ATI X1600 vs NVIDIA?

I know this topic has been beaten to death, in a distributed fashion, but I have a pretty specific question. I'm due to upgrade my GPU soon, and my instinct drives me towards an ATI rather than an NVIDIA. I've heard that ATI frequently doesn't satisfy in SL, due to the lack of support for DX9.0 and Shader 3.0, but the newer cards (I'm looking at an X1600-based card) should support this. Is there a reason to categorically prefer NVIDIA products over even the new generation of ATI, or am I likely to be happy with at ATI at this level?

ATI will outperform an equal Nvidia in DX9, SL uses OpenGL, besides maybe for ripple water, which ATI drivers lack a lot compared to Nvidia . So if you are looking for a card to strictly play SL id suggest a Nvida, if you play games more, especially ones that use the latest pixel shader, Id suggest you go with ATI

Well the 3d acceleration is to be split between SL, and use in creation programs like maya. I was under teh impression that ATI had a more robust implimentation of OpenGL than NVIDIA does - is this not the case? I will also be using the card under linux, so DX is not a huge interest of mine.

Actually you have it backwards, nVidia has the better implimentation of OpenGL. ATI put all their focus on DirectX compatability while nVidia improved on OpenGL and tried to maintain compatability with DX.

Interesting, I don't know where I got that impression. I'll do some searching then, but if anyone wants to share their experiences on this thread with NVIDIA chipset/board combos that have worked well for them I'd appreciate it. I'm currently using a borrowd NVIDIA 6200 w/ 256, branded EVGA, and it's acting pretty sketchy both in and out of SL. '

Thanks for the help!

Interesting.. if you can download rivatuner from guru3d.com. Check to see wich chipset your 6200 is using.. if its the NV43 it can be softmodded into a 6600GT (sorta, ram speed kinda limits this but you can unlock the other vertex shader pipelines).

I am using the Nvida 6600 GTO video card as it came with my Dell 8400 standard configuration I am assuming. Is there anything I can change or do to make it work better?

I friend of mine has a new Dell computer and wants to upgrade the video card. I have read here that the Nvida is much better for SL than the ATI. Here are some of the choices I have looked up for her. Can someone tell me the best to use:

BFG - 3DFuzion GeForce FX 5500 256 MB PCI Graphics Card
XFX - GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card
XFX - GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card – XXX Edition
Evga - Geforce 7600GT, 256MB

Here are some other choices someone told me about but from what I read Geforce is the best

Diamond Viper 9600XT 256 MB AGP Graphics Card
VisionTEK XTASY Radeon X1300 512 MB AGP Graphics Card
DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA Stealth Express ATI Radeon X550 256 MB PCIe Graphics Card
VisionTEK
XTASY RADEON 9600 256 MB AGP Card
VisionTEK XTASY RADEON 9600 XT 256 MB AGP Card

Please give me a recommendation for her.

XFX - GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card – XXX Edition

would probably be the best of those choices

Thanks for the recommendation....is there any other one you would recommend that is not on the list that is around $200.00

Nope, I think that the XFX - GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card – XXX Edition would be the best for that price range.

Ok.. I see one problem here.. do you even know what kind of graphics card slot your friend can support? I'm seeing PCI, AGP, and PCI-Express cards in that list wich tells me you just went and randomly picked cards based on price alone because there's only 1 mobo that supports both PCI-Express & AGP and that thing runs like crap. I also highly doubt Dell would offer that mobo as well. Find out what your friend's specs are and what it can be upgraded with first. That will help you narrow down what you can install.

Most of those cards mentioned are underpowered and would need to be replaced soon, the 76 series geforces are underpowered for thier line, and the fx5500 was always a bad line, the 5 series never got good till the 57XX series.

The stuff on the lower list really aren't even worth looking at anymore, most of those are 3-4 years old, way out of date and won't be supported by much in another year.

For his money I'd buy a BFGTech 6800 or see if I couldn't go to hardforums.com and find someone selling a used 7800 with warrenty intact.

Take it from a guy who's owned several of the cards mentioned, its better to spend money now and let a really good card last you a few years than buy a bad one and have to keep replacing ; ). I have saved more money by buying higher end than I thought. I buy the high end part, don't have to replace it just to "Keep up" for a year or two, and if I DO replace it I can often resell it for more than half of my money back.

My current specs:

BFGTech 7800GT OC (Overclocked further)
+3700 San Diego overclocked to FX55 specs
2gb Corsair XMS
100GB Raptor

hmmm... I will try that util to see if I can unlock the extra pipelines on this 6200, and if I can see how much of a difference it makes. Something I'm curious about - it loooks like the 6200 and 6800XT support OpenGL 2.0, while the 6600 and 6800 don't... what gives? I was thinking a 6800-based card would be the way to go (as I can't afford a good 7-series right now) but now I"m not so sure.

Maybe I'm better off waiting (if I can find a video card that works at all, since I can't keep this 6200 forever) and buying more RAM for the time being. that may actually be my worst bottleneck.

except I do need some form of vid card