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EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|7116
Ok, after coming back from Australia & New Zealand for a month i've discovered for some bizarre reason my X1900XTX likes to give minor artifacts in just BF2, for some weird reason (i've tried everything before anybody mentions it, I work as an computer professional so I know what i'm doing.. maybe it was the cold whilst I was away etc).

Anyway, i've decided i'm going to sell it and buy a DX10 graphics card. Which was the plan for this year anyway, so no big worry.

However, i've gotten my fair share of bad experiences with both nvidia and ati cards.

Here's how I see things:

nvidia:

* Drivers on Vista suck
* I've had two 7900GTX's artifact heavilly on me
* They have good XP drivers
* The 8900 series is coming out soon and the 8800 series is available now

ATI:

* I've had bad experiences with their drivers in the past
* Gotten oddities with some monitors, the dvi port and ATI cards (very minor, very slight flicker.. barely perceptible but fixed in later drivers)
* R600 series is coming out soon


Now as far as I see it, I can wait for the new nvidia 8900 series and ATI's R600 series to arrive or I can buy an 8800 today. At the moment i'm half and half.. as the minor artifacts (mostly just occasional texture stuff) do annoy me slightly in BF2 so i'm getting tempted by the 8800. However, i'm hearing good things about the R600 and 8900.

I do have a SLI motherboard so I am probably leaning in preference for nvidia. (since I could buy a second card at a future date and SLI them up)
TheOneAndOnlyX
Banned
+36|6838|Florida, USA

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

Ok, after coming back from Australia & New Zealand nvidia:

* Drivers on Vista suck
* They have good XP drivers
Um yea, nvidia released vista drivers first and to install nividias drivers are a million times easier than ati. Also dx10 is only with vista, so you make no sense.
EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|7116

TheOneAndOnlyX wrote:

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

Ok, after coming back from Australia & New Zealand nvidia:

* Drivers on Vista suck
* They have good XP drivers
Um yea, nvidia released vista drivers first and to install nividias drivers are a million times easier than ati. Also dx10 is only with vista, so you make no sense.
I'm sorry, what?

I have heard nothing but bad things about nvidias Vista drivers. Hence "* Drivers on Vista suck". But i've found their XP drivers to be solid. (Vista and XP's driver architecture differs massively)
Installing drivers I do not find difficult in the slightest, so I don't know what you're going on about there.

As to the DX10 thing, i'm planning on getting a DX10 card so when I move over to Vista (which considering the games I probably will in 12 months time) i'll have a card that I can run the DX10 stuff on.

As far as I can see, i'm making perfect sense.
Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7013|UK

8900 or 8950 (bizarely its not quite so clear cut that the 8950 is better than an 8900GTX) I would suggest, the R600 (X2800XTX) is looking good, but depending on price you pick what you like.  My thinkin is your probably better waiting for the release of 8900GTX to drive down the 8800 price, there will be a $100 USD atleast gap between them, and I am not sure it be completly worth it, since the 8900 is basically an overclocked 8800 which u can do yourself.........

http://forums.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showt … post405860

Obviously those apparant specs can change, but its very likely that is what Nvidia are going to offer, if the 8800 drops enough then that is by far the best choice.

Martyn
aujt74
Member
+11|7159|Scotland!

TheOneAndOnlyX wrote:

Um yea, nvidia released vista drivers first and to install nividias drivers are a million times easier than ati. Also dx10 is only with vista, so you make no sense.
You seen the benchmarks for any 8800 based card on Vista compared to the same setup on XP? To say that the Vista drivers and under-developed & under-performing is putting it mildly. Something like a 25-40% performance drop on Vista drivers to XP just now. Unfortunately nvidias having good XP drivers doesnt translate well to Vista. Give it time and they might get their act together...

Or if you go ATI your going to be waiting as well, and I can see a mother of a price war happening in the next 6 months. So hold on for a little while and see how the market develops and how the relative bang for your buck works out for ATI & nvidia.

To be honest if/when I upgrade my graphics for DX10 I'm thinking of ATI at the moment, but we shall see. R600 based cards may or may be better than G80 based cards, they might draw more power, run hotter or whatever. I think any decision over your DX10 graphics card is worth putting off at least until ATI comes into the market and both ATI & nvidia broaden their range of DX10 cards.
aujt74
Member
+11|7159|Scotland!
<thread hijack>
Bell - Scotland
Me - Scotland

Bell - Lieutenant Colonel
Me - Lieutenant Colonel
Not too dissimilar play styles either

Bell - Top of the line overclocked gaming rig
Me - Powerful, overclocked but cool & near-silent gaming rig

Next you will be telling me your in Glasgow

Nice.
</thread hijack>
Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7013|UK

I AM!  Well, just outside it, 15mins and I am there for some drinkin and fighting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdzoaNnCJ3o

Martyn
aujt74
Member
+11|7159|Scotland!

Bell wrote:

I AM!  Well, just outside it, 15mins and I am there for some drinkin and fighting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdzoaNnCJ3o

Martyn
Well there's a coincidence or two.

Oh and good clip. A Glaswegian hosting The Late Late Show. Quality. (or "thas pure heavy mental man" as those from some of the more eh... interesting areas of Glasgow might say)
Cybargs
Moderated
+2,285|7180
R600 is 12 inches long. I doubt it would fit in your case.
https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png
cablecopulate
Member
+449|7202|Massachusetts.
I could take all 12 of those inches.

/gay moment over.
adv3rsary
Member
+28|7180
ati... their drivers are much better now + the vista drivers are good
EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|7116

cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:

R600 is 12 inches long. I doubt it would fit in your case.
The OEM version is 12 inches, the retail version is 9. (of the R600)

Plus my case is a Lian-Li V1200 Plus. It can handle just about everything in the known universe.
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6957|N. Ireland
I'm waiting for the R600. Frankly, I don't know why people say ATI-CCC is so hard to use. I love it, and I use the advanced mode!

Get the R600 because it has proven better - check out Google, I can't remember where they were tested. ATI smoked nVidia's 8800GTX in every game except BF2, in which there was a 3FPS difference.

Go ATI.
EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|7116

leetkyle wrote:

I'm waiting for the R600. Frankly, I don't know why people say ATI-CCC is so hard to use. I love it, and I use the advanced mode!

Get the R600 because it has proven better - check out Google, I can't remember where they were tested. ATI smoked nVidia's 8800GTX in every game except BF2, in which there was a 3FPS difference.

Go ATI.
Nobody has gotten their hands on R600 hardware yet, so I dunno what you're going on about there.

It's kind of obvious the R600 will be better than the 8800GTX, what i'm curious about is whether the R600 will be better than the 8900 series that nvidia is releasing at roughly the same time.
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6957|N. Ireland
http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full … 00-test/1/

...

edit// here's the BF2 benchmark:

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full … 00-test/8/

Last edited by leetkyle (2007-02-16 04:24:36)

EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|7116

leetkyle wrote:

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full-ati-r600-test/1/

...

edit// here's the BF2 benchmark:

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full … 00-test/8/
Interesting if it's genuine and not just some site hoping to fake it and get loads of advertising revenue.
I'd expect the drivers to have matured a bit more since hopefully considering some of those performance increases of a few percent over the 8800.
Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7013|UK

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

leetkyle wrote:

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full-ati-r600-test/1/

...

edit// here's the BF2 benchmark:

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full … 00-test/8/
Interesting if it's genuine and not just some site hoping to fake it and get loads of advertising revenue.
I'd expect the drivers to have matured a bit more since hopefully considering some of those performance increases of a few percent over the 8800.
Agreed, reason why I think its nonsence is because that site only has a story about the R600 :S

Martyn
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6957|N. Ireland
Yes, because if you recall when that was first released, they were the only one to get their hands on it. It's been out for a few weeks. There was a massive thread on it somewhere, but i cba finding it.
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