Geforce vs Radeon?

[OuTR]

Hi all,
I have a couple of questions and was hoping my fellow Tomb Raider fans could help me out. My system is a P4 HT 3.0GHz 1GB ram with an ATI Radeon X600SE Hypermemory 256mb video card. I was looking through the posts and realized that card isnt there (the x600XT was there though). Does that mean TR Legend wont support this card? Even if so, I noticed it was on the low end so I was thinking of getting a Geforce 6800GS which everyone raves about. I heard there might be a price drop towards the end of March to make way for newer cards, does anyone know if this is true? If so it would be music to my ears Thanks for the help and sorry for the lenghtly post!

[Chris Daly]

Legend should support most modern graphics cards, and
striving for better resolutions is probably worth the effort.

As with any Windows platform its a matter of the software
matching the graphics card and Windows itself which can
sometimes be of more concern. XP I would guess would be
minimum for Legend.

[Xcom]

Originally Posted by OuTR

I heard there might be a price drop towards the end of March to make way for newer cards, does anyone know if this is true?

I hope it's true because I am waiting for it myself. LOL!

[Legendary Lara Croft]

I am definetely NVidia girl

[OuTR]

Thanks guys I have to agree nvidia has always been my fav too its just this new pc came with ati. Ill keep an eye on the prices now and post them here if that's ok. Hopefully our wait isn't in vain lol

[GeorgeMaciver]

My Radeon graphics card died last week Screen went black and the only way to get my PC to boot was to take out the card and enable the 32 Mb on board thingie Er, somehow I don't think Legend will work on this PC . . .

[Shehi]

As I know x600 cards are all the same, but there are some slight differences between GT and SE. Usually SE cards (standard edition?) are the worst version of model, mainly because they are incapable of overclocking. So I suggest next time you buy Radeon card, make sure its not SE edition. GT's are good editions tho, with overclocking possibilties; and never get confused with memory capacity of graphic card, coz its not the way to compare card's features. Pay attention to features like PixelShader 2 etc, and make sure card supports most of modern standards. Extra RAM capacity usually does not mean a good card at all especially when you can manually overclock it with proper drivers; e.g., my 128 MB Radeon 9550 GT edition is much powerful than its 256 MB SE counterpart when overclocked (and don't worry, it does not require electronical tuning, just proper software and knowledge). Anyway, to be short, your SE edition card should support TR Legend, as it already supports Rainbow Six 4: Lockdown (believe me, that game is a hard nut), I tested it myself. In case you buy new card, make sure it supports current standards, Shader 2.0 at least. Also it should have 256 MB DDR RAM on it for higher performance. I don't recommend going for 512MB, hi-end cards as there are no games which really would require such a power - I heard new UT3 engine would use such a power, which currently is in production, but I am sure it will take some time for games to achieve that level of graphic richness and quality.

[Legendary Lara Croft]

I heard they even make double SLI now when you can have 4 cards together, that's crazy lol

[GrieverFX]

Go for the GeForce man!!! It also powerful on OpenGL

[Johnny]

ATi has always been my choice. I would never turn to the Dark Side (a.k.a. nVidia).

[OuTR]

I guess the question remains now... Which Nvidia card will make TR Legend look better between these 2? The 6800GS or the 7600GT? Oh so many choices so little time.

[maniac44]

Go with the 7600GT. The "GTs" are better for gaming.

[his fan]

I recommend the Nvidia GeForce Versions.
The game have the logotipe of Nvidia. (The way it's Nvidia meant to be played)

[simulation]

Originally Posted by his fan

I recommend the Nvidia GeForce Versions.
The game have the logotipe of Nvidia. (The way it's Nvidia meant to be played)

So did AOD, but the ATI cards wooped nVidia on performace and quality.

I find ATI drivers much more reliable than nVidia.

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by simulation

So did AOD, but the ATI cards wooped nVidia on performace and quality.

I find ATI drivers much more reliable than nVidia.

Finally, someone else sees the light...

[OuTR]

Originally Posted by Xcom

I hope it's true because I am waiting for it myself. LOL!

I have to agree, nvidia cards have never steered me wrong. It seems like the best prices out there are offered by newegg.com Based on what i've read up on about the 7600GT, it should play TR Legend better than the 6800GS. I just hope those prices drop soon. Xcom, please keep me posted if you find some great deals, i'll do the same

[Xcom]

Originally Posted by OuTR

Xcom, please keep me posted if you find some great deals, i'll do the same

I wish I could, but I am located in EU and I will be shopping locally, so that's gonna be difficult.

Anyway, something weird is going on. From what I have read, nVidia didn't produce enough 7900/7600 cards for initial release, and nearly all of them were sold out instantly. Basically, most retail stores don't have them in stock.

Secondly, the prices are now totally messed up, at least here. 7900 cards cost less than 7800.

Originally Posted by simulation

I find ATI drivers much more reliable than nVidia.

Really?

In the past week or so, I've been researching various graphic cards, reading reviews/user experiences, checking out benchmarks, etc. It's true that ATI outperforms nVidia in terms of raw power, although that comes with the price: more power consumption, more heat and more noise.
In any case, the number one complaint of ATI users about ATI cards seems to be that ATI makes crappy drivers. I guess your experience is pretty unique.

[dhama]

Originally Posted by Xcom

... ATI makes crappy drivers.....

Have to disagree. I use Radeon drivers in my PC and I've suffered no problems. In fact I have to say they push my old 9500 card to to limits. Doom3 now performs better frame rates than before, and the same with HL2 with the latest drivers.

I have nVidia drivers in my laptop and they are stable, but limited.

I must plum for ATI cards till nVidia sort their drivers out.

[simulation]

Originally Posted by Xcom

ATI makes crappy drivers. I guess your experience is pretty unique.

Not really. I work for a software company writing OpenGL apps and we generally find ATI to be more stable than nVidia. However, I am not particularly biased to either make. Both have held the crown for best card over the years and as long as they keep pushing each other the better for us.

P.S. The latest high quality nVidia drivers make TR4 crash

Originally Posted by his fan

The game have the logotipe of Nvidia. (The way it's NVidia meant to be played)

My main point was that, although nVidia have the advert on the box, it does not mean the game was specifically written for nVidia. AOD proved that all too well. Much to the embarrassment of nVidia.

[OuTR]

Originally Posted by Xcom

I wish I could, but I am located in EU and I will be shopping locally, so that's gonna be difficult.

not a problem. I know what you mean, the cheapest place I could find is also the one place thats out of stock on the card I want

Originally posted by simulation
My main point was that, although nVidia have the advert on the box, it does not mean the game was specifically written for nVidia. AOD proved that all too well. Much to the embarrassment of nVidia.

i agree to a certain extent but Nvidia wasnt totally to blame, AOD had a million glitches of its own.