Switching from Nvidia to ATI - What to expect?

[Jschmuck2]

The driver switch should be pretty easy, right? Unistall/run driver cleaners for the Forceware - pop in the new card and install the new drivers - cake, right?

 

[JPB]

Indeed.

Imo, you will also see better IQ.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

That's pretty much it. Although start with the drivers that came with the cd and work your way up. I learned that lesson the hard way.

 

[SolMiester]

A bigger power bill?

 

[nitromullet]

From 7800GTX to X1900XT, you will see a healthy rise in FPS. Actually, you don't even need to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers, Windows is smart enough to know that the new card is not a GeForce. I have often had Cats and Forceware installed on the same machine, and just switched the cards out.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Originally posted by: onlyCOpunk
That's pretty much it. Although start with the drivers that came with the cd and work your way up. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Really? I've never once used the drivers that came with a card =\

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2

Originally posted by: onlyCOpunk
That's pretty much it. Although start with the drivers that came with the cd and work your way up. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Really? I've never once used the drivers that came with a card =\

I've never done that. In fact, I never even bothered to install the drivers that came on the CD when I had my X1900XT, or my 2900XT. I've always gone straight to the ATI website and grabbed the latest version. Never had any problems related to drivers with either card.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: onlyCOpunk
That's pretty much it. Although start with the drivers that came with the cd and work your way up. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Thats a big negative. You do NOT need to start with drivers on the CD, and work your way up.

Simply uninstall the old drivers, run drivercleaner if you feel like it, and install the ATi drivers.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: onlyCOpunk
That's pretty much it. Although start with the drivers that came with the cd and work your way up. I learned that lesson the hard way.

huh? Always install the latest drivers to get the latest fixes. The CD drivers are likely going to be over a year old at this point. Likely won't even work with some newer games.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
From 7800GTX to X1900XT, you will see a healthy rise in FPS. Actually, you don't even need to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers, Windows is smart enough to know that the new card is not a GeForce. I have often had Cats and Forceware installed on the same machine, and just switched the cards out.

It will cause problems, do not do this. Always remove old/unused drivers first.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Just did the switch today, went off without a hitch.

Now to overclock this thing It's an HIS 512MB X1900XT with that ICEQ3 cooler on it. What do you think I'll get?

 

[Laminator]

w00t, another X1900 XT 512MB n00b, just like me! Try ATI's Overdrive tool. Doesn't take a long time and I've found it gives you a pretty good measurement of how high you can go on the card without exceeding safe temperatures.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Switching from Nvidia to ATI - What to expect?

I must say that I like my x1950 Pro AGP. My only problem is that the last two ATI driver release have broken support for it. I hope that this is not a new trend and that the next ATI driver release will work.

 

[Jschmuck2]

5029 in 3dmark - that about right?

 

[Zenoth]

Seems right to me, I had around 4200 with my X1800XL 256MB. Perhaps you get that score because you're running the benchmark at your LCD's native resolution, are you ?

 

[Jschmuck2]

Yeah - 1680*1050

Should I not be?

 

[Laminator]

No, run everything at stock (1280x1024). That is the "standard" score that should allow you to compare it to others.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Switching from Nvidia to ATI - What to expect?

I must say that I like my x1950 Pro AGP. My only problem is that the last two ATI driver release have broken support for it. I hope that this is not a new trend and that the next ATI driver release will work.

I think this issue only revolves around the AGP cards as that was my problem. Hence why I said to start with the CD. I first installed with the latest drivers and NONE of my games worked. I thought it was a problem with the card, only to find out it was a problem with the Catalyst drivers.

It is important to note that in some cases the latest drivers available online are NOT the best. It took me a couple to days to figure this out because obviously I was under the impression that the latest were the best.