used nvidia, switched to ATi, now thinking back to nvidia

[faye]

Hi, i had a Geforce256 and changed to a ATi powered Sapphire Radeon 9100 128mb.

i may change video card very soon. cuz budget is allow. i may get a ATi 9800P or Nvidia 5800U.

Let say, let say i switch back to nvidia, will it be the same complicated as the time i changed to ATi?

many people told me to reinstall windows, but somehow i manage to eliminate all the error messages(that i can see) and now my WinXP pro runs fine now. If the time comes, i changed to back to nvidia, what is the worse that could happen to me?

both card is very fast, or may be ATi 9800p is faster, but just in case i get nvidia, i want to know what will happen.

thanks

 

[Lonyo]

9800Pro is faster than the 5800Ultra.
The 5900Ultra is faster than the 5900Pro but not out until the end of the month.
The Radeon 9700Pro is a very good bet for price/performance, as it's almost on par with the 5800Ultra.

 

[McArra]

That system doesn´t deserve such video cards, you'll have bottleneck problems.
I have them in my P4@1400 with 640SD-Ram and 9700PRO.
Buy something cheaper and a new MoBo/processor/Ram

 

[IvIaNTiS]

Originally posted by: McArra
That system doesn´t deserve such viseo cards, you'll have bottleneck problems.
I have them in my P4@1400 with 640SD-Ram and 9700PRO.
Buy something cheaper and a new MoBo/processor/Ram

I have my 9700 Pro with my P4 1.5 and 512 SDRAM.
Will be upgrading soon tho.

 

[faye]

ya, i will upgrade to a p4-2.6c and 512mb pc3500 kingston

still thinking for a good motherboard tho

 

[Mem]

Uninstall your drivers first then run Driver Cleaner 1.5 ,that should get you ready for clean install of the new drivers after.

i may get a ATi 9800P or Nvidia 5800U.

Right now probably 9800 Pro is your best bet,if you can wait until end of June then the FX 5900 will be available,like all things you will need a very fast CPU to get the best out of them.

 

[DurocShark]

You know what rocks about this post? The fact that there is even a consideration of two different companies.

The last time I remember this happening, where products were so closely matched, was the original VooDoo vs. the Riva128. The nVidia product was faster, but the VooDoo looked better...

When 3dfx went under I was afraid nVidia would so completely own the market that nobody else would be able to compete. But with the GF2's and above, and the Radeon line, we've got a great neck-and-neck race. Love it!

 

[faye]

don't know why if 2 companies are competing that close, why don't they lower the price. $300~$400 a videocard is still very pricy.

oh, i am not going to get those items in days. i may get them the end or beginning of july.

i have been using my current setup for 1 or 2 years and still loving it. I don't play so intensive games. Just CS. but now i want to get ready for Doom3 and Halflife2.

Specs for HL2 is just P3-700 and above. but of course, if u can't play the way the demo(tech_demo) play, why bother.

hey, i got like 6189 in 3dmark01se. @933mhz and R9100@315/265

 

[Pete]

You'll (probably, unless you know how to install a generic MB--Hat Monster at Ars posted how in a thread in the CPU/MB forum, IIRC) have to reinstall Windows because of your new MB, so I'm not sure why a driver uninstall is an issue.

 

[faye]

i read at least 10 people in this forum are having problem with switching from nvidia to ati or the other way around.

end up reinstalling windows.

i don't know how much pc knowledge they have, but i am sure switching from these 2 companies can really generate errors.

i am not sure if switching motherboard will end up the same.

 

[sep]

Originally posted by: DurocShark
You know what rocks about this post? The fact that there is even a consideration of two different companies.

The last time I remember this happening, where products were so closely matched, was the original VooDoo vs. the Riva128. The nVidia product was faster, but the VooDoo looked better...

When 3dfx went under I was afraid nVidia would so completely own the market that nobody else would be able to compete. But with the GF2's and above, and the Radeon line, we've got a great neck-and-neck race. Love it!

:beer: I agree!

Just make sure you remove the other drivers...Good Luck!
-JC

 

[nRollo]

Ever notice how when you install nVidia drivers it installs about 30 files and it's done, but when you install ATI drivers, it takes 10 minutes and copies 8,000,339 files to your computer?

 

[ZimZum]

Originally posted by: Rollo
Ever notice how when you install nVidia drivers it installs about 30 files and it's done, but when you install ATI drivers, it takes 10 minutes and copies 8,000,339 files to your computer?

I was just about to comment that it was odd to see ATI/nVidia thread without one side flaming the other, but you can always count on Rollo to come through.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Rollo
Ever notice how when you install nVidia drivers it installs about 30 files and it's done, but when you install ATI drivers, it takes 10 minutes and copies 8,000,339 files to your computer?

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: ZimZum
I was just about to comment that it was odd to see ATI/nVidia thread without one side flaming the other, but you can always count on Rollo to come through.

Yep, if there's one thing you can count on on the internet, it's flaming. You could be having a perfectly reasonable conversation with someone, but the second it turns into a slight disagreement it sets off a flamewar.

As for card suggestions, if you are going for out and out fastest card, you want the FX5900Ultra, but you may have to wait for a bit. Kudos to nVidia for improving their AA/AF speeds. ATI still wins in AA/AF performance, but not by the vast margins they once did, and the noAA/noAF speeds on the FX5900Ultra is pretty incredible.

That being said, I think the best overall purchase will be (once the FX5900s become available) a Radeon 9800Pro 128MB. It's probably going to price drop with the 9800Pro 256 coming out, and the performance is identical.

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: faye
i read at least 10 people in this forum are having problem with switching from nvidia to ati or the other way around.

end up reinstalling windows.

i don't know how much pc knowledge they have, but i am sure switching from these 2 companies can really generate errors.

i am not sure if switching motherboard will end up the same.

I think it's much more important to reinstall Windows with a new MB than with a new video card, as your core I/O chips have changed. In fact, I think it's mandatory, but I could be wrong. Ask in the appropriate forum to be sure, as you wouldn't want to lose data on yor hard drive because of this.

BTW, is the eleven line sig really nec'y? I hate sigs in general, but eleven lines is ridiculous.