Ati > nVidia or nVidia > Ati ?

I have a GeForce 2 Pro 64 and now with the games I play it seems a bit lacking. (Doom3, UT2k3, and Q3, Counter Strike) CS i get 100fps but only when i turn the GFX down. I want to be able to use 4xAA, 2xAntriscopic, Best Qual MipMap, Texture sharpening and all that and still get good fps at an in-game res of 1024x768 and my desktop res is usually 1280x1024. What GOOD if not GREAT picture quality. I probably will not be overclocking the card bc its in my Intel SYS at the moment, so untill I build another AMD rig (epox nForce 2 mobo, ,2600xp 533) It will be running at stock speeds. So does the driver support still suck for Ati, and is it faster than a MSI GeForcec 4 Ti4600 clocked at 300/650.

I have never used anything but nVidia but the 9700 looks great considering I will not be overclocking it till later on.

Definatly grab an ATi card. For every single reason u mentioned, the ATi offerings perform better, and LOOK better. ATi has always put quality above performance, but has still been able to compete with nVidia products. IMO, ATi has always had the better hardware, just lacked the driver support until recently (3 driver releases in under 30 days, just as good as nVidia).

There is no comparison between a 4600 and a radeon 9700 pro when all the goodies (fssa, anisotropic filtering, high resolution) are turned on. The 9700 is a good deal faster without that stuff turned on when comparing just normal settings at like 1024x768 but the gap becomes staggering with all that stuff on.

As far as driver support goes ati is releasing drivers on a very frequent basis now. I wouldn't say they are perfect but its a definate improvement and you can tell they are working on that area.

I owned that specific MSI Ti4600 and it was a great card. However, I now own a 9700 and let me tell you, the 4600 can't wave a stick at the 9700. If you want better than 4600 performance but don't want to pay the 9700 price, get a 9500.

~THT

ATIs drivers are not as good as nVidia's right now and look at the performance gap, the thing beats the crap out of any gf4 hands down, and don't wait for the gffx it might have a slight performance advantage when it comes out but ati still has the price advantage honestly $599 (approx.) dollars for nvidias best offering when it comes out vs. $320 from ati

It's always a matter of opinion. There are good and bad things about ATI and Nvidia. Right now, ATI has the fastest card on the market, the Radeon 9700. In a couple months, Nvidia will take the lead. It goes back and forth. Driver issues are an old thorn in ATI's side. They are better now, than they used to be, but they still have problems and every new ATI card takes a long time to get decent drivers. Nvidia, of course, has there share of driver problems, too. Not as many as ATI, though. In my opinion, you should buy the best card you can afford, be it ATI, or Nvidia. If you can't afford a Radeon 9700 or 9500, consider a GF4 Ti card. If you can't afford a GF4 Ti card, consider a Radeon 8500.

Whos greater then who? They are both very nice!