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Elvin · Nov 27, 2001, 10:35 AM

I remember a few years back when ATI cards were looked down upon, as being junk, and nVidia were considered the best...but as of late it seems that ATI is beating nVidia in the graphic card business. Radeon seems to be king, and ATI is now holding well in the laptop chip arena too. nVidia's GeForce3 really didn't topple the Radeon, and now there are rumours of the GeForce4 (hopefully incorporating 3DFX's technology) and we've yet to see the Radeon 2. Any thoughts?

blizzard · Nov 27, 2001, 11:48 AM

The Radeon 2 is the Radeon 8500, which has already been released for the PC. Initial word was that, like all ATi products, the drivers were very poor and didn't let the superior hardware perform to its fullest extent. ATi has released newer drivers, however, which have alleviated some of these problems. That said, nVidia's cards and drivers still romp all over the 8500 in most areas. Hopefully ATi will be able to improve their drivers to the point where their card can challenge the current king, the GeForce 3 Ti series (I forget which one is top of the line right now).

I don't know where you got the idea that the GF3 didn't topple the Radeon - that thing can eat Radeons for breakfast. Only now has ATi released comparable hardware.

As for the GeForce 4, give it about half to three quarters of a year to make an appearance. It will undoubtedly debut before ATi's next chip does, so I assume we'll continue to see nVidia dominance in the gaming card area.

Bottom line is, the two companies are still competitive, but nVidia still holds the edge, and will continue to hold it into the foreseeable future.

Elvin · Nov 27, 2001, 12:33 PM

I will agree with you that nVidia does have the edge, but from reading reports from such sites such as xlr8yourmac, it would show otherwise is some Quake 3 settings. Then again, nVidia brings to the table other cool stuff such as bump-mapping, which makes games like Giants look fantastic! Even though ATI is a Canadian company

I still prefer nVidia.

ShortcutToMoncton · Nov 27, 2001, 03:38 PM

Check out the latest rumours on the NV25 (the newest chipset from nVidia) at www.nvnews.net . Wowsers. We're talkin' crazy power here....

greg

Nov 27, 2001, 04:01 PM

I am curious, does anyone kno where I can get a nVidia GeForce2 card (sold seperately)
I can't find it anywhere

I have mailed nVidia this question a while ago but got no anwser.

mail me at no_life_pictures(at)mac(dot)com

r-0X#Zapchud · Nov 27, 2001, 04:46 PM

if you actually OPEN your eyes when reading the reviews, you'll see that the lousy crap-kinda-shit-GF3-Ti500 is NOT eating much RADEON8500 for breakfast (unless in Unreal Tournament)!
The RADEON8500 has a superior image-quality, "free" anisotropic filtering, TRUFORM, in other words a superior feature-set and lets not forget the PRICE!

The only edge GF3 has is current mac-compatibility!

Elvin · Nov 27, 2001, 05:17 PM

Thanks for posting your 'kind' comments r-0X#Zapchud, but if you are going to offer your thoughts, please back them up with web links as proof, and keep them a little cleaner.

You do however bring up a good point about Truform, as it is a good technology.

All in all however (as an open question), with all of these catch-phrases floating around from all of these graphic card companies, which do you find actually makes a difference in your game playing?

Elvin · Nov 27, 2001, 05:26 PM

Mr_Frost, eBay is a good place to start...in fact there are two nVidia cards up for auction right now.

blizzard · Nov 27, 2001, 10:17 PM

Yes, r-0X#Zapchud, please tell me where you have read reviews that states the Radeon 8500 is faster than the GeForce 3. I merely restated what I had read online, at sites like Anandtech. I can't really see what's worth getting all snooty about over two VIDEO cards.

r-0X#Zapchud · Nov 28, 2001, 04:34 AM

Ok, 1st of all, I'm very sorry for my aggressive, ignorant post!

Most newer reviews with the 7206-drivers show an overall impressive performance, both better and worse than the GF3Ti500!
Yes, truform is nice, and alot better memory-bandwidth (8.x GBps vs < 12 GBps) tells the card will improve (its position) as newer, bandwidth-demanding games will show up!
I'd say these features makes the R8500 & GF3 almost as good as eachother @ this point!

Then we have the 2D and DVD-playback capabilities!
I the DVD-quality of the GF3 is inferior to the Q of the R8500, and HydraVision seems to be alot better!

Then the ever-important factor of price comes, and all in all I consider the R8500 to be ALOT better than the GF3Ti500!

Elvin · Nov 28, 2001, 06:20 AM

You brought up another good point...there have been numerous reports of poor DVD playback with nVidia cards, especially with menus. I'm sure it will be fixed one day, but it hasn't really been addressed by nVidia has it? ATi seems to have this area pegged.