I go for Nvidia. Better drivers, CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision + ability to set custom profiles in your games. Which ATI lacks.

You can also increase up to 16x Anti Aliasing. Compared with just 8x AA with ATI.

So I say Nvidia hands down.

Well then if it is a laptop. That pretty much explains for the lag. Most laptops come with integrated graphics cards. Or very poor ones like an 8400GS which does you no good for gaming.

If you build a desktop computer for $1500 you can really build a beast of a PC.

Something like a Core i7 950 3.06 GHz CPU will cost you less than £200 a new graphics card like a GTX 560 Ti or GTX 570 for around £200. A new powersupply such as Corsair 750-850 Watts £100.

£40-50 1TB hard drive. RAM is cheap you can get a 8 GB of RAM for as low as 50 quid. Operating system lets say a Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit another £130.

Total cost of all that would be £730. Add another £50 gaming case. £780. Superb gaming PC that will be, you won't have any lag at all.

If you try and buy a ready made gaming PC like that it will cost you £1500-2000. But you can build up a whole gaming PC with these components for just £780!;)

Edit: just so that you're not confused between pound and dollars.

UK£ 780 = 1272.024 U.S. dollars

[QUOTE="BLaZiNg_SPEED"]

Make sure the TV you are buying supports full 1920x1080P resolution!!!

If it is 1365 x 768 or lower resolution, immediately cancel the pre-order! As that's worser than the average 1440x900 basic lcd monitor.

You won't enjoy your PC gaming at 1365x768 resolution. As the graphics would be very poor.

jbufv

Okay then. What is the model of your TV?

If it is a HD TV and it supports full 1920x1080P resolution, you don't need to buy a new monitor!:D

I would settle for that.

You'll definitely be able to use your TV as a PC monitor. All TVs except CRT will let you connect your PC to your TV.:lol:

If your TV has a higher resolution, perhaps you don't need to buy a new monitor. But.. you may need to buy a new monitor if you are unhappy with the resolution of your TV. What I mean by that is that you may not like the low quality resolution such as 1335x768 resolution. And the graphics of your games would be bad.

Voted for 26. Any higher than that and you'll need to keep yourself distanced a few foot away.

I suppose for console gamers who are use to playing their console games on larger TV screens it may not be a problem for them.

But imagine trying to use Microsoft Word, etc on a large 40+ inch screen? It will be hectic.

I would use only a larger screen if you are wanting to play only your games or watch movies via your PC from a few foots away.

Tell us what your processor and video card is.

Lag is usually caused by cheap graphics cards. Also depending on what resolution you are trying to play your games. If you play for example at higher resolutions you'll need a much more powerful card.

Lets say if you're playing using an Nvidia 8600GT that card will struggle to run games with stable frame rates at 1440x900. You'll need to drop the resolution to 1024x768 resolution for stable performance.

Make sure the TV you are buying supports full 1920x1080P resolution!!!

If it is 1365 x 768 or lower resolution, immediately cancel the pre-order! As that's worser than the average 1440x900 basic lcd monitor.

You won't enjoy your PC gaming at 1365x768 resolution. As the graphics would be very poor.

My problem is after about 6 rounds of multi-player the game shuts down. I don't know if it hardware or software. Regular game play is fine just extended multi-player. gwplex

Did you have to thread bump my 2 year old thread?!:o

You need a new powersupply! That's your solution. When I had my HD 4890 my PC was shutting down cos of an unknown brand name TRUST 570 Watt psu.

I upgraded to a Corsair 850 Watt TX PSU and since then I never had a PC shut down. This is what you have to do, I guess.

You should've probably read through the thread instead of just bumping it though...

[QUOTE="BLaZiNg_SPEED"]

Nvidia also have the ability to let you create custom profiles for your game to run at say 16x AA, V-Sync force, etc.

Gambler_3

It's almost as if they dont care about customer service, it is such a "basic" feature and people have asked for it for years now and yet nothing. And no dont tell me about ATItraytools as I dont want to rely on some third party program for such basic functionality.

Well exactly. I too feel like I am not buying an AMD card next time until they really improve.

I even forgot about that feature when I was using ATI for 2 years. I last saw it with my 8600GT 3 years ago.

But when I had my HD 4890 for 2 years. I seemed to have forgotten about that feature. All I was hoping for was to have some stable drivers! AMD failed to provide. Even with latest AMD Catalyst Control Panel you can't use custom profiles.

It still didn't let you force those features. Oh actually it did let you do that. But never as a separate game profile. If you put say 8x AA it will do 8x AA with all your games. That was hectic. So I had to keep setting my AMD CCC to default everytime. Some games only let you use 4x AA like FIFA 11 PC for example. You would want to force that to lets say play at 16x AA for example. You couldn't do that with ATI, even, ATI restricts you to 8xAA only and even if you set 8x AA it would affect all programs.:?

I never even managed to find a third party program for that basic feature, lol. I was actually searching. Never found a suitable program.

I even gave up on that. My frustrations with ATI were so big when it came to their drivers. All I was hoping for was to get some stable drivers, anything else was a bonus...

I was looking between GTX 560 Ti and HD 5870. But decided to go for GTX 560 Ti. Not only because of the drivers but because of those features such as PhysiX, CUDA, Nvidia 3D Vision, etc.

I suppose I was a bit naive to buy the HD 4890 2 years ago. But I was never aware of the ATI issues as I never had an ATI card before that. But I was encouraged by the fact that it was a cheaper card.

I am glad I switched to Nvidia. Their drivers are so much better and now I finally have that feature of custom profiles that I was dreaming for when I had my HD 4890.:D

[QUOTE="BLaZiNg_SPEED"]

How about the GTX 590? That's meant to be more powerful than the GTX 580.

To be honest I would go the Nvidia side. ATIs drivers are terrible. Had all sorts of problems. Had HD 4890 before, it was a decent card. But every driver messes and fixes. So if I get Battlefield Bad Company 2 fixed, than Split Second gets ruined. If I wait till next month for new drivers, Split Second is fixed, but then Battlefield Bad Company 2 is broken. See what I mean.;)

I went for a GTX 560 Ti. Since my HD 4890 also died.

The GTX 560 Ti may not be that powerful. But I've never had issues with neither of the latest Nvidia drivers. Now neither does Split Second crash, nor does Battlefield Bad Company 2 crash!

You could sacrifice a few fps drops, but I tell you, the amount of headache you'll be saving switching to an Nvidia card will be immense!

What's the point of getting an AMD/ATI card with just a few fps more when their drivers suck?!

ionusX

i have the opposite problem you did! experience with one rand vs another should never be taken into consideration as there are jsut as many people claiming someone is bad as there are good.

so dont bad mouth ati/amd b/c i have an 8400gs evga is STILL refusing the warranty on for no particular reason. (i inquiered via e-mail as to why it was denied and they gave me a generic e-mail claiming misc. problems).

anyway id sooner recommend you wait on the hd 7000 series get the flagship single gpu and take this as a learning experience.

also guy im quoting spil second was a terrible game thats probably why its having problems and bfbc2 is a buggy mess so both examples are HIGHLY flawed examples. its like claiming consoles are better b/c vista was a buggy mess.. sure it was thats why we have win 7 and a variety of other options that DO work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdoVWX3JPeI

id also like to add that the 590 is a dual-gpu and while it is better its still plagued by the same problems as the 5970 and 6990 lack of dual gpu support in games and applications

Well if you're using an 8400GS ofcourse you'll have problems. That card is not for gaming!!! It is for basic computer use or some casual PC games like Chessmaster or some older games.

BFBC2 is not buggy, it just wants a more powerful CPU and a graphics card.

Split Second is not a problematic game. My problem was never a performance issue with neither games. My problem was that they crashed with my HD 4890 that I previously had. And that's all to do with the ATI drivers.

And you know what?

When I had my 11.1 drivers, I considered them the best ones for ATI. Because it was the first driver in 6 months that sorted the black screen flashing that happened randomly.

I was afraid to even download the latest ATI drivers, because they are that bad and unpredictable.

Got a GTX 560 Ti recently and all of these problems were gone. I didn't have to worry what Nvidia drivers to download. I also had much cooler GPU with the GTX 560 Ti compared to the HD 4890. I didn't have any problems with any of my games.

In fact I see a huge performance boost. About 15-20 fps more compared to my previous card, yet less watt consumption and less heat.

That's why I do not recommend ATI.

Nvidia also have the ability to let you create custom profiles for your game to run at say 16x AA, V-Sync force, etc. ATI does not let you do that. You are forced to use 8x AA only in ATI cards.

Again Nvidia have an advantage. Plus PhysX, Nvidia 3D Vision, Cuda, etc. ATI has none of that. ATI cards are only slightly cheaper, but they miss those features. And for the headache of the drivers. You are losing more than you are gaining.

It's hard to put this to words until you don't experience using cards of both Nvidia and ATI manufacturers. I used ATI HD 4890 for 2 years and I now how crappy their drivers were. Although recently they have improved, still below par compared to Nvidia.

And to be quite frank. The problems I had weren't really only with Split Second or Battlefield Bad Company 2. Even well optimised games were suffering with their drivers.

[QUOTE="godonholiday"] My friend is turing out to be a noob indeed. I think I might just go with the setup as it is out of the box. Think about upgrading at a later point. As I am new to PC gaming, last PC I had could just about play Operation Flashpoint 1, so think this rig will be a good step back into PC gaming. I have noted all the cards and brands everyone is recommending and will use them for later upgrades.GTR12

Woah woah woah, if your gonna upgrade in a few months, most of what's posted here won't matter or it will be outdated, and something better is always around the corner, prices, best GPU for a market, best price/performance all changes, so its probably best coming back here or reading benchmarks.

It's a vicious cycle.

Even after few months people will still say, "wait few more months until this game comes/that game comes".

Everytime I've asked for some recommendation on upgrades down the years people have told me on the forums, "wait a few more months".

Yeah we can wait few more months for the GTX 600 series... But they'll be very expensive.

So I think it's wise to upgrade on a GPU even now. The only exception to that would be if in few more months DX 12 comes out. Only then I would've considered waiting.

But we know DX 12 won't come anytime soon. So until then it's not a waste of money to upgrade.