ATI or Nvidia Imac 24?

I am looking at the Imac 24. I mainly do photo editing and surf the web etc. I am not a big gamer. Is there a big diff between the 2 graphics cards? IS the ATI a pretty decent card? Is image quality the same?
Thanks

If you're not a gamer then save yourself some money and go with the stock ATI card. It's better at 2D stuff and works well with Apple applications.
You can always use the money you saved on more memory.
lenn

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ATI or NVIDIA ?

First of all, Happy New Year !
Ok now, the reason I opened this thread is to get an opinion with fellow forummers on this question which people have been asking me.
" Which is better, ATI or NVIDIA ? "
And I answered that if we are comparing these two, we need to look at how to evaluate, in terms of Value? , Performance ?, and so on..
If we look at value, ATI 4 Series apart from the4870x2, have been priced at a very reasonable figure and its price to performace ratio is very worth it.
But if we look at performance,NVIDIA's gtx200 series have shaken the earth with its new gtx295, but of course the gtx295 is the ultra high performance card which not everyone can afford. In the computer market as a whole, the one that ATI and NVIDIA will give extra attention is to the mainstream line because it holds the more percentage of user worldeide over enthusiast class user.
And if we are comparing to, we need to look at what kind of games that we are going to campare on.For ATI, of course they have an advantage if they benchmark on Half Life 2 because the game was programmed to bring the best out of ATI gpu's and the same for GTA series which was programmed best fo NVIDIA.
So ladies and gentlemen, what say you ?

Yeah but when it comes to resolution etc, it is down to the monitor ie: DVI,HDMI or VGA ?
From my point of view, I choose ATI because of the price to performance ratio as considering that not all of us are Donald Trump.
For performance yes I choose NVIDIA but nowadays, it is not down to performance anymore when we want to compare products.As a whole ATI won.

Ati 4850 24in iMac long term display problems anyone?

so im seeing blotches and lines on my iMac along with some odd pink spots here and there. 2 lcd replacments failed to fix the problem and all apple can say is "come in to an apple store". I cant as i just dont have the time and they still wont do anything to resolve my issue and they wont even replace my iMac. has anyone with the ati 4850 24in iMac had the same or similar issues later on. I can't believe apple wont fix my problems its just disappointing.

I tried both downloads and neither ended up changing the driver. I selected custom install and the driver that it said it was going to install was the one Apple provided, not the 9.12 one, even though that's what I downloaded. Dumb. I did the driver rollback and though it helped the banding, it's still there a little bit. I'm guessing I shouldn't see anything at all.
Edit: When I noticed the banding a little bit even after the rollback, I was looking at the default Win7 background. After switching to some of the other backgrounds, I'm not really noticing anything anymore. Maybe that default image has some in the image itself? But yea, it was definately terrible regardless with the 3.1 drivers
Message was edited by: eayost

ATI- or NVidia-based cards?

Hi everyone
I know everyone has their favorites, especially when it comes to performance.
Performance isn't that important to me. Reliability and relative quiet is.
I'm considering getting one of the Frozr cards from MSI, but would like to know whether ATI or NVidia-based cards tend to have the least crashes and stability issues. I have no intention of overclocking the card.
thanks!

Quote from: Froggy Gremlin on 24-February-14, 09:46:44
Yup! Win 7 is a good one. Might try 9 after some time has passed after it's release to see what gives with it.
Still would like to know the chipset it will be used with. Can make a difference. Anyway, I have used nothing but nVidia ever since the 2xx series was released, with one exception which I sold the bundled AMD card that came with a special release of the BBX II mainboard. GTX 295's, 460's, 480's, and 680's. All still work to this day. I also prefer to purchase reference editions.
X58 chipset/i920 CPU (Asus P6T Deluxe V2, to be specific)...my current 4 year old GTX 260 (also an MSI Frozr) started acting up in recent months (at least I think it's the video card at this point), and I've tried every other fix other than replacing the video card (new drivers, new PS, played with the power saving options, removed various MS patches, no dice), so looking at the options out there.

ATI ou NVidia

I'm considering buying a new desktop, but I'm not very familiar with the performance of ATI and NVidia cards. I'm going to prefer to use xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-nouveau. So do either of these open-source drivers produce particularly better performance than the other on similarly stacked ATI or NVidia cards.

The ATI open source driver is far better than the nvidia open source driver, see
http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … ison&num=1
Greetings,
matse
Edit: When it comes to proprietary drivers it's the other way around
Last edited by matse (2011-11-16 20:33:37)

New trend; ATI out, nVidia in? Don't like nVidia ...

Probably some political background why this is happening; Apple starts using the nVidia video chipset more and more, instead of the ATI ones. (AMD purchased ATI, and now intel does not want anything to do with ATI, etc)
Will the 24" model of the new Core 2 Duo model become customizable to get ATI video anyway?
I dislike nVidia, and prefer to have ATI video. I (and this is just a matter of taste) like the picture quality of ATI just much better. In PC mode (BootCamp) I like the ATI drivers/software better as well ...
Does anyone share my opinion on this?
MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6) + WinXP Pro SP2 (Boot Camp)

Hello,
It's possible that some decisions are related to AMD's recent move to purchase ATI. But, I am not convinced that this is what we are seeing.
Apple has been using nVidia for a long time. The original iMac G5 and some of the PowerMacs came with the nVidia chips.
They have also been using ATI chips off and on for many years.
I suspect that what we are seeing here is simply a matter of which chip is best suited to the display needs of the machine.
They used the nVidia chip on the 24-inch machine. I suspect that the nVidia chip was probably better equipped to support that larger screen and higher resolution than the lower-end ATI chip that they are using in the base model iMacs.
Sure, there are better ATI chips out there that they could use for higher-end displays (like the offering for the Mac Pro). But, it was probably cheaper to use the nVidia chip than to use the higher-end ATI chip.
That would be my guess.
Most decisions come down to economics and cost. Since they are still actively using both chips (like they always have), I would doubt that any politics were factored-in. Now, if they had moved everything to nVidia only, then that would indicate a political change based on recent company affiliations.
But, as it is right now, I would suspect it had more to do with which chip fit the needs of the 24-inch machine at the lowest cost of production.
I hope this helps.
Let us know if you have other questions.
P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

Switching from ATI to NVIDIA graphic card caused initscript to break

First off, I want to apologize for having to use a random BugMeNot account but the "What is the output of "date -u +%W$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'"?" question is literally impossible for me to answer as my Arch Linux system will not boot up.
Well, that aside, I've run into a relatively serious problem. I used to have an ATI card in my system, using the catalyst driver and catalyst-hook to make sure it would keep working after kernel updates but then disaster stroke. My power supply died and dragged my graphic card down with it. After bringing it to a PC store for repair, I now have the NVIDIA GeForce GTX550 Ti card in it. All fine and well, until I wanted to start Arch Linux to remove my catalyst driver and install the NVIDIA one. I started the system, the initscript started to run, did a small part of it's tasks and while processing UDev events it started to spit errors regarding noveau and refused to boot up. (It only showed those errors for a very short time, so it's hard to get the exact error message. I've typed it over from an image I took with my mobile phone and the blurry image may make it possible for this to contain typos)
Error message:
[ 4.916398] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: unknown i2c port 51
[ 4.916467] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: 0x0447: Failed parsing init table opc
ode: INIT_I2C_LONG_IF -19
[ 4.936630] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: unknown i2c port 51
[ 4.947042] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: EvoCh 0 Mthd 0x0000 Data 0x00000000 (
0x0001 0x01)
Things I have tried:
- Starting Arch Linux fallback
- Starting Arch Linux on runlevel 1
- Shouting at Arch Linux in frustration
However, all three things resulted in the exact same issue.
If anyone knows what to do or has even the slightest hint, I'd love to know.
Thanks in advance and have a nice day,
- TheLastProject

Hm, I'd try to put the nvidia card out and to plug the gfx cable into the socket of your onboard graphics chip, if any.
Then boot into runlevel 3 (text mode) and uninstall the ati drivers. Poweroff, put your nv-card in, boot and install Xorg and the appropriate nvidia driver (just follow the wikis).
If you can't boot into rl3 at all however, edit the grub's command line (or "kernel line") and add single at the and. After booting into runlevel 1 as a single user this way, enter init 3 for rl3. Finally edit /etc/inittab accordingly. -- Alternatively you can edit /etc/inittab with booting your Arch cd, and being chroot'ed.
Last edited by nexus7 (2012-01-26 20:57:14)

Should I buy ATI or NVIDIA?

Ok, so I know there's other threads on this, but I would like to know in everyone's opinion which chipset/manufacturer will work best in arch with a new computer that I am about to purchase. I'm mostly focused on finding a video card that will support dual monitors as well as perform well for games (possibly with the least amount of configuration needed).
I tend to prefer NVIDIA over ATI, but I know that NVIDIA only has proprietary drivers and ATI uses both proprietary and open source.
Quick HW specs on what I plan on buying:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 (3.4ghz)
GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5 (PCI-E 2.0 16x w/CrossfireX support, unsure if this supports SLI??)
Dual 22" Flatscreen monitors (probably @ 1920x1200 resolution)
EVGA or GIGABYTE NVIDIA GTS 250 (1GB, 256-bit, PCI-E 16x 2.0) Any other suggestions?
8GB DDR3
Any suggestions will help!
Last edited by brenix (2010-02-23 23:12:39)

extofme wrote:
brendan wrote:I'm on an ATI HD4850 for my desktop.
yes that's a great card, i have two of them in mine.
i know this is kind of a PC vs. Mac (whats leenucks) kind of topic, but i don't buy anything but AMD/ATi and i've never had any issues. every machine i've built for others is the same. i would agree that Nvidia has a nice proprietary driver vs. ATi, but since when is that important? why support that? from sources i've read about the proprietary driver, its pretty all over the place, and applies some rather intrusive things to the xserver; but i'm not an expert. nvidia will never open source their driver because 95% of it is shared with the windows/mac driver code; very little is platform specific.
the fact of the matter, like it or not, is these sorts of things are indeed political, and you should consider siding with the party that intends to promote a long term relationship with you and the product (gnu/linux) you wish to integrate, instead of whats "easiest" ATM. money makes decisions. ATi has demonstrated a long term commitment to us by ensuring that their products will have lasting support, even if not by them directly, by releasing the necessary information and funding the initial efforts to produce a quality integration with our platform.
bottom line: buy ATi. demonstrate your dedication to open implementations, and your demand for community involvement in proprietary, "component type" hardware products. this is how we make things better for gnu/linux. do you intend on buying a new card every 6mos? each year? the ATi driver code is on a fast development track; i wouldn't worry too much, unless you turn cards around faster than a year or two.
my 2c.
Huh, I was thinking the same thing. ATi has actually invested in Linux by doing this, it's a longer commitment down the road, and will probably provide better benefit in the future. As for nvidia they do make a great driver but I think they might be less adaptable to new Linux technologies and in fact be able to hold Linux adaptability to creating new ones because they have the market.

Can the ATI and NVIDIA coexist?

Hi everyone,
I recently installed a new ATI Radeon 5770 into my 1st gen MacPro 2006. I moved the original Nvidia GeForce 7300GT into slot #3.
I installed Snow Leopard 6.0 into a new upgraded HDD to tests out the new OS X. My other HDDs are still running Tiger and Leopard.
The problem now is that when I plug my monitor into the DVI of the ATI card, I get a black monitor. When I plug the Monitor cord into the Nvidia's DVI output, I get my normal screen.
How can I get my new ATI working?
I planned on using my old Nividia card for my 2nd monitor since the ATI is not equipped with dual DVI outputs.
What am I missing?
Rio

Hi Grant,
I did notice the possibility of using adapters for the card to support multiple monitors but I don't want to spend more money byuing them. The ATI card already cost a small fortune. I also somewhat failed to notice that the ATI 5770 only supports 10.6.x and up. I have other HDDs running on Tiger and Leopard for testing and software issues. I think I will most likely return this card and opt to find an Nvidia GeForce 8800GT wich may solve all my "issues". We'll what happens.
Regardless, thanks for "chiming" in.
Rio

ATI and NVidia Card in MacPro - Setting primary GPU

Hi
I have a ATI 5870 (offiical, from apple store) in slot 1 and a NVidia GT120 (came with purchase) in slot 2, I want the computer to do the processing with the faster, bigger, better, I-paid-lot-of-money-for-this 5870, but things like Cinema 4D seem to want to use the GT120. I'm no expert on the technical side of thing, I just look at the cinebench and OpenGL info which all say GT120...
Any tips on how to mane the 5870 the "main GPU" card, I commonly use more than 3 displays in the area of work I'm in so would prefer not to have to keep putting in / taking out the card.
OS X 10.6.8
Mac Pro 4.1
8 Core 2.26gHz
ATI 5870 - Slot 1
NVidia GT120 - Slot 2
Thanks,
Ryan

Thanks,
By defualt my main 2 screen run into the 5870, but when I view the OpenGL info in C4D it shows that the GT120 is doing the GPU work, and there is no sign of the 5870, but when the GT120 is removes it uses the 5870...

ATI and Nvidia cards together?

Is it possible to run an Nvidia card with an ATI card simultaneously? I have a 2007 mac pro with the stock 7300gt. I need another graphics card for a third monitor and would like to purchase the new ATI 3870. Does anyone here have an Nvidia and ATI card running together? Are there any issues? Thanks.

Hi Ashuta,
With respect, I think you confused it. I replied to dualrecto's question. As I didn't want to assume what he meant, I took the opportunity to answer to it in relation to both OS X and Windows. His question concerned the 7300 and the 3870, not the latter and 8800.
I haven't seen any info that the 8800 and the 3870 could run together in OS X. However, as was written in the Macnn post that I linked to in the second of the two Apple Discussions links you included, the "no-mixing of video card rule" apparently doesn't apply to the newer Mac Pros. Since the ATi 2600 and the nVidia 7300 work simultaneously under OS X perhaps the 8800 and the 3870 will also work under OS X (and saying that, perhaps it will be possible to run also the combo dualrecto is seeking).
Whether you should switch to the 3870: I guess it depends on what you want to use the cards for. The 8800 is superior in 3D rendering provided the application can take advantage of it's OpenGL functions. Which is why it does well as a gaming card. If not, it seems the 3870 is a better bet: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/ATI3870_Mac_PC_review/radeonhd3870review.html.
Good luck!
/p

How to install latest ATI drivers for iMac 2011 with BootCamp and Windows 7?

Hi,
i want to install the latest ATI / AMD drivers for my brand new iMac 2011 6970M 2GB under windows 7 to play GAMES (<- one of the reasons to buy a new mac)
What I tried:
1.: Update with latest mobilty driver vom amd. -> doesn't work.
2.: Uninstall all amd software (driver sweeper)
Install the latest drivers... -> doesn't work.
What should i do? Buy a PC?
thx

I installed other driver and it works fine for me. :
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/mobility-radeon-drivers-support/206549-ati-mobilit y-catalyst-11-6-display-drivers-notebooks-15-06-2011-a.html
ATI 11.6 Catalyst drivers...
Thx for help.

Apple and ATI aware of iMac freezing issue

Now they just need to figure out how to fix it.
Here is a post from today by one of the Blizzard mac techs on the Mac Support forum of the World of Warcraft forums:
There are at least two sides to customer support.
One is, identifying issues that need to be fixed. In this case (ATI
driver bug) that task is done. ATI and Apple are aware of the issue and
working on it, I confirmed that with them today.
Two is, finding a way to provide short term relief of the issue if at
all possible.
Since we can't make a driver update appear in seconds, bear with us if
we make suggestions that may in fact improve stability for you until a
more lasting fix is available.
"

wawalulu,
If you can wait a few weeks for Apple and ATI to sort out the graphics driver problems, that might be your best bet. With any new model it does take Apple a couple months to iron out the glitches so when this happens, you will have a pretty solid Mac.
I work supporting both Macs and PC's where the user base is in the thousands and I will tell you on the whole, Macs are definitely more trouble-free than PC's. However, I won't candy coat things like some of the posters on this forum. There WILL be issues that will crop up but usually Apple does the right thing and fixes them. Sending feedback and patience is the key. When the new Leopard OS (10.5) comes out this month, I guarantee there will be issues due to it's newness and lack of maturity. However, if Apple's past track record is any indication, it shouldn't have anywhere near the issues Windows Vista has. We won't even support Vista where I work because it's so troublesome!
BTW, my 20" late 2006 iMac I use at work has been rock solid. This is because it's a revised version of the original intel iMac Apple released so most of the bugs were worked out. The G5 tower I had before that was perfect as well as the G4 and G3 towers I used before that. All of these Macs were at least second revision of their respective model lines. If memory serves, all of them has some teething pains in their first revisions.
I have a new 20" aluminum iMac at home, breaking my cardinal rule to never buy the first revision of a new product and it does have the graphics freezing issue talked about in these threads but it's only happened twice. So, I knew full well what I was getting into and am patiently waiting for Apple to release an update and fix the issue. Why did it have to be so... darn... sexy?!
I'll end this post on the following note: I use Macs at home precisely because I don't want to spend time fixing things... because I do that all day at work! If there was a better computer and OS out there, I'd be using it!
Message was edited by: Martek

Which graphics card Ati or Nvidia?

I am looking at PrE 9 but don't have a graphics card, only a chipset.
I'm wondering if any current Nvidia card would work with PrE 9? Are Ati cards good or are they less compatible?
Can you recommend one that isn't too expensive?
Thanks.

Elements does not offer hardware acceleration, so any card will work that will fit your motherboard
ATI costs less than nVidia (in general) and I would recommend at least 512Meg of memory on the card

Ati HD4850 on iMac 24'

Hello everybody,
i'm finally land in the mac world in the last two weeks.
I bought a iMac 24" with 3.06 Ghz processor and the ATI HD 4850 as graphic card.
I'm running snow leopard.
I have a question.... why there's no a interface/console to check and control the settings of the graphic card? I had the same card on a PC and it was coming with a catalyst software which allowed me to change the settings of the 3D, colors etc.....
I can't find anything similar on SL and also on the website of ATI......
any suggestions?
(I must say that i don't have any problem with the system or software, jus i would like to dig into the settings of the graphic interface.....)
thanks in advance for your replay.
Marco

Apple considers the iMac an "as is" Mac. Much of the way it is set up is to allow the low power consuming devices to produce as little heat as possible because of the design of the machine and its air flow cooling. Other than the RAM, there are no user serviceable parts in the iMac, and the user opening it would pretty much void the warranty. The Mac that is more open to tinkering is the Mac Pro.
That said, if you installed Windows, either as a separate partition with Boot Camp or on a virtual machine with Viirtualbox, you may find that you had the same access to the video card as on a PC, if you still have the app that accesses the card. Just remember, Windows on a Mac is just as insanely vulnerable to attack as Windows on a PC.
Dah•veed

ATI or Nvidia Imac 24?

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