ATi vs NVIDIA

[DancesWithLysol]

Greetings,

I'm using a PVR-250 for the TV-in, but if I have an old ATi card (8500LE) and an old NVIDIA card (GF2MX) which both have S-Vidio out - which one should I use? I've seen a number of people state that they have issues with ATi cards - but I believe that is only when they are using them as a TV-in solution.

Does anyone have any personal experience with the differences between the two? (save me from the effort of installing and testing each)

[cmasters]

Of those two the ATI has way better TV out. Only the newer nVidia FX cards are close to the newer ATI's.

[eoextinction]

DanceswithLysol,

Did this setup work for you? I also have an ATI Radeon 8500LE graphics card, and I want to buy the BeyondTV kit bundled with the PVR250 TV tuner card. I don't see this exact setup in the thread listing people's configurations, so I thought I'd ask you. How is the picture quality for both recorded and live TV?

I will have:
Intel PIII 860 MHz
512 MB RAM
PVR250 TV Tuner Card
ATI 8500LE TV out (s-video)
80 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM HD
W2K Professional

I'm going to turn this computer into a dedicated PVR.

[DancesWithLysol]

I'm using the ATI and the image quality is solid. I don't think you will have any problems.

[codeit999]

go with Nvidia. I have an ATI 9600 radeon.

[MonsterHTPC]

A hundred people could post and you will get a hundred different answers

It comes down to what you need and what you are outputting too. If you are outputting to something with a high resolution like a really nice projector, then get something a bit more powerful in either genre.

If you plan to play alot of games I would recomend the Nvidia chipset, they tend to have less trouble with games during new releases and driver changes. IMH experience.

If you plan to use just TV and want a nice quite solution sapphire makes a nice 9600 with Heat pipe technology and no fan, they also have a 9600 Pro-U version of that same card if you want a bit of extra power.

Either brand, ATI or Nvidia will most likely serve your purposes well. Take a look at what cables come packaged with the cards you are considering, along with software, see if you can get some nice goodies for free. I know some that come packaged with Power DVD or Intervideo along with long S-video cables and composite dongles etc..

[Aphoric]

If gaming is a major concerne, you should stay away from nVidia, their drivers have had a lot of problems lately and their Directx 9.0 support is horrible. Check the articles on Tom's Hardware or Anandtech about nVidia's problems as of late before you buy one of their cards to game with... I am new to the TV stuff, love my ATI AIW 9600 Pro, but have nothing to compare it to in this realm

[ynnek888]

That was few months ago.. They solved it a few months ago.

That said, I got a ATI 9600XT. Its $200, but it comes with a Half Life 2 cd.. since I know I'm going to buy HL2, I consider it a $150 card.

Originally posted by Aphoric
If gaming is a major concerne, you should stay away from nVidia, their drivers have had a lot of problems lately and their Directx 9.0 support is horrible. Check the articles on Tom's Hardware or Anandtech about nVidia's problems as of late before you buy one of their cards to game with... I am new to the TV stuff, love my ATI AIW 9600 Pro, but have nothing to compare it to in this realm

[eoextinction]

Thanks all. As I stated in my original post, I am going to use this computer as a dedicated PVR. For gaming, I am planning on buying a new alienware gaming machine with an ATI 9600 XT video card, so my gaming experiences should be excellent, as some of you have pointed out

I was trying to save as much money as possible on my PVR so I could justify spending more on a new gaming machine , so I'm hoping the ATI 8500LE on my old machine will work fine with BeyondTV for simply outputing to my Toshiba 36" TV via s-video. My primary concern was that Snapstream recommends a card support DirectX 9, whereas the 8500LE only supports DirectX 8. However, I'm fairly confident that the integrated DirectX 9 vs. 8 code on the video card should perform similarly for TV output. This assumption seems to be safe since DancesWithLysol has the same video card and has good video output quality - that made me feel much better

I already ordered the BeyondTV kit with the Hauppauge 250. I'll update this thread when I have it all set up and let you know how it goes. -eoextinction

[eoextinction]

Got it all set up and it works wonderfully. No hiccups, smooth interface, no noticeable slow downs. I'll add this to the list of successful configurations. Thanks for all of your feedback!

[barrysanders20]

I prefer ATI's control panel tools more than the Nvidia tools. The ATI control panel has better options for setting the card up for TV.