Before spending a bunch of money, do you have everything up to date?
DirectX, graphics card drivers (Even try older ones that may fix your issue)... etc?
What 4xx series issue are you talking about? It's been a very stable series without any issues really, sounds like an isolated issue with your hardware.
I'm working with and ATI Hd4200 atm, not alot of problems besides slower speeds, issues with realtime renderers like cgfx, xoliul's shader, maya high quality mode, etc.
but maya, max, zbrush, and 3d coat all work like they should, for most things. I cant run topogun or mudbox, as they continually crash due to video card issues.
also, in games, I have misplaced geometry, weird to no shadows, and overall crappiness, but useable, playable.
if it was an option, I would go with Nvidia. Even for a few bucks more, and less performance statistically, they are usually so stable, compatible with everything, and just plain workhorses.
I have an ATI 5770 on one computer, and an Nvidia 9600GT on another, and I can't tell any sort of difference in the viewport in Max/zBrush. I'm having the same small problems on both, and similar performance, although somewhat better on the 5770 as it's higher-end than the 9600.
I've got a HD4890 in this machine. I'm not a 3D artist so I don't utilize 3D programs regularly but the little bit I did wind up using Max/Zbrush, I didn't have any issues.
Running HD5770... ati/amd is great for gaming, but their overall usefulness for real-time render/display still lags behind nvidia. There's bound to be issues in both camps, but if you can live with the nvidia problems until they're fixed then I don't see a reason to switch (especially since it's most likely that nvidia WILL fix).
Thanks for the replies guys! Even though they are somewhat discouraging:(
The main issue for me is that I cant really wait for Nvidia to resolve anything - Personally I doubt that they will, since they dont even officially acknowledge the issue - since I need a well working card right now.
I was thinking of buying the new 2 gig 6950 but after reading some of the comments I am not too convinced it would be the right choice(Despite being lauded on Newegg)...It seems to boil down to either going with ATI or buying an older 260 card for the same price as a brand new 460:poly118:
Another thing that pains me to go ATI is that they are not too developer friendly, not having CUDA, PhysX and lots of small little helpful features.
Yeah usually you can, although I would do my research beforehand, and after all the reviews and such it gives you troubles, you have to return it right?
The trouble is that once I buy, I am pretty much married to it, and will have to endure two years of trouble if anything is wrong....
Its great to hear that not everyone has performance/stability issues, there are a few benchmarks that could be run that could give everyone a good idea of where AMD cards stand as opposed to Nvidia's, I'll gather up a list of them soon.
What ever you do - DON'T buy SLI or CF! That's like saying "I want to have issues with almost everything!", so yeah, just don't You save a lot of money too.
got 5870, and since ATI is well known for not ensuring quality with their drivers, it's recently started kicking up a fuss. Drivers stop responding and the like, pretty bad when you're working with a 3D software, because when the driver stops responding 95% of the time the entire program crashes, at least that's what I'm getting.
It's getting annoying, that and ATI seems to be based on theoretical performance rather than actual, the simplest thing might lag on my system. I've of course wondered if it was my CPU or RAM, but then I remember all of this started after the driver update.
So I can't recommend ATI from personal experience, they work well until they update their drivers, then it's just downhill.
To OP: It would help if you could explain your exact issues with the card you own/ed. Nvidia screwed up on their 260.xx series drivers but has already fixed alot of the issues they were causing with viewport bugs.
What ever you do - DON'T buy SLI or CF! That's like saying "I want to have issues with almost everything!", so yeah, just don't You save a lot of money too.
This is a little bit of an exaggeration. O_o
I've run SLI for a year now and the only problem I've had was one that effected the whole Nvidia line, not just SLI setups, and that was just a buggy driver release. Usually the only time people have issues with SLI is when a game doesn't officially support it. For design work though it's perfectly fine.
I can't speak the same for crossfire though, not having owned such a rig.
In general though, I would agree that if you can afford a single highend video card instead of two lower end ones in SLI you should go for the single card. Less heat & power draw, less chances for hardware failure.
I would tend to recommend Nvidia, despite the recent viewport driver issues with Maya. (Which they've basically fixed in the latest release.)
Overall their track record is solid, more so than AMD, and they have the financial backing to fix problems in a timely manner when they occur.
Finally, PhysX and CUDA support is a definite plus in my book. When I figured out you could use it in Xnormal I was thrilled. It speeds things up very nicely!
I understand the 4xx series has had issues. They were rushed out before they were ready and it shows. Their performance in design programs was especially spotty from comments friends have given me. However as early as the 460 model there has been solid improvement in the line. Plus now they have GTX580 & 570's out with GTX 560's on the way. Looking over the tech demonstrations they've had of the new line it looks like the new cards are everything the 4xx series should have been, while also being quieter, faster, and cooler than their beastly brethren.
My recommendation would be to buy a new 5xx series card, and sell off your 4 series to help cover some of the costs.
@ mparis - Personally I am not having any issues since I haven't bought the card yet.
I am on the market for a new card that would dutifully serve me for the next year and half or so. I was about to buy the GTX 460 until I read that there are massive viewport issues in many 3d applications.
This doesn't seems like a driver issue. As an aside though can you or anyone who owns a series 400 card confirm that said issues are indeed fixed in the latest drivers?
If the issues are fixed then there really doesn't seems to be any reason not to get an Nvidia 400 series card, also due to the many problems that seem to plague AMD cards...
5770 here, and lots of problems with the drivers, none good.
Compared to my lowest quadro, the 5770 for work, is a HUGE SHIT. In modo i have selection lags, poor perfomance, and i cannot work with ease as with a nvidia like the 285 of my brother. The cheap can't be good... i didn't want to waste too much money, and at the end, my buy was "expensive". For this new year i surely will buy a better card, and this time nvidia. My experience with the ati is a horror story full of reboots and grey screens.
nvidia = better OpenGL/OpenCL perfomance and CUDA. Better drivers.
Ati/amd = cheap, bad drivers, and good for some games (with the different drivers, they destroyed the gaming experience, they rest a huge amount of fps in one title making it unplayable, and they make another game to run smoothly when it was unplayable at 1080p)
I really don't recommend an AMD card for work. The photoshop perfomance is also pathetic, less than the offered with a quadro 3500, too many years older (G-force 5xxx).
My recommendation is also to get a nvidia 5xx. For gaming and for work, they are the best now.
I use several NVIDIA / ATI cards for developing and testing. I also play several games like Crysis, WoW, etc...
Generally speaking ( there are always exceptions ), NVIDIA cards win at DX11 / OpenGL, driver stability, developer support, OpenCL performance plus support CUDA / PhysX / Optix.
For me, ATI is only good for DX9-10 games. I really should not recommend it for any other thing different than that.
Atm, the best-buy card for me is the GTX460 because it has a really nice performance by its price ( I got mine's by less than 140$ ). However, I should wait for the 560.
I would wait for some new drivers to be released before buying a new card.
I have an ATI 5770 Hawk from MSI. I've had no problems with it at all. I hear folks on both sides of the fence complaining about quality and performance issues about their current or past GPU, but I think it has more to do with how well the vendors build their version of each card. Some use bad RAM, bad DAC, bad this, or that which can play havoc with a less than perfect driver. I've had Nvidia cards I loved and I have had ATI's that were stellar as well. The Hawk in my system right now has been very dependable in both Max and Blender for me. I think it's a quality card. The HD3550 from ATI however in my wife's PC however, has a nasty bug that displays white lines when coming out of sleep mode. I had a GeForce card with RAM that failed.
My suggestion: If you have a credit card with enough budget, get one of each brand GPU that you like. Try them both out individually and keep the one that suits you best. Return the other one before the interest shows up on your monthly payment.
To get a better understanding of where things are at I think we should run this program from Nvidia which tests several things among them glReadPixels, which seems to be the problem with the 400 series.
I absolutely abhor those cards with the cowl over the board. The last one I had would collect dust like it was going out of style and you can't clean them. I will only buy cards with open heatsinks from now on.
I absolutely abhor those cards with the cowl over the board. The last one I had would collect dust like it was going out of style and you can't clean them. I will only buy cards with open heatsinks from now on.
Replies
DirectX, graphics card drivers (Even try older ones that may fix your issue)... etc?
What 4xx series issue are you talking about? It's been a very stable series without any issues really, sounds like an isolated issue with your hardware.
I wouldn't jump to ATI that fast, first I'd give nVidia some time to resolve the issues.
but maya, max, zbrush, and 3d coat all work like they should, for most things. I cant run topogun or mudbox, as they continually crash due to video card issues.
also, in games, I have misplaced geometry, weird to no shadows, and overall crappiness, but useable, playable.
if it was an option, I would go with Nvidia. Even for a few bucks more, and less performance statistically, they are usually so stable, compatible with everything, and just plain workhorses.
What is your price range?
The main issue for me is that I cant really wait for Nvidia to resolve anything - Personally I doubt that they will, since they dont even officially acknowledge the issue - since I need a well working card right now.
I was thinking of buying the new 2 gig 6950 but after reading some of the comments I am not too convinced it would be the right choice(Despite being lauded on Newegg)...It seems to boil down to either going with ATI or buying an older 260 card for the same price as a brand new 460:poly118:
Another thing that pains me to go ATI is that they are not too developer friendly, not having CUDA, PhysX and lots of small little helpful features.
Its great to hear that not everyone has performance/stability issues, there are a few benchmarks that could be run that could give everyone a good idea of where AMD cards stand as opposed to Nvidia's, I'll gather up a list of them soon.
It's getting annoying, that and ATI seems to be based on theoretical performance rather than actual, the simplest thing might lag on my system. I've of course wondered if it was my CPU or RAM, but then I remember all of this started after the driver update.
So I can't recommend ATI from personal experience, they work well until they update their drivers, then it's just downhill.
It would help if you could explain your exact issues with the card you own/ed. Nvidia screwed up on their 260.xx series drivers but has already fixed alot of the issues they were causing with viewport bugs.
This is a little bit of an exaggeration. O_o
I've run SLI for a year now and the only problem I've had was one that effected the whole Nvidia line, not just SLI setups, and that was just a buggy driver release. Usually the only time people have issues with SLI is when a game doesn't officially support it. For design work though it's perfectly fine.
I can't speak the same for crossfire though, not having owned such a rig.
In general though, I would agree that if you can afford a single highend video card instead of two lower end ones in SLI you should go for the single card. Less heat & power draw, less chances for hardware failure.
I would tend to recommend Nvidia, despite the recent viewport driver issues with Maya. (Which they've basically fixed in the latest release.)
Overall their track record is solid, more so than AMD, and they have the financial backing to fix problems in a timely manner when they occur.
Finally, PhysX and CUDA support is a definite plus in my book. When I figured out you could use it in Xnormal I was thrilled. It speeds things up very nicely!
I understand the 4xx series has had issues. They were rushed out before they were ready and it shows. Their performance in design programs was especially spotty from comments friends have given me. However as early as the 460 model there has been solid improvement in the line. Plus now they have GTX580 & 570's out with GTX 560's on the way. Looking over the tech demonstrations they've had of the new line it looks like the new cards are everything the 4xx series should have been, while also being quieter, faster, and cooler than their beastly brethren.
My recommendation would be to buy a new 5xx series card, and sell off your 4 series to help cover some of the costs.
I am on the market for a new card that would dutifully serve me for the next year and half or so. I was about to buy the GTX 460 until I read that there are massive viewport issues in many 3d applications.
This doesn't seems like a driver issue. As an aside though can you or anyone who owns a series 400 card confirm that said issues are indeed fixed in the latest drivers?
If the issues are fixed then there really doesn't seems to be any reason not to get an Nvidia 400 series card, also due to the many problems that seem to plague AMD cards...
Compared to my lowest quadro, the 5770 for work, is a HUGE SHIT. In modo i have selection lags, poor perfomance, and i cannot work with ease as with a nvidia like the 285 of my brother. The cheap can't be good... i didn't want to waste too much money, and at the end, my buy was "expensive". For this new year i surely will buy a better card, and this time nvidia. My experience with the ati is a horror story full of reboots and grey screens.
nvidia = better OpenGL/OpenCL perfomance and CUDA. Better drivers.
Ati/amd = cheap, bad drivers, and good for some games (with the different drivers, they destroyed the gaming experience, they rest a huge amount of fps in one title making it unplayable, and they make another game to run smoothly when it was unplayable at 1080p)
I really don't recommend an AMD card for work. The photoshop perfomance is also pathetic, less than the offered with a quadro 3500, too many years older (G-force 5xxx).
My recommendation is also to get a nvidia 5xx. For gaming and for work, they are the best now.
Generally speaking ( there are always exceptions ), NVIDIA cards win at DX11 / OpenGL, driver stability, developer support, OpenCL performance plus support CUDA / PhysX / Optix.
For me, ATI is only good for DX9-10 games. I really should not recommend it for any other thing different than that.
Atm, the best-buy card for me is the GTX460 because it has a really nice performance by its price ( I got mine's by less than 140$ ). However, I should wait for the 560.
I would wait for some new drivers to be released before buying a new card.
My suggestion: If you have a credit card with enough budget, get one of each brand GPU that you like. Try them both out individually and keep the one that suits you best. Return the other one before the interest shows up on your monthly payment.
Description:
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...ePerformancePBO
Download:
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...formancePBO.zip
User TWCTodd from Nvidia forums posted these results:
As you can no doubt see there is a problem here.
A friend of mine tried the test and with an 8800 GTS 640mb, Windows XP 32 bit got around 60 fps on both PBO and glReadPixels.
Post your results!
I'd stick with Nvidia, they'll sort out the driver issues.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6491183&Sku=G458-0464
I absolutely abhor those cards with the cowl over the board. The last one I had would collect dust like it was going out of style and you can't clean them. I will only buy cards with open heatsinks from now on.
Edit:
This card, I would buy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510
Compressed air can.
+1
Just don't inhale them! Cause... well, who am I to tell you what to do?
Oh and I'm pretty sure you can open that card up for cleaning.
Also found another deal for the HD 5670, it rivals the GTX 450 If I'm not mistaken. $20 Rebate, $79.99.
These deals are just too awesome to not take advantage of.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076191&Sku=H231-5676
I'll take them off your hands .