• AMD or NVIDIA?
    65 replies, posted
ok, so I'm currently going through the process of building my new PC. I'm getting 2 HD 1900 x 1080 monitors and I'm wondering which card I should get over the other. a Radeon R9 290X, or a GTX 780? [sp]Might be worth to note I get 3 free CD games with the Radeon, and a free copy of watch dogs (wow) for gtx[/sp] Also please dont turn this into a war thread, I know most of you are better than that though. I just want to know which one I should get. oh, it'd probably be a good idea to link the two that I am getting. [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-330-AS[/url] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-309-AS[/url]
Everything went downhill for me after I got my 290X. Before that when I had my 770's I'd had a generally better experience. Personally ([B]IMHO[/B]) I'd go for a GTX780.
My 290X is brilliant, best card I've ever had. Neither brand is better, they're constantly outdoing each other, that being said, AMD is a fair bit better bang for buck in the midrange. It's all up to personal preference.
I have AMD cards because they had better bang for the buck, but I prefer alot of Nvidia's features and compatibility
If you are running linux, don't touch AMD. Nvidia flat out has better/more stable/longer lived driver support, and ships their fixes sooner, but AMD cards are fine as long as you don't get a very limited budget card. You are talking about high end cards. Both will be supported for years, and wont get randomly declared legacy. If you play games that make heavy use of physx, Nvidia gives you some eyecandy. AMD doesn't really have an equivalent. If you have free electricity and want to mine buttcoins, get AMD. Their cards mine faster. Stay away from shit manufacturers and you will be fine with either, generally speaking. Buy the one that gives you the most performance per dollar, and avoid brand loyalty.
there's no denying that AMD's cards are much cheaper. 290x has a price of $549, while the 780Ti which is the direct competition is at a much higher price at $699. regarding performance, it varies so much. I keep seeing benchmarks where there's pretty much no difference between the two cards, but then you got Bioshock: Infinite for example where the 290x will only go at ~90fps while the 780ti goes at ~120fps. AMD has the upper hand when it comes to higher resolutions too. I've seen benchmarks and reviewers say that the AMD for some reason squeezes out better performance at higher resolutions compared to nvidia's cards. on the software side, I don't think there's even an argument to be had to who got the most stuff going on. nvidia has shadowplay which is already a huge bonus if you ask me, which is then backed up by stuff like PhysX, exclusive to nvidia. AMD has started to get their Gaming Evolved program into shape though, and if I'm not mistaken they now offer a similar recording function as well so it looks like they're catching up in that regard. as Zephyrs said too, if you're a linux user, I wouldn't even consider AMD. their latest drivers pretty much never support the latest versions of xorg, so you have to downgrade that. it's just a big mess and I've had so many issues with game performance as well. it's one of the main reasons I went with nvidia when I last upgraded since linux support is a pretty big deal to me. in the end, I'd say the 290x offers the most bang for the buck. on paper, it's not as powerful as the 780ti, but the benchmarks aren't that different. it has the upper hand on higher resolutions as well, so that's a plus. the 780ti has a minor to a big difference in FPS in certain games though, but both should perform well above 60fps so it shouldn't matter much in the end.
I have to wrestle with our one AMD machine's GPU drivers on a weekly basis at work. It's only used because we need Eyefinity, otherwise we would've used a Nvidia card. I cannot recommend AMD because of my past experience with its drivers.
forgot to add, in regards with driver stability I've personally had more luck with AMD's drivers. I've had so many issues when it comes to updating drivers with nvidia that I almost start missing my AMD cards. both drivers should work well when they're installed, but updating and installing have been tricky for me on nvidia. [editline]31st July 2014[/editline] my merge
[QUOTE=PredGD;45550098]-text-[/QUOTE] 290x for me is £380 and it's actually a regular 780 that I am getting which is £350. [editline]31st July 2014[/editline] I dont have that money yet so the prices may change by the time that I do have it.
[QUOTE=OzzyCockroach;45550142]290x for me is £380 and it's actually a regular 780 that I am getting which is £350.[/QUOTE] yeah, the 780 is at roughly the same or lower price than the 290x. the 780Ti which is the direct competitor of the 290x is the one I was talking about
get AMD if you want to save some money or get nVidia for more features (automatic AO, physx)
From what I understand of the GPU market. Get AMD if you want Driver errors Get Nvidia if you want to burn down your house.
[QUOTE=Oizen;45550187]From what I understand of the GPU market. Get AMD if you want Driver errors Get Nvidia if you want to burn down your house.[/QUOTE] Obligatory Racers comic? Also in my case the 780 runs far cooler than the 290x, and since the 780 runs quite cool I can OC that quite a bit.
[QUOTE=OzzyCockroach;45550198]Obligatory Racers comic? Also in my case the 780 runs far cooler than the 290x, and since the 780 runs quite cool I can OC that quite a bit.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/324/c/a/amd_vs__nvidia_by_spritanium-d3394jt.jpg[/IMG] This? :v:
-snip, better in the op (link to both cards)-
I think all of the Nvidias I had ended up burning (literally) not so long after I started using it. I've been using an AMD for years and never had a problem with it.
ive been using a GTX 560 Ti for 2 years now. an old dog, but good dog. i never overheated
I've only had bad experiences with AMD cards. Overheating, drivers crashing, using up an insane amount of power and not putting out decent performance. Not saying that AMD is bad, but I wouldn't really want to touch them again considering what I have had happen in the past. On top of that, Nvidia has Shadowplay which is an absolute must for me. So much better that any other recording software I've used. Really, if you want to save money, go with AMD, but if budget isn't an issue, I would go with Nvidia.
I've only had good experiences with AMD cards. Same with NVIDIA. Really you shouldn't ask about the company but the cards themselves, as in "I have 200$, should I get CARD or CARD"
AMDs are backup cards when I'm low on money.
I use Nvidia purely for PhysX. I used to have an AMD card since I use multiple monitors and AMD cards just handle that much beter. Nvidia Surround isn't as good as EyeFinity imho
Whichever brand has a nice card when mine shits itself, or when I deem it to be obsolete.
Ignoring the several heating issues most AMD gpus have, and the "accessible" price, I will never go back to AMD. Also, nvidia has some "Shadowplay". Look it up...
[QUOTE=irukandji;45551193] Also, nvidia has some "Shadowplay". Look it up...[/QUOTE] This right here, having the ability to easily record game footage in silky smooth 60FPS while still maintaining a filesize that is substantially smaller than the absurdly large filesizes that FRAPS conjures up ([B]19 seconds of CSGO footage recorded using FRAPS is a whopping 1GB) [/B]When I record CSGO footage using ShadowPlay,[B] 2 minutes and 40 seconds of footage comes out to a lovely 580MB [/B] ShadowPlay is fantastic and blows FRAPS out of the water. Only downside obviously is that ShadowPlay is only available on nVIDA cards.
Well, it looks like AMD & Raptr joined forces to bring GVR (Game Video Recorder), a software that offers features similar to Shadowplay, but for AMD gpu's. GVR was included in the latest AMD drivers, as a part of Raptr's "Gaming Evolved" application. Read about DVR [URL="http://raptr.com/TinyDino/news/53d6730c16b46f0af3/introducing-gvr-and-instant-replays-capture-and-share-gameplay-video-with-nearly-no-performance-impact-"]here, on Raptr[/URL]. Some Shadowplay vs Fraps vs GVR benchmark testing: [URL]http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/1561-shadowplay-vs-fraps-vs-gvr-recording-benchmark[/URL]
Commodore 64 is the best graphics card. Just stick 1 in your computer and boom. It'll probably run Crysis.
AMD 290x PS: I own 560Ti. Never had AMD (ATI) cards.
I've had a Radeon HD 6670 before, I could run games properly on high until Metro 2033. People say drivers are awful, but on my end I haven't gotten issues, or it's because I avoid the newer cards because they appear to be problematic. Now I have a Radeon HD 7950, the thing runs flawless, haven't gotten issues with it so far except for the moment when I used Windows 8.1 it ran strange, decals in L4D2 would appear incorrectly and particles ruined. But after I rolled back to 7 it was fine again. But still, it's based on user experience, I'm fine with a AMD CPU & GPU because it's cheap but decent enough for my use, and my brother chugs along on a i5 and GTX-560. It's just depending on your needs and your current funds. I bought this card because I happened to have 155 euros when it was on sale.
Right now, AMD's line up is much better value than Nvidia, and I've honestly never had any driver errors to speak of. As long as you get one with a decent aftermarket cooler, there's no reason not to go with the 290X.
In my personal experience, NVIDIA cards have worked better for me. I would recommend them.
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