ati vs nvidia

[Paws]

Give me the pros and cons of each at the top end level of cards for use with an i7.

Especially if I have them crossfired/SLI'd for other games and how that will affect my wow multiboxing performance.

[orianthi]

nVidia currently has the fastest GPU out in the market though ATI previously announced they will be releasing their 6 series soon. nVidia usually is cheaper ($$$ per performance) last time i checked. nVidia GPUs dissipate more heat than their ATI counterpart but not sure if they consume more power.

Not all games support SLI/Crossfire and most of them suffers in FPS when forced/turned on (you can always turn them off). You can create your own Crossfire profile with Radeon Pro, i don’t know what’s the equivalent of nVidia. It may not be true anymore but you need to have the same GPUs (type) with nVidia for SLI to work, with ATI you can have different GPUs.

If the game supports it, ATI has this Eyefinity feature where you can span the game using multiple monitors (3 or 6). You will need a separate hardware (TripleHead2Go) with other GPUs (not sure if nVidia is one of them).

There are cards that have dual GPUs (e.g. dual-core) in them, so it’s like having 2 cards without the SLI/CrossfireX software but much faster.

If i am going to buy a graphics card again I will avoid SLI/Crossfire and get the fastest card i can afford. If this fastest card can’t handle my game then that’s the only time i’ll consider SLI/Crossfire. Or if you use multi-monitors (i.e. multiboxing WoW) and not spanned, you can do with 2 (or more) cards and just disable SLI/Crossfire. But don’t make the mistake i made check your motherboard’s PCIeX supported bandwidth, some share resources that if you connect 2 boards x16 becomes x8/x8 or x16 becomes x8/x4/x4, etc.

[Paws]

Thanks for your write up orianthi I did some more searching and stumbled upon Paws had a present for me where nvidia is met with great enthusiasm but seems more in the context of multiple.

Edit: Also, found this thread: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=911665 that has me convinced on going 2x 460gtx instead of 1x 5870 which were some of the cards i was weighing up.

[orianthi]

Of course GTX 460s in SLI are faster in benchmarks and games that supports them (SLI). The point i was trying to make is that some games don’t support them so you are forced to turn off SLI and it’s like using 1 card (a single GTX460 can’t beat a single HD 5870). A more recent example is FFXIV where when Crossfire is turned on, there is a big hit in FPS and NPCs are missing (similar problems were mentioned in AMD forums with SLI). How about a single GTX 480 ($$$) ? But the problem with the fastest and latest ones is depreciation (they’re not really the best bang for $$$.

If you are brave enough, there were reports before that you can flash the EPROM/BIOS of a GTX 465 with a GTX 470 and unlock them. I used to work for intel and it’s true we sometimes blow fuses (CPU) or kill half of the density (Flash memory) to satisfy market needs but the risk involved is too high unless you have the means to flash your BIOS back.

[Ualaa]

I prefer ATI, but my system will sometimes randomly freeze one or more clients, when I have my ATI card in the system.

I doubt the card is bad, since there is/was no issue with the pre-upgrade system, for several years. I've loaned the old video card, motherboard and processor to a friend, and he has no issues whatsoever.

The GTX 275 (1GB) I've used in place of the 4870 X2 (2GB), has basically been the same performance. In tests and such, the GTX 275 is supposed to be very close to the 4870 (x1). I didn't have the cash to go with a 5870, which likely would have worked fine with the new system.

Old System.
Q-6600 (Stock)
8GB DDR2, 800mhz ram.
Asus A8N SLI Premium
ATI 4870 X2 video.
Patriot Torq 64mb SSD

Newer System.
i7, 920 stock
16GB DDR3, 1600mhz.
Asus P6T Motherboard.
Nvidia GTX 275 video.
Patriot Torq, 64GB SSD.


In the end, Nvidia and ATI take turns leap frogging each other. It's more personal preference then anything else, between them.

Whichever card you go with, chances are good there will be a better card in 6-12 months, but your card will run warcraft (or probably any other game we'd choose to box) without issues for several years.