WHY are you loyal to ATI or Nvidia?

[Alkali]

I am loyal to whatever company produces fast, reliable, well supported hardware, backed up with trustworthy service and drivers.

If all of a sudden these XGI blokes come up with a card that is 3x faster than the Radeon9800Pro, then I'll try them out, but right now, there is no way I am returning to nVidia in the absolute shambles they are in now.

 

[Insomniak]

I'm not really loyal one way or the other, but I prefer Nvidia. Their drivers have always been strong, and their hardware, up until the FX line, has always been top notch. To be realistic, the FX line isn't that bad, but it's not up to Nvidia's usual quality standards. In addition, I've always felt Nvidia has a better connection with the gaming community - actions like the "Way It's Meant To Be Played" program, Cg, and sponsoring the Make Something Unreal contest go a long way in proving you're committed to the community, and not just shipping units.

ATi is looking better all the time however. Their drivers continue to improve, and the Radeon 9xxx series has been superb. If I were in the market for a video card right now, it'd be a tough run between a 5900 nonU and a 9600 Pro.

Hopefully, ATi will continue its current hot streak, Nvidia will get back on track, and us gamers will get the benefits due to better hardware at lower prices. Fingers crossed

 

[SectorZero]

Personally, I expect companies to be loyal to me. I'm spending my hard earned money to give one of them the honor of having their hardware in my custom rig.
I expect ATI and Nvidia and whoever else wants to get in the ring, to slug it out in a no holds barred battel royal for my AGP slot.

I'll do the research, read the reviews, and pick the winner based on whoever meets my needs best.

Consumers being loyal to a company is not how a free market is supposed to work. Companies should compete to prove we should give one of them our money.

The fanboy mentality is not only childish, it's self defeating.

ATI and Nvidia are here to serve to gaming community, not the other way around.
We, the gaming community, have to power to make or break these companies, not the other way around.

That's the way it should be, but it seems like we will allways have to deal with the fanboys who will bend over and spread 'em for who ever made the fasted vid card last generation, expecting a whole new arch to be as good or better than the last.

Remember, only you can prevent fanboyism.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I find myself gravitating towards nVida of late, they are being villafied and that appeals to me :evil: While many become outraged, self-rightously indignant, and wrathful about nVidia's evident lying and cheating, and some even feel betrayed by them, I find myself smiling sardonically and enjoying the entire affair. It's a perfect example of how overly serious geeks take computer hardware, Enron was worthy of such an emotional outpouring of anger and outrage for their actions and what it costs their employees and tax payers alike, but a graphics card maker using atypical corporate warfare tactics? Step away from the keyboard! go outside and take a deep breath of fresh air *if you don't reside in a polluted area * while raising your face to the warmth of the large yellow orb which hangs in the sky that some of us call Sol :sun: I promise that shortly after beginning this excersize that the gravity of such matters, or lack thereof will begin to take on it's proper perspective

 

[Schadenfroh]

Rendition = 2
3dfx = 7
nvidia = 4
Matrox = 1
s3 = 1
ati =0

im a ex3dfx fanboy. i have become what i once hated, an nVidiot. but i will consider ATI when i upgrade from my 4200 when doom3 is released

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Rendition = 2
3dfx = 7
nvidia = 4
Matrox = 1
s3 = 1
ati =0

im a ex3dfx fanboy. i have become what i once hated, an nVidiot. but i will consider ATI when i upgrade from my 4200 when doom3 is released

I miss Rendition!

 

[jiffylube1024]

I really have no loyalties in the video card market. Since it seems to be the 'chic' thing to do I'll list some of the cards I've owned (starting at the Voodoo 2):

3dfx Voodoo 2
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000
3dfx Voodoo 3 3000
ATI Radeon LE
nVidia GeForce 2 GTS
ATI Radeon AIW
Generic GeForce 3 Ti200
MSI GeForce 3 Ti200
ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB
MSI GeForce 4 Ti4200
BFG GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB
ATI Radeon 9800

Edit: forgot ATI Radeon AIW (in my parents' rig now!)

 

[boyRacer]

I'm not... i go with whatever makes me happy.

 

[Insomniak]

Hehe. You can tell it's a long time between my upgrades. 3d Cards I've owned:

VooDoo 2 SLI
GeForce 4 Ti 4400 (current card)

 

[vss1980]

I'm using ATI at the moment, but in no way loyal. ATI's is a history of a big company that could have at any time been a major dominating force in the graphics card market in terms of performance (they certainly had the resources to be) but instead released cards that just hung around the middle of the field.

I'm loyal to the simple yet effective 'Features and performance to cost ratio'.

To be honest, if I was going to be loyal to anybody it would be the PowerVR architecture.....

 

[JR1911]

I'm not loyal to any one company, I buy a graphics card that I think is good, regardless of who made it.

Graphics cards I've owned:

Cirrus Logic 5426
Tseng Labs ET6000
Voodoo1
Matrox G200
Voodoo2 8MB
Riva TNT1
Riva TNT2
Geforce2 GTS
Radeon 9700 Pro

 

[Genx87]

Used to love 3dfx but they blew it big time. Never personally tried ATI but the few of my friends who have had nothing but headaches. I am partial to Nvidia but I wouldnt say Loyal. I think what is happening is the same thing that happened to Intel back when AMD finally came out with a worthy competitor to their Pentium chips. People just want a change and when they get the chance they lash out at the company they used to support.

Take for instance this "optimized\cheat" issue that always gets tacked on Nvidia driver releases now. I mean right now we have entire websites going to frame 4000 in aquamark to find a difference and then proclaiming Nvidia is obviously cheating. I mean is this for real? But what is amazing is ATI got caught doing the exact same thing but everybody keeps hush hush about it.

BTW before ever owning an Nvidia card I used to hate them with a passion. But when I got a GF2 MX card to replace my G400 and I got 3 times the frame rates and the graphics looked nicer I was converted hehe. The FX cards appear to have some issues with PS 2.0. I have heard so many theories I am blocking them out until we see the Det50s.

If the Det50s dont make the card faster in HL2 I could give a rats behind. The game I play now are very fast and look very nice on my 5900 now.

I am probably more partial to Nvidia now that the ATI fanbois are out in force. Something about going against the grain that is fun. The newest thing is to rag on Nvidia. Why not play the devils advocate?

 

[edmundoab]

not a fan of any,
just that I look at the price and performance and size of the card,

I see ATi having the slight edge.

also they seem marginally better at AA which is what I emphasize in games.

 

[Goi]

I've never been loyal to one or the other, I always buy what's the best either in terms of absolute performance or price/performance. I've owned cards rom S3, Trident, Cirrus Logic, Matrox, nvidia, 3dfx and ATI. I guess the only brands I haven't tried before are SiS and #9. Heck, if Bitboys came out with a great card now at a competitive price, I'd get it.

 

[Mingon]

I'm not loyal to any company, I've owned video cards from all of the major companies over the years.

yeah right - kyro II fanboy was your middle name

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Mingon

I'm not loyal to any company, I've owned video cards from all of the major companies over the years.

yeah right - kyro II fanboy was your middle name

Yeah it sure was and I'm still hoping for something from PowerVR which will wipe the floor with Nvidia and ATI.

 

[MDE]

I've had these cards in this order

Integrated SiS crap
ATI Radeon PCI
GeForce4 Ti 4600

Bottom line: I buy whatever is the best value at the time (I got the 4600 for $125 in May) or whatever I can use. That said, my mext card will probably be an AIW Radeon 9800 Pro or its successor.

 

[TheCorm]

I am not loyal to either....I just go for what looks good value and performs well....and ATI and Nvidia happen to always fit into this category.

 

[Mucker]

No need for brand loyalty...Do you really think a hardware manufacturer cares about you? Do your homework on various products, research, read, and visit many user forums before a purchase. You will get the most bang for your buck by doing this..........

mucker

 

[Jeff7181]

Well, for a while, the Ti4200 was the absolute best value card available... and it's still one of the best... 9600 Pro has kinda taken that title from it, but not completely since on average they're $30-50 more expensive.

I've owned two Ti4200's... first one was Gainward's Golden Sample card that I bought in May of 2002. I had that until about March of 2003, when I sold it and bought an Asus V8420S, which I have overclocked to higher than a Ti4600.

In the last few weeks I've been thinking about getting a new one... and in the past week I've been stuck on the 9800 non-pro... but since it was taken off the websites of almost every major reseller online, I'll be getting another nVidia card... the FX5900 for $235. I hesitated on the 9800 non-pro a few times when I had the money because of ATI's infamous driver problems... and the trouble I'd have to go through to remove nVidia drivers to install the ATI card without reformatting.

But now, I ended up getting a better deal on an nVidia card (once again)... which will allow me to avoid incompatabilities with games and driver problems in Windows.

So... it's not that I'm loyal to nVidia... it's just that their product has been more appealing to me than any ATI cards when I've been in the position to upgrade my video card. If I could get an ATI card at a good enough price to outweigh the pains of cleaning up nVidia's drivers and making sure all my games will run on ATI's drivers... I'd switch to ATI... but for that to happen, I'd need a 9800 non-pro for under $200, or a 9800 Pro for under $250... and that's just not gonna happen =)

 

[beatle]

Loyalty schmoyalty. The only possible reason I could see being loyal to a company (and this is quite a stretch) would be if you had a financial interest in the company. At least with CPUs you can attribute loyalty to a cheap upgrade path. Example: I replaced my tbred 1700+ with a barton because I didn't have to replace my motherboard. With video cards it's even less of an issue because everything is on one card. Out with the old, in with the new in one fell swoop.

 

[thraxes]

I have no loyalty... I went from 3dFX to TNT then TNT2, installed a few GF2s GF3s and GF4s in systems belonging to friends and family. Once I installed an ATI Rage 128 in my fathers machine... it was allright for normal work but the drivers were crap for gaming. A few years and GeForces went by and out of the blue I decided it was time to retire the TNT2-ultra that I had for over 2 years (GTA3 being a big reason). I wanted to give ATI another chance and so got the 8500 retail that I still have. In the beginning there were a few driver issues in some games but after a few months it all turned out well. Now the card works like clockwork and it will be some time untill I upgrade it again... unless HL2 really does knock me off my rocker, then I could make an exception: Radeon 9600pro anybody?

 

[Medicated858]

I love my Sis Xabre it owns both Nvidia and Ati cards!!!Yeah!!!!WHAT NOW!!!XABRE FOR LIFE!!!

 

[Piano Man]

I've had the following cards:

ATI Expert '98 MB
Voodoo2 12MB
Nvidia MX400 32 MB
ATI 9500 Pro


I'm loyal to the company that has the best product for the best price. Right now, that is clearly ATI. Their driver support is now fantastic, and with the latest Nvidia DX9 fiasco, I'm definately glad I went with ATI. BUt who knows, in a year I might go to another company.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

I'm not. Screw ATI and nVidia both, Matrox 0wnz j00!

- M4H