The future looks like Nvidia's

[anthrax]

Read here... What do you ppl think?

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18029

Also, has it really made a difference to your choice of video card ?

 

[n7]

After skimming that article, i think there is far too much fanboism in this world.

Last round, generally speaking, ATI had the better card in terms of price/performance.
This round, generally speaking, nVidia has the better card.

Does it need to be beat to death?

 

[chilled]

It was an interesting comment - his opinions may well prove to be correct. However, for the sake of competition it is vital that both nVidia and ATI stay in business and are able to produce damn good graphics cards.

nVidia's SLI technology is a step forward simply because it provides options for comsumers and early indications are that it isn't just marketing BS. I hope that ATI makes something similar if gains are evident.

I don't care about who's card is better as much as I care about how bad it hurts my wallet to buy one.

 

[anthrax]

Until recently, I owned a GF 4 4600Ti....A card from 2 generations ago...It was really starting to show its age, Far cry was too far for my PC.
Initially I wanted to get a X800 Pro...... That was until Hard[OCP] did the Doom3 performance preview.. That really changed the way I saw the whole picture.... The X800 is last generation's technology. It basically got trashed by the NV40, a next generation game.....no amount of driver optimization from ATI will save them.

Technology wise. NV40 is better.. PS 3.0 support.
Performance wise. At least in DOOM3, NV40 wins.......ATI will probably win in HL2, but the winning margin won't be big....

I the current games, I don't think the performacne gap will be big....but once the "newer" stuff starts comming out , its going to show..

 

[gimp0]

There was a bit of bias in that article.

However, he did state valid points that others have eluded to in the past, this article lumped them all together.

I for one would've hoped that the X800 was faster in the HL2 stress test seeing as ATi has been working hand in glove with Valve so they could trump the HL2 market. But that doesnt mean jack compared to real world game performance as we have yet to see HL2 in full.

Neither side has any room to speak on half life as the engine that was released is still not bug free etc.

Lets see what Nvidia has to offer driver wise when HL2 comes out as ATi has their optimizations in, now its nvidias turn.

ATi does have a leg up in anti aliasing though in most games, but thats a moot point seeing as most people don't use that feature.

This generation is going to be fun and wild, but I'll most likely be puting my eggs in nvidia's basket (wow that sounded wierd huh?)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Interesting stuff. It's difficult for me to pick at it since I'm not an industry insider like Charlie, and consequently don't have "my finger on their pulse" as he seems/claims to. Some of his assertions/speculating is hard to believe, and the Ferrari vs Yugo analogy was just silly and overly dramatic.

He does make good points about the D3 engine, SLI, ATi's lackluster chipsets, and the whole non-issue about nV using a bridge chip instead of native PCI-E. Is that enough to sway OEMs to use nV over ATi though? ATi has had some enormous wins in getting manufacturers to start selling ATi cards, they held the performance crown for 2yrs+, and they have a very good biz relationship with Intel@the moment which could pay off big time for them.

 

[SneakyStuff]

I tend to agree, all ATI is doing is downplaying everything nVidia has, but they don't. I think nVidia deserves this one, because they actually delivered what they promised.

 

[Dman877]

You need to add an option to your poll. I'm waiting until the next gen cards come out and the current gen cards come down to 200$. Then with full availability and new drivers to use, I'll make a decision because R420 and NV40 are both rediculously priced atm... got my 9700 Pro for under 400$ right after they came out and it's lasted 2 years. The Ultra/XT cards should be 400 imo and the GT/Pro's should be 300$.

 

[JSt0rm]

Yah the prices on these things is stupidly expensive for the normal people. I would rather buy a $200 twice then buy a $400 card once. Of course some people have more then others and if they want to spend $400+ on a video card more power to them.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: JSt0rm01
Yah the prices on these things is stupidly expensive for the normal people. I would rather buy a $200 twice then buy a $400 card once. Of course some people have more then others and if they want to spend $400+ on a video card more power to them.

This is the common theme here and quite understandable given many of you are the "starving student" crowd But you need look no futher then Apple to see that cost of ownership isn't the only factor for many successful adults. Then there is Alienware who manages to maintain a prosperous business catering to a similar PC crowd. Dell has entered this game now as well.

Industry analyst show gaming as a booming industry over the next decade, and while mobile gaming will enjoy the biggest gains with the consoles probably next, the PC platform will see it's share of increase as well. That translates to a larger customer base which means unless there is a very skewed demographic of the income brackets, the crowd with money to spend will grow substantially too. I believe this is why Dell is now venturing into the high-end desktop market, and targeting gamers aggressively, because they see the writting on the wall and don't want to loose out on a growing market that produces higher profit margins than the low-end divison that relies heavily on volume to make it worthwhile.

 

[GTaudiophile]

But it gets worse. ATI has no PS3.0 part, and never will.

WTF! What does he call R500??? I think the part that ATi debuts for XB2 will wipe the floor with NVDA's latest at that time. Or does this guy know something that Microsoft does not?

Edit: When I say that, I am not including SLI into the picture, which is the one thing that ATI does not have a (known) planned response to.

 

[AmdInside]

The main issue than NVIDIA has going for them now is supply and delays. NV40 shipped much later than originally planned, and in small number. Motherboard chipsets are always shipped late. In NVIDIA has a good time to market, they would be crushing ATI right now.

 

[GTaudiophile]

The OEM sales matter a lot, and everything looks to be in Nvidia's favour here as well. Of late, a lot of companies have defected from the Nvidia camp to the ATI camp. I think the OEMs will be quite receptive to the marketing pitch of 'You sell ATI, no SLI'.

WTF!

And just how many machines will even the likes of DELL sell with SLI? Maybe less than 1%? DELL is far more concerned about keeping the inside of the case cool and quiet...something 99% of customers want over 3D speed...and something ATi does better with its one-slot design than nVDA!

This guy is NUTZ!

 

[jpeyton]

GT, ATi's PS3.0 part is a while off. Also, OEMs choose their parts based on features and market demand; with Nvidia ruling every benchmark for games based on the Doom3 engine, and absolutely crushing ATi with SLI, market perception will be that Nvidia is the king of video card chipsets.

At least Kerry had a tour of duty.

 

[wfbberzerker]

*yawn*

 

[GTaudiophile]

I think if you look at OEM sales, especially PCIe sales, you'll see that ATi is dominating.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: n7
After skimming that article, i think there is far too much fanboism in this world.

Last round, generally speaking, ATI had the better card in terms of price/performance.
This round, generally speaking, nVidia has the better card.

Does it need to be beat to death?

i dont know, on average, X800Pro performance is very similar to 6800 GT performance and X800XT performance is similar to 6800U performance ...

 

[JBT]

First I wanted a 6800 GT, I then saw a X800Pro for a 340 so I placed an order. I then saw a 6800 GT for 301 so I canceld the x800 and got the GT instead. It never REALLY mattered to me much which card Both are sweet this round... I was mostly concerened with the money. If i never found a GT for so cheap I would have had the x800 and would have been find with that.

Only reason I initially wanted the GT was because I had a Radeon last round and wanted to try something new.

 

[Carbonadium4]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I think if you look at OEM sales, especially PCIe sales, you'll see that ATi is dominating.

Yeah i wanted a pcie 6800 part.. can't find one.. there are a lot of x800 pcie part.. even dell has them..

ati shipped 1 million x800 part last week, had an article on that.. but still.. I rather have a nvidia.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Carbonadium4

ati shipped 1 million x800 part last week, had an article on that.. but still.. I rather have a nvidia.

That doesn't sound correct, I read they mostly shipped x300&x600 to fill that total, so could you link the article that states it's x800's? TIA

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

i think it boils down to this. nvidia-based chipsets are better for OpenGL-based applications/games, as of now, it looks like ATI cards are better for Direc3D-based applications/games. it really comes down to what you plan on playing more. OpenG-based games, go with NVIDIA. If you're going to play more Direc3D games,go with ATI...of course this, as with anything, can change in the future.

 

[sandorski]

Maybe, time will tell. Doom 3 certainly runs better on NVidia, but it should be noted that games built using the Doom 3 Engine won't necessarily run better on NVidia based cards. Compare Q3 vs Q3 Engined games to see how performance can vary quite substantially.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Carbonadium4

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I think if you look at OEM sales, especially PCIe sales, you'll see that ATi is dominating.

Yeah i wanted a pcie 6800 part.. can't find one.. there are a lot of x800 pcie part.. even dell has them..

ati shipped 1 million x800 part last week, had an article on that.. but still.. I rather have a nvidia.

Dell gets whatever they want, look at how they have managed to get 'scarce' Intel chips when nobody else can even find them.

 

[SickBeast]

I found the author of the article extremly unknowledgeable and biased. This is a horrible combination in computer journalism. He should learn what geometry instancing really is and which graphics cards support the feature. He would probably be shocked to learn that the 9700PRO supports it, along with the 9800 and X800-based cards.

He should also investigate the performance of graphics cards in the low and mid-end segments. Again, he would probably be shocked to learn that ATi's parts are very competetive.

 

[yelo333]

My take: Performance-wise, ATI + Nvidia will continue to leap-frog one another. it's happened in the past, and I don't see a reason why it won't continue. currently, I believe Nvidia has the edge.

However, driver-wise, Nvidia has a huge edge on ATI - just compare the features, I'm thoroughly impressed...so, even when performance isn't quite as good, Nvidia currently has a much better driver. Let's not forget that Nvidia absolutely kills ati when it comes to linux compatibility...

A confession: I'm a happy ATI radeon 9000 owner, as 9000vsGF4MX, 9000 wins for what I do, even with those driver problems, I still prefer...You see, I have a GF2MX200, as well, in an old box. the 3d drivers are awesome, considering most of the features still work on that ancient card. That can't be said about a rage128 I've got. Both are getting better, but I hope ATI puts a lot more work into their drivers compatibility/feature-wise, then they have been.