Which dx10 card? Nvidia or ATI?

[rashod0]

I'm in the market for a new dx10 card. Looking to replace my exsisting ati x1900xt. I love the card but want to be dx10 ready for games such as crysis.
I do tend to favor ati cards and I have about $500 to throw at a card. Would I be smart to wait a few months for the latest greatest? Should I go ATI or Nvidia (I know this question will ensure lots of arguing) 🙂

 

[kaotao]

Your X1900XT is still a great card. I'd wait to see what's available when there are actual DX10 games out.

 

[melarcky]

i would wait, you have a great card and there are no DX10 titles out right now, so save your cash, maybe have more when the time is right. but right now it would be like getting a really really expensive Dx9 card haha,
and as for ATI right, they are not doing so good in the DX10 sector

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

I'm in the same boat as you, I have an X1900XT as well. I'm waiting until at least this summer to see what happens with the transition to 65nm...see what comes out then. If nothing else, price drops will make me happy.

I'm also hoping that companies will follow what ABIT did and make uATX enthusiast motherboards with overclocking ability and perhaps SLI. EVGA had a uATX socket 939 board with a desktop nForce4 SLI chipset, so it's definitely possible. I want to give small form factor gear a shot with my summer upgrade, so parts that run cooler and use less power (65nm GPUs) and new SFF motherboards will make me very happy

 

[fredgiblet]

I would wait until the DX10 games are actually out to buy a card, reason being that ATI may fix their drivers and be able to compete speedwise in the $500 range by then. If you want to get one right now then I'd say squeeze out another $50 and get an 8800GTX, if your PSU can handle it.

 

[rashod0]

So nvidia is king right now, eh? Is the ati r600 comparable at all right now to the nvidia 8800? or is the 8800 just kicking ati's ass? ati have driver issues it sounds?

 

[ROBSLIN]

So nvidia is king right now, eh?

Yes, image quality, heat/power consumption and most importantly performance.

Is the ati r600 comparable at all right now to the nvidia 8800?

Performance wise it is to the 8800GTS but it uses more power, is hotter, cost more and typically gets beaten by the GTS when AA and AF are enabled.

ati have driver issues it sounds?

Yes and let it be known that ATI clowns will argue that Nvidia had driver issues at launch as well which is true but they like to grossly over exaggerate this :roll: , HOWEVER the issues that Nvidia suffered at launch were no where NEAR the level of Severity as ATI is seeing.

ATI is suffering from bad performance with AA and AF enabled and there is really no way around this, new drivers will make minimal difference because-

1) AA performance, since the AA resolve is being done on the ALU's it takes a bigger hit, this has nothing to do with bandwidth, fillrates, ROP's, there is at least a 10% overhead for this.

AF, filtering hurts the r600 because it only has 16 TMU's, it gets hits more then the g80 because the g80 has more TMU's. No way around this

2) AA bluring is due to the CFAA modes, don't like them? Don't use em. X8 MSAA is the highest you can go against the competition. The g80 can go up to x16 CSAA and x16q

3) AA performance at x8 AA will be lower for the r600 look at point 1.


Nvidia launch drivers mainly suffered buggy issues with certain games, Performance however was awesome and off the charts unlike ATI's new card.

 

[FatFunkey]

i'd wait for Dx10 Refreshes...its what im doing :\

7600 Go will just have to hold me over.... :|

 

[No1sFanboy]

A lot of respondents are telling the OP to wait but I don't think he asked if this a good time to buy a card.

Sticking to the original question which brand to go with I think it is now obvious that the 2900 at it's current price is a dud. I'm sure some ATI fanboys/shills or whatever they are will be along to tell you to wait for the r650/r700/r800 or better drivers or whatever. Simple fact is the 8800's are the smart choice right now.

 

[boon72]

im in the same boat :lol: i was waiting to see what the R600 came out like. now ive seen the results im thinkin do i dont i, should i go back to green (had a 6800gt before my x1900xt)
yesterday i realised my motherboard was crossfire compatable (ASUS P5B Deluxe) i was thinking of maybe 2 x 2600's instead?

 

[kaotao]

A lot of respondents are telling the OP to wait but I don't think he asked if this a good time to buy a card.

Yes he did...

Would I be smart to wait a few months for the latest greatest?

 

[kaotao]

im in the same boat :lol: i was waiting to see what the R600 came out like. now ive seen the results im thinkin do i dont i, should i go back to green (had a 6800gt before my x1900xt)
yesterday i realised my motherboard was crossfire compatable (ASUS P5B Deluxe) i was thinking of maybe 2 x 2600's instead?

It's never worth Xfirin'/SLI'n 2 low or mid range cards.

 

[No1sFanboy]

A lot of respondents are telling the OP to wait but I don't think he asked if this a good time to buy a card.

Yes he did...

Would I be smart to wait a few months for the latest greatest?

Oops. I guess I got over focused on the title. When is a good time to buy or how to future proof are questions for which there is no answer.

 

[bfellow]

2 2600's is like AMD is stealing from babies.

 

[Heyyou27]

I'm in the market for a new dx10 card. Looking to replace my exsisting ati x1900xt. I love the card but want to be dx10 ready for games such as crysis.
I do tend to favor ati cards and I have about $500 to throw at a card. Would I be smart to wait a few months for the latest greatest? Should I go ATI or Nvidia (I know this question will ensure lots of arguing) 🙂

If you're upgrading simply to be "Direct X10 ready" you're doing it for the wrong reason. Now if some of your games aren't running fast enough on your X1900XT, perhaps getting a new card now would be fine.