YA Why do you prefer AMD or NV Thread

[dust]

A lot of missing signatures here, are the trolls lurking nowadays?

Had both ATI/AMD and Nvidia so far:
7800gt- hell of a card for me back then;
9800gtx sli- nice performance premium over my 7800gt;
4870 512 cf- best setup I've owned yet;
285 XFX BE-briefly(1 week only, after I put back the 4870 cf);

I'd have to say I lean towards ATI/AMD mainly because of my former bias against them, when I was listening to the whiners on the net complaining how much of a disappointment their drivers were. I've had crashes left and right with it, most of them because of user related errors probably(I've messed around a lot with them), but the cards stop cold whatever it's thrown at them and I've owned them for two years already.

I am seriously looking at the SLI 460 1GB, but I'll probably go with 2x6850 since I have cf board and my quad setup is still all right for those.

 

[yepp]

Card history:

Voodoo 2 - gave away
All in Wonder 128(Rage 128) - gave away
Geforce 2 MX200 -still have
Geforce 4 MX440 - still have
Geforce FX5200 - given to me, never used
Radeon 9700 Pro - still have
Geforce 6800(unlocked to 16 pipes) - gave away
Radeon X1900XT - died then revived
Geforce 7900GTO -backup card
Geforce 9800GTX+ -in use
Geforce GTX 460 - in use

I go by price/performance.

 

[Timmah!]

In my computers i had mostly Nvidia cards, with the exception of Radeon 4870 512MB. I always bought those cards based on price/perf ratio, but right now i run GTX460 SLI despite i feel ATi cards are superior hardwarewise - have better temps, require less watts, have comparable price and performance...but they lack CUDA unfortunately, which i need to run Octane Render...
I wish ATi put their stuff together and now when lead on the hardware field, they start to look more on the software side of things... i would so much prefer to run 2 x 6850/70 with their operating properties, if only they supported CUDA/ ATi cared about OpenCL...
Lot of people think that Nvidia is truly f*cked now, but they are not...at least not until ATi cards are useless for everything apart gaming...

 

[PingSpike]

I buy ATI now because I got tired of Nvidia's implementation of fixed aspect ratio scaling never working for my monitor. I mean, they break it in their drivers constantly, but even when it's supposedly working it doesn't work for me. I finally gave the fuck up. I still hate ATI's control panel design, but clunky but functional is better than clean and broken.

I used to think Nvidia drivers were better and that they had better support for older games, but after my 8800GT I kind of decided that ATI had improved and Nvidia had gotten worse. They both suck ass on older game support since the DX10 parts were released. The difference is ATI has working fixed aspect ratio scaling for me. (most of the time)

The truth is though, I've kind of gotten off the upgrade treadmill with graphics cards. I didn't even need hd4850 I bought, I purchased it to get off nvidia. And prior to that I'd purchased several graphics cards of increasing cost and power when I didn't even really have any performance complaints.

 

[Anubis]

i dont have a preference i buy what gives me the best preformance for $ spent

the only reason i have a GTX 285 is because i only paid 150$ for it 3 months after it was released

 

[Anarchist420]

I was considering the last option, but then ATi rarely has the best features, so I chose the "I'm an nvidia fanboi" option. Up until the 6000 series, ATi's filtering sucked, nvidia has TWIMTBP (which means better compatibility, more features, or AA), physx, and sometimes ati uses lower precision than nvidia. Finally, ATi uses some z-buffer optimization that sucks and I'm not sure why/how they do that. The biggest thing ATi has going for them is 12 bit subpixel precision in GL and EDAA.

Both are far from perfect (like 3dfx and Matrox were), but I prefer nvidia hands down.

 

[fishsauce]

I buy based a few factors in this order: price/performance in the games that I play, heat/noise, and vendor specific features. I've figured out I don't like running crossfire/sli cards and I've never bought a videocard costing more than $200 until the 6870.

Here's what I've bought in the past 12 years for reference:
leadtek geforce 256 (price/performance)
sapphire ati 9600 pro (price/performance)
ati 1950 pro (price/performance and video input capabilities)
evga 8800gts 512MB (price/performance)
xfx HD4870 1GB (price/performance)
second xfx HD4870 1GB (price/performance)
visiontek HD6870 (get away from running dual video cards' heat/noise)

 

[bryanW1995]

I get pissed off at some of nvidia's dirty marketing tactics (rollo, batman, things like that), but I usually end up buying an nvidia card in spite of this. I did go through a run of x1950xt->3870->4850, but before that I had 6600gt, 7600gt and 7300 gt, and since then I've had gtx 260 (x2) and gtx 460. In general nvidia has better features imho and their control panel is lightyears ahead of that bucket of crap known as CCC. I don't care about heat/power, but noise is a big deal to me. I got rid of the 4850 specifically b/c of that. In list form, here is what I look at in order of importance.

1. performance at my chosen price range
2. features that appeal to me - cuda is good, oc ability is good, but eyefinity/physics/3d are not important to me atm.
3. noise
4. absolute price/performance - I would probably pay an extra $25 to get $50 more performance even if it broke my budget a bit.
5. vendor preference - used to be a slam dunk for nvidia, now they are more equal
6. if both camps are so competitive that 1-5 still doesn't pick a winner for me, I'll usually go with the one that is the underdog at the time, which for most of the past decade has been ati/amd. I used to think that I had an amd bias, but I keep buying nvidia cards so I must be cured of it

 

[happy medium]

price/performance is king for me, but I prefer Nvidia for drivers that traditionally work out of the box.

 

[MegaWorks]

I tend to prefer ATI/AMD for whatever reason, but if the price/performance is hard to beat I would buy nVidia.

Card history:

ATI Xpert 98 (RAGE PRO)
ATI Rage Fury MAXX (Rage 128 Pro x2)
nVidia TNT2 M64
nVidia Geforce 2 GTS
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
ATI Radeon X1600 XT
ATI Radeon X1800 XT
ATI Radeon HD 3870 CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4850 CrossFire
nVidia Geforce 9800 GT x 4
nVidia GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
ATI Radeon HD 5770

 

[cubby1223]

Let's see, video card history:

Voodoo2
Voodoo3
Geforce2 GTS
Geforce FX5600
Radeon 9800
Geforce 6600GT
Geforce 7900GS
Radeon x1950 Pro
Radeon HD4670

It's quite simple, I have a good performing fanless card that consumes very little power when idle.

 

[mosox]

I don't fit in the poll, I don't like AMD and I hate Nvidia for the many things they've done over the years. So I give AMD 10% advantage when buying a video card. I don't do that in my recommendations though. I also tend to favor the underdog and to consider a firm's profits. For instance if Intel is making a 50% profit on their CPUs and AMD is losing money on them I tend to buy AMD, we need both of 'em in the market.

I also like open source stuff as someone mentioned above.

 

[Modular]

Have owned both and have bought every time for price and performance together.

I can't stand the people who are blinded by branding or are given incentives to blind themselves to reality.

 

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

only buy based on price/performance

 

[SickBeast]

I prefer AMD for their power consumption and NV for their features. Those are the only things I take into consideration aside from price/performance.

 

[Absolution75]

I used to be fairly biased towards nvidia - they were on a pretty good streak from the gf6 days until gf8ish. Now I just buy with regards to price/performance/power usage (and consequently noise)

card history:
ati rage 128
nvidia gf4 ti 4600
nvidia 6800gt
nvidia 7800gtx
nvidia 8800gt
nvidia 9800gtx
ati hd4890
amd hd 6850

I wouldn't mind switch hitting . . . if you catch my drift...

 

[nOOky]

I usually pick whatever is the hot item to have when I am ready to buy. I'll go either brand, I can deal with both companies drivers. I just see what the charts say about the card I decide on say about the games I actually play and at my resolution and go from there.
To be honest power draw and heat have no bearing on my decision. I don't care if it's $10 a month more for electricity or more warm air gets exhausted out the back of my case. What matters is the ability to power the games I want to play.

 

[MangoX]

I used to prefer NV but lately I'm leaning towards AMD. But really I buy on price/performance.

Cards I've owned (in no order):
Voodoo 3 2000
Radeon 9500 pro
Geforce 2 MX
Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Radeon X800XL
Matrox Mystique
Matrox Millennium
Geforce 8800GTS 640
Geforce GTX295
Radeon 5870
Geforce GTX460

 

[LoneNinja]

I've got 3 desktop computers, all 3 have a 4670 in them. Reason being it was the most powerful sub $100 card that didn't require any extra power directly from the PSU when I bought them.

You should all know what a joke the 9500GT was in comparison. lmao

 

[toyota]

I have no trouble recommending AMD but I usually prefer Nvidia when possible. I have owned an x700 and 4670 which were decent little cards though.

 

[Bateluer]

I usually go ATI for a few reasons. 1) They usually have the better product out when I'm in the mood to buy. 2) Their drivers are better than Nvidias. 3) I have fewer problems with ATI cards than I've had with Nvidia cards.

 

[KevinH]

Man...this really brings things back.

I had a Voodo 2. It was my first "3d gaming video card".

My first Nvidia product was the Tnt2.

Stepped up to the Geforce and then the Geforce 2. I was in the game industry at this point (the tech boom at it's absolute heyday) and to me, I felt like I was just keeping up to par buying the latest and greatest literally within 6 months of each other.

ATI really didn't have anyting during that era.

The next card I had was a Geforce 4200. Somewhere around this time I had a 9700 Pro.

After that i was an ATI X800Pro. It carried me through WoW for a few years.

I stopped gaming for a bit but jumped back in with an 8800GT.

I'm using a GTX 460 768 right now.

I really don't care about either. It's about price/performance/convenience. A few of the cards I bought used so it was a simple choice for me if it was the right deal at the right time.

 

[Gryz]

I like how nVidia cards let me set/override settings on a per-game basis. I've been told that ATI cards don't have that ability. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

Older games sometimes don't have menu options for things that are now mainstream. E.g. some games don't allow HDR and AA to be configured at the same time. Older games don't use AA or even AF at all. I like to force triple buffering. Transparent AA. Etc. Being able to force those things in games is pretty useful. I like eyecandy.

For the rest I buy based on price/performance. I like to buy cards just below the top-end. I've owned a 9800Pro (made me very happy). And for the rest nvidia cards. (mixed feelings. the gtx7950 was a disappointment). I only buy a new card when it will give me double the framerates of my old card. Not sure yet what my next card will be.

 

[toyota]

I like how nVidia cards let me set/override settings on a per-game basis. I've been told that ATI cards don't have that ability. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

Older games sometimes don't have menu options for things that are now mainstream. E.g. some games don't allow HDR and AA to be configured at the same time. Older games don't use AA or even AF at all. I like to force triple buffering. Transparent AA. Etc. Being able to force those things in games is pretty useful. I like eyecandy.

For the rest I buy based on price/performance. I like to buy cards just below the top-end. I've owned a 9800Pro (made me very happy). And for the rest nvidia cards. (mixed feelings. the gtx7950 was a disappointment). I only buy a new card when it will give me double the framerates of my old card. Not sure yet what my next card will be.

forcing triple buffering from the control panel is only for opengl games and does nothing for directx games.

 

[WildW]

I've swapped freely between the two in recent times. . . 6800 Ultra, X1950 XTX, 8600GTS, HD4670, HD4830, GTS250, now HD5850.

When I have an nVidia card I tend to miss the easy overclocking options that Catalyst Overdrive gives, although that's basically been made pointless with the 5800 cards.