nVidia or ATI?

[ChrisK2972]

I am in the process of upgrading my boy's computer. They have a MS-8820 Geforce 2 GTS Pro card in their machine and I have an ATI Radeon 7000 in mine. I was wondering which card is the best. Is the nVidia card better than the one I am using?

Thanks!

ChrisK

One more thing, I have never been much of a gamer. However, I recently found a few games that I like (Command & Conquer-Generals) and will probablly be doing a little bit of gaming in the future. So, I guess my question is, will the nVidia card be better than the ATI card and also do well for my 2D apps as well?

[Jarhead]

Generally, the Radeon based cards will have better IQ in 2d, especially when compared to the older nVidia GF2 based cards. nVidia cards didn't see a noticable improvement in IQ (across a wide range of vendors) until the advent of the GF3.

Still, I doubt the difference in IQ between the two cards you've mentioned is really going to matter all that much. The GF2 is a vastly superior video card over the R7000. Given a choice, I opt for it over the ATI.

[dauss]

Look at these links.

If you have a fast computer:
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/index.html

if you have a slower computer:
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html

Then here's an article on how nvidia cheats in benchmark results to make it look like its faster than ATI:
http://www17.tomshardware.com/column...624/index.html

[ChrisK2972]

Thanks for the wealth of information! I really appreciate it!

ChrisK

[dauss]

One more thing, if your going with nvidia, stay away from the MX versions. I had a nvidia card that was MX, and it was a piece of crap.

[Telexen]

If you're going to go with a Radeon, don't get an older one (7500 and below) ... you'll fight drivers for the card's entire life.

Your GeForce 2 will easily outperform the Radeon 7000, whether it's a GeForce 2 Pro or GTS

[Omardeth]

the nvidia card you have is better than the ati 7000 . if you want to get a new card , now this is my opinion , the best card now , value that is ,is the ti 4200 . you can't get a better card for the same price . a ti4200 will cost you from 90$ , for 64 mb card, and nothing really outperforms it till you get to the ati 9700 or better range . the ati 9700 is about 250$ . the ati 9500 does benchmark better than the ti 4200 but it is in the single digit % wise range . a 9500 will cost ya 130$ for a 64 meg card or more . the difference in performance , you can only see the difference in benchmarks not in the realworld , isn't worth the added cost in my mind . people will say but ti's aren't dx9 . dx9 is all eye candy . texturing , shadding . and to be honost most "regular" people don't even know how to turn those features on . so don't be fooled by the dx9 claims . even with a 9500 if you turn on all the "features" so you can see all the testures you will have to run at a very low resolution to be playable 800x600 , 640x480 . so all those features won't be turned on anyway .

good luck
hope this helped .

[ChrisK2972]

prexaspes,

I am kinda confused because of the description on the MSI site. Here is the link to the card I have. Which is it? Geoforce 2 Pro or GTS? Thanks God for All in One Detonator drivers!


http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...&MODEL=MS-8820

That is a GeForce 2 GTS. It runs at 200/166. The Pro is 200/200.

(FYI - Core/Mem{128 bit DDR})