What do Nvidia's supposed 'features' really offer over AMD?

[Bob Jim]

So unless you are buying at 980Ti/Fury X level, or R7 360 level, AMD currently offers better performance for the same money.Even in Nvidia optimized games the gap is still there, just smaller. Another thing people say is 'oh, well, get the Nvidia card for Maxwell temperature and power goodness'. For me this is irrelevant, as I am buying an ITX GPU (Gigabyte GTX960 ITX or Sapphire R9 380 Compact). Both of them have the same load temps of 70C, and the power difference is minimal with Tonga. Then the third thing an Nvidia fanboy always says is that Nvidia has loads of 'features' that AMD doesn't have, like shadowplay. Is this really true? If I went AMD what would I be missing out on in terms of features only (NOT drivers, features.) Thanks.

[Nineshadow]

GSync

Shadowplay

Geforce Experience

Nvidia Gamestream

VXGI

MFAA

DSR

VR Direct

SLI

Surround

GPU Boost 2.0

CUDA

Adaptive Vsync

3D Vision

PhysX

 

Those are all of them, I think.

 

The main thing is CUDA, really.

[Nexxus]

phyx

cuda

drivers

temps

power (I don't care if these are not relevant to you, you are not everyone)

3d vision

shadowplay

GFX

 

Thats just off the top of my head I have no doubt there is more.

[ShadowCaptain]

So unless you are buying at 980Ti/Fury X level, or R7 360 level, AMD currently offers better performance for the same money.Even in Nvidia optimized games the gap is still there, just smaller. Another thing people say is 'oh, well, get the Nvidia card for Maxwell temperature and power goodness'. For me this is irrelevant, as I am buying an ITX GPU (Gigabyte GTX960 ITX or Sapphire R9 380 Compact). Both of them have the same load temps of 70C, and the power difference is minimal with Tonga. Then the third thing an Nvidia fanboy always says is that Nvidia has loads of 'features' that AMD doesn't have, like shadowplay. Is this really true? If I went AMD what would I be missing out on in terms of features only (NOT drivers, features.) Thanks.

 

Gsync, Shadowplay, nvidia gamestream, DSR, geforce experiance optimisations, physx, nvidia gameworks, CUDA, MFAA, Surround, SLI, GPU Boost

 

etc etc

 

 

 

 

(better drivers)

[PineappleHolidays]

Most features are more or less useless,

Shadowplay, gamestream, and gameworks auto options are more or less useless,

shadowplay is replaced by better and more flexible programs, and gameworks auto in game options are more or less useless, as you should be setting your own settings ( at least I hope so if you're buying a 980ti )

Smaller things like physX are proprietary but not used much, and things like DSR, gsync have an AMD equivalent

 

It really depends, things like 3D vision are more or less worthless ( to me at least, cutting off 1/2 of my fps for a darkened 3D experience is meh ) 

 

The only big thing I would consider would be CUDA.

[manikyath]

i'd consider the nvidia driver a feature.

 

nvidia has gamestream, which actually worked with my raspberry pi over wifi. (i dont understand it either, but it works...)

 

amd doesnt really have a "low tdp" option, and you can say it doesnt matter until you're blue in the face, for me its a feature, and its one thing that keeps me to nvidia.

[Bob Jim]

WOAH. OK. I am going Nvidia. GPU Boost 2.0 (I know AMD has a similar feature but I have heard that it is not so good), Gefore Experience, and Shadowplay kinda have sold it to me.

 

i'd consider the nvidia driver a feature.

 

nvidia has gamestream, which actually worked with my raspberry pi over wifi. (i dont understand it either, but it works...)

 

amd doesnt really have a "low tdp" option, and you can say it doesnt matter until you're blue in the face, for me its a feature, and its one thing that keeps me to nvidia.

Do better drivers actually offer anything other than improved performance in specific games? I am coming from Intel HD4400, never had to use GPU drivers before.

 

Also can you use DSR on any game? Or only games with that setting? For something like CS:GO that I play a bit of, doing that would actually be worth it on a GTX 960 (ie I still should get over 60FPS).

[ShadowCaptain]

Most features are more or less useless,

Shadowplay, gamestream, and gameworks auto options are more or less useless,

 

 

Disagree there

 

Shadowplay is really good tbh I use it all the time, on the newer cards you can use a crazy high bitrate for really good quality

 

Gamesteam is useful for those of us with Nvidia shield devices!! in fact its VERY useful, grid is cool too

 

Gameworks can be useful sometimes, especially if its on a computer for somebody less tech savvy like my dad who finds it hard

[Lays]

Amd has their own version of Shadow play, and geforce experience.

Called amd raptr or something, it actually works great too.

They also have their own version of DSR.

[ShadowCaptain]

 kinda have sold it to me.

 

You should also be asking..... what are some AMD specific features

 

 

SNIP

 

Personally find Raptr an absolutely horrible program, and their recording software has been super buggy for me and a friend who uses AMD

[Bob Jim]

You should also be asking..... what are some AMD specific features

 

 

 

 

Personally find Raptr an absolutely horrible program, and their recording software has been super buggy for me and a friend who uses AMD

Ok then, any AMD specific features that the average gamer would care about?

[Si3Rra_7]

Both may have the same load temp , but one of them is outputting considerably less heat , and the cooler has to work less hard , and the card is quieter ( you guessed it , the nvidia one ).

 

also 900 series nvidia cards don't even have fans spinning at idle

[manikyath]

WOAH. OK. I am going Nvidia. GPU Boost 2.0 (I know AMD has a similar feature but I have heard that it is not so good), Gefore Experience, and Shadowplay kinda have sold it to me.

 

Do better drivers actually offer anything other than improved performance in specific games? I am coming from Intel HD4400, never had to use GPU drivers before.

 

Also can you use DSR on any game? Or only games with that setting? For something like CS:GO that I play a bit of, doing that would actually be worth it on a GTX 960 (ie I still should get over 60FPS).

all my panels just run upscaled all the time, something that's REALLY flippin' easy on nvidia, and appareantly hard on amd (and impossibru on intel)

 

also a nice feature is i can manually set the exact refresh rate i send to my monitor, which is really handy when your cheapo tv needs to run at 59.7Hz.

[PineappleHolidays]

Disagree there

 

Shadowplay is really good tbh I use it all the time, on the newer cards you can use a crazy high bitrate for really good quality

 

Gamesteam is useful for those of us with Nvidia shield devices!! in fact its VERY useful, grid is cool too

 

Gameworks can be useful sometimes, especially if its on a computer for somebody less tech savvy like my dad who finds it hard

 

Nvidia shields are not the majority,

Shadowplay isn't "bad", it's just replaceable.

Gameworks is fine, but this is in the case of someone tech savvy.

 

IMO features are not all that worth it, but that's me ( I've gone 670->670 SLI->7970->770->R9 290 xfire->R9 280x ( and tested Xfire )->750ti->7850, and have never had "driver issues" )

 

I also have a 3D screen and have never used 3D past the initial phase, halving the fps and having a darker game isn't worth it for me.

 

Also SLI was equally hard to install as AMD, and both had a lot of un-supported games.

[PineappleHolidays]

Ok then, any AMD specific features that the average gamer would care about?

Freesync,

Cheaper gpu's,

lower second hand price.

 

past freesync/gsync there aren't any features that might make me jump boat ( gsync is more expensive, but the fact you can get a ips 144hz with gsync is very attractive )

 

Also now AMD gpu's have idle fan mode, so that advantage is now on both sides

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

Sure not all are as useful, or can be replaceable but they are still serious enough features that can help somebody decide one card over another

[kondziowy]

GSync = AMD freesync
 
Shadowplay = AMD gaming evolved can also record but app interface is ugly in comparison to Nvidia but still it does the same thing
 
Geforce Experience = AMD doesn't have option to load "optimal" graphic settings like Nvidia has where it works in 1 click. But to be honest when I had Geforce I was running my own settings because often I valued other settings more then those proposed by Geforce Experience so it was usless to me
 
Nvidia Gamestream - AMD doesnt have that. It's really  cool if you want to use it. But still - Steam now has game streaming build in and it works on AMD.
 
VXGI - and what is that? 
 
MFAA - AMD doesn's have that. But there are like milion other antialiasing options
 
DSR - AMD has VSR
 
VR Direct -dont know about that
 
SLI - AMD has Crossfire and it scales better in games today. 2xFury X > 2x980Ti. But Nvidia has better framepacig
 
Surround = AMD Eyefinity
 
GPU Boost 2.0 - Cool but it will not give you more fps so...
 
CUDA - usless for games
 
Adaptive Vsync - Vsync is a dead thing always was
 
3D Vision - some love it, some hate it
 
PhysX - after all those years it is still not a thing in gaming world. And it can be done by CPU on AMD hardware.
 
Drivers are rock solid on AMD side so no argument here. Maybe 5 years ago it was an argument.

 

I must say - Nvidia has nice cool looking stuff like Geforce Experience but it is nothing a true gamer would care about. When playing a game, it doesn't change anything.

[PineappleHolidays]

Both may have the same load temp , but one of them is outputting considerably less heat , and the cooler has to work less hard , and the card is quieter ( you guessed it , the nvidia one ).

 

also 900 series nvidia cards don't even have fans spinning at idle

The 3xx series also has fan stop at idle.

[Si3Rra_7]

The 3xx series also has fan stop at idle.

That's news to me thx

[TheMcSame]

Drivers are rock solid on AMD side so no argument here. Maybe 5 years ago it was an argument.

For you they might, for me they were absolute garbage and that was with an APU. Though it's not like Nvidia's drivers don't have their moments.

 

The only company that has 'rock solid' GPU drivers from my experience is Intel, never had a problem with them. If only Intel made discrete GPUs.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Ok then, any AMD specific features that the average gamer would care about?

 

Nothing really. VSR maybe. But if you're looking to just game then not many features from AMD or Nvidia are gonna entice you...

[kondziowy]

For you they might, for me they were absolute garbage and that was with an APU. Though it's not like Nvidia's drivers don't have their moments.

 

The only company that has 'rock solid' GPU drivers from my experience is Intel, never had a problem with them. If only Intel made discrete GPUs.

You have a point Intel is rock solid I was always (for 20 years) Nvidia fanboy. But now.. gtx970 VramGate, KeplerGate, disabling overclocking on mobile and reenabling it like 3 times, teeerible performance on all games that implement Gameworks, and attempts to have a monopoly in gaming industry (through Gameworks and it's closed source code that is not possible to optimise for AMD)... I said that's enough folks. I just buy AMD and I dont care if I have Kepler or Maxwell - because I know my card performance will not be gimped on purpose

[Razarza]

all my panels just run upscaled all the time, something that's REALLY flippin' easy on nvidia, and appareantly hard on amd (and impossibru on intel)

wut? It is easy I don't have an AMD GPU in my PC at the moment but is it something like, CCC - Displays - Enable Up scaling and away you go.

[MahtXL]

Both may have the same load temp , but one of them is outputting considerably less heat , and the cooler has to work less hard , and the card is quieter ( you guessed it , the nvidia one ).

 

also 900 series nvidia cards don't even have fans spinning at idle

the msi r9 390 and 390 x gaming 8g have idle fan off features. Your argument is now invalid.

[atsf]

CUDA is probably the only reason to choose nvidia over amd..