What, you wanna know the real reason? Okay, the real reason is everyone has some form and quantity of bias, its impossible not to. So, some people will always dislike nvidia, and some people will always dislike ATI. I don't give a flyin fart. More competition = better graphics cards faster and better support from everyone (New Nvidia drivers released today, YAY!, i'm serious, they're posted on nvidia's site) so everyone should go home happy at the end of the day.
Some companies will always do individual things better than others which means there's always advantages and disadvantages to each graphics card and a person's choice should relect what they want out of their graphics card. Some people still buy Matrox G450's for a damn good reason.
My personal experience was i bought a Radeon 64 cause it was less expensive and advertised as having the same basic features as the GF 2 Ultra. I got burned, the Radeon 64 was a piece of @$$ and i hated it radically, this was my first non 3dfx 3d card btw. So, i exchanged it for a GF2 Ultra and paid the big money. Been happy ever since, never had someting not work with nvidia, never been burned or dissatisfied and love their support (frequent driver updates). So me personally, i'm a Nvidia guy. But for someone who's first card is an 8500 retail, I imagine they'll like ATI just fine as a company.
Thanks for starting another flamewar newb.
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out