nVidia vs ATI - need some insight

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The thing here is that older technology, like the nVidia FX series and the ATI 9000 series cards are not even as good a value as the mid-range cards offered right now. This is what Extreme Tech discovered in their price/performance testing:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1780514,00.asp

I'm not disputing what EJ is saying since the higher end ATI 9000 series cards, particularly the 9800, can play the hell out of just about anything you can throw at it that is DX9. But the nVidia cards seem to offer the best bang for the buck.

 

I cannot speak for Europe, Denmark in particular. However, I am qualified to speak for the USA. $329 before the mailin rebate, and that's not even the lowest priced card.

Overclocked with watercooling on the core, but only to 400mhz (Ultra levels):
55.63fps on Half-life 2 (not considering quality)
56.30fps on Doom 3 (not considering quality)

$329 / 55.63 == 5.9

The X800's and X850's, in the AGP configuration, do not even come close. They likely have superior quality, but to Nvidia's credit, they check as many of the shaders as they can. If you absolutely have to choose Nvidia, which is just about the case if you are a Linux user or you have some kind of hardware conflict, the 6800GT overclocked is the best choice; even if you're aircooling it, you can use some high-quality thermal paste and overclock it to Ultra levels.

But what I wanted to point out is the FX5900 series of cards are, technically, a Directx9 card. They can render the shaders. But they render the shaders very poorly, and the Radeon 9800 Pro easily bests it in terms of quality and frames per second, when you use Ati's own shader optimizations. If Nvidia can use it's optimizations, it's only "fair" that Ati be allowed to use theirs, as long as the quality difference is un-noticable. In all the cases I've ever seen screenshots, it is.

So.

Radeon 9800 Pro if your system can handle Ati cards. Nvidia 6800GT if it can't. Watercooled FX5900XT flashed to a FX5950Ultra, or a Radeon 9600 Pro, if that's what you can afford.

 

If your going the whole hog and getting a current generation card don't want to bother with a 9800 pro - a 6600GT will out perform it even in Half Life and at a cheaper price (over here anyway). If you want a current generation Radeon card the X800xl is the way to go - although I'm unsure as to the agp availability of this card at this point. This card is around £190 over here - not really a budget solution.

 

In Doom3, yes, it will out perform it. In Half-life 2, no, it will not out perform it. It's a mixed bag on other games, as well, making the issue problematic. Either way, over on this side of the Lake, the 9800 Pro is nearly $30 cheaper.

The law of averages favors my wallet.

 

Check this link EJ Smith

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2278&p=3

"The Radeon 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro are both best suited for 1024 x 768, while they will play 1280 x 1024 just fine if you are willing to deal with some choppiness.

While the 6800 and the 6600GT perform relatively well at 1600 x 1200, their sweet spot is much closer to 1280 x 1024."

I've avoided Toms Hardware because they tend to favour Nvidia. But the difference at the higher resolutions is 10-12fps. If you consider Half Life to be a game coded favoured towards ATI - you can clearly see which is the superior card.

Besides as I stated earlier my mate has a 9800 pro running on an Athlon64 3500+. I am running a 6600GT with a P4 2.66 - I can run HL2 at 1280*1024 he makes do with 1024*768. Despite having a faster processor. As I said it depends on budget - but for your $30 I'd go for the 6600GT.

 

Nvidia's 6600 series is very hot at the moment! - I just got Sparkle 6600GT and I don't think I'll look back. They out perform ati 9800XT and support Vertex and Pixle shader 3.0 - you won't get this support with equivelent Ati cards!
I comfortably play DeusEX 2, Need for speed underground 2, LoTR battle for Middle Earth and Trackmania with resolution and shaders maxed out at very fast frame rates.

Ati's equivelent series (X700) are not even close - they tend to be more expensive and slower (not hugely, but slower not the less)