Windows 7: ATI RADEON vs NVIDIA GEFORCE

if everyday use.... about 6 hrs a day
who will long last or better durability
the ati radeons or nvidia geforce

and pls give me some tips to make them long last

Last longer......physically? Or last longer, as in which will run new games at an acceptable level the longest amount of time?

Either AMD or Nvidia will last a good while physically. Both makers have produced bad cards at some point, it is something that just happens and you can't fault a company for sending out a bad card here and there. I would say heat is the biggest factor in whether a card has a long life, or goes tits up. Overclocking can reduce the lifespan a bit as well.

The best advice I have for you to make sure a card will last is to keep it clean and cool. Don't overclock it and occasionally take it out and gently clean the fans/heatsink to keep dirt/crud from building up and making it run hotter than it has to. Good ventilation in the case will indirectly help keep the card cool also. Unfortunately, there is no voodoo that I am aware of to make a card last forever......it is an electrical component and is susceptible to degradation just like everything else.

Agreed with Kbrady, every electronic has its average life span, and things happen without warning certainly when it comes to electronics. In my past experience I have not been conservative to one side, I have swapped in and out of different makes of graphics cards, but I would have to say in my experience I lean a little to Radeon just because the performance I received from my current graphics card its about a year old and I can still play games on maximum with average fps. If you are looking to get the best out of your computer accommodate each part with the other so you can receive maximum performance.

If you are very worried about the life span of a graphics card I don't recommend over clocking, chances are if you have never done it before you could have the chance of losing it due to not knowing how to over clock properly, minimize the heat in your computer and maintain it well and your computer components should return the favor to you as a user.

You ask for tips on how to keep your graphics alive, my biggest tip is proper ventilation inside the case. Unless you bought yours from a local shop or it's custom made it probably will not.

Also power supplies, if you have your computer that you bought inside a Best Buy, Walmart, or in general a store, they are usually supplied with a minumum power supply just barely enough to power what's already inside, any upgrade may not go well.
As far as AMD(ATI) vs Nvidia no real winner. Just a brand preferance at the moment I BELIEVE NVIDIA is winning but this constantly changes.
Personally I am an AMD boy. Just me though.

I wonder which company will survive longest in the market. I think that NVidia may be suffering, but AMD is in serious pain:

AMD prepares layoffs amid poor Q3: 30 percent staff at risk | ZDNet

I assume that both companies are larger than the late, lamented 3dfx, but I'm reminded of how even a market leader can be annihilated by events.

So KB and Swifty what exactly "wears out" on a card as I have a silent HD 5450 in my current everyday machine but am planning to use a Ge Force GTX 650 in
Big Betty cos I want to start a bit into graphics and the occasional game - just flight and submarine sims really nothing real flash.

BB is going to have four X 200mm fans plus a 140mm at the back along with the Intel liquid cooling one. So what sort of life would I expect out of the GTX??

I have no way of answering that. I can tell you this....my first big ticket graphics card(or what I called big ticket at the time) was a BFG Tech 6600 GT OC2 and that card is still running today in a system.

Like I said before, heat and dust will hurt electronics more than just about anything. Excess dust leads to heat........keep your internal components clean and plenty of cool air going across it and it should be fine for awhile. Also, be careful cleaning out the cooling system on a card, taking care not to introduce electrical shock to the board, and if possible, remove the fan from the heatsink and clean them seperately. Don't touch the components on the board, or the PCI/SLI connectors if you can help it. Other than that, it will last until it quits. Sorry I don't have a more definitive answer for ya.

Best thing you can do for graphics cards, and everything else in a PC......have a regular cleaning schedule where you unhook your PC and take it outside and blow all of the dust out of it. Clean the fans and everything will stay running cool. Fans wear out.....case fans, cooler fans, and fans on a graphics card. If you keep them clean, they won't have to spool up and run as fast and that will directly impact the lifespan of the card. I do know that for a fact, the faster a fan has to run to cool a system, the quicker it will shit the bed.

Kelly

Ok Kelly I am a bit pedantic when it comes to filtering - I make my own with materials close to medical grade cloths and I always re lube fan bearings, clean and polish the blades with that car vinyl cleaning stuff to improve the air flow (smoother surfaces) , and apply some anti static solution to them and the venturi. Probably overkill in some folks minds but I do like perfection where I can apply it.

I often wonder why folks don't set filters in place over the top fans as in my mind dust does what gravity tells it to and works down into machines when at rest. But again thats my pedantic mind at work.

John

As long as you didn't get a card that was bad from the factory, you'd be in good shape. I never did anything except keep mine clean......you seem to have a good handle on that!

In my past experiences, I was running on a 8800GS for about 3-4 years nothing bad happened, I replaced it with a GTX260, for about another 3 years and now I currently have a Radeon HD 6950. Still nothing has gone wrong, I believe the first sign that is most common is what is happening to my mothers desktop computer, the graphics card is to the point where it is no longer working there are green lines throughout the screen and when you scroll up and down fast they disappear. The other most common thing would be the fan giving out on the graphics card. But none the less I have never had any of those fates. I hardly clean my computer although I am neglected my computer I feel terrible now :P!