Any legitimate reason to pay premium for nvidia card

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Serious question. I can buy a 4gb 770 for a little more than a 280x (pre mining madness price) and wondering if there's any legit reason nvidia should cost more? Of course I'd prefer the 280 but mining has caused the prices to skyrocket.

 

[IEC]

Save until you can find a non stock cooled Radeon 290 @ $400 in a few months. It'll be at least a few months until the mining craze dies down. If it's a bubble and it implodes, there will be a flood of cheap Radeons as well.

If you can't wait, just find a deal on a 770 and be happy.

 

[thilanliyan]

Get the 280X and mine on the side!

 

[Silverforce11]

PhysX, Adaptive Vsync, CUDA. Worth at least a 20% premium, no?

 

[Wall Street]

I think that the 4GB GTX 770 is one of those cards where the price just doesn't make sense. If you are going to shop in that range for an nVidia card, both the GTX 770 2 GB and the GTX 780 make more sense.

As for why the nVidia tax, clearly AMD has had some driver issues. I know that people are going to say that they are fixed now, but even now AMD has pushed back the patch to fix crossfire with eyefinity. This is a problem that has been "in the wild" for over a year now on shipping products. They certainly need to get their driver department to the level where their hardware department is.

 

[DooKey]

LOL, pay the miner tax if you don't want to buy NV. Right now if you don't mine the 770 is a better deal than the 280x. Simple as that.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I think that the 4GB GTX 770 is one of those cards where the price just doesn't make sense. If you are going to shop in that range for an nVidia card, both the GTX 770 2 GB and the GTX 780 make more sense.

As for why the nVidia tax, clearly AMD has had some driver issues. I know that people are going to say that they are fixed now, but even now AMD has pushed back the patch to fix crossfire with eyefinity. This is a problem that has been "in the wild" for over a year now on shipping products. They certainly need to get their driver department to the level where their hardware department is.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125462
This is the card in question. With the masterpass promo code it comes out to 332 after rebate. Its a 4gb 770. I'm really scared of buying a 2gb card atm. I just think it'll run into some issues down the line with the lack of vram. So it's either the 4gb 770, 780 (which is more than I want to spend), or pay a ridiculous price for a 280x and I don't care to mine so it'd be a gaming card only.

 

[DooKey]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125462
This is the card in question. With the masterpass promo code it comes out to 332 after rebate. Its a 4gb 770. I'm really scared of buying a 2gb card atm. I just think it'll run into some issues down the line with the lack of vram. So it's either the 4gb 770, 780 (which is more than I want to spend), or pay a ridiculous price for a 280x and I don't care to mine so it'd be a gaming card only.

That's a nice card for 332 after rebate. If you want it then you should buy it considering the miner tax that is in place for AMD.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I get "video driver has restarted" messages using Firefox with the R 6650 in my work PC (i7, Windows 8) that I don't get with the GTX 680 in my gaming PC (i5, Windows 7).

But that might just be Firefox, or Windows 8. The R 6850 in my older gaming PC was fine.

Wrong thread?
-- stahlhart

 

[Teizo]

Depends on how much more. But if it costs less as you are saying, then not sure how it even qualifies as a 'tax'. If anything, right now you are paying a non-gaming AMD 'tax' for fake money.

You may be able to find a better price on Ebay, btw...if that is more than you want to pay.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

PhysX, Adaptive Vsync, CUDA. Worth at least a 20% premium, no?

You forget a few, G-Sync, Shadow Play, Windows Drivers, Control Panel, Nv Inspector, and Linux Drivers.

R280x is $400, 7970 is $470...

You sure it's worth paying the 20% premium for AMD?

What's their list to warrant a premium, Mantle? OP isn't mining, so what else is there that AMD offers?

 

[blastingcap]

Oh come on. OP seems to want to stir up trouble by calling it an Nvidia "tax" and knows it, too, hence the "serious question" start to their post.

 

[mindbomb]

i was under the impression that the 680 was considered better than the 7970. Given that the 280x is a rebrand of the 7970 and the 770 is a rebrand of the 680... why exactly would you prefer the 280x?

 

[Final8ty]

I think that the 4GB GTX 770 is one of those cards where the price just doesn't make sense. If you are going to shop in that range for an nVidia card, both the GTX 770 2 GB and the GTX 780 make more sense.

As for why the nVidia tax, clearly AMD has had some driver issues. I know that people are going to say that they are fixed now, but even now AMD has pushed back the patch to fix crossfire with eyefinity. This is a problem that has been "in the wild" for over a year now on shipping products. They certainly need to get their driver department to the level where their hardware department is.

I didn't see the OP mention that he was going to Crossfire or Eyefinity.

 

[Silverforce11]

i was under the impression that the 680 was considered better than the 7970.

Not for a long long time.

 

[BrightCandle]

The 770 is a little quicker than the 280X, but that premium is all about nvidia addons more than performance. I have always felt the 770 was poorly priced considering its just an over clocked 680, which incidentally would reach similar clocks most likely and be a lot cheaper if you can find one.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I get "video driver has restarted" messages using Firefox with the R 6650 in my work PC (i7, Windows 8) that I don't get with the GTX 680 in my gaming PC (i5, Windows 7).

But that might just be Firefox, or Windows 8. The R 6850 in my older gaming PC was fine.

Wrong thread?
-- stahlhart

Sorry I wasn't more clear, especially in a potentially inflammatory thread.

I was (attempting to) speak about the alleged driver quality difference between nvidia and AMD, as one reason to pay the "tax." I've had more driver issues with AMD than with nvidia, though I wouldn't agree with anyone claiming AMD drivers are bad. It's more like paying extra to buy an Intel Sandforce-based SSD over an Adata or Sandisk with the same controller. They all get the job done, but the Intel firmware is supposedly better.

 

[blackened23]

I didn't see the OP mention that he was going to Crossfire or Eyefinity.

It is still relevant. AMD has set a precedent of refusing to admit to software issues, and when forced to acknowledge problems through the persistence of various tech websites, they take an excessive amount of time in issuing a fix. Like I said, relevant. Does the 290 have mysterious issues yet to be uncovered? I don't know. But we do know that the Tahiti has yet to have crossfire + eyefinity stutter fixed, although AMD has promised a fix in January 2014. They originally promised this fall. This is after websites uncovered the issue in late 2012. When was Tahiti released again? Q4 2011 right? So a fix in Q1 2014. Is that reasonable? More than 2 years to fix their software? Also, there is no scheduled DX9 crossfire fix scheduled whatsoever. So DX9 games, I guess you're accepting microstutter as par for the course.

This is relevant because generally speaking, when nvidia has a software issue they will fix it post haste. My rough math indicates that it is taking AMD several years to fix some of these issues with Tahiti though, I mean, I don't feel entirely confident in a company that treats their customers like that. It is not reasonable to take more than a year in correcting a software issue, but AMD has done just that several times.

With that being the case, I can see why some folks would prefer an nvidia solution despite a slightly higher cost. Like I said, nvidia may have issues now and then but I certainly don't remember nvidia taking 2 years to issue a fix for such issues. They fix it post haste and you get better software (in terms of features) from the get-go. Heck, right now there ISNT a higher cost for nvidia. Thanks to mining, PC gamers can generally get the nvidia solution at a lesser cost compared to the AMD solution. So there really isn't any tax whatsoever in the current etail market.

I've said many times...good hardware is nothing without a good software ecosystem to back it up. Taking more than a year to issue a fix for your customers? I wouldn't call that good software support. Now, AMD has improved a lot as compared to 2012 in terms of software, but they are not on nvidia's level in terms of software IMO. Not yet. Nvidia simply outclasses AMD in this respect, and I do think people are willing to pay more because of that fact.

 

[parvadomus]

@blackened23 and do you think nvidia would have fixed that problem in less time, had it happened to them? I don't think so really. NV had a long way working on frame pacing, before it was detected on AMD HW. I think AMD gave a very fast solution to the problem, starting from 0. It took only one generation to give HW (290/290X) almost on par with Nvidia SLI (if not better).
From my point of view SLI/Crossfire will never be perfect with AFR techniques.

 

[blackened23]

@blackened23 and do you think nvidia would have fixed that problem in less time, had it happened to them?

Yes, I do. And I think nvidia would have fixed it far quicker than the 2+ years it is taking AMD to fix it.

 

[parvadomus]

Yes, I do. And I think nvidia would have fixed it far quicker than the 2+ years it is taking AMD to fix it.

I do not :awe:

 

[desprado]

@blackened23 and do you think nvidia would have fixed that problem in less time, had it happened to them? I don't think so really. NV had a long way working on frame pacing, before it was detected on AMD HW. I think AMD gave a very fast solution to the problem, starting from 0. It took only one generation to give HW (290/290X) almost on par with Nvidia SLI (if not better).
From my point of view SLI/Crossfire will never be perfect with AFR techniques.

Kiddo do even know Nvidia has Frame Metering which as hardware solution and while AMD use Frame Pacing which an software solution.Who said CF run better their are million of website which are posting so many problem of R9290 and R9290X in CF.First u should get facts right before posting in technical topic.

 

[blackened23]

I do not :awe:

Whatever you say. Fact of the matter is nvidia hasn't had 2 year outstanding software issues, period. AMD has and does. So in this context, I feel it is relevant - people will buy nvidia because of this reason. Generally speaking, fewer of these mysterious "issues" pop up on the green side. Now, nvidia isn't perfect. Do driver issues happen now and then? Sure. I guarantee that nvidia is far quicker in fixing such issues, though.

And the other half of the software equation is features. Nvidia's software has far more features in terms of driver forced AO, TXAA, physx, adaptive vsync, shadow play, etc. I do feel like AMD has some catch up to do here as well, the last feature that AMD added was MLAA, years ago.

 

[blastingcap]

@blackened23 and do you think nvidia would have fixed that problem in less time, had it happened to them? I don't think so really. NV had a long way working on frame pacing, before it was detected on AMD HW. I think AMD gave a very fast solution to the problem, starting from 0. It took only one generation to give HW (290/290X) almost on par with Nvidia SLI (if not better).
From my point of view SLI/Crossfire will never be perfect with AFR techniques.

Crossfire has a much more troubled history than SLI.

1. NV had hardware framepacing since at least Fermi, and if you don't know what frame times or framepacing means, go look up the Techreport article that started the whole framepacing controversy in the first place. Or see here for why it's a big deal: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...ils-Capture-based-Graphics-Performance-Tes-11

AMD only followed suit four years later with the R9 290/290X, and anything lower than that like R9 280X or 7970 or lower, doesn't get the hardware fix. Instead they get a sloppy software fix that partially fixes the issue for single-GPU, or dual-GPU single monitor. It still does not fix the issue for Crossfire+Eyefinity users like me.

2. If you want to know how bad the situation was from 2009 (and probably before 2009 as well) through most of 2013, see this: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/09/geforce_gtx_460_1gb_sli_vs_radeon_hd_5870_cfx (GTX 460 SLI beat HD 5870 Crossfire, yes you read that right, two midrange NV GPUs beat up the two best AMD GPUs at the time)

 

[blackened23]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125462
This is the card in question. With the masterpass promo code it comes out to 332 after rebate. Its a 4gb 770. I'm really scared of buying a 2gb card atm. I just think it'll run into some issues down the line with the lack of vram. So it's either the 4gb 770, 780 (which is more than I want to spend), or pay a ridiculous price for a 280x and I don't care to mine so it'd be a gaming card only.

330$ for a 4gb 770? That's a pretty good price to be honest. And you can get the MSI gamer GTX 780 for 420$ shipped with the masterpass discount. That MSI aftermarket GTX 780 is about on par with 280X pricing currently.