ATI or Nvidia?

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DannyxxBoy

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 19055 3-Feb-2008 17:56

Hey guys.

I'm looking to build a new system.
Current specs:
Motherboard: ASUS A8N-E
Ram: 1gb ddr
GPU: Nvidia 6600gt 128mb
PSU: Not too sure... Probably not big enough.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz Socket 939

And now for my new system
Motherboard: Unknown. Must support AM2
Ram: 2gb ddr2 (not sure which brand I should be getting)
GPU: Unkown
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 600W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V/Black/w PFC/ silent 14cm Fan
CPU: AMD ATHLON64 X2 6400 BLACK EDITION SKTAM2

Now my question is which GPU should I get. I heard running two HD3870 512MB in crossfire would perform far better than a single 8800ultra? The cheaper decision is two HD3870's in crossfire. But I'm not sure whether what I've heard is true or not. How long would either of these cards last me?

And which motherboard would be decent for each card and the rest of the specs?

Is everything compatible?

I know that a lot of people say to go with Crucial Ram or something along those lines. But the price differences compared to other 2gb ram is quite big. Which should I really be going for?

Should I just wait for bigger and better cards to be released and get them?

SLI or crossfire?

I'm looking at spending around $600 to $850 on a graphics card.

Theres a heap of questions. Hopefully someone can answer most of em.

Thank you =)

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# 108572 4-Feb-2008 22:32

nVidia ofcourse...I'd also go for Core 2 duo over an AM2, for sheer performance.

DannyxxBoy

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 108575 4-Feb-2008 22:55

When you say this. Is it in confidence of knowing the performance differences between ati and nvidia cards? You make it seem as though Nvidia is just the way to go because that's just whatever floats your boat. Your reply has not been of much use sorry.

chakkaradeep

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# 108577 4-Feb-2008 23:06

DannyxxBoy: When you say this. Is it in confidence of knowing the performance differences between ati and nvidia cards? You make it seem as though Nvidia is just the way to go because that's just whatever floats your boat. Your reply has not been of much use sorry.

Fossie took time and answered to your post. Similary others will do. I think best for you is to search and find it out rather asking opinions here. People answer based on their usage.

Regards,
Chaks

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bradstewart

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# 108579 4-Feb-2008 23:29

DannyxxBoy: When you say this. Is it in confidence of knowing the performance differences between ati and nvidia cards? You make it seem as though Nvidia is just the way to go because that's just whatever floats your boat. Your reply has not been of much use sorry.

You asked for peoples opinons, Fossie gave you his and you dismissed it. What were you expecting?

Nvidia would be the best option for GPU, just my professional opinon. Have a look a 2x 8800GTs in SLI. The 1Gb ones are awesome cards.

The 6400 black edition is a great cpu, but unless you intend to overclock it you would be better off getting the standard 6400, it comes with a cooler and a very good one at that.

My pick for motherboards would be the Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4, ASUS M2N32-SLI or ASUS M2 Cross-Hair.

Fossie

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# 108582 5-Feb-2008 00:10

I put nVidia and ATI in a hat and pulled one of them out. What do you think? I have used top of the line ati and nvidia cards and nvidia won all the time. But I don't have to justify myself to you.

DannyxxBoy

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 108625 5-Feb-2008 10:44

Actually yes you do have to justify. Otherwise how am I supposed to know whether you're an Nvidia fanboy or whether you have experienced all the hardware first hand. Thanks for the help guys it's great. My main question was whether two hd3780's in crossfire is better than one 8800ultra? Is this true?

freitasm

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# 108626 5-Feb-2008 10:51

DannyxxBoy: Actually yes you do have to justify. Otherwise how am I supposed to know whether you're an Nvidia fanboy or whether you have experienced all the hardware first hand.

Welcome to Geekzone... I might just post a comment, slightly off topic. If you see someone with more than 500 posts in the forum, I would trust the poster a bit. If s/he was a fanboy the account would have been banned on their first posts.

Also, if you look at fossie's profile and posts you'll notice he is quite knowledgeable in the arts of multimedia, digital and alikes.

Oh, and I met him once at the Auckland BarCamp.

Back to the normal programme.

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pando

235 posts

Master Geek

# 108655 5-Feb-2008 12:27

Don't get too technical as ATI and NV have very different architectural setups that make some games perform and look better on one versus the other.

I've stuck with NV ever since I went from an ATI (Rage?) to the NV GF4 Ti4400 and was impressed. I've now got the 8800GTS and it's a performing little monster.

Side note, I see you don't know which RAM to go for. All I can say is DON'T get cheap generic stuff, go for a low latency heat spread matched set. Corsair/Crucial/Kingston etc.

BobW

90 posts

Master Geek

# 108659 5-Feb-2008 12:54

Have you thought about cooling for this machine?

You've chosen a quiet power supply with a big fan, which is a good start. If you put in a pair of high-end graphics cards and a fast processor, then it will take some effort to keep everything cool without it sounding like a jet at full throttle.

Water cooling, or a selection of after-market quiet cooling gear might be in order. Perhaps graphics card(s) with passive cooling could be considered, rather than having small, noisy fans masking the sound of the energy creeping up behind you in your game of choice.

You don't mention what case you're looking at. Perhaps look for a case with large (120mm+), quiet fans and good air flow.

Fraktul

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# 108676 5-Feb-2008 13:30

freitasm:

Also, if you look at fossie's profile and posts you'll notice he is quite knowledgeable in the arts of multimedia, digital and alikes.

Oh, and I met him once at the Auckland BarCamp.

Back to the normal programme.

You guys went camping at a bar?

Sounds like trouble!

j/k

DannyxxBoy - without stating what your requirements are you might not get the feedback you are looking for. I think most people are probably assuming one of the major requirements is gaming? If thats true then the top of the line cards from each vendor usually preform quite differently in different games which may effect your purchasing decision if this is based on price to performance.

freitasm

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# 108680 5-Feb-2008 13:36

Fraktul: You guys went camping at a bar? Sounds like trouble!

http://www.barcamp.org/ (BarCamp)

http://www.baacamp.org/ (FooCamp)

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Fraktul

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# 108830 6-Feb-2008 03:26

freitasm:
Fraktul: You guys went camping at a bar? Sounds like trouble!

http://www.barcamp.org/ (BarCamp)

http://www.baacamp.org/ (FooCamp)

Yeah I know, was just taking the mickey.

Toatahu

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 111383 18-Feb-2008 13:48

Wouldn't OS play a part? I don't know much about the differences, but as AMD recently purchased ATI I would expect those two to "play nicer together" also I have an NVidia and am having a hell of a job getting the TV out to work as the app that is usually used from NV is not available for Vista (I am running 64bit) so am now forced from what I have found searching various forums) to go hunting for an ATI if i want TV out to be "easy/possible"

dman

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# 117593 19-Mar-2008 18:33

was looking in to this a few months ago as I was going to get a gaming rig, nvidia was the clear winner in my eyes

of course at the rate things change this situation could now be different a few months later...

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

Adamal

544 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 120993 4-Apr-2008 09:40

I recently built a new machine, and chose to go with ATI over nVidia. Mainly just because of personal preference.
The HD3870 is very good on the memory bandwidth and management side, but the main thing that lets it down is that the ATI Control Panel runs through .NET architecture.

I'm happy with the 3870. I can actually play Crysis with everything on very high (Although it went a lot nice when I bumped up to 4gb from 2gb! Yikes!)

The whole AMD and ATI thing may be something to look out for in the future, as they're working on Spider technology (I think they call it) which integrates AMD CPU, AMD chipset and ATI video card, and they're all designed to interlope with each other and work really really well.

Kind of sucks for me, as I'm a fan of Intel CPU's and a fan of ATI cards. I get discriminated no matter where I go :P

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