I have a Nvidia 8600GT 256 right now, but I will probably make the switch to ATI pretty soon. My friend got an HD 4870 in his rig - It is absolutely amazing.
I have recently changed from Nvidia to the ATI Radeon HD 3650 1gb Over-Clocked Edition. I did this because the fan on my Nvidia card finally went out.
The Radion is a much more powerful card and I have a lot for my money. The one thing I dont like is the difference in the way you control the windows that open up on the different screens in the dual monitor configuration.
As to whitch one is better? For me, only the test of time will answer that question!
Permalink Reply by Bret on November 26, 2008 at 12:46am
Yeah, I made the switch from an 8600GT to an HD 4850. While the graphics capabilities are drastically improved, the HD 4850 is an enthusiast card whereas the 8600GT was a mainstream card. So, it is a little unfair to say which is better.
ATI seems to have better values right now, though :D
ATI's top of the line card right now is the Radeon 4870 X2 with 2GB of DDR5 Ram for about $525.00, and it is just a bit faster than Nvidia's Geforce GTX 280 1GB DDR3 for about $449.00. In the end you can't go wrong with either card. For now you get the best results / stability with going with a single card solution if you are using a resolution of 1920 x 1600 or lower. If you have a massive 30" screen or greater, then an SLI or dual video card solution is designed to benefit you.