• AMD or NVIDIA?
    65 replies, posted
AMD or Nvidia also provide extremely good support and help to the studios. NVidia will literally send engineers team to help you optimize your game for nvidia cards
[QUOTE=Havolis;45550305]ive been using a GTX 560 Ti for 2 years now. an old dog, but good dog. i never overheated[/QUOTE] i have that exact card. once i touched it and i burnt my hand (the mark stayed for a few days). I actually didnt believe the nvidia overheating joke until that moment that being said, if you are going for nvidia, make sure the manufacturer put a decent cooling system in the card. reading reviews of the product might give you warnings if the card does not have good cooling
3dfx
personally my opinion is, if you don't mind sparing the money, get nvidia period
If you do a lot of rendering/3d art, go for the AMD. Gaming more often then not? Nvidia's the way to go. At least in my experience.
I must say that I never had a NVIDIA card other than the ones in my laptops I had in the past. In my desktop I had a 5750, later upgraded to a 6870 and now own a 7970. I have to RMA this one though, due some overheating problems (and it's only 8 months old, so a year and 4 months warranty remaining). I never had any problems with AMD other than this one issue. Could happen with any brand, really. I'm glad though that some games are now starting to give AMD an advantage, other than games who support NVIDIA and make their games run smoother on those cards. Battlefield 4 has Mantle support, which gave me some performance boost. I can't really get into numbers, I never wrote my boost down and currently my PC will shut down after 1 minute of being under 98% load (GPU). Either way, AMD is cheaper and I don't see why you'd need to choose between the two. Go for the one that has the best bang for your buck, as said before (benchmark result / money value). If you have a reason to use PhysX then obviously pick NVIDIA
For $15 I can't really complain about my Phenom 2 x6.
[QUOTE=Megadave;45563645]For $15 I can't really complain about my Phenom 2 x6.[/QUOTE] Did you even read the OP?
Anecdotal evidence but goes with a lot of what people are saying, the drivers are fucking shit. I've had AMD for the past 3 of my computers and I regret not paying slightly more for NVIDIA, especially as they have the better Linux support (seriously try running a Linux distro on AMD successfully the first time). Also AMD installed this Raptr malware shit on my computer upon installing Catalyst, so they've lost me for good.
[QUOTE=Noss;45568264]Anecdotal evidence but goes with a lot of what people are saying, the drivers are fucking shit. I've had AMD for the past 3 of my computers and I regret not paying slightly more for NVIDIA, especially as they have the better Linux support (seriously try running a Linux distro on AMD successfully the first time). Also AMD installed this Raptr malware shit on my computer upon installing Catalyst, so they've lost me for good.[/QUOTE] You have the choice to not install Raptr, iirc it's a checkbox in the wizard for installing/updating the drivers. You could also just uninstall it via control panel (on windows, don't know much about linux but couldn't you just uninstall the package?). While I'm personally not a fan of it either, it's hardly malware.
[QUOTE=DragonAwesome;45568493]You have the choice to not install Raptr, iirc it's a checkbox in the wizard for installing/updating the drivers. You could also just uninstall it via control panel (on windows, don't know much about linux but couldn't you just uninstall the package?). While I'm personally not a fan of it either, it's hardly malware.[/QUOTE] It's extremely scummy to have an unrelated piece of software install automatically. I shouldn't have to expect to 'custom install' and untick checkboxes in order to install graphics drivers. The fact that they want to make me an unwilling participant in that is enough to make them lose my business for a while, if not ever. You just don't treat a customer like that, especially considering AMD were struggling not long ago.
My vote is for the R9 290x. It's better performance per dollar, and has the upper hand at higher resolutions. That being said, if you do anything outside of games look at any brand bias. Also nvidia does have some extra little things over AMD as far as software (which can almost always be recreated via third party programs). If you something you use heavily favors nvidia or there is some feature you can't live without, grab the 780. Otherwise go with the R9 290x. I'd recommend against the ASUS card though due to the joke that is their customer service.
Both are pretty cool. I'm getting a Nvidia card soon, and I live in Florida. Hopefully it doesn't fucking melt.
[QUOTE=Mr_Awesome;45568949]Both are pretty cool. I'm getting a Nvidia card soon, and I live in Florida. Hopefully it doesn't fucking melt.[/QUOTE] Nvidia cards overheating is a myth from back when the Fermi cards first came out, they ran hot in general and even overheated in a few cases. If you're buying Kepler (600 series and above) you'll be fine, my overclocked 660Ti never even hits 70C and I'm on stock cooling.
Intel
[QUOTE=Kierany9;45571413]Intel[/QUOTE] Iris pro master race
Just bechmark your options? [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/benchmarks,175.html[/url] [url]http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html[/url] These things, they are mainly objective, you can measure what will get you more bang for your buck. Beyond objective stuff, AMD used to have worse Linux and OpenGL support, but those things got improved a lot (and will continue to improve), their controlpanel got pretty much upto Nvidia standard too. You're mainly just missing out on PhysX, (and soon also parts of Nvidia Gameworks). You can solve both if you have an Nvidia card laying around, then you can dedicate that to doing PhysX in games. I got the 290X over the 780, but that was mainly because locally the 290X was 100+ euro's cheaper.
Nvidia has Shadowplay, having Shadowplay running in the background means you can capture videos of games even after they've happened by pressing the shadowplay button (Which will record up to 20 minutes, I believe, of stuff in the game that happened in the last 20 minutes (or whatever limit you choose) at little to no performance cost due to built in x264 (iirc) encoders(?) in the graphics card. Basically I can record, stream to twitch at 60fps in pretty much all games since the performance hit is so small. Otherwise you get some good features like: Adaptive Vsync (If it works correctly, It worked awfully for me but this was a long time ago back in 2012) which turns off Vsync if you go below 60fps. HBAO+ which is Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion which supposedly doubles the detail level of the Ambient Occlusion, runs three times faster and IMO looks better than any other AO (Which is opinion based as I see a lot of people preferring other types of AO) TXAA which is a film-style anti aliasing technique that runs great (Atleast for me in the game i tried it on) and looks amazing with little to no jaggies. CUDA - Nvidia generally runs better at Photoshop, video rendering and other programs that can utilize CUDA (BRT5470 knows a lot about this) The myth about overheating was back in fermi days (4xx GPUs) where the GTX 470 & 480 ran awfully hot (often at 90+c in games) Nvidia has much better reference coolers than AMD at their mid and high end cards (While they were made to stand a lot of heat, the 280/290(x) ran at about 95c in games with their reference fans, while they had no problems running at this temp, according to AMD, it wasnt really preferable to most people) For me NVIDIA has always had better drivers but AMD has improved, I've had a lot of trouble with AMD but this was years ago. Nvidia costs more but to me it's always been worth it for the extra features and drivers. Basically in TLDR form: Nvidia has exclusive graphical features that AMD can't access, uses less power, produces less heat, have better drivers usually. If you can see past this and can't spare money for the 290x equivalent (GTX 780ti) then I suggest you get a 290x with a good aftermarket cooler (Sapphire is great) since it's still a great card.
[QUOTE=Starship;45576758]The myth about overheating was back in fermi days (4xx GPUs) where the GTX 470 & 480 ran awfully hot (often at 90+c in games)[/QUOTE] can attest, but in a positive way. while my card does get hot, it has yet to get dangerously so.
[QUOTE=Thunderbolt;45570380]Nvidia cards overheating is a myth from back when the Fermi cards first came out, they ran hot in general and even overheated in a few cases. If you're buying Kepler (600 series and above) you'll be fine, my overclocked 660Ti never even hits 70C and I'm on stock cooling.[/QUOTE] My friend had a card that overheated in the extreme Florida weather and bricked itself.
AMD has its own shadowplay competitor tho, that can also record and stream to twitch with minimum overhead. Dynamic Vsync, TXAA, SMAA can be injected by for example RadeonPro if you'd really wanted it. Cuda can be a pretty big deal tho, but mainly if you use Iray for rendering, Photoshop, VRay, Sony Vegas all use OpenCL tho and run fine on AMD hardware. [editline]3rd August 2014[/editline] The main thing i am afraid of is what Nvidia Gameworks might become, if they go down the PhysX route and keep it nvidia exclusive that could cause serious problems.
Holy crap am I glad to see this thread. Saved up around 2k to build a rig, looking at xfx or SLI, and on the edge about which manufacturer to go with. The important dealbreaker I didn't even think about is this: [QUOTE=Zephyrs;45550001]If you are running linux, don't touch AMD.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=PredGD;45550098]as Zephyrs said too, if you're a linux user, I wouldn't even consider AMD.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Noss;45568264]seriously try running a Linux distro on AMD successfully the first time.[/QUOTE] Lets face it: If you're building your own rig, you're going to want to install linux on it. You may not feel the need at the time of planning, but these distros are improving exponentially, and Source games already run (slightly) better on linux. Plus, yknow, two OSes are better than one
[QUOTE=willtheoct;45577259]Holy crap am I glad to see this thread. Saved up around 2k to build a rig, looking at xfx or SLI, and on the edge about which manufacturer to go with. The important dealbreaker I didn't even think about is this: Lets face it: If you're building your own rig, you're going to want to install linux on it. You may not feel the need at the time of planning, but these distros are improving exponentially, and Source games already run (slightly) better on linux. Plus, yknow, two OSes are better than one[/QUOTE] I don't think most people install linux alongside windows. I'm sure people try it at least, but rarely bother staying as programs they generally use isn't supported or it's just not for them and would rather have stuff just work, like windows does. I consider myself a linux guy, but I still spend most of my time in windows due to games, video editing and photo manipulating
[QUOTE=PredGD;45577311]I don't think most people install linux alongside windows. I'm sure people try it at least, but rarely bother staying as programs they generally use isn't supported or it's just not for them and would rather have stuff just work, like windows does. I consider myself a linux guy, but I still spend most of my time in windows due to games, video editing and photo manipulating[/QUOTE] Wine has run everything perfectly for me, with the exception of Visual Studio, and DX11-only games, which, hopefully we'll see less of those and more OpenGL. And yeah, people try it, and while few stay, I find that more and more people are trying linux. If the market increases, there will be more games ported or developed for it. I wouldn't recommend buying a card based on what runs now, but instead what it will be running 5 years from now.
[QUOTE=willtheoct;45577352]Wine has run everything perfectly for me, with the exception of Visual Studio, and DX11-only games, which, hopefully we'll see less of those and more OpenGL[/QUOTE] wine works too, but I find it to be very hit and miss. sometimes it works great, and sometimes stuff won't even launch even though it works perfectly fine for others I still prefer running stuff stable in a windows environment over wine at the moment. for lighter stuff, I actually use a Windows VM as it tends to be more stable (for me at least)
nVidia is the way it's meant to be played, yo.
I once ran a Nvidia GPU so hot that all the stickers inside my computer melted. I did push the computer too far though. I got a better Nvidia (and a desktop this time) and its working great.
i've had a gtx 560 ti for about two years and i'm going to upgrade to nvidia when i can
[QUOTE=willtheoct;45577259]Holy crap am I glad to see this thread. Saved up around 2k to build a rig, looking at xfx or SLI, and on the edge about which manufacturer to go with. The important dealbreaker I didn't even think about is this: Lets face it: If you're building your own rig, you're going to want to install linux on it. You may not feel the need at the time of planning, but these distros are improving exponentially, and Source games already run (slightly) better on linux. Plus, yknow, two OSes are better than one[/QUOTE] Its really not half as bad as all these people make it out to be. I had official drivers on both ubuntu and arch without problems. If anything its that OpenGL perfromance is poor on AMD. [url]http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_290hawaii_cat141beta&num=1[/url]
[QUOTE=Cold;45577186]AMD has its own shadowplay competitor tho, that can also record and stream to twitch with minimum overhead. Dynamic Vsync, TXAA, SMAA can be injected by for example RadeonPro if you'd really wanted it. Cuda can be a pretty big deal tho, but mainly if you use Iray for rendering, Photoshop, VRay, Sony Vegas all use OpenCL tho and run fine on AMD hardware. [editline]3rd August 2014[/editline] The main thing i am afraid of is what Nvidia Gameworks might become, if they go down the PhysX route and keep it nvidia exclusive that could cause serious problems.[/QUOTE] The big thing about Shadowplay is being able to record stuff after it has already happened though. That's a main thing why I won't change to AMD until they get a similar thing.
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