Brand Loyalty or Agnosticism?

[bystander36]

Imo i think part of the 970 angry is due to people discovering they got carried away with the first enthusiasm derived partly from the efficiency talk. As RS have showed performance is also developing relatively slowly. And as RS have also showed nv have abandoned kepler. Then comes the 3.5gb and i think some have second thoughts and the 3.5 is just fuel to the small fire - small disappointment that was there before.
Nv brand is by far the strongest but even the best brand can get some scratches.

I'm not as sure the Kepler performance issues is due to Nvidia's drivers. It may be due to compute performance. AMD's cards at the time had great compute abilities, but Nvidia's did not.

 

[Magic Carpet]

bystander36,

We're on the same page. Okay.

I'm not as sure the Kepler performance issues is due to Nvidia's drivers. It may be due to compute performance. AMD's cards at the time had great compute abilities, but Nvidia's did not.

That question is still up in the air. Nvidia has not made a single comment about it. The official Geforce forums do not have an answer to that question, and it has been raised... many times. Sounds familiar?

 

[cmdrdredd]

bystander36,

We're on the same page. Okay.


That question is still up in the air. Nvidia has not made a single comment about it. The official Geforce forums do not have an answer to that question, and it has been raised... many times. Sounds familiar?

I don't think they have a comment about it that would make people happy.

"Low performance is because driver team has been working on Maxwell" and people are upset and think Nvidia is essentially saying "upgrade to Maxwell"
or
"Low performance is due to Kepler's weak compute and nothing can be done about that." and again people are upset and think Nvidia is saying "upgrade to Maxwell"

Both statements, if either is true wouldn't send a message that Nvidia wants.

 

[Magic Carpet]

@cmdrdredd.

I guess, you nailed it. I suspect that, unless someone bright will come forward with a plausible explanation (similar to the 970 "bug"), Nvidia will remain silent about this matter. Wish I had technical expertise. Oh well, the upgrade to maxwell option is always there, ha!

 

[Morbus]

I'm definitively brand agnostic but I'm not happy with my personal experience with AMD. For months and months I didn't have proper visual damage in GTA 4 and the drivers for my old HD4890 gave me no end of trouble for the longest time. I switched to the green side this time around despite the price premium (which at the time of purchase was around 20€) and I'm happy. When I next upgrade, I can't say which brand I'll chose because, as I said, I'm brand agnostic.

 

[hawtdawg]

agnostic.

Both make good products, and both have their share of issues. One thing I do hate though is this notion that Nvidia is somehow problem free compared to AMD. If we were to make a list of large issues by either company over the last few years, I think Nvidia actually has more. Nvidia has better marketing, that's about it. AMD might have more smaller problems, but over the last couple of years we've seen Nvidia release drivers that killed cards, sit on an RGB output bug over HDMI for years, and now this 970 VRAM issue. AMD had some frametime issues, but they've since fixed it and actually have surpassed Nvidia at this point. AMD also seems to continually get more performance out of their hardware. For example: when the 680 and 7970's came out, the 680 was the better card. At this point in the game, the 7970 is nearly comparable to the 780.

I'm rolling with 780's in my main rig, and 6950's in another, if anyone is curious. I buy based on whatever's best at the time. If I were to buy new cards right this second I would get 980's. If rumors are true then the 3xx will probably be my next purchase. Being a hardware fanboy is stupid. What's better is better. I'm just glad that we have 2 competitive GPU companies, and I will continue to enjoy products from both.

 

[Silverforce11]

<looks at your signature>

Yeah, I doubt you don't tell people who are into tech what's in your PC. PC components (or frankly anything we enjoy as a hobby/interest) will have similar vanity qualities. We buy cases for as much as their performance functions as their cosmetics.

I know after seeing a picture of Groove's rig I ran out and bought me some colored power extenders. And I must say, with my new case and giant window - it looks effin' amazing!

I mean only in reality, people, friends & family see my cars but they won't know whats in my rig.

Internet people, I don't care about their opinions. ;p

 

[Blain]

The majority of my computers run Intel graphics. Where's the option?

Like he said, it's a...

Simple poll

 

[KentState]

I'm a fan of the best consumer single cpu solution, but will probably ever spend more than $750 to achieve that. If it's Nvidia or AMD, I really don't care, though I do prefer either Evga or Sapphire and stick to them.

 

[schmuckley]

I am brand agnostic :awe:
If it performs better..I want that!

 

[garagisti]

I love the people who claim to be agnostic, yet explain that they will go one way or the other because of company politics (ie. 970 VRAM issue), rather than card merits.

Well, i for one didn't care which colour once, used to buy/ recommend based on whatever was best equipped for users who do everything. Post bump-bump, i recommended AMD, for i saw a lot of my friends lost their Nvidia cards (myself a couple of cards, and a laptop). I think between the group we had purchased more than a dozen cards, and only 1 is alive, but that is an old, old 7600gtx fatality edition card. AMD cards on the other hand, apart from their sucky reference fans bit, have been fairly solid. Then again, after 2-3 years, i had enough confidence to recommend 970, but now how can i? You can have 290 for much less, or 290x if performance is key.

Oh, you should always factor in the attitude of the companies you're dealing with. Nothing wrong with it. Infact, if you're not doing it, you're sending a message that you're willing with your wallets in hand, and that they should just mug you for it.

 

[beginner99]

I buy the one with the best performance/price in my performance range. Usually that is AMD. If NV were to offer sane prices I would also buy an NV product.

 

[_UP_]

I love the people who claim to be agnostic, yet explain that they will go one way or the other because of company politics (ie. 970 VRAM issue), rather than card merits.

Well, I did something of that sort, and I can explain. I voted agnostic, because I think that is what my past purchases show:
X300XT -> 8800GTS 512MB -> HD6950 -> GTX 670 -> HD7970 -> GTX 780Ti -> R9 290X (had a few of these though).
I basically switched sides every card. That said, I do have a bit of a preference. As I know RS said a more than a few times, and as garagisti mentioned, we, as consumers, have power as a purchasing group. If we decide to not buy something, a company will have to change their ways, because their aim is to sell. There is a limit to how much I would spend on a GPU, for example, and I do prefer open standards.
Obviously, either side is no saint, as they're both companies trying to make money. That said, I prefer choosing a company I like not only the products they make, but also their business practices.

 

[Gikaseixas]

price / Performance ratio is my thing
All the other metrics come after these two

 

[NTMBK]

Funny to look at the results from this poll: http://forums.anandtech.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=5290 Quite a few of the "usual suspects" are going for loyalty to massive money sucking corporations, instead of making logical choices

 

[railven]

Funny to look at the results from this poll: http://forums.anandtech.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=5290 Quite a few of the "usual suspects" are going for loyalty to massive money sucking corporations, instead of making logical choices

What's your point? At least they're being honest. Without painting with wide strokes, few people on them results I find questionable.

 

[Pinstripe]

80% Agnostic
20% Brand Fanatic

 

[xthetenth]

I love the people who claim to be agnostic, yet explain that they will go one way or the other because of company politics (ie. 970 VRAM issue), rather than card merits.

The market changes frequently enough that it's worth remembering that buying price/performance maxima isn't incompatible with choosing which brand you buy. I've been on a two year cycle since the 8800GT, and that meant I bought five straight NV cards, four of them two year upgrades and a 970 when I got a job that gave me enough money to buy something nice and buy a card that wouldn't give me trouble for a while. On my next buy I'm going to be applying a scaling factor for NV cards based on not being able to trust them if anything smells fishy. I know this is going to push me to AMD most likely. I don't want to get burned again, and buying from the lower market share company helps keep the market healthy. If price/performance maxima are a matter of timing, then other factors dominate the decision making process. I can't just keep buying NV because it's convenient timingwise and then act surprised and betrayed when they capitalize on the market share they've gotten.

 

[gdansk]

I'm fairly loyal to ATI. Not to AMD in particular. I've had Nvidia cards (GTX 9800 being the most recent) but I've found Radeons to be a better bang for the buck each time I've upgraded since. I question my agnosticism after this many years of only Radeons.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Mostly brand agnostic.

Here'are the cards I've had if I remember correctly:
- ATI Rage
- nVidia Geforce 2 GTS
- ATI 8500LE
- nVidia 6800GT
- nVidia 8800GT 512MB
- nVidia 260c216
- AMD 7950
- AMD R9 290

There was a stretch of time when I stuck with nVidia (6800GT -> 8800GT 512MB -> 260c216) because of better drivers whether real or percieved, but for my next upgrade I went back to ATI/AMD because they provided much better bang for the buck.

So I think it's fair to say I'm mostly brand agnostic. I have to say I do find the poll results very interesting, I do see quite a few people correctly identifying themselves as nVidia or AMD guys, but I certainly did not expect 84% of the people to identify as brand agnostic. That seems like quite a stretch. However, who knows, it's a tech forum, it's quite possible we're different from general public who just keep buying nVidia cards.

 

[Sunaiac]

I always buy the best for max 450€.

So I've had TNT, GF1, GF2, GF3, GF4, 9800pro, X800XT, X1950XT, 8800GTX, GTX280, HD5870 (before GTX480 came...), GTX580, 7970GHz, R9 290X as my main cards.

The fact nvidia now sells mid-range at 350-550€ and high end at 650-1000€ might mean I'll get mostly AMD from now on.

 

[2is]

I prefer NVidia by a small margin due to features like shadow play, PhysX and the fact that USUALLY they have more mature drivers for new games before AMD does. That's not to say I always pick NVidia though. If AMD has a card that performs better for the same or less money, I'm going AMD. Currently I have one machine with a pair of 680's and another running a 7970.

I've got enough parts laying around to build two low end gaming machines, one would end up having a 650Ti and the other a HD 5870. Heck I even have an 8800GT and a Radeon 3870. So I'm right at 50/50... Well I have 2 680's, so a very slight margin to NVidia I suppose.

 

[JBT]

Price/Performance at the point in time I'm ready to purchase.

 

[EightySix Four]

Can it be a little bit of both? I'm AMD loyal as long as they compete on price/performance in the category I'm looking at, and it has a simple reason - way back in the day I had a Radeon 9700 non-pro from FIC and I had flashed it's BIOS and a number of other modifications to get 9700 Pro-like performance from it. Being a piece of crap FIC, it died 8 months outside of its warranty. I emailed ATi and asked if there was anything that could be done and they sent me a 9700 Pro. Pretty awesome, especially since I was ~15 and it was a big deal to me at the time.

Funny enough, today they gave me a second reason to love them, I won the Fix3er competition on Twitter and am being given a 290x.

If it ever got to a point they didn't compete on price/performance in the price range I was shopping in, I'd switch sides (begrudgingly) as I'm not that hard headed, but for the most part they haven't had that issue for as long as I've been buying parts.

 

[Silverforce11]

Funny to look at the results from this poll: http://forums.anandtech.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=5290 Quite a few of the "usual suspects" are going for loyalty to massive money sucking corporations, instead of making logical choices

Actually its rather surprising how high the brand agnosticism % is, much higher than I was expecting (around 50% was my guess).

It makes sense due to prior marketshare when AMD were onto winners with the 4800 and 5800 series, they were able to capture a large chunk of the market.

From reading the comments, factors people care about most would be perf/$, closely followed by important metrics such as noise, power use and features.

AMD screwed up big time with reference 7900 and R290/X series, hot and so noisy, that stigma stuck and they couldn't wash it away even when fantastic custom models showed up later. I hope its a lesson they've learnt, all high-end GPU need a great reference cooler to back it up. Because it doesn't matter how awesome the perf/$ or other metrics are, few would enjoy gaming next to a noisy rig like the R290/X reference blowers.

NV learnt fast after the 480 fiasco, it was a good thing for them in the end.