Anyone went from nVidia to ATI?

I went from a 5950 ultra to a 6800 GT OC.
I made sure to use drivercleaner after removing the old drivers.
Installed the 61.76 drivers and things were doing great.
Jumped to the 66.81 drivers and things still great.
Did some overclocking just to see what kind of 3dMark05 score I could get.
Got up to just above 5000.
Dropped back to 370/1000 and runs flawlessly in Doom3, Unreal Tournament
2004, Dawn of War, FarCry Demo, and a tree demo I found from a link on
nVidia's site.
Rock hard stability so far. Whew!
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

"Justin Baker ntlworld.com>" <justin.baker@<removethis> wrote in message
news:t_fed.331$Hv5.313@newsfe3-win.ntli.net...
 > "GT-Force" <dummyacct.DeleteThis@operamail.com> wrote in message
 > news:WK_dd.88178$yp.65834@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
  >> Hi,
  >>
  >> I had an nVidia (GeForce2 GTS), now I have an ATI card (9700 Pro), and I
 > am
  >> thinking about going back to nVidia (6800GT). Is there anyone here that
 > went
  >> to nVidia from ATI and regretted it? If so, what was the old and the new
  >> cards, and what were the issues?
 >
 > I recently replaced the Radeon 9500 Pro in my main PC with a GeForce 6800.
 > Performance in games is good, but I have had to use beta drivers to
 > achieve
 > this, the 61.77 drivers on nVidia's site wouldn't even work with all of
 > their tech demos, on my PC at least. Fine with the later betas. I have
 > also had issues with explorer hanging since I installed this card. My
 > last
 > nVidia card was a GeForce 3 Ti200, which was superb - I had no driver
 > issues
 > with that. Since my first 'modern' ATI card, the original All In Wonder
 > Radeon, my experience only is that ATI drivers have improved greatly,
 > while
 > I've not been so impressed with how nVidia are doing on that front right
 > now.
 >
 > No flames please, just my experience... And I'm not intending to get rid
 > of
 > the 6800 any time soon. It's a good card, just not quite as reliable with
 > current drivers than the 9500 Pro.
 >
 > JB


Have you tried the 66.81 drivers?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

Hello again to all who replied,

I appreciate your time you spent writing your replies.

I did not write my perspective, not to affect any of yours. Here it goes:

When I bought my GeForce2 GTS, it was quite newly released. Drivers were
immature and I had quite a lot of problems with it. Though, hardware was
good, but not as good as advertised by nVidia, e.g., I never got to use "The
pixel shader" on that card, since the version was almost never supported by
any games. Yet, I always was happy with the nVidia's driver support, they
worked hard to fix the issues, ASAP. They had nice features for the time,
and their interface looked good, and was easy to use. In fact, I still have
this card, on my old machine, which now belongs to my wife

Then, when it was time to get a new computer, after deep research, I decided
to buy ATI 9700 Pro. Again, the hardware was the best of its time, but
unfortunately, it was hampered by its drivers (does this remind you
something? Like my experience with the previous card? ). The difference
was that, when I got this card, it has already been few months since the
release, I did not get it ASAP as my previous card. The drivers were still
immature, and what is worse, I found that so was the hardware! ATI had three
revisions of the card, and I had received the earliest build, and I was
having serious problems with it. I had to send it back to ATI, by paying
$400 more, even though it was credited back to me once they received my old
card. Not everbody can pay $400 extra, just like that!
Anyway, I received the new version, and the problem was still there!!!
Later, I found that it was due to FastWrites (as someone wrote into one of
the replies here). The problem is that, at the time ATI either did not know
this and/or they did not made this information easily available. So, my
major problem was gone, but the minor "stuttering" issue was still here (and
it still is in some games) for which I also spent considerable amount of
time.
Another problem I have with ATI is that they DO NOT SUPPORT CONSUMER STEREO
3D, AT ALL!!! Maybe not many people care about this, but I do.

Yes, ATI hardware is good, their hardware engineers are apparently beating
on nVidia, but the driver team needs to learn A LOT from nVidia.

ATI started the Catalyst Crew program and are supposedly trying to make
their software and drivers better, but they just can not seem to make it
work. They get lost in features like Catalyst Control Center, which is just
a joke, since it introduced more bugs and frustration than ease, and like
shader effects which no one uses, instead of fixing what is broken, and
providing features that people can actually use.

So far, it may sound like I am beating on ATI's driver team, HOWEVER, I
started hearing similar issues with the new nVidia cards and drivers. So I
wanted ask people, who has taken the plunge already, for their experiences.
I am planning to get a 6800 GT, since it looks like maybe it is not the best
performer, but it is the best-bang-for-the-buck-card currently available.
Yet, I do not want to go through the same frustration that I went especially
with ATI.

I know that buying a newly released hardware is, and always will be, a
little crap-shoot, but I am just trying to to the best I can to avoid
problems, as much as I can. Oh, one last point, I am not a technically
challenged user who knows not a thing about computers; I am referred to as
quite a 'geek' or 'computer wiz' by the people around me. I am using PCs
since 8086 days, and assembling hardware and installing OSs and software on
machines since 80486 days. PCs are my major 'hobby' and I think I am quite
good at it, too. So, please (this is especially for the disrespectful
youngsters who has nothing else to do but to surf the NGs to write BS) do
not bother sending insulting replies implying that I had problems, because I
did not know how to avoid or fix them, ok?

Thanks everyone.

There it is, my experiences with nVidia and ATI.

Take care, live well...

GT
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

"Les" <a.DeleteThis@aolnot.com> wrote in message news:2ttm3fF24bn9jU1@uni-berlin.de...
 > 1. bollox. lots of people (including me) were (and stil are) running fine
 > on decent PSUs. Althiugh I think it is reccomended ON THE BOX to have a
 > 350W PSU, I am sure my Herc 9700Pro suggested this.
 >
 > 2. see 1
 >
 > 3. bollox again, first I heard of this and had ATI 9700Pro for 18months, I
 > also frequented rage3d forums during this time.
 >
 > 4.this smells like hmm... bullshit. why google for previous drivers when
 > they are freely available from ATI's homepage.
 >
 > PS my graphics card history has been ati rage3d to 3dfx banshee to geforce
 > 256 to geforece 256 ddr to gf 3 ti200 tot gf 4 ti 4200 to ATI 9700Pro to
 > 6800GT. I will use an ATI again if they beat nvidia on £ to performance.

How childish can you be? Your experience doesn't match mine, but that
doesn't make it 'bollox'. I stand by every word:
1 - There is no mention of a minimum PSU or anything like that on the box of
my Sapphire 9800 Pro (256MB). Perhaps your box is different!
2 - Ditto
3 - Just because you haven't heard of it... Google the phrase yourself and
you'll see that this problem is persistent and widespread.
4 - Googling old drivers is the fastest way to find them, not just with ATI,
but generally. Just because they are also on ATI's site doesn't mean it's
the easiest way to get them. Why is your thinking so rigid?!

Seriously, my experience of using a high-end ATI card is not good. I guess
from your post that you disagree. That doesn't make my post 'bollox' at
all. Perhaps the world is not as black-and-white as you like to think...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

"Les" <a.RemoveThis@aolnot.com> wrote in message news:2ttlapF23lpaoU1@uni-berlin.de...
 >
 > "James_" <no.RemoveThis@spam.com> wrote in message
 > news:X_-dne21vbLrquTcRVn-2g@midco.net...
  > > "GT-Force" <dummyacct.RemoveThis@operamail.com> wrote in message
  > > news:WK_dd.88178$yp.65834@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
   > >> Hi,
   > >>
   > >> I had an nVidia (GeForce2 GTS), now I have an ATI card (9700 Pro), and I
   > >> am
   > >> thinking about going back to nVidia (6800GT). Is there anyone here that
   > >> went
   > >> to nVidia from ATI and regretted it? If so, what was the old and the new
   > >> cards, and what were the issues?
   > >>
   > >> Thanks.
   > >>
   > >> GT
   > >>
  > >
  > > I went from GF3 to 9700 pro/9800 pro to 6800GT, and I wish I stuck with
  > > ATI. The fonts look like
  > > cxrap on my system, so I had to switch to cleartype smoothing which give
  > > purple hazing on some text
  > > in games and other areas. As soon as ATI comes out with their next
  > > upgrade, I will be dumping this
  > > 6800GT.
  > >
  > >
 >
 > Eh?
 >
 > What the fuck are you on about with font problems? Fonts look no different
 > to my 9700Pro using my 6800GT
 >
 > PS I am using a dell P991 monitor
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

To put the power (in this case fillrate) of the stock 9800 pro into
perspective for ya - I get, in Counter-Strike, about 200-300fps at
1024x678x32@100hz 2x-AA, 4x-AF.

LOL --> "No, but I expect the fill rate to be high enough to run it at 100
fps +." ---> You must be talking about a different video card.

in the cs console do 'fps_max 100' or whatever you want to be the maximum
and turn off VSync. And, FYI, you CPU is a limiting factor with the 9800pro
and above.

------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP (2600-Professional) w/ SP1
AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache
ASUS "A8V Deluxe Wi-Fi" K8T800 Pro
VIA Hyperion 4in1 451v
1024mb (2 x (512mb OCZ Platinum EL (2-3-2-5) DDR400/PC3200) Dual Channel)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Catalyst 4.5) (C-378mhz / M-337.5mhz) OC to
(C-411.75mhz / M-360.00mhz)
SbAudigy 5.1 (PCI-Slot 3)

120gb Western Digital WD1200JB primary/master
60gb IBM 60gxp primary/slave
16x HI-VAL DVDrom (BDV316C) secondary/master
48x/24x/48x plextor (PX-W4824A) secondary/slave

LianLi PC-6070 *Silent* Aluminum Mid-Tower Case | 2x80mm intake fans, 1x80mm
exhaust fan
PowerMax 470watt Aluminum PSU | +3.3V@26A +5V@47A +12V@28A
------------------------------------------------------

For reference, above is my system.

--
Tony DiMarzio
djtone81 DeleteThis @hotmail.com
djraid DeleteThis @comcast.net


"Richard Cavell" <richardcavell DeleteThis @mail.com> wrote in message
news:4178b375$0$21876$61ce578d@news.syd.swiftdsl.com.au...
 > On 22/10/04 4:55 PM, Andrew wrote:
 >
  >> WTF, you expect a 5 year old game to utilise all the modern features
  >> of your 9800?
 >
 > No, but I expect the fill rate to be high enough to run it at 100 fps +.
 >
  >> You probably have VSync enabled or are maybe locked at 60FPS (look for
  >> refreshforce). Maybe you are CPU limited too.
 >
 > 2 Gigahertz P4, 768 MB RAM.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

Yeah, Ben, dealing with black & white thinking can be a pain in the ass
because yep, it IS typically quite rigid.
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

I went from Geforce 3 to Ati 9700 Pro - from crucial, this card was
sooo much faster but crashed every 5 minutes, i carried on with it for
just over 1 year in the hope that the drivers would solve sort it out.
I went round all the different sites, tried all the drivers, did the
fastwrites thing anad all hte other "tweaks", in the end I did the
driver hack to FireGL - it ran much better in games but mainly to get
the card to work on CAD software, it still crashed too much for me and
had a habbit of actually shutting the machine down, the refresh rate
was a pian in the arse too. Anyway, after about 13-14 months I sent it
back to crucial - they sent me a 9800 pro - this card is a dream
absolutely no problems in anything. I 'd recommend this card to anyone
especially from crucial (the support is great) but steer clear of the
old 9700's (which can be found cheap nowadays), their problems are
quite well documented.


On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 10:05:45 -0400, "GT-Force"
<dummyacct.RemoveThis@operamail.com> wrote:

 >Hello again to all who replied,
 >
 >I appreciate your time you spent writing your replies.
 >
 >I did not write my perspective, not to affect any of yours. Here it goes:
 >
 >When I bought my GeForce2 GTS, it was quite newly released. Drivers were
 >immature and I had quite a lot of problems with it. Though, hardware was
 >good, but not as good as advertised by nVidia, e.g., I never got to use "The
 >pixel shader" on that card, since the version was almost never supported by
 >any games. Yet, I always was happy with the nVidia's driver support, they
 >worked hard to fix the issues, ASAP. They had nice features for the time,
 >and their interface looked good, and was easy to use. In fact, I still have
 >this card, on my old machine, which now belongs to my wife
 >
 >Then, when it was time to get a new computer, after deep research, I decided
 >to buy ATI 9700 Pro. Again, the hardware was the best of its time, but
 >unfortunately, it was hampered by its drivers (does this remind you
 >something? Like my experience with the previous card? ). The difference
 >was that, when I got this card, it has already been few months since the
 >release, I did not get it ASAP as my previous card. The drivers were still
 >immature, and what is worse, I found that so was the hardware! ATI had three
 >revisions of the card, and I had received the earliest build, and I was
 >having serious problems with it. I had to send it back to ATI, by paying
 >$400 more, even though it was credited back to me once they received my old
 >card. Not everbody can pay $400 extra, just like that!
 >Anyway, I received the new version, and the problem was still there!!!
 >Later, I found that it was due to FastWrites (as someone wrote into one of
 >the replies here). The problem is that, at the time ATI either did not know
 >this and/or they did not made this information easily available. So, my
 >major problem was gone, but the minor "stuttering" issue was still here (and
 >it still is in some games) for which I also spent considerable amount of
 >time.
 >Another problem I have with ATI is that they DO NOT SUPPORT CONSUMER STEREO
 >3D, AT ALL!!! Maybe not many people care about this, but I do.
 >
 >Yes, ATI hardware is good, their hardware engineers are apparently beating
 >on nVidia, but the driver team needs to learn A LOT from nVidia.
 >
 >ATI started the Catalyst Crew program and are supposedly trying to make
 >their software and drivers better, but they just can not seem to make it
 >work. They get lost in features like Catalyst Control Center, which is just
 >a joke, since it introduced more bugs and frustration than ease, and like
 >shader effects which no one uses, instead of fixing what is broken, and
 >providing features that people can actually use.
 >
 >So far, it may sound like I am beating on ATI's driver team, HOWEVER, I
 >started hearing similar issues with the new nVidia cards and drivers. So I
 >wanted ask people, who has taken the plunge already, for their experiences.
 >I am planning to get a 6800 GT, since it looks like maybe it is not the best
 >performer, but it is the best-bang-for-the-buck-card currently available.
 >Yet, I do not want to go through the same frustration that I went especially
 >with ATI.
 >
 >I know that buying a newly released hardware is, and always will be, a
 >little crap-shoot, but I am just trying to to the best I can to avoid
 >problems, as much as I can. Oh, one last point, I am not a technically
 >challenged user who knows not a thing about computers; I am referred to as
 >quite a 'geek' or 'computer wiz' by the people around me. I am using PCs
 >since 8086 days, and assembling hardware and installing OSs and software on
 >machines since 80486 days. PCs are my major 'hobby' and I think I am quite
 >good at it, too. So, please (this is especially for the disrespectful
 >youngsters who has nothing else to do but to surf the NGs to write BS) do
 >not bother sending insulting replies implying that I had problems, because I
 >did not know how to avoid or fix them, ok?
 >
 >Thanks everyone.
 >
 >There it is, my experiences with nVidia and ATI.
 >
 >Take care, live well...
 >
 >GT
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

Tour ps theories arew crap because what matters is the power rating on the
power rails of the ps. A cheap 400w will be outperformed by a good 300w
generally speaking. And I ran an overclocked 9800np on a antec 300w ps with
2 hdd's 3 case fans 2cd drives and an xp2500@200x11 for months.
You seem to be regurgitating common myths repeated by people who don't know
what they're talking about.

Mike

"Ben C" <spam.DeleteThis@spam.com> wrote in message
news:cldk50$t8t$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
 > "Les" <a.DeleteThis@aolnot.com> wrote in message
 > news:2ttm3fF24bn9jU1@uni-berlin.de...
  >> 1. bollox. lots of people (including me) were (and stil are) running fine
  >> on decent PSUs. Althiugh I think it is reccomended ON THE BOX to have a
  >> 350W PSU, I am sure my Herc 9700Pro suggested this.
  >>
  >> 2. see 1
  >>
  >> 3. bollox again, first I heard of this and had ATI 9700Pro for 18months,
  >> I
  >> also frequented rage3d forums during this time.
  >>
  >> 4.this smells like hmm... bullshit. why google for previous drivers when
  >> they are freely available from ATI's homepage.
  >>
  >> PS my graphics card history has been ati rage3d to 3dfx banshee to
  >> geforce
  >> 256 to geforece 256 ddr to gf 3 ti200 tot gf 4 ti 4200 to ATI 9700Pro to
  >> 6800GT. I will use an ATI again if they beat nvidia on £ to performance.
 >
 > How childish can you be? Your experience doesn't match mine, but that
 > doesn't make it 'bollox'. I stand by every word:
 > 1 - There is no mention of a minimum PSU or anything like that on the box
 > of my Sapphire 9800 Pro (256MB). Perhaps your box is different!
 > 2 - Ditto
 > 3 - Just because you haven't heard of it... Google the phrase yourself
 > and you'll see that this problem is persistent and widespread.
 > 4 - Googling old drivers is the fastest way to find them, not just with
 > ATI, but generally. Just because they are also on ATI's site doesn't mean
 > it's the easiest way to get them. Why is your thinking so rigid?!
 >
 > Seriously, my experience of using a high-end ATI card is not good. I
 > guess from your post that you disagree. That doesn't make my post
 > 'bollox' at all. Perhaps the world is not as black-and-white as you like
 > to think...
 >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

"Mike P" <mike.DeleteThis@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:NnPed.153688$Np3.6640675@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
 > Tour ps theories arew crap because what matters is the power rating on the
 > power rails of the ps. A cheap 400w will be outperformed by a good 300w
 > generally speaking. And I ran an overclocked 9800np on a antec 300w ps
 > with 2 hdd's 3 case fans 2cd drives and an xp2500@200x11 for months.
 > You seem to be regurgitating common myths repeated by people who don't
 > know what they're talking about.
 >
 > Mike

Possibly! I'm very happy to take any advice you have if you think the PSU
theory is rubbish. But frankly I have run out of other options trying to
get this damn thing to work. Unless I can get it working in the next couple
of days, it's back to nVidia for me. I'll repost with a result once I've
swapped PSU or tried anything else that anyone could suggest. Any other
ideas on how to get an error-free installation and a working Sapphire ATI
Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB)?

B<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

Andrew wrote:
 > On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 23:04:37 -0400, "GT-Force"
 > <dummyacct.RemoveThis@operamail.com> wrote:
 >
 >
  >>I had an nVidia (GeForce2 GTS), now I have an ATI card (9700 Pro), and I am
  >>thinking about going back to nVidia (6800GT). Is there anyone here that went
  >>to nVidia from ATI and regretted it? If so, what was the old and the new
  >>cards, and what were the issues?
 >
 >
 > What problem(s) are you having? I went from a 4400 to a 9700 Pro with
 > no problems, I use the 4.4 Cats.
I had no problems in Windows. I went from a Leadtek Ti-200 to an ATI
Radeon 9800 Pro. I have heard that ATI's Linux drivers suck. I will
probably go back to NVIDIA as soon as the prices come down on the 6800 GT.
NBK<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

Ben C, I looked back but I can't see exactly what the problem is with your
card. Is it unstable or failing to boot? If not the problem is very
unlikely to be the ps. If you haven't done a proper driver removal
(complete) you're likely to have problems as well.
BTW, drivers for ATI have been very good and stable for some time now,
especially for the 9800 series, which never had serious problems afaik. I
do remember issues with the first 9700pros, but the 8500 was the last card
to be released with sub-par drivers. I never buy cutting edge and when I
got my 8500 after it had been out for a few months it worked flawlessly.
Here's a quick google search website, I never really looked at it yet but it
gives good info on the ps issue here:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons.html" target="_blank">http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons.html</a>

Mike

"Ben C" <spam.RemoveThis@spam.com> wrote in message
news:clgli0$59o$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
 > "Mike P" <mike.RemoveThis@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
 > news:NnPed.153688$Np3.6640675@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
  >> Tour ps theories arew crap because what matters is the power rating on
  >> the power rails of the ps. A cheap 400w will be outperformed by a good
  >> 300w generally speaking. And I ran an overclocked 9800np on a antec 300w
  >> ps with 2 hdd's 3 case fans 2cd drives and an xp2500@200x11 for months.
  >> You seem to be regurgitating common myths repeated by people who don't
  >> know what they're talking about.
  >>
  >> Mike
 >
 > Possibly! I'm very happy to take any advice you have if you think the PSU
 > theory is rubbish. But frankly I have run out of other options trying to
 > get this damn thing to work. Unless I can get it working in the next
 > couple of days, it's back to nVidia for me. I'll repost with a result
 > once I've swapped PSU or tried anything else that anyone could suggest.
 > Any other ideas on how to get an error-free installation and a working
 > Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB)?
 >
 > B
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI? 

"GT-Force" <dummyacct RemoveThis @operamail.com> wrote in message
news:WK_dd.88178$yp.65834@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
 > Hi,
 >
 > I had an nVidia (GeForce2 GTS), now I have an ATI card (9700 Pro), and I
 > am thinking about going back to nVidia (6800GT). Is there anyone here that
 > went to nVidia from ATI and regretted it? If so, what was the old and the
 > new cards, and what were the issues?
 >
 > Thanks.
 >
 > GT

GT, can I ask you:

What is your question????!?!??!?? Please can you re-state it? Everyone is
jumping in with answers, and yet we don't actually know what your question
is.

Your post says FROM nvidia TO ati

Your test says TO nvidia FROM ati

Which is it???????

Chip<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Anyone went from nVidia to ATI?