# All right, I concede... I'll buy an ATI card... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 4, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989 "2003-12-04T18:42:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/1 "2003-12-04T18:42:03Z")
Years upon years ago, ATI sucked. They had lousy graphics cards and even lousier drivers and yet even lousier service. I avoided them like the plague and practically spent my nights jacking off while browsing Nvidia’s webpage. Then they started to bitch-whomp Nvidia in the performance department. “That’s all right, Nvidia’ll catch up,” said I. “They still have a better reputation and software… this’ll pass.” Months passed. Most benchmarks showed Nvidia just a step or two behind ATI. “That’s all right,” said I. “They’re close enough, and their Detonator drivers are top-notch.” More months passed. Nvidia never caught up. Even their new FX line was plagued with problems for a while, at least with their flagship 5800. “That’s all right, they’ll fix it,” said I. And they did, with the 5900. Then there were the Catalyst drivers for ATI cards. Pretty damn good, especially considering the tripe that they had on the table before. “Hmm… that’s one less strike against them.” Then terror struck my heart: Nvidia was HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE at rendering Half-Life 2 in general, and DX9 games in particular. “No! That’s not true! That’s impossible!” I screamed in my best Mark Hamill impression. “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” And then I jumped into a bottomless shaft… Then I found out that ATI had won the bid to develop the graphics for the Xbox2. That raised my opinion of them greatly, in my eyes. But I held firm. “Half-Life 2 isn’t out for another eight months. I’ll wait, see what Nvidia can bring to the fold.” I wasn’t disappointed about an updated graphics card release… the FX 5700 and 5950, to be exact. Better than the previous batch… but still not enough. But, even after all that, I held firm. “Nvidia will come through,” I chanted, praying before my altar of GeForces, “Nvidia will show us the light.” But now the camel’s back as been broken: I just read through the Tom’s Hardware Reader’s Choice awards, and ATI just steamrolled right over… well… everyone. Best Innovation in Graphics, Best Graphics Card Manufacturer… So that’s it. I give in. I surrender. I’ll turn in my key to the GeForce Wankroom. I’ll turn my back on my memories with my old, trusty GeForce2 MX-400 as well as my current GeForce4 Ti4600. Come this Christmas, I’m writing down “ATI Radeon 9700” on my gift list… and may Nvidia have mercy on my soul… ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/2 "2003-12-04T18:54:55Z")
I’m in the same boat, until late this summer I was pushing GeForce cards to all my gaming friends. now its time for me to upgrade and I will be buying an ATI card. Most likely the all-in-wonder 9600 pro. I feel so bad inside. ---
**Author:** ![idiotboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@idiotboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/idiotboy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/3 "2003-12-04T20:46:43Z")
Welcome to the darkside, folks! 🙂 I’ve been an ATI fan forever. I saw their future to be successful, and it has come to fruition. Just bought myself a 9600XT last week, and BOY is it SMOKIN’ through UT2k3 and CounterStrike!!! 😃 _Drooling for HL2_ ---
**Author:** ![Mastema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@Mastema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mastema)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/4 "2003-12-04T22:41:17Z")
In our 3D Workstations at the office we use the ATI Fire GL-X2 256, for about $900. Performance-wise, it is the equivalent of the $3000 Nvidia FX3000G. We are sold. Now all I have to do is raise $900 for my home computer . . . ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/5 "2003-12-05T10:53:58Z")
Hey, I work for the “other” graphics card company (whose name reminds one of the a movie series starring Keanu Reeves), and I have an ATI card. Cuz a guy at work gave it to me for free. We’ve gotten out of the gamer market. We couldn’t compete any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/6 "2003-12-05T14:31:44Z")
At work I had to set up a _ahem_ “Matrix” Millenium the other day and it brought back memories when Matrox were the BEST. Ah good times. Now I have a Sapphire ATI 9700 OEM, flashed with a 9700 Pro BIOS and overclocked to 9700 Pro speeds. I lucked out and got a card with the fast Samsung RAM (the same that’s used in ATI retail 9700 Pros), so I can OC the memory more if I want. All this, and I still can’t run Neverwinter Nights properly. Bioware is in bed with Nvidia, and in NWN benchmarking a GF 4200 will still beat the socks off a 9800TX . Other games are like this as well, such as Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA:VC. Promises were made long ago by ATI and Bioware to look into the slowdowns, but nothing yet. **SPOOFE** - Check out [www.rage3d.com](http://www.rage3d.com) if you havn’t already. That’s one of the best ATI sites out there, and several ATI staff post regularly to the forums there. ---
**Author:** ![idiotboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@idiotboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/idiotboy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/7 "2003-12-05T15:28:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anonymous Coward \* > \*\* > **SPOOFE** - Check out [www.rage3d.com](http://www.rage3d.com) if you havn’t already. That’s one of the best ATI sites out there, and several ATI staff post regularly to the forums there. \*\* Hey! I’m always on Rage3D!! What’s your name there? I’m…ummm…idiotboy. And I didn’t realize some of the folks there were actual ATI employees!! Enlighten me on who they are? ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/8 "2003-12-05T15:41:30Z")
I don’t post on Rage3d, so I don’t have a handle there. Let’s see… There’s **Catalyst Maker** , **OpenGL guy** , and **sireric**. Catalyst Maker is a Software Product Manager and has a direct hand in the making and testing of the Catalyst products. OpenGL guy is a Product Marketing Engineer, and Sireric is a Hardware Engineering Manager. You can usually find these guys in the ATI hardware and Catalyst discussion forums. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/9 "2003-12-05T17:43:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scott evil \* > \*\*Hey, I work for the “other” graphics card company (whose name reminds one of the a movie series starring Keanu Reeves), and I have an ATI card. Cuz a guy at work gave it to me for free. > > We’ve gotten out of the gamer market. We couldn’t compete any longer. \*\* Heh…G400 Max owner 🙂 I’m not much of a gamer, and I looked thru the vid card specs a while back and realized I’d have to upgrade my OS and everything else in my machine to run the cutting edge cards… Now if you could get somebody to tell me what the secret to getting my Rainbow Runner to capture audio and video at the same time, I’d be in heaven (it will play A & V in preview, as soon as I hit “Capture” the A goes away…but enough hijack…) ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/10 "2003-12-07T07:14:50Z")
> [@](#): > > All this, and I still can’t run Neverwinter Nights properly. Bioware is in bed with Nvidia, and in NWN benchmarking a GF 4200 will still beat the socks off a 9800TX . Other games are like this as well, such as Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA:VC. Actually, it’s because that, despite everything, Nvidia’s cards still beat the pants off of ATI in OpenGL games, like Jedi Academy. It’s just unfortunate that almost everything uses D3D… ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-right-i-concede-ill-buy-an-ati-card/216989/11 "2003-12-07T17:52:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anonymous Coward \* > \*\*At work I had to set up a _ahem_ “Matrix” Millenium the other day and it brought back memories when Matrox were the BEST. Ah good times. > \*\* Well, the Millennium P650 and P750 are more than decent cards. Like I said, we abandoned the gamer market. Anyway, I don’t work in graphics but in video, and our RT.X100 Xtreme Pro kicks Pinnacle and Canopus’s collective asses. 😃 (And there’s more to come, but I’m under NDA, of course.)