The Ati vs. Nvidia Image Quality Thread

[Mussels]

one thign that hasnt been mentioned: eyesight. everyone is different, some people have blurrier vision than others, some have greater peripheral vision - some people see some colors brighter/clearer than others.

So while those of us with great eyesight (like myself on a shiny HDTV) see the colors as really gaudy and nasty when its cranked up via digital vibrance or something, others with poor color perception see it as suddenly looking awesome.

Its not an argument that can ever be won, we just get to keep choosing whats best for ourselves.

 

[Lillebror]

I have a friend that has a 8800gts and a x800 card.. When he plays call of duty 2, he really loves the x800, cause the colour looks alot better and it just feels alot nicer to look at, than on the 8800gts. Its just weird, and its only looking better in that single game.

 

[CrackerJack]

I have a friend that has a 8800gts and a x800 card.. When he plays call of duty 2, he really loves the x800, cause the colour looks alot better and it just feels alot nicer to look at, than on the 8800gts. Its just weird, and its only looking better in that single game.

thats thee way here, i believe alot of the older cards were like that. I play cod2 with ,9200,9250, x1300,x1950,2900gt,8600gts, and 6200. And it was a more colorful with the 9250 but just not as realstic. with x1300, i could get snow,rain and shadow effects. But then the color became darker.

 

[wolf]

Yeah, I think you are correct. It does seems to be nothing more than semantics at play here.

agreed, so can we lock down this thread already? its really jsut given fanboys a place to try lord something that cant be proven.

 

[Mussels]

i dont think this thread was too bad. we actually got a fair fwe honest opinions with valid points - people stated their views and we've more or less concluded there is no final judgement.

Older cards look better in older games in some cases, and games designed for certain series of cards tend to look and run better on those cards. Some of its kinda obvious, but it has been educational.

 

[wolf]

i agree to an extent, but to an extent i think its VERY non-conclusive. and the ATi boys have been lording IQ over nvidians for a while, and theres just so little proof, and its all so subjective (monitor, eyes, etc)

 

[desertjedi]

To the most people, the one with better IQ has nothing to do with what the developer wanted. It has everything to do with their personal preferences. One could have more vibrant colors than the developer intended, but that may look better to the person in front of the screen, so to them, it has better IQ.

Accuracy however, cannot be called into question. It can be measured. Image quality cannot. It's purely a matter of opinion on the user's part. If image quality was measured as a function of accuracy, half the LCD makers out there would be out of business.

Well put - I agree completely. Maybe there are metrics and tests for image accuracy but the prime test for image quality is..."hey dude, what do ya think?".

Maximum PC did a "blind" image quality test with only "graphics pros" on the panel. ATI did eek out a slight victory...for what it's worth. The test included various media types I guess you'd say.

TBH, at this point in time, IQ between the two GPU vendors does not affect my buying decision. At heart, I'm an ATI guy...who's currently using an 8800GTS 512 simply because it's a friggin awesome card.

The only downer I have with my Nvidia card is that the font I end up seeing in several places in not as readable as the font that I end up seeing with my ATI card. I have a business rig (ATI card) and a gaming rig (Nvidia card) KVM'ed to a single 1600x1200 LCD. The text that appears in the browser address bar is far more readable with the "el cheapo" ATI card. The Nvidia "font" is either too dark (pure black text on white) or too thick and ends up looking less clean and less readable. I've tried Cleartype but it doesn't help. I'm thinking that ATI simply uses a lighter shade of gray for text and somehow its text has less aliasing but I'm not sure. I suppose I could take some screenies and analyze them to see if I can figure what the deal is.

I guess if I'm going to post here occasionally, I need to figure out what this "thanking" thing is. It says I've been thanked twice...? I guess that's better than being spanked twice...I guess. </OT>

 

[Nitro-Max]

i did kinda state the own eyes thing on page 7 but i got flamed for it by the thread poster and yes ive owned both cards new and old 8800gtx was my last Nvidia card i then went to 2x 2900xt's and now a 3870x2 and to me ati wins on IQ it just suits me more its visually pleasing.

 

[Deusxmachina]

agreed, so can we lock down this thread already? its really jsut given fanboys a place to try lord something that cant be proven.

The person with an Nvidia logo for his avatar says this thread is full of fanboys. It's hard not to wonder if there would still be a call to close this thread if ATI didn't have nearly five times the votes Nvidia does.

There's no reason to close this thread. The subjective part of image quality aside, other interesting things can come out such as the discussion of an image-quality discussion itself when done by people who use cheap-panel LCD monitors.

 

[cdawall]

i will do another comparison myself i have a pair of 3850s now and they will be using the same monitor as my 7800GS which IMO looks better than some of the newer NV cards....

 

[erocker]

I'm not closing this thread! If people can't behave, you can bet they will be dealt with though. Cdawall is going in the right direction, test it out for yourself!

 

[cdawall]

woot i did something right

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Source

This is the proof that clearly shows that ATI offers better IQ when playing movies then Nvidia. Something I said and will continue to say when I had the opportunity to view both cards in action as I do like to watch movies on my monitor. When you click on the link you will clearly see one example were Nvidia uses too much red and the hair on the women is to dark. I've also seen the very opposite where the image looked washed out but that depends on which card used and which codec is being played. This along with all those who voted should settle this once and for all as far as movie playback is concerned.

Make sure you read the next few pages, again it will clearly show that ATI offers a more natural look. Even when you attempt to tweak Nvidia's offerings it can have a negative impact on IQ but you read it for yourself.

 

[calvary1980]

if you read the rest of the review it says nVidia is the clear winner.

It would be fair to say that the image quality we obtained from ATI and Nvidia hardware has given us a lot to think about. On one hand we have ATI with a superior level of detail; on the other we have Nvidia with much more intense and realistic colour, not only on skin but many areas of scenery too.

So this leaves us with Nvidia default quality against ATI default quality, and the performance or features that both manufacturers offer. In terms of performance and features we have to say that Nvidia is the clear winner as they currently allow playback with Aero enabled and good CPU usage statistics regardless of whether the image includes one stream or two. With ATI, losing Aero with a high definition disc running is a real disappointment, especially considering the length of time they have had to rectify this. Additionally the inability to decode both video streams can impact the desktop experience in a negative manner, especially on systems with lower specification processors.

I can also provide another article on the same subject with nVidia on top http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=559&Itemid=29

What is perhaps surprising from our results, given the fact that for many years ATI were considered the king of video quality, is that NVIDIA appears to have finally surpassed them in this regard.

- Christine

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Actually based on the results it clearly lost. It won based on Aero not IQ (which you did quote, thanks). But for those that don't know a thing about tweaking their monitor or making the proper calibrated adjustments ATI is the clear winner right out the box

Image 1: Casino Royale 1hr 15m 09s = ATI

Image 2: Casino Royale 1hr 58m 12s = ATI

Image 3: Casino Royale 19m 27s = Nvidia

Image 4: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 4m 40s = Nvidia

Image 5: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 14m 20s = ATI

Image 6: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 25m 16s = ATI


After the IQ review the author then goes and tweak Nvidia standard settings in an attempt to make it look as good as ATI which wasn't touched. This alone clearly tells you that ATI is the winner here . When they did attempt to tweak PureVideo there were negative side effects that impacted IQ negatively (read the article). Which is why I disagree with his conclusion. He failed to properly weigh that when he came to his conclusion.

 

[wolf]

The person with an Nvidia logo for his avatar says this thread is full of fanboys. It's hard not to wonder if there would still be a call to close this thread if ATI didn't have nearly five times the votes Nvidia does.

There's no reason to close this thread. The subjective part of image quality aside, other interesting things can come out such as the discussion of an image-quality discussion itself when done by people who use cheap-panel LCD monitors.

each to their own, you might say that ATi is better, i may say nvidia, but theres no hard and fast way to say who is clearly better overall (games, movies, desktop, etc)

and i may be an Nvidia FAN but i would not say fanboy, i have owned many ATi cards and i ALWAYS give them a fair go, no senseless flaming from me. also if i WERE a fanboy, dont you think i wouldhave voted for nvidia, instead of the same?

hec, the better the competition is, the more it drives the industry, so theres no point in anyone being a fanboy, just buy whatever brand/model you prefer, and let other people choose whatever they want. i'm not going to flame anyone for buying ATi, but if they ask for my opinion before purchase, at present, i will definitely recommend nvidia, and none of that recommendation will be based on IQ, theyre far too similar.

and like ive said before, having many times used cards from both companies in the same generation, there was no discernible IQ difference whatsoever.

 

[Wile E]

Oh god. So what? That review doesn't prove anything except that nVidia felt that going with a warmer image looked better. It was a choice. Some people like that better, thus the warm and cool color presets you see on countless televisions.


Again, nothing has been proven here, and it is still 100% personal preference.

 

[erocker]

I say I have the eyes of an eagle and it's too close to call... yet.

 

[Mussels]

To be honest the differences are so minor it doesnt matter. Choose the one thats best overall for you at the time - i sure wouldnt pay another $100 for the same speed and tiny movie quality improvements.

You just cant really make a blanket statement as this kinda thing changes between hardware generations, AND software/driver updates.

 

[Edito]

I think the ATI cards have a solid color and nvidia its a little bit pallid but this is nothing cause we can adjust the nvidia settings in order to get a solid color like ATI i have a nvidia car and i configured it very well in order to get a solid colors thats why i think we just don´t need to discus about this anymore.

Don´t Get me wrong please...

 

[DarkMatter]

Actually based on the results it clearly lost. It won based on Aero not IQ (which you did quote, thanks). But for those that don't know a thing about tweaking their monitor or making the proper calibrated adjustments ATI is the clear winner right out the box

Image 1: Casino Royale 1hr 15m 09s = ATI

Image 2: Casino Royale 1hr 58m 12s = ATI

Image 3: Casino Royale 19m 27s = Nvidia

Image 4: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 4m 40s = Nvidia

Image 5: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 14m 20s = ATI

Image 6: Planet Earth, Fresh Water 25m 16s = ATI


After the IQ review the author then goes and tweak Nvidia standard settings in an attempt to make it look as good as ATI which wasn't touched. This alone clearly tells you that ATI is the winner here . When they did attempt to tweak PureVideo there were negative side effects that impacted IQ negatively (read the article). Which is why I disagree with his conclusion. He failed to properly weigh that when he came to his conclusion.

Before I started to read the article I first compared all the images, so I wasn't influenced by the autor's opinions. Well, this were my findings:

- None of the two were the best and the best IQ should be somewhere in between the two cards. Thus both needed a lot of tweaking. This is common, IMO you can't even start talking about IQ if you don't calibrate each card, monitor, etc.

- This review was showing almost the oposite situation that I had seen when I did my own comparison some months ago. Back then Ati colors where warmer and Nvidia's where more dull but maybe a little bit more natural. None where the best, again a mix of the two was probably the best solution. Interestingly, I have to say that after installing the latest drivers this month, I noticed a much more warmer and saturated image in some Galactica episodes, and I had to recalibrate the color settings although they were exactly where I left them. I just thought that the color in Galactica was a lot warmer than the rest of videos I had watched before. After testing other videos today, it seems that Nvidia has changed the default color settings.

After reading what they say, one thing is clear none of the two have the best IQ. Nvidia is enhancing blacks and Ati enhanced cyan in an attempt to create more natural feeling. Both have their benefits, but both fail in othe areas.

If there is one certainty in that article, that is that, though different, none of the two are better than the other. They show a different picture but none show the best picture, which would be in middle ground between them.

Another interesting thing that I found about the article, has nothing to do with the article itself, but with the use that people give to the articles trying to make their point true. And just how biased they are. Yeah, I'm pointing at you this time EastCoasthandle! In the conclusion of the article we can read:

It would be fair to say that the image quality we obtained from ATI and Nvidia hardware has given us a lot to think about. On one hand we have ATI with a superior level of detail; on the other we have Nvidia with much more intense and realistic colour, not only on skin but many areas of scenery too.

Image quality is much closer between the two due to both having good and bad points. Clearly with some time and patience it would be possible to work out the best settings for each card, but we should be much closer to perfection at default settings than we are. In reality, the best image is probably somewhere in between the two produced. If we had to choose one as our preference, overall it would probably be Nvidia as much of the detail issues could be fixed by an increase in brightness rather than significant work to get skin tone correct on ATI.

The only thing clear is that THEY are giving the win to Nvidia, if they had give it to anyone. because you just need some minor tweaks to reach to the "perfection", while you need more hard tweaking on the Ati card.

But we can easily conclude by the article that both have the same IQ. None are perfect but both differe from the perfect image more or less to the same extent. Of course those discrepancies can affect the personal preference of people, but they don't let space for such claims as "Ati has clearly the best IQ" or "I recommend you buy Ati becausse it has better IQ". Image quality is not an objective purchase decision argument anymore, every extense review demostrates that, period.

*I will add the link to the OP.

 

[Mussels]

summary:

both have ups and downs, 'perfect' is somewhere between.

As far as i care that is where we are at - but this is ongoing. new drivers and new hardware may call us back here.

 

[DarkMatter]

if you read the rest of the review it says nVidia is the clear winner.





I can also provide another article on the same subject with nVidia on top http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=559&Itemid=29



- Christine

Hmm! No they don't give Nvidia a clear win nowhere, but it's interesting that they do give it to them. The win is small though, just as older reviews gave the win to Ati, because of slight differences.

Your link is added too.

 

[DarkMatter]

It's interesting that these newer reviews are giving the edge to Nvidia now that they seem to have the warmer image. If you have read post #191, you all know what I am talking about.

 

[calvary1980]

nVidia won fair and square in both articles.

- Christine