Which video card is better?

[nissmo300]

GeForce™ FX 5950 Ultra 256MB 8x AGP w/DVI & S-Video
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GPU Speed 500 MHz

Memory Configuration 256 MB 975 MHz DDR

Interface AGP 4x/8x

Graphics Engine NVIDIA CineFX™ 2.0

Fill Rate 4.0 Gigapixels/s

Memory Bandwidth 31.2 GB/Sec

TV-Out Support Yes

Multiple Display Support Yes

RAMDAC Speed Dual 400MHz



ATI RADEON™ 9800 XT 256MB 8x AGP w/DVI & S-Video
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VPU Speed 412 MHz

Memory Configuration 256MB 730 MHz DDR

Interface AGP 4x/8x

Graphics Engine RADEON 9800 XT

Fill Rate 3.3 Gigapixles/s

Memory Bandwidth 22.6 GB/s

TV-Out Support Yes

Multiple Display Support Yes

RAMDAC Speed 400MHz

Special Features: SMARTSHADER™ 2.1, SMOOTHVISION™ 2.1, HYPER Z™ III, TRUFORM™ 2.0, VIDEOSHADER™

[808smokey]

Depends on who you ask really. I've never owned an ATi card simply because I always heard about people saying how picky they can be. Plus I know that you can overclock NVIDIA right the properties panel, not that you'd need to. I'm an NVIDIA guy and probably always will be so I would get the 5950 or something not quite as expensive like the FX5600. Also looking at the basic specs you have listed the NVIDIA looks like it out performs.

[Piccoro]

It really depends on what you do...
DX9 gaming? 9800XT hands down.
DX8/OpenGL gaming? i perfer the 9800XT out of the two although it would depend on what games you play.
A lot of 2D work? Nvidia hands down.
Although you might as well get the lower of the two (9800Pro/5900Ultra) as they are almost the same performance as those yet less $$ (better deal).

Both ATI and Nvidia have unified drivers now. ATI used to have drivers for each product and it could be a pain to install several drivers (e.g. AIW cards) but not anymore.

[stiltman]

Not from a expert on gaming or grafic cards, but I've always liked ATI cards. They seem to preform the best for me....ACAD and Pro E seems to like them too

[rallynavvie]

Werd, with unified drivers the two are pretty much equal, and both are the standard for gamers. I've got both at work, a Quadro and a 9800, and never had problems with either. Make sure to get branded cards though, not the cheapie brands like Mad Dog or whatever. A friend got a Mad Dog GeForceFX and it caught fire