Advantages/Disadvantages of switching from AMD to nVIDIA?

[Okjoek]

I've mentioned on this forum in multiple places that I'm in the market at some point late this year for a laptop with atleast the graphical capabilities of my current RX 460 and nVIDIA seems to have a great lead in the laptop GPU market as there is only one Polaris equipped Laptop I know of by Alienware (and they are kind of expensive). This makes switching to nVIDIA very likely if I am indeed switching to a Laptop. I haven't used an nVIDIA GPU in some time though, The last one I used was an EVGA GT 740sc I was borrowing at one point.

 

What kind of things would I keep in mind when using an nVIDIA card rather than AMD? Features I won't have or will gain etc...

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Okjoek said:

I've mentioned on this forum in multiple places that I'm in the market at some point late this year for a laptop with atleast the graphical capabilities of my current RX 460 and nVIDIA seems to have a great lead in the laptop GPU market as there is only one Polaris equipped Laptop I know of by Alienware (and they are kind of expensive). This makes switching to nVIDIA very likely if I am indeed switching to a Laptop. I haven't used an nVIDIA GPU in some time though, The last one I used was an EVGA GT 740sc I was borrowing at one point.

 

What kind of things would I keep in mind when using an nVIDIA card rather than AMD? Features I won't have or will gain etc...

Shadowplay is pretty cool.

 

I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop though. Laptops IMO should be for business/work purposes because they aren't always that good, or they're absurdly priced. Even then when you need it to have battery life, it doesn't.

[VirusStorm]

Better Drivers, Widely Supported, Cooler Temps, CUDA Technology, Shadowplay, etc. 

[Guest]

Cons: cheap freesync monitor gets replaced by expensive gsync monitor. Less heat (/s). Not future proof in DX12/Vulkan. 

Pros: Drivers seem more stable for me, ShadowPlay is much better than ReLive (personal experience). Numbers are larger (1060 vs 480). I don't know. 

[FRN]

3 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I've mentioned on this forum in multiple places that I'm in the market at some point late this year for a laptop with atleast the graphical capabilities of my current RX 460 and nVIDIA seems to have a great lead in the laptop GPU market as there is only one Polaris equipped Laptop I know of by Alienware (and they are kind of expensive). This makes switching to nVIDIA very likely if I am indeed switching to a Laptop. I haven't used an nVIDIA GPU in some time though, The last one I used was an EVGA GT 740sc I was borrowing at one point.

 

What kind of things would I keep in mind when using an nVIDIA card rather than AMD? Features I won't have or will gain etc...

Well first off is the nvidia Ansel. You can take a pretty good snapshot of any supported game on any angle. That is a pretty neat feature especially if you are a youtube/twitch gamer and you need something like those for your thumbnail.

[Okjoek]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

Shadowplay is pretty cool.

 

I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop though. Laptops IMO should be for business/work purposes because they aren't always that good, or they're absurdly priced. Even then when you need it to have battery life, it doesn't.

The logic I'm using is that since you can now get laptops with desktop power GPUs in them I can simply Plug it in to all my peripherals+ monitor when I want to be at my desk and I can take it with me wherever I go. Hopefully Battery life wouldn't be too bad with a GTX 1050 or 1050ti.

[Herman Mcpootis]

you gain game streaming if you go nvidia, but g-sync monitors are FAR more expensive than freesync monitors, other than these i can't really think of much since AMD relive bought some good features that nvidia also has.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

you gain game streaming if you go nvidia, but g-sync monitors are FAR more expensive than freesync monitors, other than these i can't really think of much since AMD relive bought some good features that nvidia also has.

Relive is meh in my personal experience. Can't get it to record Doom, FRAPS and MSI afterburner doesn't work with Vulkan and I am not the only one. Other games run fine but there is also one thing: there is a time counter in your video, it is there to show you how long you have been recording but can't find a way to disable it. That's really bad, never had that with my previous Shadowplay on GTX 760. And Chill seems cool but only 10 games are supported, one of them is Team Fortress 2 (like really? that game use literally no GPU at all, even an igpu can do). As well as people reporting bad drivers too. Eh, but I can not complain much as I made an upgrade from 760

 

[Cyndre1033]

8 minutes ago, VirusStorm said:

Better Drivers, Widely Supported, Cooler Temps, CUDA Technology, Shadowplay, etc. 

I agree with pretty much everything except better drivers. Given that the 480 almost caught up with the 1060 in most games after just a couple driver updates in the 6 months after the cards were released, I would personally say that AMD has drivers down. You might have other experiences though, maybe you have had bad experiences with AMD drivers?

[VirusStorm]

1 minute ago, Cyndre1033 said:

I agree with pretty much everything except better drivers. Given that the 480 almost caught up with the 1060 in most games after just a couple driver updates in the 6 months after the cards were released, I would personally say that AMD has drivers down. You might have other experiences though, maybe you have had bad experiences with AMD drivers?

Not just me, AMD drivers are KNOWN to be unstable, or at least less stable than the Nvidia counterparts 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

The logic I'm using is that since you can now get laptops with desktop power GPUs in them I can simply Plug it in to all my peripherals+ monitor when I want to be at my desk and I can take it with me wherever I go. Hopefully Battery life wouldn't be too bad with a GTX 1050 or 1050ti.

yeah but sometimes the CPUs are bad, it sounds like a jet, or they cheap out on the battery, and you have to stretch it to get an hour or two if you're lucky. But that may have changed, but the prices are still absurd.

[The Sloth]

24 minutes ago, VirusStorm said:

Better Drivers, Widely Supported, Cooler Temps, CUDA Technology, Shadowplay, etc. 

this bs needs to stop "better driver" my god tell that to the angry 1070 owner with huge frame drop after a driver update. everything you said depends on each gpu. OP it depends on the card there is no " benefit" of switching from one to another unless you are one of the 10 people who game stream or use any feature like that. go for the best gpu for your budget. in my opinion, the best gpu you can get is a 1070 for the price it's a sweet spot gpu. the 480 is an impressive card for the price and the drivers are getting really good after each update, just remember the price and the performance. 

[VirusStorm]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

this bs needs to stop "better driver" my god tell that to the angry 1070 owner with huge frame drop after a driver update. everything you said depends on each gpu. OP it depends on the card there is no " benefit" of switching from one to another unless you are one of the 10 people who game stream or use any feature like that. go for the best gpu for your budget. in my opinion, the best gpu you can get is a 1070 for the price it's a sweet spot gpu. the 480 is an impressive card for the price and the drivers are getting really good after each update, just remember the price and the performance. 

In general, Nvidia drivers are more stable than AMD drivers

[AceTaker]

2 minutes ago, VirusStorm said:

In general, Nvidia drivers are more stable than AMD drivers

nerdslayer1 is right about the RX 480 drivers thing though...

[The Sloth]

12 minutes ago, VirusStorm said:

In general, Nvidia drivers are more stable than AMD drivers

depends on the card, historically yes not that's not guaranteed. it's card by card basis that will tell how good a driver is.  

[ivan134]

1 hour ago, VirusStorm said:

In general, Nvidia drivers are more stable than AMD drivers

False.

[FRN]

This thread has escalated to an AMD vs NVIDIA thread now.

[JoostinOnline]

2 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Numbers are larger (1060 vs 480). I don't know. 

If that's not important, I don't know what is!

[Nena Trinity]

GFE 3.0 is terrible! o3o

[Okjoek]

8 hours ago, FRN said:

This thread has escalated to an AMD vs NVIDIA thread now.

I don't mean to cause fighting, But that was literally what I was asking about. I just don't use nVIDIA very often so I was just making sure that if I'm giving anything up that I know what it is so I can make an informed choice. I very well could buy the Alienware laptop with the RX 470 in it. I'm just more used to the Radeon control panel as an average consumer. It seems fairly user friendly to me.

[ivan134]

2 hours ago, Okjoek said:

I don't mean to cause fighting, But that was literally what I was asking about. I just don't use nVIDIA very often so I was just making sure that if I'm giving anything up that I know what it is so I can make an informed choice. I very well could buy the Alienware laptop with the RX 470 in it. I'm just more used to the Radeon control panel as an average consumer. It seems fairly user friendly to me.

You're definitely right about that. I still don't get why Nvidia with its infinite amount of money still has Windows XP control panel that takes a century to load and locks up your computer until it's done.

[xAcid9]

13 hours ago, VirusStorm said:

In general, Nvidia drivers are more stable than AMD drivers

+9000, AMD driver sucks and have history of frying GPUs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/s