Want to buy an ATI card, but having doubts

[nyker96]

I was in the same boat as you before my hd4850 purchase, having only NV parts in my computing lifetime never dare to touch ATI due to horrid driver problems. Well so I decided to try the hd4850 as an experiment and see how things are with ati.

With all that anticipated troubles coming my way, the hd4850 trial actually turns out very uneventful for me, nothing major happened except COH has a crash due to driver 9,6 which they fixed quickly. and several friend also has some crashes on their NV cards for various games. so all in all it's no better nor worse on the driver end than NV. win xp, vista, win 7 are the three platforms I tried with 4850, other than COH for that one driver version, other games run smoothly. I run about 7-8 games from the current generation on it (currently on win 7 64bit).

so you can say my experience with ATI is good, I'm not afraid to buy their DX11 parts if I so choose in the next upgrade.

 

[alyarb]

Wow, there seems to be almost unanimous support for ATI here. That's comforting. I'm still feeling unsettled by the HD 5750 reviews on newegg. The bad reviews on it seem recent as well. Check these out:

SAPPHIRE 100284L Radeon HD 5750 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-859-_-Product

XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-448-_-Product

Holy mackerel. 24% gave the Sapphire a 1-2 rating, and 31% gave the XFX 1-2. That's almost 1 in 3 people.

Here is the GTS 250 in comparison:
PNY VCGGTS2501XPB GeForce GTS 250 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...66-_-Product"]

With only 5% giving it a 1-2. It's a similar story for the XFX card as well at 6%.
Any thoughts?

get the XFX card because they have the best customer support and warranty. do not worry about "crashes" that are mentioned in other reviews. and there is certainly no need to be "deathly afraid" of them. a video crash means the computer locks up (presumably doing something in 3D) and needs a reboot. it is nothing at all like a hard disk crash where you lose your stuff. crashes usually occur when a machine is poorly configured and/or administered. make sure you uninstall all previous video drivers before installing the latest catalyst driver pack from ati.amd.com and you'll be fine.

 

[digitaldurandal]

If you do purchase ati you would be silly to get the 5750. The speed is not good enough for modern games. the 5770 is only 20 bucks more on newegg and it is close to 50% more frames in many games.

 

[madh83]

not sure where you got 50% faster....it's usually about 10% faster from the benchmarks, which justifies the 20 dollar difference...except it's really more of a 30 dollar difference. Meh...kind of a wash between which one you get to me.

If a game runs very badly one the 5750, the 5770 won't be much better.

 

[lyssword]

not sure where you got 50% faster....it's usually about 10% faster from the benchmarks, which justifies the 20 dollar difference...except it's really more of a 30 dollar difference. Meh...kind of a wash between which one you get to me.

If a game runs very badly one the 5750, the 5770 won't be much better.

I dunno, on some benches it is significantly faster
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3720&p=6
Typically by 15% though.

 

[blanketyblank]

well to be fair he wasn't talking about typically he was talking about maximums.
For FC 2 looks like it's about 33% a difference between 33 and 44 fps. In other games the difference looks much closer about 3-10 fps difference, but that could be a big difference when the average fps of the 5750 is below 30.

 

[Attic]

Nother recomendation for a 5770.
I've had no issues running mine on Win7x64.

 

[nitromullet]

(PS: the nVidia card i'm considering is the GTS 250.)

I'm hoping to not have to upgrade the video card for at least 4-5 years. I should mention that I don't do a great deal of gaming on the computer, just a game or two a year. These are the specs of the prospective computer I intend to build. I'd like to stay in the $100-$150 range in the graphics card.

AMD Phenom II X4 955, 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM, 550W OCZ PSU with +12V1 @ 25A and +12V2 @ 25A, Gigabit GA-MA790GPT-UD3H Mobo, and Win7 64-bit as mentioned.

Let's be honest here, neither the GTS 250 nor 5770 are really going to be viable gaming cards for the next 4-5 years. I'd say you'll get about 2 years out of them, and then you'll probably be turning down settings a lot to keep up your frames.

If you want to get an idea of roughly how well a 5770 will probably fair in 2 years, check out current game benchmarks for a Radeon 3870 or GeForce 9600GT. For 4-5 years: look up a GeForce 7600GT, Radeon X1600XT, or X1800 GTO; which were $150-200ish cards back then.

Also, the price bracket you are looking at DX11 shouldn't really be deciding factor IMO. Look how much better the 5770 plays Dirt2 in DX9 than it does in DX11:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...tX-11-for-less-than-100-Euros/Reviews/?page=5

Unigine benchmark also shows it being a pretty weak DX11 card:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...X-11-for-less-than-100-Euros/Reviews/?page=11

Don't get me wrong the 5770 is a lot of card for the money, but I would be cautious about buying into too much high end tech with only a low-mid range budget. I'm not saying this to upset you, but I think a lot of people in this thread are doing you a disservice by hyping up the futureproofedness of the 5770 because of DX11. I'm just trying re-adjust your expectations so you aren't disappointed.

My advice: You said you don't game that often, right? If you have a game right now that you're just dying to play, get the fastest card you can get for your $150 regardless of whether it's NVIDIA or ATI. If you don't have a game right now just use the on board graphics for general computing, and then when a game comes along that you do want to play buy yourself the best $150 card at that time.

 

[boran]

I used ATI around the 8500 Era, worst card ever for me. Didnt use ATI for a long time after that. Kinda silly because the 9700 was really great in hindsight.
Now I have a 4890 and no issues.

Moral of the story, you can have issues and it influcences you quite a lot, but times change.

 

[Painman]

ATi cards are like GM cars... victims of FUD that lives on long after the problems died.

The driver controls might prove more spartan (depending upon your needs), but the current drivers themselves are the equal of anything nV cranks out. That means, not 100% without problems, but no more problematic than the rival offerings.

They're making some good cards right now. Unless you're hardcore brand loyal, they're worth a shot.

 

[Will Robinson]

Radeon HD5850 is the card du Jour in my opinion.If you want DX11 and plenty of graphics power for the next 2-3 years...its the one to get.

 

[T2k]

Do yourself a favor and buy at least a 5850 if you can afford it, otherwise 5770 and later pick up another one and you're set for 2-3 years (provided you won't play games above 1920x1200.)

The driver problem is nonsense, I have 100+ machines here and I had more problems with Nvidia drivers in the past 3-4 years I can recall.

 

[deimos3428]

I'm hoping to not have to upgrade the video card for at least 4-5 years. I should mention that I don't do a great deal of gaming on the computer, just a game or two a year. These are the specs of the prospective computer I intend to build. I'd like to stay in the $100-$150 range in the graphics card.

AMD Phenom II X4 955, 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM, 550W OCZ PSU with +12V1 @ 25A and +12V2 @ 25A, Gigabit GA-MA790GPT-UD3H Mobo, and Win7 64-bit as mentioned.

They're all great cards for casual gaming so don't overthink it. In your case, I'd wait until the Fermi release comes out. (If you don't want to wait, just use the IGP short-term -- the 790GX works just fine for low-res gaming.)

Then pounce on the 5770 or GTS 250 -- whichever has the best deal at that time. The 5850 is unlikely to drop into your price range, but if it does so much the better.

 

[Shilohen]

My advice: You said you don't game that often, right? If you have a game right now that you're just dying to play, get the fastest card you can get for your $150 regardless of whether it's NVIDIA or ATI. If you don't have a game right now just use the on board graphics for general computing, and then when a game comes along that you do want to play buy yourself the best $150 card at that time.

^ That

 

[T2k]

T
Then pounce on the 5770 or GTS 250 -- whichever has the best deal at that time. The 5850 is unlikely to drop into your price range, but if it does so much the better.

GTS250 is a much inferior design, way outdated and won't last too long anymore, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[solofly]

but times change.

bingo!!!

 

[DaveSimmons]

One possible reason for some of ATI's rep could be overclocking -- people on a budget buy an AMD cpu + ATI card, then unlock cores and pipes, then massively overclock. Their system passes some stability test but is not really stable.

I used nVidia cards up until my last upgrade in July '08 when I chose the ATI 4870 for its much better price/performance. I've been happy with it since then.

 

[billyb0b]

i'm doing two XFX 5850's in crossfire and they are awesome! drivers are stable too

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Nvidia is not without problems either.

But, to put it simply, I'll say this:

Depending on how long it will be until your next upgrade, whatever features the card you buy now has (DX11) may be insignificant later. For example, with a 5750 (and perhaps even 5770), by the time the new DX11 titles come out, you may find that the card isn't capable of playing the game at high settings anyway. If you're the type that upgrades decently often (every year or so), this isn't a problem. If you're planning to buy this card and use it for several years to come, this is an issue.

Perhaps you can post your full system specs, budget, and planned upgrade cycle to help us recommend something for you.

Was going to point this out. I don't think any first card of a new generation of DX could actually run those games decently by the time games using it came out. Buying anything less than a 5850 for dx11 is probably pointless, and even with that there's no garuntee it'll run games that fully utilize dx11 well.

 

[Skott]

I'm not brand loyal but I admit I buy nVidia more often than ATI. I really really like eVGA cards because I have had such great success with them. However right now ATI is kicking nVidia's butt on price/performance. Which is good. nVidia needs to be humbled at times to keep them from raping the consumer. Same goes for ATI. Anyway, I expect March to be a turning point again because nVidia plans to release a whole new series of cards. If nvidia can retake the lead it will be then and I figure they can probably do it.

If you absolutely need a DX11 card now then a ATI 5xxx series is the way to go. Otherwise wait a couple of more months when nVidia rolls out their new cards and probably push prices lower on all existing cards currently available. How much of a price change we'll see still remains to be seen.

 

[MarkJC]

Alright thanks guys. I guess i'll hold off for that new release in March and hope that the existing cards take a price dive. Then, i'll look into either the 5770 or one of the 5800 series. There's no rush to grab a video card right away with onboard graphics anyway. I can catch up on a bunch of unplayed xbox360 games that are collecting dust in the meantime.

 

[YJ2k2]

I had a lot of issues with my 7600 GT and Windows 7 64-bit. It all went away when I upgraded to a 5750. I think the bad rep ATI gets is unwarranted, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are just as many issues with Nvidia cards.

 

[Acanthus]

The Radeon 4890 1GB is the fastest card at the under $200 price point (and it OCs a good 10% with ease too).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4125297&cm_re=4890_1gb-_-14-125-297-_-Product

You wont see a real DX11 game until at least mid-late 2011 at the absolute earliest.

 

[lopri]

Since Vista came out, I have been more comfortable with AMD's Windows drivers. It took some time for me to overcome the nightmare of AIW 9800 Pro and its drivers, though (back in the days).

 

[T2k]

The Radeon 4890 1GB is the fastest card at the under $200 price point (and it OCs a good 10% with ease too).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-297-_-Product

You wont see a real DX11 game until at least mid-late 2011 at the absolute earliest.

If he can afford a 4850 X2 2GB for $210 that's far the fastest card on the market for its price - roughly 5850 performance level minus DX11.