ATi OR nVidia?

Question

I have a PCI-E socket before anyone asks.

I play a few games, such as need for speed carbon, f.e.a.r, football manager and some online games such as runescape.

I just want a fairly cheap graphics card which has enough power to keep me going with that card for a few years.

So whats better, ATi OR nVidia?

And for what i want a graphics card for, what would suffice me perfectly?

I have a £60-£70 budget (Approx. $120-140USD.)

I have looked at dx10 cards such as the nVidia 8600 range, and thr dx10 ATi cards such as the HD2600 range.

I have also looked at the ATi x1950 range of cards, and would one of these 3 cards i mentioned be ok...

the 1950 is more expensive, and i dont kno if i need it to be that good.

Thanks.
I have also looked at the nVidia dx9 cards around the price but can only find the 7600 range, which according to the latest custompc magazine it says it cant handle modern games very well.

Answer 1

Well they key thing you said is that you want to have this card last a few years, so you are probably going to want to get the most powerful you can for the money. The problem is that DirectX 10 is going to become more and more the standard. Out of the three you mentioned, the X1950 range are easily the best, they perform a lot better than either the 8600s or the HD 2600s, but the only problem is that it is not DirectX 10. To be honest though, I would not worry so much about it, becasue even if you did get one of those two DirectX 10 cards, you would not be getting good performance on DirectX 10 games coming out a few years from now anyway, so just go with the X1950.

Answer 2

BOTH are good brands but the ATI high end cards tend to draw more power.
The X1950 Pro would be a better performer but the 8600GT makes your PC more future proof. The overclocked versions of 8600GT are good and quite cheap. And there's still plenty of OC headroom. Actual tests here:
http://vr-zone.com/print.php?i=4925
This article, the Zalman cooler and the 1.3ns Qimonda memory chips convinced me to buy the Palit 8600GT Sonic last week. Have not overclocked it much yet because ambient temp in my location is in the 30's (°C).

Answer 3

I like nVidia better. I recommend getting the XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3. Get it at Newegg, it is priced at $120. It works great for me and I play need for speed carbon too and the graphics are great. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Both are good, however, I like nVidia because their drivers are alot less hassle.

Answer 5

i would go for nVidia as i like the name better!