I have been a fan of Nvidia for some time. I haven't owned an ATI GPU since x1600. Though I'm tired of waiting for Fermi to be released & I'm thinking about jumping over to ATI. One of the major reasons is that I currently have a CrosFirex mobo. I'm also thinking of upgrading my mobo and all the AM3 mobos I'm looking at support CrossFirex as well. I just can't seem to find a SLI mobo that has all the features I want. With that being said, besides what I stated above & the fact CrossFirex has less restrictions on GPU combinations. What are the pros and cons with each tech? What issues have you encountered? I'm just looking for honest answers since I don't have money to waste on bad desicions. Thanks.
Honestly, I admit it feels long, but you're almost there. It'll be best to wait for Fermi, regardless of which you get, so you can see how the prices jumble around. That said? SLI and Crossfire are the same thing. They scale similarly, they have similar requirements. Crossfire is a little more lax in it's combinations...But only a little, in that you can have a 5870 and 5850 crossfired together....And it performs better than two 5850s. I still don't recommend it...it's almost always better to just fork out a few extra dollars. If you're going AMD, however, it's almost a requirement that you go Crossfire. There are some Nvidia chipsets for AM3 and such but they are almost universally worse than the AMD counterparts.
Dude, With all respect for you intended here. Id google this rather than open up the door for another ATI vs Nvidia flame war. oVr|<|LL
I'm looking for honest answers from guru's that have actually used both. I can't keep up with each set of driver & what issues each set seems to bring. I can search google for benches & issues all day long & not get the answers I can find here. There are quite a few gurus that have used both recently. I respect their input & knowledge. I know what I'm getting here. That's why I started this thread.
Well in that case. Read my sig. I had 3 gtx 260's in tri sli with the current setup, and now am running 2 4890s in xfire. I can say that scaling with the 4890s is way better than it was with the 260's.
Nice, thats the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks! :banana: I'm pretty much on the edge of going over to ATI, just looking for some info to push me over.
Its really going to depend on what you are playing to be honest. All have their perks. Good luck brotha.
I never used ATi, but, im planning to. Besides, with the current video cards that are in the market (mid and high end), its a little difficult to regret buying any of the cards available. ATi or nVidia. They're very good mostly. And you get what you paid.
from an objective point of view, both companies are good. however, im leaning towards ati, partially because of fanboy-ism, and partially because nvidia are notorious for rebadging the same gpu, ie. 9800gt = gt250 and so on. at the moment, ati is the leader in price vs performance and also have dx11 support, however, most would still consider it the early adopter stage as people still seem to have issues (ive never had any issues with four 5000 series cards, so yeah). however, if you analyse the benchies, ati have only just managed to dethrone nvidia, and not by a sufficiently large margin either. the performance of the 5000 series cards is only monstrous when you compare it to the performance of 4000 series cards. nvidia, on the other hand, normally have extremely well performing high end cards, like the gtx 285 and gtx 295, that ati have only just managed to beat. if nvidia can fix their yield issues with fermi (honestly, 7 functional chips out of 400 produced is just sad), then they would have a real winner on their hands. if they are able to beat the 5870 in terms of performance as claimed, then that would be interesting. however, if you take a look at the older rivalry matches, nvidia generally surpasses ati in terms of raw power, however, nvidia also charge an arm, a leg, and the ability to reproduce. drivers from both parties are fairly good. most people complain about the drivers for the 5000 series compared to the gt200 series, but they always seem to forget that the 5000 series has only been out for 4-5months, the nvidia gt200 series has been out for years (especially the gt250). both driver sets are good, so it wont really matter. however, ati with their monthly updates makes it easier for me, because i dont have to check everyday to see if there is a new driver release. as for the crossfire vs sli debate, from what ive seen, sli scales better in terms of performance as a % increase over performance with a single card. however, the issue with sli is that you need driver support for sli to be enabled in games. if there is no driver support for the game, then sli wont work, and youre stuck with one gpu. with ati's crossfire however, no driver support is required for crossfire support to be enabled in games, as by default, crossfire rendering method will render in supertiling. altho theres a little more microstutter (from my POV), its better than having two gpus and leaving one to collect dust. when driver support is added, its generally an optimised driver profile for the game that lets it run alternate frame rendering method more efficiently, allowing better performance and superior image quality (in some cases). so its all up to you. obviously, since this thread is in the ati section, you can expect a lot of people to say 'go ati', and if it were in the nvidia section, a lot of people would say 'go fermi'. from my POV, id say ati would be better as it has much better price per performance than nvidia, crossfire works for pretty much everything and works better with new drivers, and dx11 support is nice and futureproof-ish. however, from what ive read, microsoft plans to release a new OS next year june-ish, which may mean a new dx version anyway. best bet would be to wait for fermi to come out, then compare the price vs performance. ati cards would also drop in price when fermi comes out so it should be more enticing.
Well if you are going crossfire or for a powerful card you will need a good CPU your current cpu is not really good enough for the GTX275 to hit its max potential. Anyways i've only use SLI but it worked good a part from flashing issues in one or two games.
Well I have a Phenom II 965BE & need to order a new mobo. I wanted to stick with an SLI board & Nvidia, but I can't find a mobo with all the features I want, they all seem dated now. I have found a few CrossFirex boards that I like very much, but I don't have any recent experience with ATI GPUs. If I get some ATi recommendations as well as pros & cons it would make it a much easier desicion on which board I purchase.
That must have been a long time ago. My GTX260 SLI setup required a lot more driver adjustments for certain games than my new 5870.
I've been sick to death of Crappy drivers/Issues with Nvidia and was looking at moving to ATI. I don't care for brand, whatever works/performs well seems the best choice yes? And for me until recently at least it certainly hasn't been Nvidia. Buuuut... I hate to be jumping on the bandwagon early but "Fermi is coming soon!!" My care factor was zero until I read an article about Fermi's new ability to pretty much Anti Alias shadows... Will see how price goes but i'm pretty much sold, I believe that is an awesome new feature. If it wasn't for this news i'd be rocking some ATI cards already.
Neither side has driver issues, 90% are user issues, and are mainly used to bash the other side. At the moment, you kinda have to wait for Fermi, even if its overpriced, and even if your getting a ATI card. You will kick yourself if you buy something now, only for it to take a price dive in a month or so.
That is a huge claim to make without backing up with hard numbers. Im willing to bet everyone has experienced an issue at one time or another that was not caused by the user.
Most people wouldn't admit it, or even realise it was user error. How many do proper driver cleans? Or redo both CPU and GPU overclocks everytime they install a new driver? Or disable anti-virus software while installing drivers. The only issue i've had with drivers in the last year was CoreAVC crashing MPC when Cuda was enabled, and that was a beta driver. The biggest issue i've saw from friends PC's i've looked at has been SLI/Crossfire problems. I'm not saying everyone is to blame, there would be driver fixes if not, but so many people like to scream at ATI/Nvidia and point the finger for every issue.
This is true ^^ I agree completely. But some of us do it properly. + Respect to you for your answer. I might have come across a little too confrontational. I apologise for that irate:
Damn, didn't notice the horrible grammar till you quoted me lol. No worries, i can appear the same myself at times.
Are you looking for an excuse to spend your money now ? Then there is only one choice, ATI has the best cards out at this time. Come March, that will likely change (only a couple weeks), at a huge price premium. I fully expect Fermi to be a monster, with a monster price to match. Although with Fermi, price drops on ATI should follow. If previous patterns hold true. I say wait.
