Cybercoco

I'm sure you've seen your fair share of "Nvidia versus ATI" threads, and this isn't meant to be just another one of those. I am working on an English final assignment that I decided was going to be an analytical report comparing Nvidia and ATI. I figure one of the best ways to gather data on this is by going to the gaming and PC communities that care about this topic.

Along with the poll I put together a few brief questions below. I am posting this to several gaming and PC community sites. Your participation by answering these questions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to take up too much of your time, so simple answers (ex. yes or no) is all that I need. But if you wish to expand and discuss your opinion more, you're certainly welcomed to. Please keep it civil.

Thank you for your time.


1. Which factor do you lean more towards when buying a new graphics card, price or performance?

2. Is buying the latest graphics technology important to you?

3. Do you consider tests and reviews from computer news publications or websites (ex. PCWorld Magazine or Tom's Hardware) when choosing a new graphics card?

MIG-31

Hi... As this were posted in "Offtopic" i have moved this to "Hardware Discussion & Support" forum as it is a more neutral forum for the time being.

EDIT: 95% of the time i choose Nvidia.

No.... I like to make the most of what i have for sometime...BTW My SLI setup i have is with thanks to HH's Admins..

Not always for me... I usually know what im after.

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Callandor

1. I lean towards performance when buying a new graphics card.

2. Yes buying the latest graphics technology is important to me.

3. Yes, I do.

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blibbax

1.) I try to build a balanced system on a tight budget, and a GPU needs to fir into that. I guess that means that I go for both.

2.) Not at all, as long as it plays the games I want to play at a reasonable level of graphical fidelity.

3.) Neither of those awful publications, but yes. I most trust HH, TPU and AT.

I voted Nvidia, as I do tend to choose their products. I'd have no issue with having an AMD card in my system, but at the times that I have bought Nvidia has happened to be the better option.

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synthesis204

Isn't TPU one of the most blatant ATI camps in existence?

1) performance, but price is a factor

2) yes

3) Yes, those included but not limited to just them

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blibbax

I find that Toms is just plain unreliable and amateur. Wizz is a tad biased at times, but I trust his numbers.

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Takaharu

I really don't care whether it's an Nvidia or an AMD card as long as I'm satisfied with the performance and value. It's part of the reason why the socket 1366 was of interest to me; Crossfire or SLI work fine.

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Tipstaff

As of late I tend to lean more towards Nvidia due to their PhysX support. This is really the only deciding factor at the moment as I have quite a few games that use it. Otherwise I'd be picking the card that is fastest at my budget level.

Both. Best bang for the mid-high end buck. However, there are 2 other factors: heat, and fan noise. I don't trust a card that can fry an egg to last very long, plus I can't stand to listen to my system, in particular the video cards fan, when I'm trying to listen to the game I'm playing. Takes all the enjoyment out of playing a game on my PC when I have to worry about my card overheating, or being annoyed by a turbine running 1-2 feet from me.

Only in as much as when I buy, I buy the latest, but not so much as that buying a mid-high end card affords me the ability to wait a year or 2 between purchases.

Hell yes, and for all these reasons: how hot does it get (or not), how does it perform (in comparison not only to AMD, but with cards above and below it's performance), and how loud is the fan (both in the reviewers opinion and db ratings).

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blibbax

Plus one for temps and noise. Amazingly, trying out this HD6850 for free, I actually find myself missing the 9800 for it's triple slot cooler and physx support

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ET3D

I tend to buy low mid range, i.e., the cheapest card which I feel provides decent performance. My last was Radeon 5750. I sometimes bought used cards. I tend to get more cards for free than I buy, which helps me get a little higher end than I'd buy. I'm currently using a Radeon 5850 that I won.

Pretty much, although I can live with an old tech for a while. I do mean technology and not performance. I bought the 5750 pretty quickly because I wanted to have a DX11 card to play with (I mean in the programming sense, not the gaming sense, which wasn't there at the time). Minor tech updates I'm less interested in.
I read reviews of the latest cards for fun, so when I want to buy one I know what would match my needs.

As for the AMD vs. NVIDIA question (the ATI brand was relevant in the past, but is now dead), I would buy either, based on specs, performance and cost, but with a preference for AMD, partly because most of the cards I won were ATI/AMD cards, largely because NVIDIA's proprietary standards annoy me, and AMD supports open source better.

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Jac

1. Which factor do you lean more towards when buying a new graphics card, price or performance?

Both, I go for decent performance at a good price point. I never buy the cheap cards and I don't waste my money on the high-end cards either.

2. Is buying the latest graphics technology important to you?

Somewhat, I currently have a DX11 card so I like to keep up with the latest developments. Up to press DX11 has done NOTHING worthwhile for me.

3. Do you consider tests and reviews from computer news publications or websites (ex. PCWorld Magazine or Tom's Hardware) when choosing a new graphics card

I don't read magazines but get reviews from sites like this one and other online sources. I always read numerous reviews before making a purchase.

Kizo

Voted: I would use either one.

1. Which factor do you lean more towards when buying a new graphics card, price or performance?

Both of them, I tend to buy mid range cards, sometimes low-mid range. Power consumption is also a factor to me (performance per Watt, if you will).

2. Is buying the latest graphics technology important to you?

Sometimes yes, but not regularly, depends of the new features. If there is a feature I particularly like (ex. accelerated HD video, or to play latest Half-Life on max ), it would become important.
Since I have increasingly less time to play these days, I have forgotten the excitement of a new graphics card. (OT: HH and AMD have reminded me )

3. Do you consider tests and reviews from computer news publications or websites (ex. PCWorld Magazine or Tom's Hardware) when choosing a new graphics card

Yes, and like blibbax, I trust HH (primary source), TPU and AT the most.

Ishank

1. I look that at what price the card performance is fair or not.

2. yes

3. Ya I like to see reviews by HH .

isaak

1. Performance, within reasonable price limits

2. Yes, if I'm going to get something new, I want it to actually BE new.

3. Yes

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The first step... shall be to lose the way. - Galway Kinnell

blibbax

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BlueMak

1. With most demanding games being console ports, there is no need for the ultimate performance card. Price wins.

2. Yes, but only if I have a good reason to buy a card in the first place.

3. TH? lol. No. More reputable, like Hardwareheaven.com , yes.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

niceguyrichy

1) i usually look at the price: performance ratio & how much i have to spend, then buy accordingly, although i have been known to be slightly rash... (just recently sold my 6870 cheap and bought a EVGA 470 SC, just cos it would fold better straight out the box)

2) no, i buy whatever will work for me

3) yes, always do thorough research, compare several reviews, and generally browse forums looking for any recurring issues i should be aware of.

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Judas

1. I lean towards them all including some extra factors..

Price is always a factor..... best bang for the buck ...
Performance factors into that bang...

But also the matter of long term and running reliability factors in as well. Personally my experience with dealing with countless video cards... having had to replace many due to failures or issues with them.... the running tally of either vendor factors in..

Drivers too..

In my case... i've had to replace on average about 5x more nvidia cards then ATI... Some of them are my own.. so i can use 2 different tally systems on this.... my own system builds with these video cards.. and other system builds be it dell or prebuilts and i could add another tally for other custom builds..

Either way for me... the ATI card lineup has the longest reliabily history so far since the Radeon series was first introduced way back over 10 years ago.

This suggests to me that overall the ATI cards are built very very well... and have a good running history of remaining hardware wise, in tune...

The company as a whole hasn't from what i've gathered for information.. a single recall issue or mass failure problem... (unlike nvidia)... Nor have they been caught repeatedly bending or Breaking the rules... (unlike nvidia)... But they have been caught a few times optimising... however anytime ati's been caught.. it has usually been for improvement of image quality and performance.. not actually reducing image quality for performance (nvidia)....

Long running history of things going on....

NOW i know for a fact that someone out there. or a number of people will have the opposite experience in terms of hardware failures or total disgust with the ati drivers....and having no issues with the nvidia.... frankly some of these people are so full of themselves that they won't even admit that nvidia has had major issues... Just like there are some ATI boys and girls that refuse to acknowledge that ati has any issues either..

Personally my experience with either, i've gotten the cold shoulder and total neglect from nvidia more often then i would care for.. while my experience with ati has been relatively neutral~>warm....

Currently i am having some issues with ati's drivers as we speak.... but not everything is ever 100% perfect..... but i'd take ATI's running track record for ME at about a 80% successful running rate much more then nvidia's track record with me at around 30% successful and enjoyable experience.

Sometimes nvidia comes out with a better product.... no doubt.... Lets just go over the last few years as an example.

ATI's 9500-9800 series gpu's were basically the cadilac of video gpu's... Nvidia's counter was the FX5xxx series which.. for the most part... was total junk... terrible.. period... However this was later countered by Nvidia's 8800 series GPUs which when launched totally trashed the ati counter parts... while ati developed and produced the failure that would be dubbed the HD2900 series..... they wouldn't get a single bit of currency from me until they managed to bring out the HD2400 and HD2600 cards... which weren't exactly stellar.. but they were decent midrange cards..... Nvidia on the other hand had been sitting on it's 8800's for what seemed like forwever ..milking it to no end while ati had been trying to catch up..... ATI then finally launched the badass 3xxx series gpu's that not only fixed the heavily flawed and utterly terrible Crossfire in it's previous x1xxx series... but produced a damn good performer that essentially trounced what nvidia had....

The back and forth nature of the video card markets are normal... but i find that while ati is even in the lead.. they tend to get a little bit more inovative and keep striving to improve while making mistakes at the time...... where as nvidia tends to when it's on top... sit on their cash cow until the competition catches up..

2. Not always entirely so... but it's a definite factor into it..

I see no point in purchasing a DX10.1 card if there is a near equivilent DX11 card available.... even if the DX10.1 card might have a slight advantage over it for the price... I have found that in the end.. the extra features either make up for the slight price or performance difference.. and sometimes the extra features used properly will improve the performance of the card leaving it's initially faster counterpart behind.

3. I put VERY VERY little weight from others opinions of these cards.. aside from getting a basic idea of how the card looks.... fits... connections... and a basic toe in of it's performance compared to it's previous generation and competitions....... i then use these as a factor to figure out where abouts i stand if i was looking to replace what i have...

Personally i typically stick to HardwareHeaven for that kind of stuff.... specially considering that usually if i have questions or suggestions or whatnot on the products that have been recently reviewed... i can get some decent feedback on it right away which further improves things considerably..

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BlueMak

That's it Judas, scare him away.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Judas

i done good....

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OldBuzzard

1. Which factor do you lean more towards when buying a new graphics card, price or performance?

For me it's a matter of "bang for the buck", so neither one has priority.

2. Is buying the latest graphics technology important to you?

Somewhat. There again, it's a matter of price/performance.

3. Do you consider tests and reviews from computer news publications or websites (ex. PCWorld Magazine or Tom's Hardware) when choosing a new graphics card?

I don't read Magazines. I do read reviews online. Here, and HardOCP mostly. But I will look at others as well. Tom's Hardware is one that I WON'T visit as they have been known to whore themselves out in the past, and I distrust ANYTHING that they have to say.

As for ATI vs. nVidia, I'm a bit more extreme than Judas. I will not use an nVidia card even if it was given to me free of charge, much less purchase one. I refuse to reward them for their scum sucking, bottom feeding business practices.

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blibbax

Judas uses massive wall of text.

It isn't very effective.

Even though I have tended to have Nvidia cards so far, I would not have had any objection to buying an AMD card for my next rig. I tend to just go for what's better at the time. I trust both to provide decent quality most of the time, and I tend to use non-stock coolers. However, the current blogging challenge may have put me off going for AMD in the near future to some extent. I might grace you with reasons why in my last blog, but in some ways I am kinda looking forward to the re-installment of my (vastly inferior) faithful old Geforce card.

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Cybercoco

Thanks for the feedback guys (and small history lesson). It's greatly appreciated.