Quality issues Geforce versus Ati

[BusterDAN]

Hi all...

I have recently purchased a new PC which includes a Geforce Ti 4200 card in it. My old PC had a Radeon 8500.

I have not really played around much with the new PC yet but have noticed that the DiVX playback is considerably poorer on the Geforce machine....just playing a Divx 5 movie in WMP9 I notice that on the Geforce machine the playback seems pixelated around edges with a general lose of definition in detail (for example in faces).

I'm using the latest Geforce drivers but as I said I have not tweaked these yet or tried using any post processing.....has anyone noticed any differences between ATI and Geforce cards?

Many thanks and Merry Xmas

[khp]

Make sure that your desktop colordepth is set to 32 or 24 bit, if it already is at 24 or 32 try switching it.

[Enchanter]

I went to a Radeon 8500 from a GF 2MX a few months ago and did see an improvement in 2D-quality (ATI cards generally have better image quality compared to most, if not all, Geforce cards). I'm not sure, however, if what you're seeing is truly the quality difference between the cards, or as khp suspected, simply a misconfigured setting on your Geforce. Do as he suggested and see if it improves something.

[BusterDAN]

Thanks for your suggestions...I have tweaked the Geforce settings and the quality seems better....also playing around with different encoders and codecs (Divx5 Pro) and finding this can help resolve some of the qaulity issues.

[HDRed]

ATi video cards have superior 2D quality over nVidia cards, period. The reason for this is that, before a few months ago, ATi was the only supplier of ATi cards, and therefore could control the exact quality of the RMF filters on the cards.

nVidia cards, however, are manufactured by 3rd parties, and therefore have no control over component quality. nVidia only supplies the reference board, and even they don't manufacture that (Visiontek did, now PNY does).

In any event, playback on the Geforce will be a little muddier and possibly more pixelated, but this could be due more to drivers than anything.

Bottom line - if you want the best 2D video experience possible, buy a Matrox. If you want to play games AND watch videos, get an ATi.

If you mostly play games and just happen to watch videos, an nVidia card is fine.

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by HDRed
ATi video cards have superior 2D quality over nVidia cards, period. The reason for this is that, before a few months ago, ATi was the only supplier of ATi cards, and therefore could control the exact quality of the RMF filters on the cards.

nVidia cards, however, are manufactured by 3rd parties, and therefore have no control over component quality. nVidia only supplies the reference board, and even they don't manufacture that (Visiontek did, now PNY does).

In any event, playback on the Geforce will be a little muddier and possibly more pixelated, but this could be due more to drivers than anything.

Bottom line - if you want the best 2D video experience possible, buy a Matrox. If you want to play games AND watch videos, get an ATi.

If you mostly play games and just happen to watch videos, an nVidia card is fine.

Well said.

However, keep in mind that ATI has also taken up the same approach as nVidia by allowing 3rd party card manufacturers to produce their own Powered-by-ATI cards (ie. ATI supplies only the chips to them). The choice of other components, such as 2D filters, will be left to these manufacturers. Hence, it is VERY possible for any of them to have chosen an inferior filter, resulting in an ATI-powered card that looks no better or even worse than an nVidia one.

My recommendation. If you can find a Built-by-ATI card (manufactured by ATI themselves), go for it. In most cases, it is worth the extra price.

[divxdude]

thats odd, all of my stuff is crystal clear on my Geforce4 Ti4600.

not a big fan of Ati their drivers are very unstable.

here are my settings if they may help:
Windows Resolution: 1280x1024x32 at 85hz
nVidia Settings: everything at default except i changed color depth to always use 32bit.

My monitor might also play a big roll
Viewsonic PS775 17"
Dot Pitch: .21mm and .13mm ( i dont know if the dot pitch is entirely accurate, this is what i got for specs from the viewsonic website.)

[Enchanter]

thats odd, all of my stuff is crystal clear on my Geforce4 Ti4600

That's good for you. I was of course referring to the general 2D quality (applies to 3D too actually) of ATI cards compared to nVidia cards. That does not mean all nVidia cards look bad (ie. NVBlur).

[Batman]

You may attain better playback using BSPLAYER or WMP 6.4