Why do specs matter?

[Shayannike.ps3]

hello guys I was wondering about the GTX 970 specs compared to the r9 290x's and the memory bus, the shading, units, floating point, texture mapping units and ROPS are all higher on the 290x but somehow NVIDA manages to increase the price and its now more expensive than the 290x. However, in some benchmarks the 970 has better fps than the 290x. Whats the deal?

[Guest Kloaked]

The 970 didn't increase in price, the 290x dropped price.

[Tedster]

Optimization, I guess.

 

Some games run better on AMD and some on NVidia just because of different optimization.

[Zeke]

Because what else would "Team Green" rub it in the face of "Team Red"?

 

(or vice versa AMD fans pls don't hate me)

[Archangel1994]

@Shayannike.ps3

 

Comparing specs does NOT work between architectures/brands. It's 100% irrelevant

[Laputacake]

The 970 didn't increase in price, the 290x dropped price.

This (¬‿¬), the 290x was to deal with the 7xx series but know that 9xx have been released AMD might have dropped prices to prepare for 3xx series and maybe boost sales. Just speculation though (¬‿¬)

[melias24]

290x with sapphire cooler then OC it!!!!

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

different approaches by the two companies. traditionally Intel on CPU and Nvidia on GPU are more about optimization and better architectures and implementation where AMD suppliments their disadvantages in architecture with Brute force which increases power consumption but also results in higher performance per dollar in certain specific applications where brute force is better.

Nvidia designs parts that are more efficient to manufacture with smaller buses etc. so they can funnel more of the money into research and development.

specs are only part of the picture and it's more important to look at performance in an application similar to your own

[TheRetiredSlave]

If you're comparing different architectures, you can't compare specs. The only comparison you can make is just by looking at real-world performance benchmarks..

 

If you're comparing GPUs with the same architecture, (ie, GTX 980 vs 970 vs 960 vs possibly upcoming 950, 950TI, 960TI), the low-level specs can give you a way of estimating performance in different theoretical scenarios.