Should I make the switch to ATI? Opinions?

blindartist · August 29th, 2007, 12:22 AM

Hey guys,

So im running a bit of an older system, just a athalon 64 3200+ oc'd to 3450, so of course ive only got an AGP slot, ive got a geforce 6600 gt inhere right now that ive overclocked to the max and it does well enough for most games but alot of these new games just totaly own it, sooo ive been thinking of getting the ATI Radeon x1950 512mb agp card, which from what ive read is a killer card, but should i make the switch? Ive heard alot about ati cards being kinda unreliable and finicky, thigns dont work very will with them, the drivers are poor etc etc, some people say ati is nothing but headaches, now granted nvidia cards work great, ive yet to ever have even one problem, just pop em in, install the drivers and your ready to rock, but now that nvidia is owned by microsoft i really want nothing to do with them.

I was also contemplating the nvidia 7950 gt 512 agp, but its considerably more expensive then the x1950, though it has twice as many pixel pipelines but from what i gather the x1950 bosts a better fill rate of about 20 gigapixels/second while the 7950 is about 14 gigapixels/second.

So what do you guys think? should do move switch over to ATI? are all the problems people are having just propeganda?

Also can you recomend the best maker of the x1950? i was looking at saphire only because their the most least expensive but i really dont like how their heatsink looks, looks really stupid with that robot thing on it plus it looks kinda cheap so i dunno.

Well thanks for your help and opinions guys!

Best Regards
~Dave

xiaomhome · August 29th, 2007, 12:29 AM

I have a small experience with ATi cards so I can only tell you that Saphire is a good brand and that the last PowerColor ATi card i had came with a weak cooling system (9800xt).

If you are going with nvidia get a eVGA branded card, they have the Step Up upgrade program and life time warranty.

Unixlord · August 29th, 2007, 01:03 PM

Quote:

I have a small experience with ATi cards so I can only tell you that Saphire is a good brand and that the last PowerColor ATi card i had came with a weak cooling system (9800xt).

9800 was my first and last ATI card. It was just terrible.

EVGA's setup up upgrade program is only worth it if you time your purchase carefully. Otherwise you're just spending more money and saving very little. BFG on the other hand also has a lifetime warranty despite being factory OCed. So it pretty much depends on the costumer.

Just one question for the OP. Are you sure you don't want to switch to PCI-E which has a future rather than invest on AGP?

blindartist · August 29th, 2007, 07:29 PM

Well if i could afford a new system i would but all i can afford right now is a vid card upgrade to maybe get this system to get me by for another year or so, as im sure you know pci-e doesnt actually give you any more performence from your video card, its of the trades best kept secrets, agp is just as fast because no video card can utilize that speed and the bottleneck isnt there anyways, agp performs just as well as pci-e, pci-e is just the new fangled thing to make more money but in time i will have to switch since its all thats out there, just really cat afford a new system right now.

SO, this radeon card looks to be the answer but will it work right? I mean they cant be all that bad otherwise ati would have close their doors years ago but id still like to hear from some more people as get their thoughts on the matter, kinda wish i could get this 7950, atleast id know i wouldnt have any problems with it, but its like 80$ more and im on a really tight budget right now, sucks.

Unixlord · August 29th, 2007, 07:47 PM

Your choice is simple. If you can't afford the 7950 get the x1950, I'm sure the performance boost over your current 6600gt will be quite significant.

blindartist · August 29th, 2007, 07:52 PM

hmm does the 7950 work on windows xp? cuz everywhere i look it says "built for windows vista" which is garbage and i will never downgrade to.

But do you think ill have problems with the x1950? cuz they require dirvers and catalists and from what ive heard if you dont match it up exactly with your card then it will never work right, the colours wont even look right, oy why cant they just have a unified driver like nvidia.

**Regeneration** · August 29th, 2007, 07:54 PM

X1950PRO is a great buy.

gen.Rage1991hrv · August 29th, 2007, 07:56 PM

if you ask me it would be a waste of money if you buy agp card
because one day you will decide to upgrade your pc with much beter equipment

point is to save money and buy a new pc (agp have died no one is making a agp cards any more but if they makes them price will be much higher than a pci-e card)

Quote:

But do you think ill have problems with the x1950? cuz they require dirvers and catalists and from what ive heard if you dont match it up exactly with your card then it will never work right, the colours wont even look right, oy why cant they just have a unified driver like nvidia.

people who wroted that stuff are morons (not talking about you so u dont get confused)
x1950 is one of the best cards
there is no problems with drivers or shit like that

screenager · August 29th, 2007, 08:17 PM

the x1950 is currently the best bang for the buck.

blindartist · August 29th, 2007, 09:22 PM

well the system id be buying would easily cost 2000$ which i cant afford for a good long while and i want some more gaming power out of this system untill i can afford a new one so i dont think its a wate of money to upgrade the vid card, just making sure i wont have any problems with an ati card like all the haters claim