Which video card brand do you prefer?

[gdorf]

I'm going to be buying a new video card soon and I was wondering if I could get some advice from some of the people at AGN. I have about $150 to spend. What should I get? I've been looking at some reviews and I am seeing that the ti series often beats the Gf FX 5600 in pure framerate and benchmarks. And, well, I don't know much about Radeons at all. Also, how much do the card brands matter (ie: Is MSI better than Chaintech, Albatron, or Aopen) ?

To make this a little more productive for everyone, I've included a poll. Do you like Ati or nvidia cards better?


I just checked Pricewatch, and these are the cards in my price range:

ATi:
$142 - RADEON 9500 128MB
$123 - RADEON 9500 64MB
$78 - RADEON 9000 Pro 128MB
$74 - RADEON 9100 128MB
$72 - RADEON 9000 128MB
$68 - RADEON 9200 64MB
$65 - RADEON 8500
$64 - RADEON 9000 Pro 64MB
$63 - RADEON 9100 64MB
$63 - RADEON 7500 128MB
$57 - RADEON 9000
$57 - RADEON 9000 64MB
$45 - RADEON 7500

Geforce
$142 - GeForce4 TI 4800
$134 GeForce FX 5600 128MB
$110 GeForce4 TI 4200 128MB
$89 - GeForce3 TI 500
$88 - GeForce3 TI 200 128MB
$87 - GeForce4 TI 4200 64MB
$74 - GeForce4 MX 440 8x AGP 128MB
$70 GeForce FX 5200 128MB
$65 - GeForce FX 5200 64MB
$63 - GeForce3 TI 200 64MB
$52 - GeForce4 MX 440 4x 128MB
$48 - GeForce4 MX 440 8x AGP 64MB
$45 - GeForce4 MX 420
$38 - GeForce4 MX 440 4x 64MB <-- what I currently own

[vegeta1215]

I used to go for ATI cards, but after buying one and having no success in getting 3d accleration to work in Linux, I bought a Nvidia Geforce 2 and have been very happy.

In short, until ATI gets their act together in terms of Linux support (which they're starting to do), Nvidia is my choice.

[mike5000]

Well soon here once I get some money together, im going out to buy a Radeon 9700 pro...

[Jemsee]

An interesting question, one I have mulled over for quite some time.
I blame most of my recent trouble on video cards and there drivers.
Life was good till I updated my nVidia card which was a pci 32meg.
After crash after carsh I swich to a agp dimond viper 16meg (an older eVidia card) and still had trouble.
So abanding eVidia altogather I got a RADEON 7500 64meg and that may have been a mistake.
Why? Along with the new card I installed winXP and it would not install, after a nightmare of troubleshooting finaly figured out it was the brand new vid card.
Switched back to the dimond viper and XP slid right in.
After install was complted switched again and crash!
On a reboot I was able to install the drivers for the ATI and then all was fine. Got special drivers from the web for the card with XP.
The card and drivers caused no problem at all with 98se on install or otherwise.
Now that both (ATI card and XP) are in both seem to be working swimmingly.
However I just got it working 2 days ago, only time will tell if the marrage will work.

I did not cast a vote for eather, because of bad experence with nVidia and little experance with ATI.
Check compatability with your system and I would think eather brand would be good if compatabil.
I must say also that every card I have ever owned till now has been eVidia and never had a problem till just recently.
It has also been suggested to me that my problems were not just the vid card but the Motherboard (which also burnt and had to be replaced).
So I guess it's dealers choice.

[Gerudo]

i dont choose one card over the other, i choose whatever looks liek it will perform the best...

right now i have a maddog prowler... ill look up the stats later cuz im to lazy right now

[Drunken Tiger]

I prefer nvidia.. but thats probably because ive never used anything else before...

[MrCow]

ati owns nvidia. i have an ati radeon 9700 pro all in wonder card and love it to death.

[Radium]

I prefer Nvidia by far. They keep their drivers updated much more frequently than ATI. I've had nothing but trouble from ATI, and no problems with Nvidia. Besides, in a few weeks Nvidia will own the market again with the 5900 FX card. Although ATI is learning from Nvidia, in that they're going to stop building cards in-house and going OEM only just like Nvidia so there may be a change in their scheme... but I'm getting a new computer with a GeForce FX 5900 for Half-Life 2 when it is released September 30th!!!!!! :D (or so I hope at least ;))

As for you decision... read this: http://www.overclockers.com/tips00370/
I would take its advice and wait for Half-Life 2 to come out or DOOM III if you're not into HL. ASUS makes the best (most expensive) cards as far as I know.

[Jemsee]

I just changed my vote to nVidia.
Installed a small program from shuttle that was to monator my MB temp and voltage. It prevented XP from booting up (??) tryed to boot in safe mode and the ATI card could not accept the driver.
Swaped around the diamon viper just to get a pic on the screen and was able to boot up and restore to a previous setting. (A vary nice feature of XP, one that with the way things are going for me I'll be using alot of.)

Anyway go nVidia, even though this is a brand new card from ATI I think I'm going to start looking for a new one.
I have heard many good things about the gForce. Maybe I'll try that.

[Verman]

ATI cards are awsome....thier newest one is a blasing rocket compared to the new nvidia...

Well on my roomys computer anyhow. He has an AMD chip...he tried both on it and kept the radeon because it was faster.


Now, the greatest cards of all time were the old 3dfx cards. there was nothing better then the VooDoo3....it was amazing!

The voodoo4 & 5 sucked balls though so the company went under and sold out to nvidia....but nothing can match the coolest of seeing the 3dfx logo rotate when you loaded up a game :D cuase you knew it was gonna run fast even on your 266.

[goKi]

Im a fan of Nvidia cards, which all three of my computers have.

[Raichu86]

I don't really care. Whoever's making the best cards is who I like. And right now, it's ATI.