ATI or nVidia? Is there a big difference?

Question

ATI or nVidia? Is there a big difference?

Answer 1

Yes. They are different companies with different goals. Nvidia spends way more on research and development than ATI does. Nvidia's cards and devices have a much broader range of use. Nvidia makes chips for phones, PDA's, workstations, as well as desktop graphics. They also bought out PhysX, and on 8800 and newer cards, they have integrated physics processors. Their newer cards also support CUDA, which allows full programming of the GPU, and for it to be used in things other than just visual computing. ATI made the graphics chip in the xbox 360, and Nvidia made the graphics chip in the PS3. As far as desktop graphics are concerned, they both have similar price points, and mostly similar features. Some people will say Nvidia is better, others will say ATI, but it really is deeper than that. For now, Nvidia might have features ATI doesn't, and ATI might have features Nvidia doesn't, but in a few months, whatever technology you purchase will be outdated anyway...

Answer 2

ATI is ahead of the field at the moment in the high end range but if you going for a cheaper card id go for a nvidia 8800GT or 2