Are nVidia's products attractive to informed buyers?

[The Alias]

So I'm shopping for a video card for a friend's system and he said he wants a nvidia card and I'm like ok and we go online looking for some on the egg and I kid you not these were the prices by the lowest viable option per chip

680 power edition : $460
gigabyte 7970 ghz @1100 core : $430
stock 670 : $360
gigabyte 7970 : $370
asus 660ti : $280
his iceQ 7950 : $290
zotac 660 : $214
gigabyte 7870 : $250

so he says he wants the 680 but I explained the only real value in their entire product stack is the 660 and each and every one of them gets trounced even further once they're both over clocked ... long story short he switched to the gigabyte 7970 ghz and it's on the way now .. the question for me now is nvidia going to make their products attractive to informed buyers ? because that time seems like a very long way off

Thread title edited to remove baiting - Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[CVSiN]

You get what you pay for.
superior drivers and no issues.
I have both and would not go back with AMD/ATI again especially now that Nvidia has Surround capabilties on single cards which was the only reason I was using AMDs.

Nothing but driver nightmares with the 6950s. next time back to Nvidia 660tis kick butt.

 

[The Alias]

You get what you pay for.
superior drivers and no issues.
I have both and would not go back with AMD/ATI again especially now that Nvidia has Surround capabilties on single cards which was the only reason I was using AMDs.

Nothing but driver nightmares with the 6950s. next time back to Nvidia 660tis kick butt.

there are issues on both side like for instance bf3 being unplayable on 310.70 and 310.90 drivers . Nvidia is far from perfect

 

[wand3r3r]

You get what you pay for.
superior drivers and no issues.
I have both and would not go back with AMD/ATI again especially now that Nvidia has Surround capabilties on single cards which was the only reason I was using AMDs.

Nothing but driver nightmares with the 6950s. next time back to Nvidia 660tis kick butt.

It sounds like an apple user. You pay for the logo...

(apple makes good products, too much emphasis on brand)

I've had/have both and haven't seen anything 'superior'. Price per performance is easily AMD atm.

 

[CVSiN]

It sounds like an apple user. You pay for the logo...

(apple makes good products, too much emphasis on brand)

I've had/have both and haven't seen anything 'superior'. Price per performance is easily AMD atm.

considering my Crossfire 6950s pushing 3 HP 22's are still installed and working you cannot call me a fan boy nor an "apple" user.
Apple uses inferior hardware and software at an inflated price to pray on dumb yuppies.
Nvidia is always on the cutting edge and has FAR less BS driver issues.

BF3 runs fine on my Nvdia GTX670M with those drivers..
don't see an issue.

 

[slayernine]

there are issues on both side like for instance bf3 being unplayable on 310.70 and 310.90 drivers . Nvidia is far from perfect

I second this. BF3 crashes frequently on my GTX 670.

 

[SolMiester]

Yeah, i will always give up 5% performance for stability and time not wasted, finding out which driver is best for which game...

 

[blastingcap]

What a sh*tty title for this thread. IBTL

 

[VulgarDisplay]

AMD's driver team has been eliminating issues and giving performance boosts at an alarming rate for the last 6 months. Seeing their swift responses to issues lately is actually more comforting to me than the actual presence of said "bugs" is disconcerting.

I'm eagerly anticipating their memory architecture driver update to see how much performance gain it gives their cards. I would laugh hysterically if it gave them so much more performance that it equaled the rumored "Titan" card on it's release. No way in hell that will happen, but it would be epic.

 

[Rvenger]

considering my Crossfire 6950s pushing 3 HP 22's are still installed and working you cannot call me a fan boy nor an "apple" user.
Apple uses inferior hardware and software at an inflated price to pray on dumb yuppies.
Nvidia is always on the cutting edge and has FAR less BS driver issues.

BF3 runs fine on my Nvdia GTX670M with those drivers..
don't see an issue.

My shiny new Gigabyte GTX 660 OC has wake up from sleep issues with the current 310.90 and 313.96 drivers, also the displayport output doesn't work on my HP L2201x monitor. I am on my 2nd GTX 660 with this same issue. I don't want to hear about superb Nvidia quality when I owned a GTX 670, 680 and now a 660.

They both have driver issues, period.

 

[felang]

considering my Crossfire 6950s pushing 3 HP 22's are still installed and working you cannot call me a fan boy nor an "apple" user.
Apple uses inferior hardware and software at an inflated price to pray on dumb yuppies.
Nvidia is always on the cutting edge and has FAR less BS driver issues.

Hmmm... no, not even close.

 

[NIGELG]

Nvidia is doing fine without the input and defense from their rabid fanboys and the 'AMD drivers suxz,lolz' juvenile bandwagon that is prevalent on the forums.

Both companies have pros and cons and both have things to work on and improve.

 

[CHADBOGA]

On the last few occasions where I have needed to buy a videocard for myself or friends, I have started out thinking I will probably go Nvidia, but when I look closely at what's on offer, ATI(AMD) wins me over every time.

Now I am not a big gamer, currently I pretty much only play Star Craft 2 regularly and I have had no problems with SC2 and my 7850. In fact the latest drivers have given me a nice and noticeable boost in SC2.

The one minor problem I have with ATI's drivers is that about once a fortnight the driver crashes and whilst I can continue browsing the net and whatever, things start to hang a bit or go slow, so I pretty much need to reboot.

Not a massive issue for me, but I have had this issue across multiple versions of ATI's drivers on this card.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

On the last few occasions where I have needed to buy a videocard for myself or friends, I have started out thinking I will probably go Nvidia, but when I look closely at what's on offer, ATI(AMD) wins me over every time.

Now I am not a big gamer, currently I pretty much only play Star Craft 2 regularly and I have had no problems with SC2 and my 7850. In fact the latest drivers have given me a nice and noticeable boost in SC2.

The one minor problem I have with ATI's drivers is that about once a fortnight the driver crashes and whilst I can continue browsing the net and whatever, things start to hang a bit or go slow, so I pretty much need to reboot.

Not a massive issue for me, but I have had this issue across multiple versions of ATI's drivers on this card.

Probably flash doing what flash does best. Being awful.

 

[blastingcap]

On the last few occasions where I have needed to buy a videocard for myself or friends, I have started out thinking I will probably go Nvidia, but when I look closely at what's on offer, ATI(AMD) wins me over every time.

Now I am not a big gamer, currently I pretty much only play Star Craft 2 regularly and I have had no problems with SC2 and my 7850. In fact the latest drivers have given me a nice and noticeable boost in SC2.

The one minor problem I have with ATI's drivers is that about once a fortnight the driver crashes and whilst I can continue browsing the net and whatever, things start to hang a bit or go slow, so I pretty much need to reboot.

Not a massive issue for me, but I have had this issue across multiple versions of ATI's drivers on this card.

NV is so much better than AMD at SC2 it's not even funny.

 

[fixbsod]

Doesn't AMD's 7xxx series have DX9 issues in games ??? Or did the new Cat's fix that?

 

[hyrule4927]

NV is so much better than AMD at SC2 it's not even funny.

I'd be interested to see some current benches. It's been at least a year since any site I can find has run used it in a GPU test, and AMD has made a lot of progress on drivers since then.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

NV is so much better than AMD at SC2 it's not even funny.

Does it matter when both are well over 100fps?

 

[CVSiN]

My shiny new Gigabyte GTX 660 OC has wake up from sleep issues with the current 310.90 and 313.96 drivers, also the displayport output doesn't work on my HP L2201x monitor. I am on my 2nd GTX 660 with this same issue. I don't want to hear about superb Nvidia quality when I owned a GTX 670, 680 and now a 660.

They both have driver issues, period.

Well that's not Nvidia's fault nor a "driver issue" that is hardware. you bought Gigabyte.
I will never buy another MSI, PNY or Gigabyte motherboard or video card as long as I live as I've have had such bad times with them.

I've also been gaming since well before Nvidia was even a choice. and used them all.
Nvidia is still the leader in less issues by far.

and AMD CPUs toss those in the bin as well.
wow you have owned 1 generation.. I've owned every generation of video card all the way back to the days when 3DFX ruled and even before that.
Sorry I went back to AMD for the Eyefinity and it was horrible.
nothing but trouble and bugs and crossfire support was abysmal.
Was their last chance back to Nvidia next time I rebuild.

nearly all of the games are written to favor Nvidia technology these days as well.

 

[Rvenger]

Well that's not Nvidia's fault nor a "driver issue" that is hardware. you bought Gigabyte.
I will never buy another MSI, PNY or Gigabyte motherboard or video card as long as I live as I've have had such bad times with them.

I've also been gaming since well before Nvidia was even a choice. and used them all.
Nvidia is still the leader in less issues by far.

and AMD CPUs toss those in the bin as well.
wow you have owned 1 generation.. I've owned every generation of video card all the way back to the days when 3DFX ruled and even before that.
Sorry I went back to AMD for the Eyefinity and it was horrible.
nothing but trouble and bugs and crossfire support was abysmal.
Was their last chance back to Nvidia next time I rebuild.

I certainly am not going to Bestbuy to buy Nvidia brand and lately EVGA has been getting quite a bad rep as well. (EVBot issues with 680 Classified) There is nothing wrong with Gigabyte and MSI is one of the best AIB to date. Twinfrozr and Lightning models are amongst the best.


I owned 6600GT, 6800, 8500GT, 9800GT,GTX 460, 2x GTX 480s, GTX 560, GTX 660, 3x 670, 2x 680 over a period of 6 years. They all had driver issues.

nearly all of the games are written to favor Nvidia technology these days as well.

This statement is also incorrect as well. How many physx titles have we had last year? Also, Crysis 3, Farcry 3, BF3, MOHW are all optimized for AMD graphics cards.

 

[f1sherman]

@OP

I just wish your support phase turns out to be equally competent and fired up, like the buying phase

ie. since you are that sure about what's "real value" that you go around persuading friends how to spend their money,
hopefully you will stand behind your choice with full weight of your technical prowess

 

[absolutezero]

nearly all of the games are written to favor Nvidia technology these days as well.

LOL, AMD : Far cry 3, Hitman absolution, Battlefield 3, Bioshock Infinity, Crysis 3, Dirt showdown, Skyrim, Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs

Nvidia: Batman, Borderlands 2, BF3, Crysis 3, AC3


So, favoring Nvidia more heh? Recent games only

Edit: the D : in AMD : makes D: when put together

 

[blckgrffn]

Yeah, I want to recommend nvidia cards because I like the perf/watt, but I find the perf/$ lacking.

I buy both brands when the time is right, so :shrug: The 660 is attractive, but not a whole lot of upgrade from people who bought any reasonably high end card in the last two years.

I'll probably be buying a 7970 during the 8xxx launch window (hopefully a couple of massive MIR's or something will bring them under $300 briefly, which is my personal GPU limit) because my 5870 has served me so well and I'll run that for 3-4 years too.

Unless nvidia does some price cutting on the 680 in the mean time.

 

[JimKiler]

You get what you pay for.
superior drivers and no issues.
I have both and would not go back with AMD/ATI again especially now that Nvidia has Surround capabilties on single cards which was the only reason I was using AMDs.

Nothing but driver nightmares with the 6950s. next time back to Nvidia 660tis kick butt.

So what did the nvidia customers pay for when their laptop GPU's were overheating and failing 5 years ago and cost Nvidia $150-$200 million.

 

[felang]

Well that's not Nvidia's fault nor a "driver issue" that is hardware. you bought Gigabyte.
I will never buy another MSI, PNY or Gigabyte motherboard or video card as long as I live as I've have had such bad times with them.

I've also been gaming since well before Nvidia was even a choice. and used them all.
Nvidia is still the leader in less issues by far.

and AMD CPUs toss those in the bin as well.
wow you have owned 1 generation.. I've owned every generation of video card all the way back to the days when 3DFX ruled and even before that.
Sorry I went back to AMD for the Eyefinity and it was horrible.
nothing but trouble and bugs and crossfire support was abysmal.
Was their last chance back to Nvidia next time I rebuild.

nearly all of the games are written to favor Nvidia technology these days as well.

I suddenly feel like I´m being scolded by my 92 year old grandfather, him calling me "young´n" and spouting off some nonesense about the "good ol´days"

AMD has started to get their sh*t together these past couple of months releasing a steady stream of drivers that improve not only Crossfire but a lot of other issues people have been complaining about. Now I´m not saying things are perfect with AMD, my point is that both camps have driver issues. Also, in general, multi gpu gaming has always been plagued with issues, it´s for this reason that I will be sticking to single GPU´s from now on, don´t really care what brand, just whatever offers the most bang from my buck at that time.