View Full Version : ATI vs. NVidia Faceoff



okcpulse
05-11-2006, 09:11 PM
ATI vs. NVidia

The wonder of technology. And its innovative genrations. NVidia will soon begin releasing its series 8 graphics chips. In the mean time, while growing its product line with SLI (scalable link interface) support, ATI just recently hit the dual card scene with Crossfire, a desperate attempt to cushion its sudden loss of PC market share to NVidia. In 2005, NVidia introduced SLI for the new PCI Express motherboards. Since then, a number of cards, such as the GeForce 6800 GT and 7800 GTX are a few of the cards that can double up with a matching card for some real horsepower under the hood of a PC. Wait a minute, haven't we heard this story before?

Yes. We have. It was NVidia who was the loser on the scene in 2003 and 2004 while ATI pulled ahead at full speed with its moderately priced but well-performing graphics cards. ATI does continue to be the leader in its All-In-Wonder series cards, featuring video capture support within a card. And Apple latched onto ATI for the Mac Edition graphics cards enjoyed by Mac enthusiasts. But during ATI's long-lived hey-day, NVidia had committed itself to Microsoft's XBOX gaming console, now known as the king of gaming consoles with kick-ass network capabilities and one hell of an online community, specifically Halo 2 Online gamers. As a graphics chip manufacturer, you have to be careful who you get into a relationship with, because in the technological world of polygamous relationships, someone always gets hurt.

Now that NVidia has severed ties with XBOX after recommitting itself to PC platforms, and ATI stepped in for XBOX 360, ATI now surrenders its title as king of graphics cards. While heavily supporting XBOX 360 and Apple, its PC edition of the X1800 cards and the 'Crossfire' capability is one that will only win the hearts of hardcore, die-hard ATI fans. NVidia's SLI capabilities are much cleaner, less complicated and receives better support on the PCI-Express slot. After all, each PCI-Express slot's bandwidth is better utilized by the GeForce card, while ATI forces just one PCI-Express slot to carry the juice of both cards on a single channel. I smell issues. But the new NVidia GeForce 7900 series is an engineering wonder to behold. With 512MB of dedicated RAM and 1.4 billion vertices per second, this card puts serious juice behind gaming. The card also clocks in at 700 to 750 MHz on the GPU and more than 800 MHz on memory. If you had deep pockets, clustering several PCs together equipped with this weapon and you have yourself one helluva render farm. My criticism of ATI always has been lack of specs. You can get them, yes, but they are hard to get. With all of the features readily available in my hands at the point of sale, I'll go with NVidia.

www.okcpulse.com

Todd
05-11-2006, 10:25 PM
I've owned both and have far less issues and faster rendering with ATI.

{la_resistance}
05-14-2006, 03:26 PM
Both have their purposes. As a hardcore gamer I experience much less heat with ATI, but NVidia doesn't chug through games like F.E.A.R. which tax the entire system and pushes it's limits.

windowphobe
05-14-2006, 06:12 PM
I was happy with the ATI card in my previous computer, but I opted for NVidia in the new one.

luke911
05-14-2006, 11:18 PM
For 99% of users it's like buying a chevy or a ford. Gamers tend to stick with either what works for them or what reviews say.

Myself I prefer ATI just because i seem to have less issues, but then again it's time for an upgrade and the nvidia cards are looking pretty good.

Midtowner
05-15-2006, 09:51 AM
I'm kind of tied to Nvidea.. Bought an Asus mobo with an Nvidia chipset. Right now, I'm running the BFG 6600GT OTC in it. I'm currently weighing whether to get another 6600 and run them in SLI or maybe just upgrade to something in the 7000 series (the eVGA 7600GT is impressive for the price).

At any rate, these guys like to lock you in once you get your mobo. I guess I could run an ATI in the current mobo, but I'd lose a few options like SLI (an ingenious device to automatically double their market). I've seen a few quad SLI boards now. I hope that either it drives the cost of vidcards waaay down because I'm really afraid that this new SLI fad will supplement innovation by just making us add extra graphics cards...

{la_resistance}
05-16-2006, 12:11 AM
Once again I am a heavy gamer and if I remember correctly the purpose of NVidia's SLI mode was to help take even more stress off the good ol' processor so it could take the complex particle effects and physics of modern games. Soon (inside of one year) they will release physics processors. Amazing in 5 years we have gone from proc. to three.

But for me the only reason I use NVidia is for the same reason I use AMD, they have better commmunication speeds with all parts of the comp. and they are unlocked so you can overclock when necessary. A major downside is the excess heat which consequently places it on the same level as intel...

MadMonk
05-16-2006, 06:11 AM
I've had both ATI and Nvidia cards. Both were quality products that I have no problem with. Like luke911 said, its becoming a Ford/Chevy debate with relatively minor differences between the two, each one trying to one-up the other.

I read somewhere that Nvidia and ATI are looking at incorporating some of the ideas of the physics processors into their video cards so the physics card may be a short-lived fad.

okcpulse
05-16-2006, 07:09 AM
Soon (inside of one year) they will release physics processors.

BFG Tech already has released a physics processor- the PhysX by Ageia. The expansion card is available now, and uses the PCI expansion slot. Here are the specs:

>> Processor Type: AGEIA PhysX
>> Memory Interface: 128-bit GDDR3 Memory Architecture
>> Memory Capacity: 128MB
>> Peak Instruction Bandwidth: 20 Billion Instructions/sec
>> Sphere-Sphere Collisions/sec.: 530 Million Max
>> Convex-Convex (Complex) Collisions/sec.: 533,000 Max
>> Bus Technology: 32-bit PCI 2.3 (3.3v & 5v support)



Minimum System Requirements
>> CPU with processor speed of 1.4 GHz or higher
>> 128MB of system RAM
>> Microsoft® Windows® XP, Home, Pro or Media Center Edition
>> CD or DVD-ROM drive
>> A 300 Watt system power supply
>> 20MB available disk space
>> A vacant PCI 2.0 slot or higher
>> Add-in graphics card supporting Microsoft ®DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 2.0 or higher

{la_resistance}
05-17-2006, 11:12 PM
Can you give me the link to that?I've got a few more specs I would like to check.

Midtowner
05-18-2006, 06:49 AM
I ordered a 7900 GT the other day haven't received it yet. When I get it, I'll run it for a bit, see how the temps run when I OC it... Might slap some cooling goodies on it..

I found that the specs were pretty darned good for the money, and that later, if I want to run it in SLI, the specs are just reediculous. Keep in mind that regular TV has a framerate of 33. A framerate of 100+ is just silly :)

okcpulse
05-18-2006, 11:04 AM
Can you give me the link to that?I've got a few more specs I would like to check.

www.bfgtech.com/physx/index.htm

{la_resistance}
05-20-2006, 12:29 AM
Thanks from what I heard they are also planning to have onboard physics processor chips....