[billybwilde]

ATI? Dollar for dollar which one should I go with to play the latest games?

[Donz]

this is like asking if you prefer coke or pepsi!!my personal choice is Nvidia, the 6600GT is a good card as far as price/performance balance.the best availible card is the 7800GTX 512mbfull list availiable at site below

users.erols.com

[valareos]

To be honest, it depends on your primary need for a video card. Some programs run better on Nvidia, because that was what they were designed around. Some for ATI, for same reason. I reccommend taking a look at the programs you plan to run, and see which card will work best for you.

[hurdler]

It depends on the model really.

[alex]

There is no definitive answer to your question unfortunately.

A lot of games were written to make use of either ATI's or Nvidia's architecture giving either manufacturer a slight advantage in frame rates.

But it's pure and simply down to the card's grunt.

when shopping for a (DX9) card you need to be looking for the following things:

Pixel pipes, the more the better.
Rops, the more the better.
gpu speed, the higher the better.
ram speed, the higher the better.
Memory controller bit width. As an example a 128bit controller with ram running at 1.4ghz effective (2x700mhz) will give you a bandwidth of around 22gb/s. that same ram at that same speed but with a controller of 256bit will give you 44gb/s. And as the bandwidth is the main cause of stuttering in games its important to get the widest possible.

Don't be sold by how much ram a card has as this is only useful for gaming at high resolutions and drawing textures. 256mb will suffice for any current game upto 1680x1050.

For example Nvidia 7900gt's come with 256mb ram as standard, the 7950gt has exactly the same architecture but just an extra 256mb ram. When running the same game at the same settings, that extra 256mb makes no noticable difference whatsoever, but you'll be paying a lot for it.