What is the best pc video card out there?

Quote: Originally Posted by legoicecream What is the best pc video card out there?

The most expensive one. Whether or not its worth the money is another story...

Thats a hard question b/c everyone has a different opinion on that subject.

If you are like me and u upgrade all the time, then go with the ATI X/800 XT platinum edition.

If you are like my friends, then go with the Nvidia 6800 Gt, overclock it to the ultra, and not only to you have a fast card but you got future support for Pixel shadder 3.0, or DirectX C.
"Like my friends" means that the hand -me-down components come before new ones!
Cheap b*******!!!!

My favorite video card of all time though is the Nvidia 4200 Ti, man I loved that card.

Also, I am avoding the Quadro line and Fire GL, and Pure, b/c I dont think you question is directed at card's that are not really for hard core gamming.

ATI Radeon X800 XT PE or the Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra Extreme. Both of them run very close in benchmarks.

*prays that j-dogg doesn't see this and starts talking about his sh!tty Voodoos or his bike* It's always going to be the most expensive one, currently the ATI X800 and Geforce 6800.

Overall I consider the architecture of the 6800U to have the slight edge on current ATI architecture, but I do have my worries concerning NVIDIA technology in general. There is little doubt that the ability of ATI to drive their 150nm R3x0 technology at almost 400MHz surprised the entire industry during 2002 & 2003. Since then ATI technology seems to be breezing it! Their cards are small and their cooling system modest. ATI have already managed to push their new core up to 520MHz. NVIDIA on the other hand seem to be struggling to keep their silicon up to speed. This 6800 Ultra runs at only 425MHz and that’s 25MHz higher than intended. The “Extreme” version later in the year will have a core speed of 450MHz, but this will still lag behind ATI. This is why I consider NVIDIA design to have a slight edge. If the 6800U core ran at 520MHz it would probably edge out the X800XT. But NVIDIA are certainly struggling. The requirement for robust cooling coupled with rumors of poor yield quality just compound this impression that NVIDIA is slowly losing it. Not so much design-wise, but in simply converting that design into stable silicon. Purveying an aggressive and arrogant corporate attitude doesn’t help much either. Not that ATI is any different in that respect — they’re just a little bit more subtle about it.

Quote: Originally Posted by SpikeShot Overall I consider the architecture of the 6800U to have the slight edge on current ATI architecture, but I do have my worries concerning NVIDIA technology in general. There is little doubt that the ability of ATI to drive their 150nm R3x0 technology at almost 400MHz surprised the entire industry during 2002 & 2003. Since then ATI technology seems to be breezing it! Their cards are small and their cooling system modest. ATI have already managed to push their new core up to 520MHz. NVIDIA on the other hand seem to be struggling to keep their silicon up to speed. This 6800 Ultra runs at only 425MHz and that’s 25MHz higher than intended. The “Extreme” version later in the year will have a core speed of 450MHz, but this will still lag behind ATI. This is why I consider NVIDIA design to have a slight edge. If the 6800U core ran at 520MHz it would probably edge out the X800XT. But NVIDIA are certainly struggling. The requirement for robust cooling coupled with rumors of poor yield quality just compound this impression that NVIDIA is slowly losing it. Not so much design-wise, but in simply converting that design into stable silicon. Purveying an aggressive and arrogant corporate attitude doesn’t help much either. Not that ATI is any different in that respect — they’re just a little bit more subtle about it.

I think from a price/performance standpoint ATI definitly trumps nVidia, also, ATI cards dont come with leafblower attacments. ATIs only real problem is buggy drivers. *shakes fist a catalyst and hyrdavision...*