ATI vs. Nvidia & Why

[Barfo]

And btw, ATI is no more.

 

[XX55XX]

I've always liked Nvidia for some reason. Unlike AMD, Nvidia was one of the first companies that tried to make its GPUs useful outside of gaming, with CUDA. Furthermore, I respond to the color green better than the color red.

I've owned/used the following GPUs from Nvidia:

GeForce 6600
GeForce 8800GT
GeForce 9400M (MacBook Pro)
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Quadro NVS 4200M (Thinkpad T420)

Nvidia's great, and while it maintains performance parity with AMD, I don't see myself parting with them for the foreseeable future.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Come on man...from the OP:
"Focus on your reasons and not the reasons others have."

Let it be.

This thread is just beating a dead horse, AGAIN, for the 14th billion time.

These threads never end well. That's just my opinion.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I just buy the right GPU for me at the right time.

I've owned
Voodoo 3 3000
GeForce MX440
6800GT
7800GT
8800GTS 512mb
GTX260 Core 216
AMD 5870
AMD 7970

I was always an nvidia only type of guy, but the 5870 with it's amazing price/performance really changed my outlook on GPU's.

 

[Jacky60]

<P>I've owned 9700 pro(great card), tnt2, Geforce 2, Geforce 3, Geforce 4600ti, 8800GTX (great card), 9800 pro, 4870, 4890, 5870. 5970 plus many others I can't be bothered to recall. I do remember Nvidia cheating me with the textures on the 4600ti in BF 1942 (basically they had great performance because they didn't render all the textures at the prescribed level-my radeon 9700 pro revealed what I'd been missing) &nbsp;but otherwise I've no complaints about either manufacturers products. Some of Nvidias behaviour has made them less appealing to me so if two products were equal in every way I'd buy ATI/AMD (also because I want them to keep going to maintain competition in this market) but if Nvidia delivered something 10% better at the same price I'd go with them. Nvidia are imho more expensive for the same performance. ATI drivers are sometimes not ready as soon as a new game is launched but generally I've had very few if any problems with their drivers and no problems with either companies cards. </P>

 

[Tempered81]

And btw, ATI is no more.

http://verdetrol.com/

(tilt your screen back) or view the page source

 

[superjim]

The only thing that matters at the end of the day is price/performance and this is also what I go on. I've never had problems with drivers with either AMD/NV so that doesn't apply to me. List of past cards (not in order):

Kyro II, 9500 Pro, 6600GT, X800XT PE, X1800XT, X1900XT, 8800GT, 8800GTS, 4870, 5870, 6970

 

[Lonyo]

Usually best performance at my given price, but nowadays I also go for whatever has low power as well, and then usually limit my overclocking to stock voltages.

Now that I have a decent amount of money, I'm not so concerned about value and decided to buy the almost best I could afford which wasn't quite so horrendously overpriced (aka not HD7970).

 

[nOOky]

I usually buy whatever suits me at the time of purchase. I also usually buy around Christmas/tax time. Lately AMD has been releasing their stuff at the end of the year, so I have been buying AMD cards. This year I went with a 7970, if nvidia had their competing card out I would have considered it. I find it hard to get excited about spring/summer gpu releases since winter is "gaming" season for me.
I can't remember what I've had in the past, something like 7970 to Crossfired 6870's to single 4890 to 4870 to 8800GTS512 to 8800GT to X1950XT to 6600 Ultra etc.
I still have a 6870, the 8800GTS512, and a 4870 sitting around I should probably sell, but they aren't hurting anything sitting there in the boxes.

 

[Piano Man]

In a Windows environment, I don't see any reason to think nV vs. AMD. Buying a GPU comes down to.

1. How much you intend to spend
2. What kind of performance do you require. Is this for specific games or just general play
3. Is noise, heat, in-the-case or out-the-case cooling a factor, and how much a factor
4. Can it OC well, and if so, does it do it without heat and noise getting out of control?

Those to me are the big 4, then you can look at the little stuff if you need to.

1. Compute stuff
2. Drivers (not little to some, but in Windows, I don't see major issues)
3. Eyefinity, Surround Gaming, etc..
4. xfire/sli scaling. Does it microstutter?


Take all of those into account, and you could end up with either. For me, at my price point in the past, its been AMD for the past two rounds, before that it was nV for 3 rounds.

 

[fffblackmage]

I used to buy Nvidia (GeForce MX200, MX440, 6600GT), but it just seems like ATI/AMD has better bang for the buck now (X1950XT, 4830, 4890, 5870).

 

[Lonyo]

I usually buy whatever suits me at the time of purchase. I also usually buy around Christmas/tax time. Lately AMD has been releasing their stuff at the end of the year, so I have been buying AMD cards. This year I went with a 7970, if nvidia had their competing card out I would have considered it. I find it hard to get excited about spring/summer gpu releases since winter is "gaming" season for me.
I can't remember what I've had in the past, something like 7970 to Crossfired 6870's to single 4890 to 4870 to 8800GTS512 to 8800GT to X1950XT to 6600 Ultra etc.
I still have a 6870, the 8800GTS512, and a 4870 sitting around I should probably sell, but they aren't hurting anything sitting there in the boxes.

Yeah, I got my tax return about 2 months earlier than I anticipated, so I decided to buy a new monitor (2560x1440) and that 'required' a new graphics card at the same time.

 

[Rvenger]

Guys, I think I have a problem here


Matrox
Millenium 4M PCI

Nvidia
Riva TNT2 32mb
GF2 MX400
Geforce Ti4200 64mb
GF FX5200
GF FX5900 Ultra
GF 6200le
6600GT
6800 OC
8500GT
9800GT
GTS 450
GTX 460
GTX 560

ATI
Radeon 9250
Radeon 9550
Radeon 9600 Pro
Radeon 9600XT
Radeon 9700 Pro
Radeon 9700XT
Radeon X600
Radeon X700 Pro
Radeon X1550
Radeon HD 4550
Radeon HD 4830
Radeon HD 4870
Radeon HD 5450
Radeon HD 5850
Radeon HD 6450
Radeon HD 6570
Radeon HD 6750
Radeon HD 6790

 

[lifeblood]

Guys, I think I have a problem here


Matrox
Millenium 4M PCI

Nvidia
Riva TNT2 32mb
GF2 MX400
Geforce Ti4200 64mb
GF FX5200
GF FX5800 Ultra
GF 6200le
6600GT
6800 OC
8500GT
9800GT
GTX 460
GTX 560

ATI
Radeon 9250
Radeon 9550
Radeon 9600 Pro
Radeon 9700 Pro
Radeon 9700XT
Radeon X600
Radeon X700 Pro
Radeon X1550
Radeon HD 4550
Radeon HD 4830
Radeon HD 4870
Radeon HD 5450
Radeon HD 5850
Radeon HD 6450
Radeon HD 6570
Radeon HD 6750
Radeon HD 6790

Too much disposable income?

 

[Rvenger]

Too much disposable income?

I think I just added 2 more from your quote. And I am not going into Motherboards and CPUs that is probably worse. Lets just say a lot of users on these forums and AMDMB (Pcper) got some great deals from me LOL.

 

[mak360]

Am a conspiracy theorist type of guy & that &#8220;All Seeing Eye&#8221; on the NVidia Logo doesn&#8217;t help! lol. Apart from that, both are fine, I just wouldn&#8217;t go mobile (Laptops etc.) with NVidia for personal experience & from repairing laptops, Can&#8217;t say for the NVidia & ARM combo.

 

[exar333]

Yeah Nvidia has just been late with die shrinks lately... AMD always beats them by a couple months (read 6), then they somehow catch up with a refresh

Price/Performance is king, brand loyalty is for idiots and focus group members :roll:

My feelings overall are pretty similar to Tempered81... I think AMD makes the best hardware, but their software support is lacking... Its always sad how Nvidia gets their SLI profiles right away and AMD users have to wait an eternity some times
Would be awesome if AMD stepped up there and got more involved with developers

This is really the 'achilles heel' of AMD IMHO. For premium buyers, they don't want to spend $1200+ on 3x7970 only to have to both wait for upgraded drivers and wait months and months for xfire profiles for the top games. I am not saying it always happens, but happens enough. This is why many premium builers and OEMs go the NV route, because they appear to support their higher-end customers better.

Based on performance and features alone, I think you can make a argument for either side. I have owned both, and liked both.

Edit: It wasn't brought-up, but if you are talking about chipsets, NV is utter garbage. AMD, on the other hand, is VERY good. NV had some great chipsets prior to about 2007, but the last 5 years have been miserable. I am glad they are getting-out of that business. If I never have to help someone who purchased a POS NV-based MB, it will be great.

 

[lifeblood]

I've had both and like them both. If they both had identical cards at an identical price I guess I would buy AMD just because I want them to succeed, but if the NV card was 1 cent less I would buy that one.

 

[Mopetar]

I've owned both and don't have a real preference for either brand as I've had good results from both. Generally I just buy the best card in a given price range when I'm upgrading. I'll probably look at upgrading whenever the GK 104 comes out as both companies should have something in the price range that I'm interested in.

 

[bryanW1995]

My list from memory over the past dozen years or so:

voodoo 2, voodoo 3 3000, geforce 2 gts, 4200, 6200, 9800 pro, 6600 gt, 7600 gt, x1950xt, 3870, 4850, gtx 260-216, gtx 460-768, gtx 480. Also sprinkled in there right now I have a 9600 gso, gtx 260-192, and a 7300 gt (backup), though none of those 3 has ever been in my main rig.

Every one has been bought b/c of the price/performance ratio other than 3870 (I liked the dual slot cooling solution more than 8800gt's single slot). I will agree with an earlier poster who mentioned some nicer features that Nvidia cards offer. Specifically for me, SSAA looks AWESOME on older games, I'm glad to see that AMD has finally joined that party with 79x0. Otherwise, I think that the benefits/deficiencies of the two camps generally cancel each other out for me.

 

[bryanW1995]

Not always, the GTX 580 released first, the GTX 280 released first, the 8800 series released first etc.

Since the 8800 gtx released and AMD bought out ATI, nvidia has never been "first" by more than a few weeks. However, the current round is the 2nd straight shrink in which AMD beat NV to the punch by many months (and counting). GTX 280 snuck in ahead of 4870, and GTX 580 was only a few weeks ahead of 6970, and it's no coincidence that neither of those was a new card on a new process. A 500 mm2 die is just much harder to manufacture well on a new process node, especially at the beginning when you're working all of the kinks out of it. Of course, if the last die shrink is any indication, gk 100 should end up being pretty nice by the end of the year.

 

[kami]

I've been using nvidia since 8800GT days and basically its a case of, if it ain't broke don't fix it. The price/performance between what I got and a competing AMD card is basically the same so I have no incentive to switch. I'm also used to the drivers and some driver features that I might miss, like SLI AA which I have been using a lot lately with older games that don't need more than one of my GPUs to render. You can never have too much AA I have learned.

Now if Kepler isn't up to par I would most like switch to a 89xx series AMD card when they come, but for now I do not need the extra performance from the 79xx which is why I'm happy where I'm at.

Also, I think if I gamed at 2560x1440/1600 instead of 1080p I would have switched to AMD for the extra memory, but at 1080p it's not needed.

 

[bryanW1995]

Guys, I think I have a problem here


Words

Nvidia
More Words

GF FX5900 Ultra

More Words

I believe that I have diagnosed your problem, sir. NEVER buy a video card that moonlights as a dustbuster.

 

[Lonyo]

I believe that I have diagnosed your problem, sir. NEVER buy a video card that moonlights as a dustbuster.

Wrong one.
The 900 was the OK one.

 

[KompuKare]

Apart from that, both are fine, I just wouldn’t go mobile (Laptops etc.) with NVidia for personal experience & from repairing laptops, Can’t say for the NVidia & ARM combo.

Hm, while I have seen a lot of bumpgate Nvidia laptops while doing tech support, I have personally also seen a two desktop parts going bumpgate: a 8400GS and my current 8800GT (which I baked and have now running at about 60% clock - has been fine for months touch wood [wood screws?]).

On topic, I guess I prefer AMD but am (possibly) a bit disappointed in AMD's 28nm since I really would like a passively cooled GPU when this 8800GT finally dies and it seems GCN has used up a fair part of the 28nm transistor budget bonus on GPU Compute. While I fully understand that GPU Compute and Fusion is a big thing for AMD, for now I haven't seen any compelling GPU Compute applications.