NVIDIA or ATI

**Rhapsody** · March 6th, 2008

I'm currently obsessing over a design for my next PC, and it all seems to come down to this fundamental issue. For an Ubuntu user, which is the best video card manufacturer to go with?

My personal needs aren't really that fancy. I've never been a big PC gamer, and the emulators I use are probably not going to have the same sort of impact a modern PC game would. I'd prefer FOSS drivers, but would frankly take any driver that can give me hardware acceleration with no crippling problems.

My choices seem to be to go with an older ATI card (FOSS drivers right now, but not much power), a newer ATI card (FOSS drivers in the future, probably, but bad drivers now), or some sort of NVIDIA card (good power, good drivers, uncertain FOSS future).

A side issue with much the same requirements (i.e. nothing special) would be my sound card. What's a cheap sound card that works very well with Linux?

I'd like to get on with this soon, and hope for help from the community so I can do so.

**hhhhhx** · March 6th, 2008

i prefer nvidia, but it's mostly a matter of personal preference

**WinterWeaver** · March 6th, 2008

Nvidia, you will have more problems with ATI in ubuntu than it's worth. Although there are people out there using ATI successfully, it's not been my experience.

WW

**Rhapsody** · March 6th, 2008

The problem is exactly what card to go for. With Nvidia, the GeForce 8800 GT (with 512MB RAM) seems attractive to me. With a price of less than £200 (down to as little as £140), plenty of power, and Nvidia's strong driver support, it seems like a good deal.

**ssam** · March 6th, 2008

AMD/ATI are showing a big commitment to open source by releasing specs.

right now the nvidia proprietary drivers may be better (though they are not without problems) than the ati proprietary drivers. but i get the impression that gap is closing.

the open source drivers for ATI are already ahead of nvidia, and proving at a huge pace (thanks to the specs).

I expect that soon (not hardy) ATI will be the best 'out of the box'. there will be no faffing about with restricted drivers, it will all just be included by default.

i am stongly considering replacing my nvidia 7300 with an ATI card

**swoll1980** · March 6th, 2008

For Linux NIVIDA for sure way more compatable

**Bezmotivnik** · March 6th, 2008

Let's put it like this: I can't even make my new ATI PCIe card work in XP.

For that matter, I can't even get it as far as booting the OS. Total dud, total waste of time and money.

NVIDIA stuff has always worked OK in various Ubuntus for me. ATI never has.

**forrestcupp** · March 6th, 2008

Well, I just yanked out my Radeon HD 2600 and bought a Geforce 8600 to replace it. I was tired of dealing with it. Sure, ATI's drivers are getting much better each month, but the problems that I need fixed aren't going to be fixed in the foreseeable future. So I switched to nvidia, and I'm not having any trouble at all. I don't have to turn off Compiz every time I want to play a game, and I don't have to be careful to not use an opengl screensaver because I want to run compiz. Nvidia is great.

About the whole open source thing. Sure, ATI released their specs, but they did not release the specs for the HD line, which is what everyone is buying now. And as for nvidia, we have the open source Nouveau drivers to support the development of.

**toupeiro** · March 6th, 2008

Historically, I've been an ATi supporter. I will still stand by the argument that they do make better hardware in like-model comparisons with Nvidia, but the truth of the matter is that that hardware can only really be better with very good drivers. This is something ATi does not have yet on the linux platform. If you want less problems on linux, I would recommend Nvidia. I never interface with windows at home anymore, therefore the decision for me to switch made sense.