Question of the week: what will be your next graphics card?

[Parm]

AMD and NVIDIA have let loose their next-gen graphics cards, but we ask you, our readers, what will be your next purchase?

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[Brewster0101]

Is there any reason to choose Nvidia over ATI with this gen of cards??? This is the question Nvidia needs to ask its self.

[Zhaoman]

The 9800GTX+ would be interesting, but it is essentially a 8800GTX+ which makes the 4850 so much more enticing. Plus CrossFire performance for 4850 seems to be really good making for an obvious future upgrade. Although the new pricing of the 9800GTX is very good, the 4850 still swings it for me: more than enough power, plenty of multimedia features, and a great price tag.

[kalniel]

Whatever cast-off I can get from someone looking after their e-peen Given last gen nVidia's were top dog it'll probably end up being one of them.

[Agent]

Wrong section?

[atomos]

Imo the 260/280 might as well not exist at the current prices.

[Salazaar]

It's a tough call, I'm still waiting for that killer purchase (i.e. a card that'll give me a 'significant' performance boost at low resolution for not too much money).

[Blitzen]

Originally Posted by Brewster0101

Is there any reason to choose Nvidia over ATI with this gen of cards??? This is the question Nvidia needs to ask its self.

The reason i go for nVidia over ATI is the fact that the ATI manufacturers (Sapphire/Powercolor/ETC) all seem to have low quality cards. There is no denyiny they are quick but thats sometimes not enough.

NVidia on the other hand with the likes of Gainward/BFG/Evga/etc seems to have far better quality.

I have had to RMA EVERY ATI card i have ever purchased (5 of them).

I have never had to RMA a nVidia card (8 of them)

[staffsMike]

I must admit my experience (other than mobile cards) with ATi has been a bit bad. That said though my last work used saphire cards in industrial PC's and the faliure rate was next to 0..

I would break my nvidia habbit for these new cards almost certainly What about asus for ATi cards? I mean the service is dire but the cards are probably good if they are anything like their motherboards

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by Agent

Wrong section?

Not exactly "like the TV program, a place to discuss current affairs, topical events and world matters"

Ignoring that, my next most likely graphics hardware will be AMD/ATI 780G integrated graphics chip. So I went for Other Radeon.

The next discrete graphics though might well be Other Nvidia if I build a power house desktop, purely for the potential CUDA support in non-gaming apps.

[Agent]

Wouldn't have thought a graphics card question would have fallen under world matters

Not really the type of thing we usually have in QT - surely it would be better suited to the hardware / graphics / lifestyle section? Just strikes me as one of the last places to put it really.

[b0redom]

IMHO, neither card offers a quantum leap over the 8800GTX I already have, so for that reason I'm out..... </dragons den>

[TooNice]

Originally Posted by staffsMike

I mean the service is dire but the cards are probably good if they are anything like their motherboards

I am staying away if it's anything like my Asus motherboard Well, to be fair, I was kind of tempted by an Asus 4850 for the low price and 3 years warranty (slightly better than Sapphire & co., though far from BFG, EVGA etc.).

My next graphics card, assuming I get anything current gen (I've been helping friends with their builds but kept pushing back my own), would likely be an AMD 4000 series. I like the 4870, but I have to think about spending 50% more for 28% performance boost.

Will see how the prices play out in the next few days (though I reckon that the 4870 will stay at above 175 quid in the near future).

[dangel]

4870X2 most likely. Not desperate *right now* so waiting for the X2 is on the cards (har har)

[vläd]

I'm waiting on the green team's response to a $300 card that performs within 5% of their $700 card!

[ExHail]

Originally Posted by Blitzen

The reason i go for nVidia over ATI is the fact that the ATI manufacturers (Sapphire/Powercolor/ETC) all seem to have low quality cards. There is no denyiny they are quick but thats sometimes not enough.

NVidia on the other hand with the likes of Gainward/BFG/Evga/etc seems to have far better quality.

I have had to RMA EVERY ATI card i have ever purchased (5 of them).

I have never had to RMA a nVidia card (8 of them)

Although those nVidia partners are very good( no one can deny that specially with the upgrade EVGA offers and the 10year warranty from BFG) but there are good ATI partners as well... HIS and Gigabyte are my first choice ATI manufacturers. Top quality components and good support after purchase as well.

Originally Posted by staffsMike

I must admit my experience (other than mobile cards) with ATi has been a bit bad. That said though my last work used saphire cards in industrial PC's and the faliure rate was next to 0..

I would break my nvidia habbit for these new cards almost certainly What about asus for ATi cards? I mean the service is dire but the cards are probably good if they are anything like their motherboards

My experience has been worse with nVidia than with ATI specially with driver support. Its all dependant on how you use the card and also how you view good support.

ATI drivers might not always perform the best but you can almost swear that they will at least work and not cause your computer to have random crashes. Too many nVidia drivers have caused my PC to crash over the last 5 months, the nVidia card I owned 3 years prior was the same and the nVidia cards my friends owned over the last 2 years gave them the same problems with drivers and game support(having to always change drivers to play a specific game and then changing back because every other game crashes with those drivers).

Enthusiasts might not like ATI drivers for lack of performance improvements but at least they work and don't break your PC when you up grade.