Arch Linux

nadman10

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-10-15

Posts: 202

nVidia Vs. ATI

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this.

I currently have and nVidia 8400 512Mb graphics card and I'm looking to do and upgrade. I have been less than impressed with this card due to EDID headaches with one of my monitors and a recent driver upgrade that somehow wiped out my dual monitor config that took me hours to perfect.

My question is, would it be wise to look into ATI cards as an option? I've always had Nvidia cards(last ATI was an 8mb Rage Pro), I've heard from other sources that ATI's Linux drivers are worse than nVidia's.

I'm looking to do web surfing and casual gaming(TF2 mostly). What are your thoughts?

EDIT: I'm looking at a GIGABYTE GV-R667D3-1GI Radeon HD 6670 1GB card which I believe would be a decent upgrade and is $49.99(after rebate) as of today.

Last edited by nadman10 (2012-07-04 19:46:41)

89c51

Member

Registered: 2012-06-05

Posts: 741

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

You have to decide what are your needs and priorities. ATI blobs are not up on par with the Nvidia blobs (at least thats what i read around the webernets i use open drivers). So if you want full features and you don't mind using a blob Nvidia is what you should look at. On the open driver front ATI drivers seem to be doing better but they lack many features that you can have with blobs (power management VA etc).

ratcheer

Member

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 924

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

I chose an ATI card because they are said to be much faster than comparable nVidia models. I think nVidia drivers are a little bit less of a mess on Linux, but they are both a mess. I am currently having a good run with ATI fglrx on Arch, Ubuntu, and Sabayon, but I cannot install it at all on Siduction. I have stopped running Siduction because my HD6770 card runs so much hotter with the open source driver.

On Arch, I currently have the 12.6 driver and Xorg 1.12 working together, happily. This is the best I am doing with any distro.

Tim

nadman10

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-10-15

Posts: 202

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

Thanks for the input

mosquitogang201

Member

Registered: 2012-06-19

Posts: 37

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

If you want hardware acceleration for HD video then nVidia is the way to go. Their VDPAU is better supported than anything from ATI. Other than that it is probably down to your preference. I've used both but prefer nVidia.

dodo3773

Member

Registered: 2011-03-17

Posts: 820

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

nvidia all the way. Well, if we are talking about open source drivers then I would rather have ati. If closed source nvidia (as long as it's not some bumblebee nightmare).

Pres

Member

Registered: 2011-09-12

Posts: 423

Re: nVidia Vs. ATI

If you are wanting to game at all, you'll want to go with Nvidia. ATI's binary drivers are a nightmare.