ATi or nVidia, time to place your final bets.

I'm not voting until two months after the cards are available & they have been analysed in minute detail.

Call me Mr cautious.

 

Then that wouldn't be a bet

 

Too close to call. To me, it depends not only on how fast and how good the image quality is, but also how intrusive the card is. For example, if I have to use a Dustbuster-like cooler on an R420 SuperMegaUltra or whatever, that's right out. If I have to use a Dustbuster 2 on NV40, nuhuh, please drive through.

(Why isn't PowerVR on the poll? )

 

I agree. I'd buy a slightly slower card if it had other advantages like low heat/noise or better IQ. For instance I deliberatly chose a quiet hard drive because although it benches a couple of milliseconds slower than the fastest drives, it benches massively quieter than the fastest drives. The slight speed loss is more than offset by the huge drop in noise.

If the rumoured high power requirements of NV40 are correct (which could be a problem in itself for many people), that has to translate to a lot of heat output, which in turn could translate to a noisy cooling solution, either on the card itself or additional case cooling. This could be a big deal for a lot of potential purchasers.

 

Work has paid off?

Besides, it is. with a strange shade of yellow. Ask Dave.

 

Work hasn't paid off. At all. That's the problem. I just want a third competitor...

 

Never yellow! On a side note, never ever eat yellow snow.

later,
epic

 

But in order to do that, you have to watch out where the huskies go.

 

On the face of it, probably NV40. On a level playing field with both drivers being 'honest'? Probably R420.

So... draw. Let's go home.

 

I was going to say Nv40 until I read this...

 

This poll HAS been held before, and I think you'll find the results hold up your theory... it was the same thought I had

 

Hum...

The ATI R420 is a Marlborough product, which conceive the R200 (Radeon 8500).

I think the NV40 can beat the R420 but...

The NV40 was conceive when NVIDIA dominated the market (and when NVIDIA sleep deeply).

Maybe on the paper, the NV40 will be the best.

However in the reality (games and benchs), maybe the R420 have the best architecture...

 

R420 is from the same team as R300.

 

Sure ?

Then the Marlborough team work on R500 ?

 

vote for NV40
R420 don't support SM3.0, so it can't be "top dog next generation", it will be top dog of current generation

 

Maybe Ati's stride still carries a lot of momentum. Few years ago nvidia was the obvious choice for most developers and gamers.
Nvidia failed to catch up with ati, first with the fx5800 and later the fx5900 a year after the 9700pro, which is still a great card.
Finally it even caught on with the majority of gamers that Ati isn't 'bad drivers' or 'incompatible' but a good choice, even if they still favour nvidia. That's why I'm willing to guess we're finally going to see a fair contest between ati and nvidia, so my vote is for Ati.

 

I'll expect it to be so tight tie, that lot's of "if-this-feature-is-needed-in-the-future" -flamewars will arise.

So, basically... ATI is faster when doing SM 2.0, and nVidia a bit faster doing SM 3.0 stuff. the speed of AA and AF is too hard to guess. (just too many ifs on possible new AA/AF implementations.)

and the end?
it really does not matter which one is better... both will have enough power and features to make you survive on launch of next generation. during that generation, you most likely see what these cores really can do, but who really cares about it then? it's all about the next-next generation. (think about what else you could have done with 1.5 x $400 if you would use GFX card 2.5 years between the updgrades instead of the regular year. And don't give me that crap about only minority boughts High End card every year. just look a round here and try to estimate how much that minority actually causes cash flow. 40 000 ppl buying $400 card makes a huge cash flow, even if it would be just minority.)

(there has been 2 racing games that really have showed the power of GF DDR... first one was BugBear's Rally Trophy (released 3 years after the card.) and second one was Race Driver (released 4 years after the card.) by CuteMast... umh, sorry CodeMasters.)

sorry, had to make a small rant. it has been 1.5 years since I saw my bank account pass over 1000 Euros...

 

Not a bad reason. I mean, my rants are spurred by something like this:

"Hm, Tim, you're not wearing pants."
"Good point, Tim, you're right."
"How about a rant?"
"Good plan! Thanks, you crazy leprechaun!"

Anyway, you're right--the cards will be pretty comparable. The devil will be in the details, though, and that's probably how one will be declared a winner.

 

how about power/heat in next gen cards?

i think i won't be buying anything that requires buying new high end PSU to run. things like heat/noise might become much more important if both cards are pretty much close in performance..

 

British pants or America pants?

BTW, love the signature