So much of video card research out there is about gaming performance and while I like to game, I also want to use my graphics card to quickly switch from my Dell U2410 24 monitor to my Samsung LN32A550 32 HDTV to watch recordings from my computers tuners or stream Netflix. My Nvidia 7600 GT card on Windows XP wont recognize my HDTV unless the TV is powered on when the computer boots (or comes out of hibernation). As I choose components for my new computer, I wanted to know whether Nvidia or ATI would have the best drivers/card to do quick switching between my monitor and my HDTV using UltraMon (I mapped buttons on my Firefly remote to switch between the two screens). Also, with Windows 7, would it finally let me do this regardless of whether my HDTV was on at boot?
In an attempt to answer this question, I tested the Nvidia 210 and ATI 5450 graphics cards, both are the low-end cards of this generation. I used my current installation of Windows XP Professional 32-bit with both cards. I also did a fresh install of Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit. For both OSes, I uninstalled all display drivers, replaced the card, and then installed the proper ones for each card (197.45 driver for Nvidia and 10.4 for ATI). Here are the results:
Windows 7, Nvidia 210: I found that the Windows monitor config screen would not see the HDTV if it wasnt powered on at boot until I went to the Nvidia Control Panel. Then, I could switch it over from there. UltraMon would not work unless the HDTV was turned on at boot.
Windows 7, ATI 5450: I found that the Windows monitor config screen DID see the HDTV even if it wasnt powered on at boot. So, I could switch it over from the Windows config screen, the Catalyst Control Center, or UltraMon. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Here are some other things I discovered along the way:
ATI displayed the POST and Windows splash screens in their actual aspect ratio. Nvidia stretches POST and Windows splash screens to fit the widescreen monitor, making them look a little funky (not a big deal, of course).
The Nvidia card only showed the POST and Windows splash screens on the primary monitor (the sole DVI connection in the case of the 210), while the ATI card showed these screens on both monitors. The 7600 GT would show these screens on both monitors too so this result is inconsistent with older Nvidia models.
I couldnt see the lower buttons in the ATI driver installer wizard at the very low default resolution, but still managed to work through the install using TAB and ENTER.
With the ATI card, I had more 16:10 widescreen resolutions in Portal (only game I looked at in this test). with the Nvidia card, my only 16:10 option was the 1920x1200 native resolution of my monitor. I thought this was a limitation of the game, but apparently not!
The ATI card initially produced a blurry display at native resolution on my XP computer (which had an Nvidia card in it before I took it out for this test). This problem did not exist on Windows 7 so remnants of the Nvidia drivers may have still existed. After subsequent reboots, this problem went away (Im now looking at the crisp output now).
Overall, I found the ATI card to give me what I wanted in terms of quick display switching. Therefore, the pick for my new builds video card will be the 5770 (hopefully, it behaves like the 5450 does). The above, coupled with the fact that it uses less power than the Nvidia GTS 250 (150-watt max versus the 5770s 108-watt max) and seems to be the better performance/buck card right now, makes this a good choice for me. Wow, that was long, but since I spent so much time tinkering with this, I wanted to post it in case its of use to anyone else.
In an attempt to answer this question, I tested the Nvidia 210 and ATI 5450 graphics cards, both are the low-end cards of this generation. I used my current installation of Windows XP Professional 32-bit with both cards. I also did a fresh install of Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit. For both OSes, I uninstalled all display drivers, replaced the card, and then installed the proper ones for each card (197.45 driver for Nvidia and 10.4 for ATI). Here are the results:
Windows 7, Nvidia 210: I found that the Windows monitor config screen would not see the HDTV if it wasnt powered on at boot until I went to the Nvidia Control Panel. Then, I could switch it over from there. UltraMon would not work unless the HDTV was turned on at boot.
Windows 7, ATI 5450: I found that the Windows monitor config screen DID see the HDTV even if it wasnt powered on at boot. So, I could switch it over from the Windows config screen, the Catalyst Control Center, or UltraMon. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Here are some other things I discovered along the way:
ATI displayed the POST and Windows splash screens in their actual aspect ratio. Nvidia stretches POST and Windows splash screens to fit the widescreen monitor, making them look a little funky (not a big deal, of course).
The Nvidia card only showed the POST and Windows splash screens on the primary monitor (the sole DVI connection in the case of the 210), while the ATI card showed these screens on both monitors. The 7600 GT would show these screens on both monitors too so this result is inconsistent with older Nvidia models.
I couldnt see the lower buttons in the ATI driver installer wizard at the very low default resolution, but still managed to work through the install using TAB and ENTER.
With the ATI card, I had more 16:10 widescreen resolutions in Portal (only game I looked at in this test). with the Nvidia card, my only 16:10 option was the 1920x1200 native resolution of my monitor. I thought this was a limitation of the game, but apparently not!
The ATI card initially produced a blurry display at native resolution on my XP computer (which had an Nvidia card in it before I took it out for this test). This problem did not exist on Windows 7 so remnants of the Nvidia drivers may have still existed. After subsequent reboots, this problem went away (Im now looking at the crisp output now).
Overall, I found the ATI card to give me what I wanted in terms of quick display switching. Therefore, the pick for my new builds video card will be the 5770 (hopefully, it behaves like the 5450 does). The above, coupled with the fact that it uses less power than the Nvidia GTS 250 (150-watt max versus the 5770s 108-watt max) and seems to be the better performance/buck card right now, makes this a good choice for me. Wow, that was long, but since I spent so much time tinkering with this, I wanted to post it in case its of use to anyone else.
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