The Big Debate: nVidia or ATI?

[Ace08]

So I want to upgrade my pc and I am having trouble deciding which graphics card I should use. I know the Epic seems to endorce or support nVidia, but is it really better for UT3 than ATI?

[DrUnKenSTeiN]

If its ut3 get nvidia . If u have WinXP GET nvidia(i still crash with vsync on). Not sure with win7 or vista.

I have ati atm hd 4890 n im very happy with it. Probs with crashes with UT(at least with winXP).

[Sly.]

What Drunkenstein said. I have a Nvidia graphics card and it works really fine on my PC.

You should more focus on the processor though. I read somewhere that the UE3 is very processor-heavy (sorry if this word is wrong.. couldn't find any translation for it) like it's forerunners .

[Moloko]

I read somewhere that the UE3 is very processor-heavy (sorry if this word is wrong.. couldn't find any translation for it) like it's forerunners .

You may have got that info here from UT3's producer Jeff Morris aka WarTourist, commenting on the CPU bound nature of the rendering.

[Cr4zy]

Nvidia, if you want it to work.

Unless you want a great card that won't work because of the WORST drivers ever made, go ATi. Their cards are great, their drivers are shockingly ****. Never going ATi again in my life.

[DrUnKenSTeiN]

Having built various ATI machines, i've RARELY experienced the driver issues that many speak of. I'm running XP, and UT3 runs fine at 1600x900, "max grafx". Indeed, one of the few issues i have experienced with ATI drivers was pertinent to UT3, it wasn't the Display Drivers, however. It was the South Bridge drivers. The game, after a reboot, would run with low FPS on 1600x900. Switching to a lower resolution, then switching to 1600x900 again seemed to rectify it. After a driver update though, it seems to run fine.

I haven't much experience with nVidia cards, but i don't practice brand loyalty. I'm neutral. Just chiming in to say that i've been using ATI cards since ~after a 64mb Voodoo 5, and haven't been experiencing many of the alleged issues which many seem to experience...

I bought my PC when ut3 came out. Nvidia 8800gt was my 1st vga for it .I had this vga with my crt and the tft i bought after that. No probs at all. After my vga died i bought an ati hd 4890 and crashes started.When 1st person was changing to 3d person view mostly.So entering a vehicle or dieing ,often (very often ) ,lead to a crash. Others got the same prob and there are threads about it.Some say that its a winXP prob but im not sure.I formatted, tried clean install,new drivers n many more things. The only thing that worked was disabling vsync. I play with tearing n got used to it but its not the best thing for my eyes.NOT one single prob with the nvidia vga.

Makes me wonder.

[Moloko]

Well it depends on the particular titles you play most. Nvidia is the safer bet, because their driver team, along with the TWIMTBP studio dev tech support is a hugely expensive effort ($100M/yr) so they've simply had an input on many more titles.

Personally I don't like all this "runs best on" (read- optimized for our achitecture and proprietary stuff). But if it saves PC gaming as Nvidia claim, from Studios that cannot be bothered to optimize ,so be it.

[Bl!tz~]

When 1st person was changing to 3d person view mostly.

i had this one with all my nvidia gfxs if i use MM :8800gts320; 8800gt512 & 8800gt/sli; 9800gtx+ & 9800gtx+/sli....and i had it last week with my gtx285/sli.... the only nivia gfx that never had it here was a 8600gt (which was borderline to handle the game even on low settings)
i never have try ATI gfxs but honnestly i had several others bugs with my nvidias (with some specific drivers, with bugs on mouse selection/grid with the editor, with sli on some maps...and several others)

though i always was able to fix the problems....

[spartanmastah]

A lot of Biased Nvidia People Here,I got an ATi 4870 Back then in 2007,And it Worked Beautifully.

I Could max everything out and get 50+ FPS.

[Moloko]

A lot of Biased Nvidia People Here

Nah, no fanboism here, it's purely about utility.

[Cr4zy]

A lot of Biased Nvidia People Here,

It's what works. I have both an Nvidia and ATi system. Infact the ATi system should be more powerful in theory. But no the drivers suck. No matter what OS or what drivers, abysmal is about all it can be called.

[Random54]

Nvidia historically has been better for UT3. I prefer Nvidia drivers to ATI drivers. ATI might be cheating on their benchmarks.

All that said it depends what game(s) you play and your budget. Check out some benchmarks, read what the reviewers have to say, and buy the best card you can for the money you have, for the game you play.

[oldkawman1]

They are both good choices.

You can look at the benchmark charts at Toms' Hardware, But that only applies when the drivers work for your game. Since they don't use UT3, you never know. The ATI drivers have been OK for the last year for the 4870.

I switched from my 7900GTX SLI setup to a single 4870 card due to one card died. A cheap 4870, $149 was available so I grabbed it. Half the price of the equal nvidia card at the time. So, there you have it. I chose a card that works with UT3 because it's been around. The Cost : Performance ratio made the sell.

Buying a newly released card is a gamble from either company. I like to make sure what I buy works, so I do not buy new releases of video cards.

[Bl!tz~]

Buying a newly released card is a gamble from either company. I like to make sure what I buy works, so I do not buy new releases of video cards.

same here; it s only bringing a"+" to buy the previous serie: bugs fixed, drivers addapted; bad series identified; top prices and second hands on the market....for me same goes for the mobos and the cpus with a smallest delay though

[Grasshopper]

I have always run Nvidia and have never had a problem. One of they guys I play against did an "upgrade" to ATI and regretted it. Lots of problems and few solutions. I guess ATI can be good, but, you have to be a real bit twiddler who likes to spend time tweaking them. I would rather have something that works right out of the box.