Difference between graphics cards?

[alexf]

Practically speaking, what is the difference between the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra and the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro?

I have heard a lot of talk about how the former is far inferior to the latter, but on a practical level, where would I see the difference?

I am a Web designer with a G5 1.6 GHz, working on dual Apple 17" studio displays. I don't play any games and the primary applications that I use are Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Flash, and the iLife suite. What would I notice were I to upgrade my card from the NVIDIA to the Radeon?

 

[topicolo]

Practically speaking, what is the difference between the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra and the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro?

I have heard a lot of talk about how the former is far inferior to the latter, but on a practical level, where would I see the difference?

I am a Web designer with a G5 1.6 GHz, working on dual Apple 17" studio displays. I don't play any games and the primary applications that I use are Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Flash, and the iLife suite. What would I notice were I to upgrade my card from the NVIDIA to the Radeon?

Not much actually. All the graphic chips in the last 2-3 generations have pretty much reached the apex of 2D performance so you would notice almost nothing in terms of 2D speed. Now if you somehow got a Geforce 6800, you would be able to get hardware MPEG4 encoding and decoding, which is pretty amazing if applications take advantage of them.

 

[alexf]

So then why is everyone complaining about the graphics cards currently in the G5s (at least the base models)?

 

[chasingapple]

So then why is everyone complaining about the graphics cards currently in the G5s (at least the base models)?

Mostly people that like to play videogames on the computer whine about the graphics cards. I think they should just go get a gamecube or xbox or something, they do it better anyway.