AMD vs. Nvidia - Prefs & Why

[BlockheadBrown]

Everyone's thoughts are welcome. Inflammatory comments to one another are not. I like bringing this up as a topic of discussion because I truly feel that we each have unique experiences and should share those without flaming each other.

Personally, I'm still on the fence. After having decent OC experiences with the Radeon 7850, I had to return it for financial reasons. The GeForce 560 I replaced it with is doing well. There is a part of me that wonders if I'd be happier with something from AMD's camp.

 

[tviceman]

Either vendor's card will, by and large, be just fine. I prefer Nvidia because they have a larger developer relations program. This results in developers (with whom Nvidia works with) adding things to games to noticeably differentiate their PC-sku products from their console ports.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Flame war incoming

 

[Zanovar]

I have a feeling this thread is not gonna end well,personlly i never think of it as amd vs nvidia,(kinda left that crap back in school)best price and performance at the time im buying a new card.(cooling features also)

 

[Anubis]

i purchase whatever gives me the most bang/buck
that is my only criteria

i dont remember all the way back but ive owned both went something like this 8800gt - GTX285 (wow buddy sold me for 200$ when they were 400$ new) - xfire 6870s (mostly paid for by the sale of the 285) - 7950 (current)

TBH the only reason i went with the 7950 over the 670 was so i didnt have to mess with driver issues changing cards

 

[tviceman]

TBH the only reason i went with the 7950 over the 670 was so i didnt have to mess with driver issues changing cards

That takes literally less than two minutes.

 

[Lonyo]

Best value for money when I buy, which has ended up being AMD recently, only because NV took so long to release the GTX670.

 

[Keysplayr]

I've used both since 1993' ish. For me, Nvidia products have given me the least trouble since the get go compared to AMD. So, naturally, my preference is strongly for Nvidia. I really don't even consider AMD for anything accept occasionally buying the top end, or 2nd to top end card about every other gen just to play with it and see how AMD is "now".
I also think that Nvidia offers me more features and has for quite a while. AMD just seems to slack along when it comes to fixing issues or coming out with good features.
The last thing they did that was really good, was eyefinity. Not much since.

I don't much care for bang for buck. I don't much care about power consumption, or noise. The only thing I really care about is performance, stability and features. While for the most part, the performance was there for AMD/ATI products, there was never NOT something amiss. Driver bug, improper rendering, crashes to desktop. Sure, it happens on occasion with Nvidia products, but it's not even close. If I had the problems on Nvidia hardware that I had on AMD/ATI hardware, and AMD hardware had the stability of Nvidia hardware, chances are I'd be rocking all AMD stuff right now. But, that isn't what happened.

So, that is my experience with Nvidia and AMD/ATI.
This is my opinion on this topic and I expect it to be respected as I would respect any other opinion that isn't subtly or blatantly meant to demean or attack my own.

-Keys

 

[dkm777]

Haven't use ATI/AMD in ages, but not because of bias - it just happened that Nvidia hit my price target at the time.

 

[Anubis]

That takes literally less than two minutes.

in theroy yes
ive tried every methond of driver cleaning and it always end up with having to just reinstall windows

 

[brandonb]

I used to buy Nvidia, until about when Vista came out. Their drivers were horrible around 2007-2008ish and crashed constantly. Ignore the guy above that said Nvidia has been more stable over the last 20 years. He obviously doesn't remember Nvidia causing 29% of all Vista crashes. http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/03/28/29-of-windows-vista-crashes-caused-by-nvidia-drivers/ and being 3x more likely to crash than AMD. Thats when I went AMD, and I haven't looked back.

AMD - They make kick ass products. Even though the 7970 is a bit of a let down. Just too much heat/noise/power consumption. I'd like to barely hear a graphics card at full load. This one (at least reference cards) gets noisy.

I usually buy best bang for the buck and followed by the best performance/watt. As I've said in previous forum posts, both companies have driver issues (neither is perfect) and both are at least 98% stable today at least in single card configuration. I never SLI or Crossfire.

But with Nvidia with the 680 having better performance/watt and with better pricing. I'm not opposed to buying Nvidia if I was going to upgrade today (except they are out of stock.)

 

[Borealis7]

in my country, nVidia products have usually carried an unjustified price premium for whatever reason, so it turned out i bought only ATI (AMD) cards (X850XT, X1950Pro, HD4850 used, HD5850 used)
only nVidia card i had was a 8800GTS 512MB which i got second hand for le-cheapaux

...and it crapped out after a year and took my Abit IP35e M/B with it.

 

[exar333]

in theroy yes
ive tried every methond of driver cleaning and it always end up with having to just reinstall windows

That is pretty much just plain rediculous.

 

[Anubis]

i think so too, which is why i avoided it this time. im 2 for 2 with having major issues trying it. /shrug

 

[chimaxi83]

in theroy yes
ive tried every methond of driver cleaning and it always end up with having to just reinstall windows

You're absolutely just doing it wrong.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I honestly think nvidia and Amd cards are more or less equal in terms of hardware. A case can even be made that the 7970 is a much better made card in terms of hardware than the 680.
For me the reason I keep going back to nvidia is the software. I enjoy nvidia 3d. Simple as that. Don't really care about physX though.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Price/Performance

If both cards are exactly even, I pick AMD just because I hate how Nvidia does things
Oh, and actually I dont like AMD either, so when I say "AMD" I mean "ATI"

 

[Don Karnage]

Having both owned Nvidia and Amd i say that Nvidia has the better drivers IMO especially when it comes to multiple card setups.

As for GCN and Kepler. Kepler has the edge on GCN in raw power.

 

[ensign_lee]

I prefer AMD, since their cards as so much superior to NVIDIA's when it comes to the main thing that my video cards do: bitcoin mine.

My AMD cards make money for me. If I had NVIDIA, they would not. It's a clear choice to me.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

I prefer AMD, since their cards as so much superior to NVIDIA's when it comes to the main thing that my video cards do: bitcoin mine.

My AMD cards make money for me. If I had NVIDIA, they would not. It's a clear choice to me.

Topic-branch
I've heard about this more than once. I looked into it briefly, but had questions on the legality of it and the reputation of sites that allow bitcoins to be traded into currency. The temptation is there. I just want to make sure it's 100% legit and that I'm not exposing myself to anything by doing it. If I can do that, I could see myself shifting completely to AMD for the systems I have. Please provide as much info/links as possible.

*Please cap this branch so that it doesn't deviate too much from the original intent of the thread.*

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've been with AMD lately as they have the next gen parts out quicker when I am ready to buy, and I've always had great luck with their drivers (Until the 7970 that is, these drivers definitely lack a bit of polish). I have nothing against Nvidia, though I do think some of their business tactics are not the best from a consumer point of view. But, I would buy their part without any hesitiation if at the time I was ready to buy there was a better green part in my budget.

 

[chimaxi83]

Topic-branch
I've heard about this more than once. I looked into it briefly, but had questions on the legality of it and the reputation of sites that allow bitcoins to be traded into currency. The temptation is there. I just want to make sure it's 100% legit and that I'm not exposing myself to anything by doing it. If I can do that, I could see myself shifting completely to AMD for the systems I have. Please provide as much info/links as possible.

Or you can just search for the bitcoin thread here on AT, or on many other sites :thumbsup:

 

[sgrinavi]

Nvidia for Cuda support in AutoDesk products

 

[Don Karnage]

I prefer AMD, since their cards as so much superior to NVIDIA's when it comes to the main thing that my video cards do: bitcoin mine.

My AMD cards make money for me. If I had NVIDIA, they would not. It's a clear choice to me.

Suggestion for you.

1. Goto College
2. Get degree
3. Make a crapton of money so you don't have to bitcoin

 

[blackened23]

I prefer S3.

Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 for life, goes well with my celeron 300a oc'ed to 450, along with a voodoo2.