GeForce or Radeon

[AngelBoy]

[e mag]

I would go with the radeon cause i have a 9800 all in wonder and it works great, though you really don't need the 256mb memory, but if you have the cash then go for it. Most people's opinions on which to buy are going to be biased though, so check out www.guru3d.com www.tomshardware.com and www.anandtech.com for good reviews. Whichever you choose though, it should be able to easily handle any game that comes out in the next year or so.

[INFERNO]

if ur planning on doing any overclocking even though it will be totally uneeded id get the geforce card. i get the feeling that ur not so get whatever u can get cheaper.

[PyRo]

I have a 64mb or 128mb Geforce4 in here, works fine.

[e mag]

Originally posted by PyRo
I have a 64mb or 128mb Geforce4 in here, works fine.

Did you read his post? He wants an FX 5950 ultra or a 9800 XT, not a geforce 4.

[OfficerGoat]

When they put the two cards to work on Half Life 2 the 9800 performed 2x faster than its Nvidia counterpart. It seems that more and more software has been optimized for the ATI chipsets. Both cards will beat the hell out of any current games out there though... but when Doom3 and Half Life 2 come out is when these new cards will really be put to the test.

[Koosh]

When I was flipping through the best buy ad today I saw that if you buy an ATI card (forget which one, I think it was the 9600SE though), you'll get Half Life 2... FOR FREE!

I'm seriously thinking about getting it myself...

[PyRo]

Free half life 2 = go for it

[e mag]

You get half-life 2 for free with a 9800XT or 9600XT.

[AngelBoy]

So most of you are saying to go with the ATI?

[e mag]

They are both great cards if you will just be gaming, but it would probably be best to decide for yourself. Here is a comparison of them http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1896, here is a review of the 9800XT http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1890, here is a review of they perform in HL2 http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1863. Also, if you plan on doing any multimedia stuff or want to use your comp as a tv, then deffinatly go with the 9800 or 9600 all in wonder. Also keep in mind that unless you will be playing your games at 1600x1200 with all the effects turned on, the two cards will perform almost identically in most cases. Here's another important thing to consider:

Unfortunately, future performance can't be predicted until we have games from the future. No one seems to want to lend me a time machine, so I can't get those numbers yet. Looking back though, I can offer this advice: don't spend $500 on a video card until the game you want to play on it comes out. Trying to buy something now in order to be ready for games of the future only means that you won't have that money to spend on the newest best card that's out at that point.

From the looks of those benchmarks, the 9800XT is the better card to buy. Also keep in mind that ATi recently released the 3.8 catalyst drivers that enable some overclocking, you can check out how well they improve performance here http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1900.

[alkafluence]

Per arstechnica:

The NVIDIA fall update: FX 5700U and 5950U

Posted 10/25/2003 @ 12:59 PM, by Matt Woodward

With the recent release of NVIDIA's FX 5700 Ultra and 5950 Ultra, the basic question on everyone's lips has been essentially: How do they compare to ATi's 9600XT and 9800XT? Well, the reviews hitting all the major channels seem to reveal that the FX 5700U is a dramatic increase in performance over the 5600U and even bests the 9600XT in most games. The DirectX9 shader performance for the 5700U is still questionable. Reviews of the 5700U can be found at all the usual sites including: HotHardware, Anandtech, and Tom's Hardware.

On the high-end side of 3D gaming goodness is the FX 5950 Ultra. Unfortunately, there is no new hardware here, just a minor clock speed increase. This results in a slight performance edge (3% - 6%) with a less than slight price increase (~25%), therefore we cannot recommend the 5950U. In fact, if you are really looking to drop some coin on a high-end video card, you might want to first check out HardOCP's Max Payne 2 benchmarks and watch the 5950U get smacked down by the 9800XT.

[Army]

When I dropped in my ATI 128 board, all my games came back to life....YAY!