Buy a nVidia card now or wait for ATi

[Svartalf]

IF they get the drivers more robust and get the tech data to us so we have alternatives, the AMD part is a slightly better bet. But this implies you can wait for either or both items occurring within the next 12 or so months.

If you're able to wait, it's probably not too bad of an idea to hang loose and see if they get their act together on either front. If they don't, you probably can get an NVidia or an Intel solution (IF they get that discrete part out and keep to their plan of open source drivers- both of which, while aren't a foregone conclusion, are looking at least better than a 50-50 chance right now...). It's worth waiting as AMD does have the, in theory, better part right now and if they can get things wired together before Intel shows it's discrete stuff, you'll want their stuff over everyone else's.

If you can't wait- there is absolutely NO sense in buying either an AMD solution (any of them...the current new codebase driver is only for the brave of heart or the masochistic right now...) or the NVidia G80 series solutions. There is nothing at all that supports the added features of the G80 series on Linux right at the moment and the driver situation with the G80 series parts is suboptimal when compared to the G70 stuff which works, works well, and outperforms the G80 in regards to stability and overall performance (Right now, that is- this may change any day now with them shoring up those problems as we're discussing this. Much like AMD's doing with theirs- but NVidia's likely to have a shorter distance to go to get there right now...).

[IsSuE]

well, as far as i read reviews, it looks like the 3870 is going to be slower than the 8800gt. The nvidia card is somewhere around 20? more expensive than the ati card.

[ivanovic]

Since both are currently not really in stock at all the traders, I would wait a little and go for an AMD/ATI. I have a) faith that the proprietary driver will improve and b) there will be all the specs and (very important, too) help from AMD/ATI that the open source devs need to develop a really good driver.

To be more precise: I did already preorder a 3870 card since it does at least work with radeonhd...

[IsSuE]

hi there!

After seeing a nice improvement in current ATi drivers, I am thinking about buying an ATi card. What do you think: Should I wait for an 38xx series card, or should i go with an 8800gt?

yours

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