ATI vs nVidia

ATI or nVidia? nVidia or ATI? If you’ve been studying video cards, you know by now that nVIDIA and ATI are the “big two” when it comes to the video graphics card game. But is one better than the other? Is it a matter of preference like Coke vs. Pepsi? Or is there really no difference at all? Here’s a little history on the two companies to help you decide.

nVidia

nVidia was founded in 1993 by two Sun Microsystems engineers along with microprocessor designer Jen-Hsun Huang. As their success in the computer graphics industry grew, they began to absorb many smaller graphics card companies, until ATI was practically the only competitor left. In addition to graphics processors, nVidia produces PC chipsets, digital media playing software and processors for wireless communication. nVidia cards are used in popular video game consoles Xbox and PlayStation3. Unlike ATI, which sells its graphics cards directly to consumers, nVidia graphics boards are sold to other manufacturers who produce nVidia video cards.

When it comes to nVidia graphics cards, the make to know is GeForce for gaming. If you need your best video output for games and you’re working with nVidia, you want a GeForce card. If design or digital content creation is your thing, you may need a Quadro card.

ATI

ATI Technologies, which began as Array Technologies Incorporated, has been pioneering graphics cards since 1985. They are particularly renowned for their groundbreaking work in 3D accelerator technology. In 2006, ATI was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and renamed AMD Graphics Product Group. However, due to brand recognition, the video cards still retain the name ATI. ATI’s counterpart to the nVidia GeForce is the Radeon video card.

nVidia vs. ATI

So which is better? Ask ten computer graphics experts and you will get ten different answers. On some level, this is a matter of personal preference. However, many experts agree that nVidia cards tend to have more memory, while ATI cards tend to be faster, and this usually means that nVidia cards are preferable for gaming while ATI cards are better for other video functions. That being said, many ATI Radeon cards are still ideal for gaming purposes, and many people feel that ATI cards provide a better cost-to-value ratio. If you get a video card with a sufficient GPU and enough memory for your needs, you very likely will not even notice a difference between an ATI Radeon card and an nVIdia GeForce card.

Also, ATI cards are red and nVidia cards are green.