Graphics ATI Vs Nvidia

For the last few weeks iv been constantly reading reviews on graphics card from both ATI and Nvidia, trying to find the best graphics card for my budget of £250, can push it to £300, but I feel like iv hit a dead end, as all graphics cards seem to be performing about the same from what i can see, but what i really want to know is, in real life situations how do they perform? So is there a diffrence between ATI and Nvidia? and at 1920x1080, is it better to have the extra VRAM and get a 2Gb?

I apoligize if this is a noob question, just trying to get the best GPU for my money, and hoping yous can help me in making this big descision

Thanks

 

I struggled with this too! I decided on Nvidia in the end, just seemed that the GTX 570 was the best bet for my money.

 

250 new.......gtx 570 would be my choice. Theres one on scans today only at the moment

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I was in the same boat not long ago too David. The problem is it seems to be dependent on game/driver support, though in fairness I understand they're both very capable cards.

In the end I took the third option and bought a 2Gb 560Ti. It's smaller, quieter, cooler and cheaper. All is groovy at 1920x1200 with things like NFS Shift2, BFBC2, Fallout 3, World in Conflict, Crysis, Mafia II, etc... I now run a modest overclock and will be linking another screen to it in a few weeks.

One thing I would consider... reading up on the reviews and checking benchmarks is useful to a point, however whether a card scores 75fps vs another scoring 85ps is largely irrelevant when gaming. As long as the card you buy fits your case and has the performance/features you need, you'll be as well focussing on things like noise and warranty.

 

Push you budget to £277 and get a Gainward GTX 570 Phantom from Scan, it's Custom PC's "Premium Grade." It'll play everything for about the next two years. You could drop to a 560 Ti, but I reckon you'll wish you'd bought the 570.
If your not going to game above your stated resolution, then anything above a 570 is overkill; you simply won't use the graphical power.
As to the difference between Nvidia and AMD, well, the best thing is to view some gaming benchmarks that suit your budget and go from there, but I think you'll end up with a 570.

 

thanks for the replys guys, and is the 570 able to play all games in good/high detail just now im guessing? And just out of curiosity, does VRAM make much of a diffrence?

 

i've a gtx560ti and everything i've thrown at it on high so far has done well, lowest was mafia 2 @40fps average. still smooth enough for me, no noticable lag or anything. so i would guess a 570 wouldn't have any issues with running everything on high either. its a better card.
nvidia and amd are basically just as good right now, but nvidia pushes more on devs and offers 'assistance' a lot more than amd so more games are in turn optimized for nvidia generally it seems. nvidia has the physx novelty, and cuda which has some actual use if you do any video encoding or other graphics / 3d stuff. amd is seriously lacking there right now as stream isn't widely used. might change once opencl is more popular. amd does multi display better in my opinion though.
i think vram amount might become more important in the future, if there is more 64bit or pc exclusive stuff. or at least proper pc port with enhancements, like high res textures. but 1gb is probably enough for the time being.

 

Up to a point, but with the amount you're talking about here (1.3GB vs 2GB) it won't be an issue, certainly not at 1920x1200 anyway when 1GB should be plenty. It's only with higher resolutions like 2560x1600 that you need to start worrying about the amount of VRAM a card has, and even at these resolutions the GTX 570 easily keeps up with the 6970 with 2GB of VRAM.

 

Do you think its worth paying extra for a board that supports SLI?, like for future upgrades?

 

Nope IMO its false economy, your paying a premium for "what if" SLI boards cost more and you need a bigger PSU to accomdate the 2xGPU plus a larger case possibly.

All that before you even make the decision to buy a 2nd card maybe in the future.

Personally im not a fan of SLI or Xfire as you may tell but if people want more performance then at least stump up for it to start with and make effective use of it.

When you come to upgrade just switch out the GPU sell it on and buy a brand new high end one again

 

Go with a mobo that supports sli and crossfire cant go wrong then

 

Thats pritty much what i was thinking adam, am im going for the 570 gpu and probably wont upgrade for a while untill i need to and i doubt i would add another gpu, i would just swap old one out for a newer one, but i just anted to hear people opinions on whether it was worth it

Thanks