Which is better nvidia or ati video cards?What does diamond and sapphire mean?

I'm still shopping for a new video card and i need advice.I have a dell on winXp with a junky radeon x300 with 128mb.


So i need a card to play games with any recomendations?i can go high as$250. I very intersted in 3 tyes of cards radeon 1950 pro? radeon 1900xt? nvidia 7900?


Which does everyone like better ati or nvidia?


I see cards with Diamond and sapphire labels instead of ATI???? does this mean its a different card not made by ati??they seem to be much cheaper than with the ati logo? Is it different companies making the same x1950 pro??





Also how can i tell if my computer can handle it?how do i find out my power supply wattage?





Dell E510..Xp pro..1gig ram..dual core..19in lcd

Which is better nvidia or ati video cards?What does diamond and sapphire mean?
If it was up to me I would go with nVidia, I own 3. For 250.00 I think this is one of the better cards. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...


I'm sure you will also get some ATI responses as well, it's just my preference.





EDIT.


It doesn't have to be a BFG card. You may save a few buck on a different makers card. Just get one with a lifetime warranty, the PNY that I have only has 3 years on it.





EDIT 2. As I said I am soley an nVidia man it's just my preference, thats why I said "I'm sure you will also get some ATI responses as well". I don't know alot about ATI, I'll leave that to the people who know it better.





I started with nVidia, bought an ATI and was very disappointed. I went back to nVidia and stayed.





EDIT 3. The easiest way to check power supply is remove side panel and look at the sticker on the supply itself. This link says it has a 305 watt supply. http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_Dimension_E...





The card I gave you a link to requires a 350 watt, by bad. You would have to upgrade that as well, I have seen some questions in the past about DELL power supplies and compatibility, better look into that. I talked to BFG about this when I got the 6800, I was 50 watts short and they said it will work or it won't, besides it has a lifetime warranty.





EDIT 4. Maybe this will help you decide, it's a chart from Tom's Hardware. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.h...


Use the drop down menus at top of chart to change benchmark.(I play Oblivion and Titan Quest alot, check there max resolution benchmarks.)
Reply:ATI is a Graphics Processing Unit manufacturing company owned by AMD Technologies. and Nvidia is a independent company which is also a Graphics processor manufacturer .


Nvdia has close relations with microsoft . So, it was able to launch it GPU 8800 GTX with DX10 capabiltiy which was not released till now . Ati and Nvidia have also started manufacturing Graphics card using there processors and have gained a lot of pros in Gaming world. Nvidia and Ati also have other companies like Sapphire , BFG , Diamond , XFX and Leadtek which manufacture Graphics Cards using there Graphics Proceesing units . Ati has many Sub division such as Radeon , All in Wonder where as Nvidia has Geforce , Riva , TNT2 . The division which are mostly used for desktop gaming are Radeon in Ati and Geforce in Nvidia .





I hope you have understood the major part of it .





Coming to a 250 $ Graphics Card i suggest





ATI Radeon X1950 Pro form Ati


XFX GeForce 7900 GT manufactured by XFX technologies and processor from Nvidia.
Reply:Nvidia and ATI aren't better, but some ATI cards are better than some Nvidia cards, and vice versa. It's a game of leap frog. You can get a much better card than what you are saying with that money. For $260 after rebate, get the evga gerforce 8800gts 320mb from newegg.com. It is the 3rd strongest card out to date. And sapphire and diamond are manufacturers of ati cards. ATI sells VERY few cards itself (they just design them), and when they do, they are much more expensive for no reason. nvidia makes NO cards, they just design them and give it to manufacturers. If you are willing to pay $30 more than the evga (it would be $50, but there is a $20 rebate), get the XFX geforce 8800 gts 320mb with 560 mhz core clock and 1700 mhz memory clock (it is overclocked so it performs better). It also comes with Ghost Recon AW and Call of duty 2 for free! And since the 8800 series is directx 10, if you get vista you will be ready for the full gaming experience! But these require a 400 watt power supply with a +12v rail at 26 amps. If you go on newegg or tigerdirect and look for new a new power supply (you need to if you plan on getting a half decent video card) make sure it has 400 watts and 26 amps on the +12v rail. Make sure you aren't looking at the -12v rail. And what is your processor? If it is a pentium d it is mediocre, an athlon 64 x2 is good, and a core 2 duo is great.
Reply:i personally prefer nvidia but if you're on a budget, you should get an ati it would still bring you satisfaction