Looking for some fellow computer geek input

[todd0168]

I am going to be getting a new monitor and video card for my computer in a few weeks. I have looked all over and received many suggestions and I think I am down to two cards and was hoping to get some input from you guys and gals here. The two cards I am looking at are as follows:

ATI Card or NVidia Card

I am getting a new 24" HDMI monitor is why I'm getting the new card.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. If you have alternatives I'm open to that as well and don't want to go over $250 for the card if possible.

[Petrah]

My personal opinion... go for the one that offers you the best warranty, along with researching and reading reviews about the cards until your eyes bleed. Then you can make an informed decision based on the knowledge that you yourself have gathered.

[todd0168]

Heh, yeah I have done that. I have always had good luck with EVGA and their customer service. From what I gather, Sapphire is good the same way. So really it's just a question of which one might be the better card.

[Petrah]

Back when I was looking to buy, Saphire had the best reviews and also offered the best warranties. I ended up with a Saphire Radeon 1GB GDDR5 4870. That was about a year or so ago. So far (knock on wood lol) it's been an amazing card with outstanding performance.

We'll see how things go when Cata is released. From what I understand there will be changes with the games graphic engine. Who knows, my 4870 might struggle to keep up!

[todd0168]

Yeah, I have heard the same things, and this is a fairly up to date card from what I can tell so should last a while. I am definitely leaning toward the Sapphire ATI card at the moment. Unless I hear something that would push me away from it.

[Seer]

Between the 2 I would go for the ATI one, more future proof (dx11 vs dx10)

ATI; great hardware, reasonable drivers, good for most games.
nVidia, reasonable hardware, great drivers (usually :-p), a lot of games seem to prefer nVidia hardware performance wise.

Imho off course :-p

I use a Sapphire 4870 as well, ordered a sapphire 5870 so guess I would recommend Sapphire as well.

[Marthisdil]

Are you looking at using multiple monitors? If so, go with the best ATI video card you can afford. EyeFinity is the bomb.

[Marthisdil]

One thing about ATI video cards. I currently have a 4850 in my gaming machine.

ATI video cards and the crappy ATI drivers, will sometimes "reset" causing your screen to freeze for 10 secs or so. Most times, the card resets fine, and you continue on your way.

Doesn't happen often, and isn't cooling related. Have replaced the card under warranty in the past.

And no, not everyone experiences this issue (obviously), but I also know I'm not alone (there's lots of others who experience it with no fix ever found).

I've never experienced that before with an nVidia video card.

[Seer]

Originally Posted by Marthisdil I've never experienced that before with an nVidia video card.

Never experienced that with either nVidia, ATI, Matrox or 3dfx cards, thank goodness :-p

Did have an nVidia card that gave a lot of "bsod" tho (and a nforce chipset that did the same), and a 3dfx card that sometimes just refused to display anything x-)

The Matrox cards seemed to be the best all round. (hardware and software, just low performance when they were still trying to compete)

I'm pretty sure that there are bad apples in every batch :-/

[todd0168]

I will likely be setting up dual monitors yes. One via HDMI and one via dvi. The new 24" will be the main HDMI connection and the other via dvi is a 19", both widescreen.

[Vis]

For a bit less money, and free shipping, and a "for your lifetime" warranty* with product registration why not go with the identical card in XFX?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150447





*recommend double checking that, but last I knew for that warranty you only needed to register your product within 30 days of purchase.

[todd0168]

Awesome, thanks! Yeah according to the manufacturer info the warranty on parts and labor is lifetime. Good to know.

[Sepioth]

I'm a nVidia fan. Never had issues with cards using their chipsets ...

I'm currently in the process of getting a dead PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB PCIe replaced. They offer a 3 year warranty on the card and it expires in June of this year. The card died just before it expired. Also I never registered it on their site and they still honored the warranty with proof of purchase, can not say the same for other cards.

They both look like nice cards to be honest. I would lean to the ATI only because it supports DX11.

[MidgetMage55]

BFG Tech has a wonderful warranty. Its lifetime for normal use. If you like to OC or dont build properly (aka not enough cooling, improper installation and so on) it voids it however.

Had one of their cards have a portion of the ram fail. they asked for no proof of purchase or registration (though if you register you are eligible for the upgrade trade-in program). they simply said send it in and we will take care of it. 6 days later had a brand new card =)

I honestly haven't use ATI since the merge with AMD. Beforehand i had nothing but extreme distaste for their customer service. All tech support emails were nothing but form letters and answered none of the questions. Been hearing good things about them since however.