If Nividia is EQ II Platform of choice......

[Balamoor]

<p>Then why does my ATI card look and perform better than my Nvidia cards when I'm playing EQ II?  I'm fairly savvy hardware wise, and I was thinking possibly it was due to more pipes...but that really isn't the case. I know Vanguard is so happy with my ATI card that it wants to take it home to meet the folks, but that is a different engine...isn't it?  Technically my 8800GTS has twice the Ram as my 3870....yet the 3870 plays the game smoother, there is less lag.... it has me baffled, Can anyone shed some light as to why this might be? </p>

[Squigglle]

i honestly wish i knew too.... i have a 7600gtxxx and i thought it would run great on eq2 when i bought it but i was greatly disapointed. i wish i could find out why cause like my friend has a 1600 which u know is older then a 7600 and it looks better

[Norrsken]

<cite>Balamoor wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Then why does my ATI card look and perform better than my Nvidia cards when I'm playing EQ II?  I'm fairly savvy hardware wise, and I was thinking possibly it was due to more pipes...but that really isn't the case. I know Vanguard is so happy with my ATI card that it wants to take it home to meet the folks, but that is a different engine...isn't it?  Technically my 8800GTS has twice the Ram as my 3870....yet the 3870 plays the game smoother, there is less lag.... it has me baffled, Can anyone shed some light as to why this might be? </p></blockquote>since you say you ar etech savvy I feel I can ask a question about the gfx cards.does both of them sport ddr3 ram? Many cards with more ram on them will cheat and go with ddr2 ram.

[SisterTheresa]

<p>Good question.</p><p>Nvidia seems to be having some issues.  There are tons in PotBS with the 8XXX series (I believe) graphically.  Not sure if it's through their driver updates not keeping up or what.</p>

[Tyberi]

ATI cards in general cooperate better with your CPU for CPU intensive video games.EQ2 is run mostly off of your CPU for video processing with the VPU only processing shading, some particle effects and some lighting.It is more of a base graphics engine design flaw that cannot be corrected without changing the entire engine than it is a problem with your VPU choice.ATI just meshes better with the way the program works due to drivers and the way it processes the data.

[Balamoor]

<cite>Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Balamoor wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Then why does my ATI card look and perform better than my Nvidia cards when I'm playing EQ II?  I'm fairly savvy hardware wise, and I was thinking possibly it was due to more pipes...but that really isn't the case. I know Vanguard is so happy with my ATI card that it wants to take it home to meet the folks, but that is a different engine...isn't it?  Technically my 8800GTS has twice the Ram as my 3870....yet the 3870 plays the game smoother, there is less lag.... it has me baffled, Can anyone shed some light as to why this might be? </p></blockquote>since you say you ar etech savvy I feel I can ask a question about the gfx cards.does both of them sport ddr3 ram? Many cards with more ram on them will cheat and go with ddr2 ram. </blockquote>actually yes both of my cards the EVGA GTS 8800 and the Saphire 3870 both support DDR3, I was thinking that the Nvidia was DDR2, but the specs say otherwise.

[Balamoor]

<cite>Tyberion@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote>ATI cards in general cooperate better with your CPU for CPU intensive video games.EQ2 is run mostly off of your CPU for video processing with the VPU only processing shading, some particle effects and some lighting.It is more of a base graphics engine design flaw that cannot be corrected without changing the entire engine than it is a problem with your VPU choice.ATI just meshes better with the way the program works due to drivers and the way it processes the data.</blockquote>So it's more of my AMD phenom Black  than my Vid card? Interesting..I had heard that about EQ II but really had a hard time beliving it...that would explain though how my wifes 3.2 gig Celery still plays EQ II very smoothly even though she only has a Nvidia 6800 Vid card.

[Squigglle]

i got ddr3

[Kalshi]

<p>If memory serves, someone already asked about this on the board. For some reason, 8800 series cards don't seem to cooperate to well with EQ 2. While I own said cards (two in fact, 8800 GTS SLI'd) even I've noticed the video lag, even though I have updated drivers (no overlock)</p><p>Though the developers have yet to comment on this; despite it being 'confirmed' that the 8800's seem to have a problem with EQ 2 in general.. wish I could find the topic related to this..</p>

[Effie]

<p>The 3870 should have DDR4.</p><p>Historically, ATI has had some pretty shoddy driver support and nVidia drivers have been rock solid.</p><p>Those roles have been reversed for the past 8-10 months.</p><p>I recently picked up a 3870 and am totally impressed with the image quality and performance.</p>

[Tyndaleon]

<cite>Effie wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Historically, ATI has had some pretty shoddy driver support and nVidia drivers have been rock solid.</p><p>Those roles have been reversed for the past 8-10 months.</p></blockquote>Been alot longer than the past 8-10 months....that's been the case since the 9500/9700 Radeons initially put ATI in the captain's chair performance wise back circa '03.  Until the 8000 series Nvidia's came out I'd been using nothing but ATI from that point forward and was always extremely pleased from top to bottom, and you could count on a new driver version roughly every month or so like clockwork.

[Nulad]

I don't have any issues with my 8800 in game.

[Effie]

<cite>Nuladen@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't have any issues with my 8800 in game.</blockquote>I'd say the majority don't have any problems.... but judging from the number of posts and threads here in the past year, I'd say tat a significant number of people have had issues with that card/chipset.

[jonathanc29]

No the real reason is because Nvidia was willing to pay more to have thier logo shown then ATI was.

[Tyberi]

<cite>Effie wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The 3870 should have DDR4.</p><p>Historically, ATI has had some pretty shoddy driver support and nVidia drivers have been rock solid.</p><p>Those roles have been reversed for the past 8-10 months.</p><p>I recently picked up a 3870 and am totally impressed with the image quality and performance.</p></blockquote>This was true in the late nineties, this century/millennium ATI have pulled away significantly.

[Pibly]

<p>Well I would really appreciate an answer to all this.</p><p>I have grown to love AMD, so much faster than intel for gameplay.  And ATI works extremely well with AMD.</p><p>However, AMD is not good with vista (but then neither are games good with vista)  and if I go intel for a new machine, then I'm pretty much coerced into nvidia and vista.  I actually dont think you can buy a new machine without vista.</p><p> So...  new machine, vista, and nvidia?  Is there any choice here?</p><p>What I would really love is another AMD machine with ATI video and...  windows xp  LOL.  Sigh, we all long for the good old past.  I would like to know what I'm gaining from "upgrading" here.</p>

[Effie]

<p>Intel's CPUs have been absolutely dominating AMD for over a year. There's no compelling reason to choose AMD over Intel... not even price.</p><p>There is no reason you should feel <i>coerced</i> into using a nvidia video card if you're using an intel CPU. ATI cards work just fine with an Intel CPU.</p><p>I have a core2 duo and a ATI 3870 running Vista and have had no significant issues with any games.</p>