Nvidia vs AMD Cards

[InfinityHardware]

In this forum, I would like to discuss why AMD cards are better than Nvidia cards. I am actually more of an Nvidia fan, but I would like some people to give reason why they prefer AMD or Nvidia. I can't find anything that compels me to get an AMD card except the price on certain occasions. Other than that I see no reason why I shouldn't get and Nvidia card, but I would like to also have reasons to buy the AMD cards.

to clarify, I realize AMD is generally better for muli-monitor and Nvidia is generally better for 3-D, but more of in general which is better, as both of those are kind of uncommon. At least I think they are.

[thegamezbeplayed]

AMD cards are actually faster. 7870 is better than 660ti. 7950 is better than 670. 7970 is about the same as 680.

[xAcid9]

Why is this thread even exist?

[dchen12]

Some people prefer Eyefinity over Nvidia surround for multi monitor setups.

[InfinityHardware]

Why is this thread even exist?

Because I wanted to know what people other than Linus think.

[InfinityHardware]

AMD cards are actually faster. 7870 is better than 660ti. 7950 is better than 670. 7970 is about the same as 680.

That is not that true. When overclocked, all the cards are within spitting distance, but things like the MSI 660 ti PE can overclock very well. But other than that you may be right, but I think it also depends on the game.

[thegamezbeplayed]

AMD cards are actually faster. 7870 is better than 660ti. 7950 is better than 670. 7970 is about the same as 680.

AMD's overclock better. Especially with MSI and ASUS cards. They allow triple over volting.

[Ssoele]

The only reasons I go Nvidia is because I personally don't like the AMD drivers and I am a EVGA fanboy :p

[thegamezbeplayed]

AMD for high res for sure. Even for 1080 its a close race. I dont know why AMD gets so much hate.

[Cyanotical]

i look at it like this:

if you are getting a single GPU, get a AMD card, you will get more memory, and more overhead for overclocking and usually at a cheaper price

if you are going multi-GPU, go with Nvidia, SLI is much more refined than Xfire and runs better in daily use

[Borek]

I've been doing some reading, and apparently nVidia cards (namely the 660 ti) has smoother video playback even though AMD cards (7950 in this case) have higher frame rates; it's a phenomenon caused by latency spikes. Although the 7950 produces more frames per second, sometimes one of those frames "sticks" a little longer than others so even though the overall FPS is higher, the video on the screen looks a little choppy.

It's all outlined in this article by Tech Report written on Dec 11. It's a follow up to another comparison article they wrote in August.:

[Jay123]

I got a 2GB 7850 for £140, and I don't have a single complaint

[Opsilon]

since the 670 is the 1st ever high card i bought i can only say that the main reason i like Nvidia is the adaptive v-sync, i think both card developers are good and the lead changes every new generation/driver update, but here is my perspective

V-sync saves your GPU from dying of heat, I had my lower end cards die from heat issues over time, and you should never let your card run 100% load all the time, lower end ones might die in 6 months time, only high end cards today are capable of living 3 or more years with temps going over 60 °C, so even if your lower card can give you a full graphic experience that still does not mean you should use it on max ( depending on the game ). mid range cards are more durable but only high end is geared for higher temps, now don't think i am making this up, here are my facts:

my 1st pc had a geforce 4 mx 440 one and a half year( was bad even then ) and died of heat, and the heat output was not even high for that time

2nd card was FX 5500 it was a good card much better than gf4 one i had and ha lived for 5 years, how you asked? it was an entry lvl card and survived because i understood that lowering your settings will give you a more smooth gameplay ( i had no idea of heat issues back then ) and my card did not run at 100%

NV Geforce 7600 was awesome for 2 years and died 6 months later because it had a passive heatsink and my brother ran all games at highest settings playable the card reached 110°C and i am not joking, i saw it on gpu-z with my own eyes + a crappy case

amd radeon HD 4670 i just bought it for my old pc so i could do something, did not have onboard graphics, card is still alive because my temps never went over 45. why? my cpu was 2

slow so i could not do any meaningful gaming at that time

amd radeon 6570 was an awesome card but it died because i could not make it play anything at 1280x1024 at medium so i kinda killed it it 100% usage

After all of that i saved some cash and bought a gtx 670, it rocks it can handle heat like a champ highest i saw it go was 70°C, my friends who have high end cards have their high end cards 3+ years so i expect my to live that long

Bottom line: if you can buy a card every 1/2 years buy the best in the generation or at least a good mid range card if not buy one that lives longer, and i get better temps than my friends with AMD HD 5k and over.

Sure all cards can do v-sync but a smooth gameplay is for me NV only with adaptive v-sync, so my choice was obvious. Personally i lower video settings if the game is choppy and v-sync on all time can be very choppy so i think i got best of both worlds with NV, what you need is what you should get...

[Whaler_99]

I have typically bought the "best" card in the price range I have when looking. Sometimes this is AMD and sometimes this is NVidia. I hear people going on about AMD drivers and such, but have also seen some pretty doggy NVidia ones back a few years ago. They all have their + and - .

Two things that are getting me to lean toward NVidia now are what looks to be better multi GPU support in the form of SLI versus Xfire and Folding. I have a bunch of system folding and basically AMD cards get destroyed by NVidia ones. There isn't even a close comparison when you factor in the hit on the CPU by the video card when folding...

Also, those latency spikes are supposed to fixed in the next driver release. Holding breath now. :D

[JupiteL]

For the main reason i love AMD because for the same price it has better performance than nvidia. But it has less driver that support the hardware itself. even though im still use gtx660

For another reason, i just want to support AMD so badly because they work for life and death to be able to make the best pc system with a reachable price

[WaspishVyper]

I think AMD is best because of price, but i've only had one nvidia card and it never really worked properly.

[gamer tom]

Nvidia cards because they are hackintosh compatible

[ramzorz]

Linus' video on this subject hit it directly on the bullseye. Personally, I prefer AMD just because I'm already familiar with their cards and they're all I've boughten since my first build. I've never owned an Nvidia card.

[TechFan@ic]

AMD cards are actually faster. 7870 is better than 660ti. 7950 is better than 670. 7970 is about the same as 680.

Triple over-volting was completely revised due to Nvidia's Green-Light program .

So cards that previously supported triple over-voltage don't support it anymore.

[TechFan@ic]

The only reasons I go Nvidia is because I personally don't like the AMD drivers and I am a EVGA fanboy :p

I love EVGA even though I generally prefer AMD cards because of their superior bang for buck .

[TechFan@ic]

i look at it like this:

if you are getting a single GPU, get a AMD card, you will get more memory, and more overhead for overclocking and usually at a cheaper price

if you are going multi-GPU, go with Nvidia, SLI is much more refined than Xfire and runs better in daily use

This is actually completely true .

Other things to consider are Cuda for Adobe and OpenCL for 3D, photoshop & Bitcoin mining + folding.

[TechFan@ic]

I've been doing some reading, and apparently nVidia cards (namely the 660 ti) has smoother video playback even though AMD cards (7950 in this case) have higher frame rates; it's a phenomenon caused by latency spikes. Although the 7950 produces more frames per second, sometimes one of those frames "sticks" a little longer than others so even though the overall FPS is higher, the video on the screen looks a little choppy.

It's all outlined in this article by Tech Report written on Dec 11. It's a follow up to another comparison article they wrote in August.:

Yes interesting finding by the techreport , AMD did announce that they'll fix this issue with their next driver update .

[TechFan@ic]

I have typically bought the "best" card in the price range I have when looking. Sometimes this is AMD and sometimes this is NVidia. I hear people going on about AMD drivers and such, but have also seen some pretty doggy NVidia ones back a few years ago. They all have their + and - .

Two things that are getting me to lean toward NVidia now are what looks to be better multi GPU support in the form of SLI versus Xfire and Folding. I have a bunch of system folding and basically AMD cards get destroyed by NVidia ones. There isn't even a close comparison when you factor in the hit on the CPU by the video card when folding...

Also, those latency spikes are supposed to fixed in the next driver release. Holding breath now. :D

Actually Logan from the Tek Cyndicate says that AMD's OpenCL is way more effecient with Folding and Bitcoin mining , according to his own personal experience and tests.

[TechFan@ic]

I think AMD is best because of price, but i've only had one nvidia card and it never really worked properly.

I had an 8800 GT that died after 6-7 months of use , without any overclocking .

[TechFan@ic]

Once you get used to the HUGE RAM and HUGE memory buffers on the AMD cards you really can't go back to Nvidia, the performance with the same amount of AA & AF on the Nvidia cards is abysmal because of the memory bottleneck .

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-18.html