Drivers have always been ATi's downfall.

On the games I supplied, the forums would have 10 times as many release note entries (either something doesn't work or you need to drop back to a previous version or you have to wait for the next version, before you can play again) and forum posts, compared to nVidia...

I had a Mach64, great performance, but the drivers made the machine unstable, switched to a Mystique and the machine was 100% stable. Later I got a machine with an All-in-Wonder (Mach128) and it was the same old story, hardware was excellent, but the drivers were dreadful.

Later I got a laptop with an X700 chipset, had to wait 18 months for Linux drivers and the Windows drivers were as unstable as ever. Every other machine I've had has had nVidia or Intel graphics and haven't had any problems.

What I like about ATI is they often have custom coolers. nVidia not as often. I also like their pricing. I also like the fact that they seem to be kicking nVidia's ass of late, if you read CPC.

However, I've always been green. Since before it was green. My first card being a 16mb AGP Voodoo 3000. I then had a TNT2 and can remember wowing my mates on UT in 1999. I've had GeForce products ever since.

But it seems that if you're on a budget, there hasn't been a decently priced nVidia card for at least a year

I've always had ATi cards too up until I got the 7300GT, which amazed me with the performance/price. I think it was £35-40ish, and I could play most of my games then (like FEAR, Halo 2 etc) either maxxed out or with near-high settings.

So I got a 9600GT thinking it would be the same, and it has. Run everything well I've thrown at it so far. I think the only game that I struggle with is NFS Undercover, but I think thats more CPU related than GPU related.

But yeah, I had ATi cards before. Had a mach64 in my P166 machine and that was awesome at the time. Then found a Rage 128 a year later in the bin at school (:P) so I picked it up. It worked fine, and I used that for ages up until a overzealous overclock munched it. Then a Fury Maxxed, but that sucked. Then the famous 9250 Pro SE. Awesome card for the £25 that I paid for it.