this working and not have to spend more money. Hmm... the x850xt and the 7600GT are both very appealing choices... it's a tough choice even without the compatability uncertainty thrown in.