NVIDIA or ATI?

[Nicdain]

I have tried to follow all the debate about graphic cards, the issues related to each model, but I am still a little bit confused.

Since I am going to upgrade my Geforce 5200 (definitely a little bit old), I would like to ask if there is still a preference towards Geforce cards in respect to ATI, or, at present, both of them perform the same (apart from known bugs of specific models).

Thanks

[Cpl Steiner]

High-end Geforce cards (7xxx or 8xxx) seem to have the most outstanding problems at the moment. If I had the choice again I'd go with ATI.

[Sekra]

I myself would go for Nvidia 8xxx series since even though there are issues with the drivers I think the 8xxx series kicks a bit more punch than the ATI cards do. And driver issues are usually solved with time. But we mustn't forget that ATI too has driver issues.

[Dirtweasle]

Originally posted by Hotti:

I myself would go for Nvidia 8xxx series since even though there are issues with the drivers I think the 8xxx series kicks a bit more punch than the ATI cards do.

Yep. I think so too.

Sadly, the CMSF thing appears to be the outlier, otherwise AFAIK Nvidia 8800's are the way to go.

If you want to play CMSF with the best frame rates NOW... RIGHT NOW, and money is no object, get an ATI card upgrade to an nvidia later.

[Sgt Joch]

but which ATI card? there are posts about high end ATI users having problems in CMSF and I remember posts during the beta testing where ATI cards had more problems than NVIDIA cards.

reports of 8800's having problems in games other than CMSF have also appeared repeatedly on the web since the cards came out (part of the reason I have not upgraded yet).

on my system (opteron 170/7900 GTX/XP PRO), CMSF runs well.

I would actually recommend waiting a 1-2 months before upgrading, by that time we should know if BFC will be able to workaround the NVIDIA/ATI driver issues.

[Dirtweasle]

Just skimming through the ATI stuff I though that was resolved.

[Sgt Joch]

could be, I dont have a ATI myself but I still see posts with users having issues. I am just waiting to see which card ultimately handles CMSF better before making a decision.

based on this, it looks like both the 8800 and the 2900 should handle open gl games well:

AMD-ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Performance Preview

[Dirtweasle]

Yea, one would think so...

I just bought and built my new machine a few weeks back, and did all the due diligence I could checking reviews, tech pubs, stats, you name it, and the 8800 GTS 640 OC came out as the best value for the dollar at the high end performance range. I still think for a wide variety you're going to be better off with the 8800 like I chose.

But if all you're going to do is play CMSF, heck it looks to me like you might just want to stick with a middle of the road machine running two or three year old gear because with this game throwing expensive high performance video gear at it is futile. My old P4 with the 6800 card runs CMSF just as fast really has my new machine due to the problem CMSF is having with the 8800.