ATI or Nvidia?

[Fuze]

I'm looking for a new video card. I do a lot of web authoring (flash primarily) and a lot of gaming also. I'm not sure I want to shell out 340 bucks or whatever the 9700 Pro is at now. I'm thinking of a card around $150 w/o shipping factored in. Anyone suggest a card? Like a G4 MX card (are those bad btw, I've heard mixed reviews)? Or an ATI 9000 pro (or the 8500 which I heard is better)?

[RobH]

The Gforce 4 Ti series are in that price range,the Ti4400,4600,are really decent-dont go with a MX series-they dont perform well.hth

[catch23]

No ATI card aside the 9700 Pro is better than a GF4 Ti 4400 or Ti 4600 ... I'm personally waiting for a card with the NV30 chip from nVidia.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Another vote for nVidia. Be sure to buy one from a reputable brand like Gainward.

And another warning: stay away from the MX series, they are plain crap.

[DrZaius]

In general, the nVidia cards (GF4 4200/4400/4600) have more raw gaming speed, while the ATI cards (Radeon 8500/9700) have better image quality. I personally think that the Radeon 8500 is the sweet spot in terms of price/performance, but a GF4 Ti4200 would work just as well.

[catch23]

I'd go for an MSI or Asus GF4 if not a Visiontek because they're dead now...Gainward really isn't great...their GF4s are not nearly as good as their GF3s were

[HAL9000]

I prefer the ATI cards. With the exception of the 9700, you may lose a couple FPS (not perceptable though), but I feel they have a superiour picture quality.

[catch23]

They do..but if you're in the middle of a game...are you going to notice the quality of a reflection of a shadow in water? that's about how big of a quality difference there is.

[Demosthenes]

NV30

Is that what they use in the XBox?

[str8rida]

There is alot of info about overclocking a Ti4200 to the same specs as the Ti4600 for about 1/2 the price.

[Texuspete00]

Xbox is like a GF 3.5 as far as the technology that goes into it. NV30 is nothing but a piece of paper right now. It will indeed put xbox to shame though. I'm not nostradamus, just call it a hunch =)

ATI 9000pro competes with MX GForce's making them pretty pointless b/c the 9000 supports DX8.1. Nearly all games come christmas time will be severely crippled w/o it.

[RobH]

I think NVidia is a smart way to go-love that uniform driver-one size fits all,the Detonator 40 seems to work great!imho

[Fuze]

Yea, the new NV30 would be nice, but I'd only pay for it if it was 300 dollars or less because above that, personally, I don't see it as a worthwhile upgrade being a student and all.