ATI or NVIDIA

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by dominator, Sep 3, 2006.

  1. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Again a question about those two..

    What is better CLUB 3D X1900 XT 512 MB or PALIT GeForce 7900GT 512MB? And why so?

    Thank You very much for ur suggestions in advance.
     
  2. elokito

    elokito Regular member

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    well u could flash the 1900xt to a 1900xtx btw if ure gonna spend more than 400bucks I recommend u to wait till january to buy a nvidia 8800 card that can handle directx 10 if u want and if u can wait

    by sharkfood:

    "Feature-wise, the X1900 is a no-brainer. It can do SM3.0, FP blend HDR as well as HDR and AA. The NVidia cannot do this.

    ATI has been forward thinking with the X1K series as it predicts that game performance will be more limited to shader performance than texturing. This can be easily shown by modern game titles (Oblivion, Half-Life2, FEAR, etc.etc.).

    The item you are becoming confused about concerns the number of pixel pipelines (for texturing) versus pixel shader units. The X1900XT has 16 pixel pipelines for texturing, but 48 pixel shaders. This dedicates more transistors in the GPU for shader muscle/power aimed at modern directX games.

    The 7900-Series, on the other hand, has 24 pixel pipelines & 24 pixel shaders. This gives it the ability to have higher fillrate for textures, but comes up short in shader muscle compared to the X1900 XT.

    So think of screen pixels in a game- how many of them are raw texturing vs. the result of some form of shader code? More modern games are using lots of shaders so a bottleneck in shader performance (which most developers agree is shifting more and more towards, and already is..) can prevent a videocard from hitting it's fillrate potential- stalls in shader code hold up the framerate.

    In all honesty though, regardless of raw hardware performance and muscle, it still comes down to developer loyalty/bias... and this gets even more pronounced going forward with SM 3.0. You can easily write shader code to favor NVidia hardware and perform less than stellar on ATI hardware, or vice-versa- write code that takes advantage of ATI hardware and performs less than stellar on NVidia hardware. Example- how a particular piece of shader code references texture data. 3dmark06 is a shining example of how you can make 2-4x the shader horsepower and avoid it to write IHV specificly optimized code that favors less available power by exploiting it's specific tricks/strengths while also penalizing stronger hardware for it's strengths. Most developers don't have time to write shaders to utilize the strengths of two platforms, so they'll usually pick what they know or where they are getting funding. So having 48 pixel shaders vs. 24 can make a game "break even" if it's coded specifically to utilize one IHV's shader code strengths fully and ignore another."

    conclusion 1900xt is better
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2006
  3. sukhvail

    sukhvail Regular member

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    i 2nd elokito- the x1900xt is the better choice. from posts made by sammorris, who has the card, it performs great. like elokito said, once you flash the card to the xt-x, you will have a better card than the 7900gt's older brother, the gtx, which is most expensive of teh rest of the lot.
     
  4. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Hey, thanks for such detailed replies. But hmm now im realy confused, I posted exact same question on other forum and the NVIDIA card clearly won there. Btw i cannot wait until january since my 3d card just broke so i kinda need to replace it asap. U guys r also mentioning that if i flash the x1900xt to x1900xtx, do u mean that if i overclock it? If so then i wasnt planning to do that, since i have no experience in that plus dont want to invest in more cooling.
    So im still confused in what to get :( Btw the prices of the cards where i live r: palit gf1900 gt 512 is 309 euros and ati x1900 xt 512mb is 349 euros, so ati is a bit more expensive. And again i woudnt want to exceed this budget.
    I will still be hoping for ur replies and suggestions, thx =)
     
  5. aabbccdd

    aabbccdd Guest

    i have used BOTH cards ATI and Nvidia and like the Nvidia much better easier to OC the drivers are more stable etc. and the Nvidia has a much warmer picture that the ATI . why not get the 7950 GX2 ? thats what i got(per my sig) last week 1 gig of memorey the BIGGEST and BADDEST video card on the markert !!!
     
  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    The X1900XT is by far the better performing card there, it's more on par with a 7900GTX, and despite what aabbccdd says (I hate to disagree with you!) ATi cards are also well known for producing a better picture. All you need to do is look at benchmarks, the X1900XT beats a 7900GT hands down most of the time. Trouble is, you have to be on the look out for fanboys in forums that say "nVidia r0xx!!" and don't provide any reasoning. Coupled with the image quality bonus the ATi is the better option, and I can say that because I use that exact card.
     
  7. He_Man

    He_Man Regular member

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    hey sammorris.good to have you back :)
     
  8. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Thanks He_man, I'm glad to know I'm as appreciated as I thought I was! Heh, maybe this thread title should be edited too, Nvidida. Could catch on!
    Congratulations to elokito by the way, on a thorough and comprehensive post.
     
  9. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Hi peeps, thank you so much for ur time and support. Btw so sry about the "nvidiDa", stupid typo :) Looks like i am about to order the ATI card in about 2 hours. Ill get the Club 3D one, cuz thats the one that fits into my budjet.
     
  10. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    no problem, i just renamed the thread title a touch :)
     
  11. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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  12. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Hello once again, well i tried to get the Club 3d one but they didnt have any in stock but then i fortunetly found a Sapphire one in the other store and for even cheaper, so should get it tomorrow :) From what i've heard Sapphire is even better then Club 3d )
     
  13. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    They are. Sapphire are often rated the best ATi card manufacturers... Their software bundles are quite nice with "Sapphire select" they give you 4 games to choose from and you can get the full versions of two of them for free with the graphics card.
     
  14. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Hi again =)

    So today i got the x1900 xt from Sapphire. Install it, set it, etc. Tried some games, was happily surprised with big better difference from my previous card ati x700 pro.

    But i have a really noob question, maybe cuz im tiered. Here it is:
    How do i connect my TV (not LCD but normal TV) through S video. Cuz before with x700 it was simple, just connect it with s video wire and enable 2nd monitor in settings. But how do i do it with x1900? cuz after i enable it then it pc doenst c the tv anyways.


    Thx =)
     
  15. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Wicked. The Sapphire X1900XT's an awesome card (now why might I say that? LOL) I can run UT2004 at 6x16 Temporal+HQ at everything max in a match with 32 bots some of them using the Chaos UT2 Flamethrower and the frame rate never really drop below 30. Doing that without any AA or AF on my old X800 brought the system to its knees, I'm very impressed. Oblivion's next on my list!

    You should still be able to attach your TV with the S-Video cable I would have thought. What happens when it's connected and you enable the second monitor, is it still trying to enable the Second DVI?
     
  16. dominator

    dominator Regular member

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    Hello

    Well fixed the part showing video on my tv, was simple, the problem was in my stupidity :)


    Hope i wont experience anything "funny" in future =)
     
  17. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    LOL I'm glad it worked out.
     

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