ATI or nVidia? 39 replies

Tour of HeadsWhat are the pros and cons of getting a third-party card like that? (Besides the fact that it's cheaper.)[/QUOTE]There are plenty of good third party brands, and Sapphire is one of the better ATI ones. Nvidia's cards are all 3rd party. If Iwas buying ATI, I'd have no reservations buying a Sapphire brand card.

The only real cons would possibly be warranty limits and recieving a card that's DOA (which can happen with any brand/card). I can't think of a pro other than price.

That card used to cost alot more money, so read the reviews on newegg and around the net to make sure it's a good one. Which is good advice for any card you're considering.

My favorite quote from a review on this card: [QUOTE=some reviewer on newegg]This card has its own HEATSINK people

Yeah, 'cause that's unusual... :uhm:

Wow a heatsink! COOL! Okay, so the Sapphire card is probably a better buy because it's cheaper and has pretty much the same quality as ATI? The quality is really the only thing I would be worried about, but Oblivious you seem pretty confident so thank you.

MG42ManiacI went with the X1900XT because I prefer ATI to NVIDIA. I have a large case and a DFI motherboard and fitting the X1900XT was a pig, it spans the entire length of my motherboard and I had to move my raptor HDD so the X1900XT could fit, but once it was installed it was well worth it, you also need a beefy PSU for a X1900XT.

The newegg spec sheet for the X1900XT says it needs something like 38 amps on the 12V rail... Is that absolutely necessary? I haven't seen one PSU on the site that goes above 30 amps on 12V, except for ones that are like $400. Will this PSU below be sufficient for most cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

Tour of HeadsWow a heatsink! COOL! Okay, so the Sapphire card is probably a better buy because it's cheaper and has pretty much the same quality as ATI? The quality is really the only thing I would be worried about, but Oblivious you seem pretty confident so thank you.

The newegg spec sheet for the X1900XT says it needs something like 38 amps on the 12V rail... Is that absolutely necessary? I haven't seen one PSU on the site that goes above 30 amps on 12V, except for ones that are like $400. Will this PSU below be sufficient for most cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

38amps is for a crossfire setup and your gonna need a big bastard PSU something in the region of 650w+ with large rails.

A single X1900XT needs 30amps on the 12v rails. My 580W PSU has 38amps on both rails and runs the X1900XT with no issues.

Ahh okay.

What PSU do you have?

Hiper type R 580W

Ok, thank you very much. Do you mean you have a total of 38 amps combined over the two 12V rails? Haha forgive my ignorance, I have no experience with PSU's. It can be the combined total of both, not 38 amps on 1 rail?

Yes both rails combined aka Dual Rail.

nvidia. dount know why i just like them better. always had them. also im used to using their programs.

czech speacial forcesnvidia. dount know why i just like them better. always had them. also im used to using their programs.

it's funny, before i knew anything about videocards (or computers for that reason) i used to think that nvidia was a "ATi for dummies" branch of ATi. :lol: what's wierd is that it kind of is.

I have used both ATI and nvidia. I owned an ATI 9000pro, an ATI 9600pro and a BFG 6800gt. I cannot compare performance since I have cards from 3 differnet generations. I had only a few issues with ATI cards when I owned them. Making the switch from ATI to nvida was a pain though. Installing the long 6800gt was a pain in my cramped case. Then switching the drivers was another fun thing. I have not gat the full power out of my 6800gt due to a slow processor. I did get doom 3 to run ultra 1024x768 at 60fps. Nice to play a good looking PC without lag for the first time in a long time.

I would say it is all down to personal prefence, but the HDR+AA on the x1900xt is a big plus.