POLL: ATI vs NVIDIA
 

Well, ATI and NVIDIA are at it again, with new high-end expensive cards. I have no idea which one is better, so I ask the opinions of this ever so qualified FOFC forum to help!

Which card will reign supreme as far as overall speed, performance, quality, and coding and without regard to costs?

I just purchased a ATI 9700 pro and it's the best card I have ever had.... I have always been a Nvidia Fanboy and a ATI basher, but this card is the best.... I get over 12,000 in 3dmark01 and 4400 in 3dmard03, this is the current video card champ....

It's difficult to answer this because the performance results for these cards are not really out there at this point. I've heard the 9800 is no better than the 9700 and that the FX is no better than the 9700. Plus there are other issues to consider. ATI designs their cards to specifically perform well with the 3Dmark2001 (or whatever they are using now). One reviewer even went so far as to say that while testing the 9700, when it came to where the card did its thing they actually noticed a deterioration in the quality of the video itself. They suggested the card actually cuts down on the quality of the picture you are viewing so that the frame rates go up. Now, I have no idea whether this is true, but what is true is that ATI cards are designed specifically for the benchmarks.

With that being said, while at this point I can't really say which is a better card, I'd still go with NVIDIA. The major reason? Drivers. NVIDIA driver support is far superior to ATI. I've seen complaints over and over again about ATI's drivers. I've rarely, if ever, seen an issue with NVIDIA's. So if I were to purchase one I'd get NVIDIA, primarily for this reason.

Tarkus

Fair enough. The thing that scares me about the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra the unorthodox fan to keep it cool and the very complicated production the card has to go through in the factory.

I certainly don't want the rehash of the Voodoo cards. And NVIDIA purchased the rights to the Voodoo corporation....so who knows if this is another case of bad engineering.

On top of that, the card was supposed to be out in full in February and it's March and we still don't know when it will be available....

So I have my concerns overall, and that's partly why I'm asking the question. Maybe ATI is about to overstep NVIDIA just like NVIDIA overstepped Voodoo.

Who knows.