ATI or nVidia x86_64: Comparison

JDCentral · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject: ATI or nVidia x86_64: Comparison

I'm building a x86_64 system this summer (AMD, nForce4), and am pretty sure about all the components I'm going to buy (Asus A8N-E, Athlon64 3000+), but am stuck on which video card to buy.

I don't want to spend more than $200-$250 on the card, (as the ENTIRE system, except for the video card, costs like $400), and am going to run Gentoo, among other things.

In the past, I have always leaned towards ATI cards - but the linux support has been 'shakey' to say the least.

Anyway - my actual question is what kinds of experiences have you had with your ATI and/or nVidia card(s)?
Please list which card(s) you've used, and on which type of system(s).

Right now I'm probably looking at a Radeon X800 XL, or an nVidia 6600 GT (PCIe).

Thanks-

Justin
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Gentoo Currently installed on:

Athlon XP-Mobile Barton 2600+ @ 200x12.5
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. rev 2.0
1GB OCZ Performance PC3200 RAM
Sapphire X1650 Pro 256MB GDDR3
2x120GB Seagate 7200.1 IDE Drives
1x320GB Seagate SATA Drive

Gherald · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:02 pm Post subject:

Sadly ati is really no competition for nvidia on linux... and the 6600 is a better card anyway.

The last great ati card was the 9800 (only on windows tho)

kiel.wells · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 97

Well, iirc, the X800XL isn't even supported by ATI's drivers yet (just like the damn Xpress 200 chipset *mutter mutter mutter*).

When I was using a nVidia FX5200, I was always a couple of commands away from getting it to work, and when it didn't, it was usually something I screwed up, not them.

EDIT= *nanoed*

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Asus A8N5X
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1 NEC DVD-RW, 1 DVD-R/CD-RW
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JDCentral · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject:

That's kind of what I figured...

Stupid.

Well.. I hate Windows more than any other peice of software imaginable.. so I 'spose nVidia is in my near future.

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Gentoo Currently installed on:

Athlon XP-Mobile Barton 2600+ @ 200x12.5
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. rev 2.0
1GB OCZ Performance PC3200 RAM
Sapphire X1650 Pro 256MB GDDR3
2x120GB Seagate 7200.1 IDE Drives
1x320GB Seagate SATA Drive

Sm1 · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:10 pm Post subject:

I just picked up an AGP version of the 6600 GT and it puts my old 9800 pro to shame in linux. Its amazing the improvements I have seen now.

JDCentral · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:11 pm Post subject: What about SLI?

What about SLI support?

Anybody tried SLI with linux?
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Gentoo Currently installed on:

Athlon XP-Mobile Barton 2600+ @ 200x12.5
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. rev 2.0
1GB OCZ Performance PC3200 RAM
Sapphire X1650 Pro 256MB GDDR3
2x120GB Seagate 7200.1 IDE Drives
1x320GB Seagate SATA Drive

Trevoke · Advocate Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 4099 Location: NY, NY

ATI promises (and so far, delivers) new drivers every two months (january because dec was late, feb, april).
Maybe by this summer they'll have the real big problems fixed.. What matters is that ATI is now running to catch up with NVidia and I have high hopes (you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one)
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DaveHope · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:04 pm Post subject:

Unfortunatley I cannot talk about SLI, or PCI-E, but my XFX GeForce FX5200 is working fairly well for a budget card (~£60 at the time), having used both ATI and NVIDIA cards in linux, I'd say without a doubt that nvidia are the better cards as far as linux cards go. Besides, "emerge nvidia-kernel" is so easy

makton3g · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Posts: 88

I just buit a new computer.

AMD64 3500+ 939
2GIG Duel Channel DDR400 Ram
2 SATA Western Digitals (Raid o)
Sapphire ATI X800 256MB

First off, the computer is only seeing 128MB of video ram.
I am having an "mtrr" problem with the card
MY glxgears is around 5000FPS (4000FPS after setting "iommu" in the kernel)
If I turn Composite on, my DRI crocks.

Now here is the fun part

I am running UT2004 at 1280X1024 with everything setting set to the highest I can. I have no problems at all, and the picture is AWSOME!!!!. Now my other tower had a nvidia 5700 which was easiser to setup. However, it isn't linus without a challenge, which is why I went with the ATI.

Now can anyone help me with the glxgears score (I know it is not a benchmark, but the FPS should still be higher than that)

Also, what is 0x8000000 * 2 = ? (0x8000000 = 128MB, I need to show that I have 256Mb)

siu00mjt · n00b Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 39

0xf000000
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gigabyte v8t800 pro
1 * 512 crucial ddr333
1 * 1024 crucial ddr333
Gforce 7600 256mb
2 * maxtor max9 160Gb ata133 drives

ConVicTioN · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:27 pm Post subject:

K8N nf3-Ultraa
3200 ~amd64
6800gt ultra
opengl glxgears 16000-17000
native games run faster on nix 10-20fps(doom3,q3,ut2k4,etc etc)
wine/cedega games are close to window performance only about 5-10fps slower.
Glxgears is a benchmark. Any one that sayes it is not just dont like there score.
It has scaled exaclty on my systems. My GF2 p3 was getting 5k glxgears scores.
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d4rk74m4 · Arch/Herd Tester Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 151

makton3g · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Aug 2004 Posts: 88

BenPope · n00b Joined: 02 Apr 2005 Posts: 32

Tùrin_Mormegil · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:28 pm Post subject:

with my nVidia Geforce 5700le 256mb + Athlon64 3200+ i've never had problems.
choose ati only if you like challenges

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kabage · Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 340

started when I put gentoo 64 on my dualboot, used quake3, (emulated 32 anyway i know) but all I had to compare
windows and linux

ATI 9600pro

Anyway quake3, in windows was 200fps
linux was 120fps ***I was embarressed for linux

After much googling and email ati I went ahead and tried the

Nvidia 5700 le, (Again I want to mention this really wasn't about nvidia ati cards , though these two are comparable except the nvidia is a 256MB and the ati 128 MB)

Anyway quake3, in windows was 330 fps -hitting 400 fps at times
linux 360 fps -hitting 600 fps at times

So we can see it wasnt gentoos fault, or win isnt superior at (opengl) games -- it was all in the driver

Of course the new pci-e or sli stuff maybe another matter but my money will only go to nvidia for video cards from now on period.
(Ok thats along time til proven otherwise

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Psykk · n00b Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Get the 6600GT, PCIe. It's perhaps the greatest card in existence right now, when you look at the whole picture (price, performance, upgrade capability, features).
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montesq · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 7:31 am Post subject: