nVIDIA vs. ATi

[Nostalgia]

they're exactly the same, they're always trying to be better than the other

Not at all. ATI's drivers are updated every month, and they are always a huge improvement over the old ones. I'm currently running the new 4.12's and they are rock solid, fast, and beautiful.

Also, for $160, you can get a 128MB 9700 Pro which will outperform anything else in the sub-$200 price class. It costs only $20 more than a 9600XT, and has twice the power.

I have a Sapphire 9700 Pro with upgraded cooling...One Vantec IceBerq 4 w/ blue LED lights, four Vantec copper-plated anodized aluminum RAMsinks for the bottom RAM, four Zalman jet blue RAMsinks for the top RAM, and four Zalman mini-RAMsinks for the MOSFET heat spreader. It now runs icy cool, not to mention that it performs amazingly well. A 128MB 9800 Pro is barely nan upgrade, it only bests the 9700 Pro by about 5-6 fps. Hell, the 9700 Pro is .6 fps faster than the 9800 Pro on the UT2004 benchmarks.

 

[Diesel]

Also, for $160, you can get a 128MB 9700 Pro which will outperform anything else in the sub-$100 price class. It costs only $20 more than a 9600XT, and has twice the power.

:lol:
Thanks, I needed a good laugh today. I should hope a $160 video card should beat a sub-$100 card, at close to double the price.
Talk about misleading... a 9700 Pro has double the power of a 9600XT.
A) Who's rectum did you pull that completely inaccurate nugget out of?
and B) Are you seriously insinuating that it's 2x as fast as a 9600XT?!?

As dismissive as you are about Mr. Brighside's point, he does make an excellent one. For all intents and purposes, the performance at the high end makes new Nvidia and ATI offerings just about equal in the eyes of the average gamer. Even under the scrutiny of the hardcore gamer, you're looking at, typically, a 1-6% difference between them under most games, which isn't much to get excited about unless you're a measurbator.

 

[Nostalgia]

HAHAHA! I meant to say sub-$200 price class. Fixed.

After checking my sources, it seems that the 9600XT is around 33% slower than the 9700 Pro on most becnhmarks...But I did the math mentally, so I am probobly wrong (I never trust my head with math).