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ATI
Posted:
Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:05 pmby cheesegrater
ATI has been really impressive lately. The ATI X1900 series of cards are generally faster than the NVIDIA 7900 series. The X1950XTX is the fastest card on the market. Also, ATI are implementing new technology like GDDR4 RAM, and Pulse Width Modulation.
The only thing that is hurting them is bad reputation among gamers who think NVIDIA is the best, alway will be, and conclude benchmarks are stacked because they don't agree with their pre-conveived view of the world.
The reason the PCB looks cleaner is because ATI was the first in the to use digital Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), a technology never seen before on high end desktop graphics cards. Digital controllers eliminate the dangers of overheating and exploding capacitors, giving users a safer and better monitored control over their video cards. By moving over to a digital PWM, ATI was able to save space on the PCB, but didn't shrink the size of the card as they wanted to stick with good low noise cooling solution.
ATI and NVIDIA have been using analog signals up to this point and it hasn't been a problem, but it's been proven in the labs that digital signals are the way of the future. One of the disadvantages of an analog circuit is that they tend to drift with time and they are difficult to tune. Analog circuits are also usually hot and are sensible to noise. A digital signal is easier to implement, requires a smaller circuit, can be fine tuned, is easily reproducible, dissipates less heat, is immune to noise and weights less meaning that it is the best way to dial a graphics card in. ATI uses an RoHS compliant Multi-Phase SMD Coupled Inductor (part #59PR9852) by Vitec Electronics Corporation to make sure the digital signals are in check and hopefully enthusiasts will end up getting clean power.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/406/3/
Re: ATI
Posted:
Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:51 pmby NicksFXHouse
ATI has been really impressive lately. The ATI X1900 series of cards are generally faster than the NVIDIA 7900 series. The X1950XTX is the fastest card on the market. Also, ATI are implementing new technology like GDDR4 RAM, and Pulse Width Modulation.
The only thing that is hurting them is bad reputation among gamers who think NVIDIA is the best, alway will be, and conclude benchmarks are stacked because they don't agree with their pre-conveived view of the world.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/406/3/
My DX10 rig will be ATI Crossfire
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:26 amby SkyNoz
Very impressive, will be picking up a X850XT PE soon to play FSX, looken forward to the performance it brings me, aswell as FS9. Great write up!
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:04 amby Bindoe
Very impressive, will be picking up a X850XT PE soon to play FSX, looken forward to the performance it brings me, aswell as FS9. Great write up!
I have a X850XT PE and it runs fsX really well. However, since I love high performance, I'll be upgrading to a midrange DX10 vid card / Vista.
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:04 amby Ashton Lawson
Before u shoot me, i hav kevlar...
I stick to nVidia mostly cuz ive always been sorta loyal to them. ATI and nVidia are both experts in certain fields, but nVidia hav got me forever now, because of their quad SLI tech. I'm not sure, but it seems ATI's crossfire only supports 2 gpus, while nvidia SLI supports 4 (and hopefully 8 in the near future)...
One question tho, wat was the point of this post?
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:01 amby MWISimmer
One question tho, wat was the point of this post?
Well it taught me something I didn't know, so the point is to educate us all, much like the rest of this forum....
Get your Kevlar ready... ;) ;D
rob.
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:38 pmby Gunny04
I'd take nvidia over ATI if I could afford it, I have had only 2 nvidia cards, and 2 MB nvidia cards (Built in) however if price limited me and I could get a faster, more efficient ATI over a not so Nvidia, I'd buy it, so basically I'd go both ways.... but I prefer Nvidia just one of those loyalty things!
Cheers, Gunny
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:51 pmby SkyNoz
I have a X850XT PE and it runs fsX really well. However, since I love high performance, I'll be upgrading to a midrange DX10 vid card / Vista.
Thanks, sounds good.. Really looken forward to it. My specs are probally at a mild settings, but the card should kick some serious game performance!
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:12 pmby Viper22
Yeah my brand new 7900GT died on me already, so I wasn't too impressed with Nvidia. They are excellent cards though, and it was my first Nvidia card. When DX10 comes out I will be going with the R600 though by ATi
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:49 pmby ctjoyce
I havent decided yet. I like the changes being made to crossfire, and I'm likeing the single card preformance being shown by ATi. However since I will be running Intel, I'm going to be going NF580 with 2x G80 cards.
Really I have the feeling that they will both be about the same preformance wise. We are just going to see the classic ATi price.
BTW I am an ATi fanboy. Its just that 9/10 times the nVidia card is cheaper. But when it comes to media, theres just nothing better than ATi.
@Viper, its a common 7900 problem. Depending on who sold you the card, RMA it, and your golden.
Cheers
Cameron
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:02 pmby cheesegrater
I forgot to mention you can run protein folding programs on the new ATI GPUs.
The X1950Pro will be priced at $200, and it is very competative with 7900GS and 7900GT. Although I haven't seen it at any stores yet.
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:05 pmby NicksFXHouse
and they support PhysX on the core with no additional card needed
Re: ATI
Posted:
Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:21 pmby ctjoyce
and they support PhysX on the core with no additional card needed
The X1950? Didn't think they did. Thought that was only the R600s
Cheers
Cameron
Re: ATI
Posted:
Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:03 amby Ashton Lawson
Well, whatever... Thats all i can say.
some like ATi, others, nVidia. we all hav our own preferences.
I still think the quad SLi from nV is the best form of multi-gpu systems.
P.S. i've doubled my kevlar to two layers, tho it looks a bit bulky on me...
Re: ATI
Posted:
Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:54 amby cheesegrater
Well, whatever... Thats all i can say.
some like ATi, others, nVidia. we all hav our own preferences.
I still think the quad SLi from nV is the best form of multi-gpu systems.
P.S. i've doubled my kevlar to two layers, tho it looks a bit bulky on me...
Quad SLI isn't really that impressive. It is beaten by 7900GTX SLI and X1900XTX Crossfire. Also, in many benchmarks it is beaten by single cards. I think Quad SLI is more of a marketing gimmick than anything.