The Big Debate: nVidia or ATI?

[UTPlayer529th]

I switched out my 2 5870 cards for my GTX 480 and the 480 is much nicer to say the least

[Sly.]

How do you think UT3 would handle with an EVGA nVidia GTS 450 with an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor?

Without any doubt!
I can tell you, in comparison to your processor mine looks like a bunch of dirt but it can run UT3 on (a bit above) mid settings quite well.

[Bl!tz~]

no problems to run the game on highest settings with such a CPU
not 100 % sure but for the GTS 450 probably more around middle class settings than high or very high...depending from the size of ur screen and from the maps themselves of course

[Ace08]

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 .

How do you think UT3 would handle with an EVGA nVidia GTS 450 with an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor?

[twocenst]

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.

that can happen when you up grade from nvidia to ATI... as i have done lots of times.
went from a 7900 to a 4850 back to an 8800gt and then to a 4870 hd

and you just have to rember if you dont want any problems switching to and from nvidia to ATI. you must do a fresh install of you windows. this was the only way i could ensure the card's would work correctly.
and my 4870 1G runs the game well on my 23in monitor running 1920x1080
i average 100 to 250 fps...except for a few maps that are not fps friendly
currently rinning win7

[HideInLight]

UT3 had a lot of problems with Nvidia drivers in it's early days. But that's a thing of the past. Most of the driver related problems are gone now, it's actually pretty **** stable now. Think my FPS doubled since UT3's release, simply because of Titan Pack + new drivers.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Moloko]

A lot of Biased Nvidia People Here

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

[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.

[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....

[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.