Here is my 0.02cents. I was a BIG Voodoo lover back in the days (had the Voodoo1, Voodoo2, and Voodoo3
), then I made the jump to Nvidia. My Nvidia jump was very nice and I did enjoy all the compatability that the card and drivers offered.
I had heard about tons of problems with the Radeon line and that is why I never considered them. It also didnt help when an old roommate was ALWAYS having problems with one of his ATI cards (Rage Fury MAXX to be exact) and even I grew to hate it. Forced 2 IRQ handles that HAD to be non-sharing, crappy driver support, slow performance, and absolue NO WIN2K drivers!!!! Major turn off!!
I now own the Radeon 9700 Pro and I must say that ATI seems to have made a comeback in all that I hated them for. The card is DAMN fast, driver support seems to be there (at least much better than before) and very few problems in games. I should note that I am a big up-to-date driver fan.
Personally, ATI deserves to be reconised and so far, my experience with their LATEST product is a very good one.
/me gets off soap box