Why Nvidia, Why ATI, screw Best Buy XD

bluntside

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Mar 22, 2006
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I was a former employee @ Best Buy here in Salt Lake City and boy I tell ya, customers can get crazy at times 😀 I have always been an ATI fan cus I love all of their features that they provide for gameplay. My new job is a PC Club and every one there beleives that Nvidia has the edge for graphics and gameplay. I would like to have some feed back on both the pros and cons from both companies. I know that ATI is more on Microsoft's gay DX technology and where Nvidia has the edge on Open GL.
To top it all everyine @ Pc Club has a C2D E6300-E6600, I know that these chips kick ass, but is there any correlations between ATi and AMD, technology wise that is?

Nvidia should team up with Intel, that would be true hell in the computer word if that were to happen. 4 major companies competing.
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BTW, how many of you really like best buy?
I dont mind it, but I think that they treat their employees like sh!t 😀
 
Yes, the gameplay on games run with an Nvidia card is just so much better than those on ATI ones. I mean the AI is better, tougher, the controls are more user-friendly - the difference is just vast....

Sorry - I couldn't resist. Obviously a good level of training at Best Buy... 😛

Why exactly do you think Direct X is "gay"?
 
yea no kidding, I think that Best Buy is a joke when it compes to "computers" @ the computer department, they dont care how much you know about the product, all they care is If you can sell, like the Geek Squad servics and the additional protection plan.

My friend was telling me that DX is a propriotary in graphical interfaces.
 
Wtf? AI and controls "better" because of hardware? I hope you're joking.

If you have a problem with proprietary formats like DirectX, go play a game for Linux or Mac, oh wait...

There is absolutely no obvious performance difference between nVidia and ATI chipsets that we as consumers should be worried about. If you say you prefer one over the other, then you are a fanboy, and I mean that in the best way possible. Your PC Club members need a wake-up call.
 
Like I said I just wanted your guys' feed back, but that does seem to be true. But it seems that every g pc game is built on DX technology, and who says Microsoft has the monopoly of dx technology? I would think that would be up to Nvidia or ATI, but Microsoft?
 
Like I said I just wanted your guys' feed back, but that does seem to be true. But it seems that every g pc game is built on DX technology, and who says Microsoft has the monopoly of dx technology? I would think that would be up to Nvidia or ATI, but Microsoft?

It's Microsoft because Direct X is technology that gets threaded into the operating system which microsoft owns.

Really, we can't say ones better than the other. It just matter which of thier cards your comparing. So Nvidia has the better card now, you know ATI's gonna come up with a product that'll beat Nvidia. Thier about even cause thier in a competitive market.

Personally i have a bias towards Nvidia. My first card was an ATI Radeon 9550, then i moved on to the Geforce 7600, ever since i stuck with Nvidia cards.
 
I've never used nVidia, not because I don't like them or anything, it just seems that whenever I need to buy a new card, ATI has the best performance/price ratio at the time. I think in general, very very general, nVidia cards are viewed as providing faster framerates, while ATI is better at providing a higher image quality. The old stereotypes of ATI card's running hot and being unstable are still around too.
 
I would like to have some feed back on both the pros and cons from both companies.

Both companies have good and bad.

And realistically there is nothing better than nV's GF8800GTX at this very singular moment in time. It's not because it's nV or ATi, it's because it's the VERY best cad period (SLi in vista is a hole, but of next to no concern).

There are some features that are ATi specific or nV specific, but rearely is it worth compromising the performance for them. I wouldn't recommend someone get an X1950Pro over GF8800GTS because of something like SmartShader effects, which is neat but not a game breaker IMO.
 
I have one machine using ATI X1600 PRO and another using EVGA 7950 GT KO SC. The only difference is some companies prefer or build their applications geared towards one side.

For example, NWN (across all OS platforms) and NWN2 (even though its DirectX based) are definitely Nvidia-favored. HL2 source engine favors ATI and Doom 3 engine (Doom 3, Quake 4, Prey) favors Nvidia.
 
me personally I stick with Nvidia (as I'm typing that I am on my laptop which has an ATI video card). There are 2 reasons why I stay with Nvidia
1. Way back when Nvidia first showed their face and even before in the time of 3dfx ATi would constantly release benchmarks that would show how their card could beat the current top of the line card and a couple of months later when the people would actually get their hands on the cards they would release benchmarks that showed a very different story as in ATi was obviously slower than the current top cards. the difference in the benchmarks would regularly be 20 or more FPS.

2. ATi's driver problems. everyone knows that ATi has had driver problems for a long time. People will probably argue that the problems have been fixed but I have had many problems with the drivers on my laptop and currently have to run 3rd party drivers because ATi will not release Radeon mobility drivers on their web site and because the 3rd party drivers that I am using seem to work with everything while the ATi drivers that I had would not.
 
They both have advantages and disadvantages at different price points.

Right now, nothing can challenge the 8800GTX in the "ultra high end" sector.

The 8800GTS beats the x1950XTX and is about the same price.

nVidia previously had a poor AF implimentation, but with Geforce 8 series, nVidia's Image Quality is the same or better than ATis.

x1900/50 chips generally perform better and have better image quality than Geforce 7900/7950 chips, the 7950GX2 is a good performer but is stupidly overpriced, I can get an 8800GTX for the same price.

x1900/50s have a large, hot die. Not as bad as G80, but then the performance is not in the same league either.

ATi's drivers still have a bad reputation, but this is not really justified these days, in fact imho nVidia's 8800 driver fiasco has put me off their driver team.

In real terms, the top end of the market is tiny. ATi and nVidia each rule over their respective market sections.
 
TheGreatGrapeApe said:
There are some features that are ATi specific or nV specific, but rearely is it worth compromising the performance for them. I wouldn't recommend someone get an X1950Pro over GF8800GTS because of something like SmartShader effects, which is neat but not a game breaker IMO.

Well... Technically there's the issue of ATI having the best AGP card out there period :)
 
they're comparing 7900 and 7600 GS? Where's the 7900 GT or the X1600 PRO? Those should be used.

Should be used for what?

Those are the classes as they appear in the review and in the wild.

Comparing a GF7950GT to an X1600P doesn't show the difference in ATi vs nV in games, anymore than pitting an X1950XTX against a GF7300GS would.

The card in that review are in the same class and in general the GF7600GT vs X1650 XT and GF7600GS versus X1600XT (which is almost as fast as the current 1650Pro) and the GF7900GS versus X1950P. They are all well balanced cards in similar targets, and they are better examples of shifting benifits and dissadvantages, if you look at the good and bad of those cards, it seems pretty obvious of the ebb and flow of both ATi and nV in games. The X1600Pro isn't needed anymore than a GF7900GT, they wouldn't prove anything more/less because they are outside the range ofthe other cards, so not relevant to the HL2, Prey comparison.
 
Well... Technically there's the issue of ATI having the best AGP card out there period :)

True, but that's once again a case of availability more than the companies. If the GF8800GTS-320 came to AGP tomorrow at a reasonable price (relative to perfomanc) then it'd be the same as the PCIe realm, where nV leads.

Of course for now ATi is the King of AGP (for luddites :twisted: ) ..... AND MATROX IS THE KING OF ISA and PCI-X! ...(and ATi is king of PCI and nV Kin of PCIe)
 
I would like to have some feed back on both the pros and cons from both companies.

Both companies have good and bad.

And realistically there is nothing better than nV's GF8800GTX at this very singular moment in time. It's not because it's nV or ATi, it's because it's the VERY best cad period (SLi in vista is a hole, but of next to no concern).

There are some features that are ATi specific or nV specific, but rearely is it worth compromising the performance for them. I wouldn't recommend someone get an X1950Pro over GF8800GTS because of something like SmartShader effects, which is neat but not a game breaker IMO.

When you say that "SLI in Vista is a hole..." what do you mean by that?
 
When you say that "SLI in Vista is a hole..." what do you mean by that?
SLI is currently only supported by the Geforce 8 series in Vista when running under Direct X9 or OpenGL. There is currently no SLI support for Direct X10, although this doesn't matter as there is only one Direct X10 application out at the moment, and it's one of Nvidia's tech demos.
 
Yeah since we're talking about compatability, features, etc. it's just a mention of the the minor and like I said inconsequential holes (no WHQL, no DX10) of SLi Vista, which really don't undo the statements about the GF8800 being the best 'period'.
 

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