NVIDIA's brand > AMD's brand?

[Phynaz]

My first video card - IBM Monochrome Graphics Adapter.

Prior to that my computers all had integrated graphics (TRS-80, Exidy Sorcerer, Apple II, C64, Amiga, Atari 800, a few others).

It's hard for me to think of any other company that could obliterate both NV and AMD in the graphics space, especially with the patents arms race creating barriers to entry.

AMD's cpu division is actually in competition with its graphics division. In a decade or two from now and AMD could have obliterated part of itself - which has also happened countless times in the past.

 

[Barfo]

OK, i'm back to work. Now i get to bench a GTX 470 and both versions of GTX 460s today with the new "detonator" GeForce 260.89 drivers. C-ya!
🙂

Does it increase GTX 460's performance noticeably? 😱

 

[apoppin]

Does it increase GTX 460's performance noticeably? 😱

i will know tonight. i am getting a pair of GTX 460s today from Taiwan - one is the 768MB version, the other is 1 GB. i do know Nvidia is as proud of the GF 260.89 drivers now as AMD was of their 10.3a drivers back in April
😉

i am finishing up testing the AMD Graphics cards; i am benching the HD 5870 again with the very latest drivers. i have added GTA-IV and Lost Planet 2 to my benchmarking suite over the weekend; now 23 games. 🙂

(actually i forgot i was still logged in 😱 .. i really DO have to get back to benching as i have a pretty limited time to get it all done. Catch you later.)

i think both brands are equally noticeable overall. AMD (Vision) and Nvidia Graphics are plastered over every netbook and notebook that they are in. You see them on game titles. Soon everywhere on TV with the Best Buy Promo and Nvidia.

 

[Scali]

Does it increase GTX 460's performance noticeably? 😱

What is 'noticeably'? On my GTX460OC 1 GB it's not exactly a world of difference. Few % here and there.

 

[nitromullet]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on Xbox 360 has the Nvidia Physx logo among other logos when it's starting up.

That's interesting, and a little weird. The 360 doesn't have an NVIDIA gpu, so they are basically promoting that you can run their physics API on non-NVIDIA hardware on a console while they prevent you from doing it on your PC.

They have the ATI logo on the side of the wii

Did Nintendo buy the design from ATI (like MS did for the 360), or are they putting ATI built chips into their console? The graphics chip on the Xbox 360 isn't even branded ATI on the inside. This article shows both the original Xenos chip and the new dual-die cpu/gpu hybrid, and nothing is branded as ATI: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=940&type=expert&pid=3

 

[n0x1ous]

That's interesting, and a little weird. The 360 doesn't have an NVIDIA gpu, so they are basically promoting that you can run their physics API on non-NVIDIA hardware on a console while they prevent you from doing it on your PC.

Ya I thought it was interesting as well. But maybe its the same since PhysX will run on AMD/ATI PC but just on the CPU and on the 360 its running on the CPU. The game is developed by MercurySteam in collaboration with Konami and Kojima's Studio, so maybe its part of whatever engine MercurySteam is using?

Interestingly enough, many reviews mention that the game runs smoother on the PS3 (nvidia chip) than the 360. I wonder if that has any connection or maybe not since the 7800 based RSX in the PS3 is not a CUDA compatible chip (G80 forward AFAIK)

 

[railven]

Ya I thought it was interesting as well. But maybe its the same since PhysX will run on AMD/ATI PC but just on the CPU and on the 360 its probably running on the CPU. The game is developed by MercurySteam in collaboration with Konami and Kojima's Studio, so maybe its part of whatever engine MercurySteam is using?

Interestingly enough, many reviews mention that the game runs smoother on the PS3 (nvidia chip) than the 360. I wonder if that has any connection or maybe not since the 7800 based RSX in the PS3 is not a CUDA compatible chip (G80 forward AFAIK)

From what I've been able to find, both Metal Gear Solid 5 and the new Castlevania were developed on the MGS4 engine that Hideo made exclusive for the PS3.

The engine was modified to run on both platforms for MGS5 and when Hideo was asked to assist Mercury System on Lords of Shadows the game was supposedly being reworked for that engine.

You'd see strong similarities in the engines if you check out the trailers for MGS4, MGS5, and Lords of Shadows.

If these early reports are true that could explain why the PS3 version has an edge over the 360 version and I doubt it has anything to do with the GPUs in the system (in reference to PhysX.)

And on the consoles I believe it is only CPU PhysX not GPU accelerated.

 

[n0x1ous]

From what I've been able to find, both Metal Gear Solid 5 and the new Castlevania were developed on the MGS4 engine that Hideo made exclusive for the PS3.

The engine was modified to run on both platforms for MGS5 and when Hideo was asked to assist Mercury System on Lords of Shadows the game was supposedly being reworked for that engine.

You'd see strong similarities in the engines if you check out the trailers for MGS4, MGS5, and Lords of Shadows.

If these early reports are true that could explain why the PS3 version has an edge over the 360 version and I doubt it has anything to do with the GPUs in the system (in reference to PhysX.)

And on the consoles I believe it is only CPU PhysX not GPU accelerated.

thanks Rail, that all makes sense and explains some of this.

 

[SolidSnake42]

I don't necessarily have loyalty between either of the companies, considering both are good, but usually I go for the best price to performance ratio cards of a certain generation and stay there for about 2 or 3 years. ATI was my first card, then nVidia now ATI again.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I think GeForce probably has more brand recognition than Radeon, at least with more casual gamers. I also think that Nvidia has a larger group of fanboys than AMD... I think they gained a lot of them in the GeForce 2 - 4 days. But, I think AMD is donig more to get the Radeon name out there to casual gamers these days, and I think their success the last couple have generations has helped.

 

[faxon]

No, they don't. I'm pretty sure that MS and Sony want to make sure that their consoles are sufficiently abstract to the majority of end users in that (as long as there is no RRoD) it just works without the customer having to know or care what's inside.

Also, MS and Sony actually own the IP for the Xbox and PS3 chips, although they were originally designed by ATI and NVIDIA. They have their own manufacturing contracts to build the chips instead of buying chips from ATI and NV.

just FYI, the gamecube and WII both have an ATI logo on the box, and the company that did the n64 graphics was bought by ATI as well, or they probably would have logo'ed it as well. given the popularity of the WII, i wouldnt be surprised if someone remembers it when they go to buy a GPU for their PC at a later date

 

[n0x1ous]

i wouldnt be surprised if someone remembers it when they go to buy a GPU for their PC at a later date

Of course, those new PC GPU"s won't have ATI logos on them anymore and will casual buyers know that AMD = ATI?

 

[Throckmorton]

That's funny. My first card was a Diamond Viper V550, a Riva TNT based card, and I had no idea the card wasn't actually made by Diamond. I first became conscious of 3Dfx because that's all anyone was talking about, but ironically the first time I went to visit 3dfx.com to see what all the talk was about, I was greeted by the "It's been fun, but we got bought by NVIDIA page instead of the 3dfx page." So, I guess I became aware of 3Dfx and NVIDIA at about the same time.

I don't think there is any question about who has better brand recognition between the two now, it's NVIDIA hands down. Even on these forums everyone refers to cards and chips as a "gpu", which is a name for the chip NVIDIA invented. I think most of us know that ATI coined the term "vpu" as their counterpart but none of use ever refer to anything as a "vpu".

Same goes for SLI... How many times have you seen someone ask about SLI'ing Radeons? No one ever asks about Crossfiring GeForce?

I think AMD has made some tremendous headway in terms of brand recognition for the Radeon with the 4 and 5-series because they've really been good cards, but overall NVIDIA still has better brand recognition amongst people who are interested. Most people in general though probably haven't heard of either, nor do they care.

The term SLI was around long before nVidia. 3DFX used it to mean "scan line interleaving" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scan-Line_Interleave

So nVidia used the old acronym that already had recognition and ATI came up with their own name.

 

[Throckmorton]

I bought my first ATI card in 1988. So for me it's ATI.

How many fps did you get in Pong?

 

[Daedalus685]

How many fps did you get in Pong?

Heh, Kings quest and what not were very well established in 88. My Dad's 286 I used as a child had an ATI EGA card.

Ah the days of Police quest, mechwarrior 1, and other pure classics! Don't forget Jack Nicklaus Golf either!

 

[Seero]

Brand awareness...

It is more than a few games where I have to wait until a bunch of logos before I can launch the game, and one of them is ...


That is the way it meant to wait!


I often spent more time to heck skip it then to play the game... some even have sounds too... like I can forget...

 

[brencat]

Not loyal to either brand, but I have had mostly nvidia over the years. My only ATI card was an X800XL which was a great card that I bought right as BF2 came out.

Personally I thought the colors and detail were a bit more vivid on that one ATI card I had than nvidia at the time. But the drivers were spotty. I uninstalled the catalyst drivers because of the bloat and went with Omega drivers which were excellent.

By comparison, I've never had any major issues with the nvidia drivers I've used (but I don't change to every new revision either). I've had my GTX260 now for over a year and a half and it's been great.

Right or wrong, nvidia has sold me on the fact that they have better drivers. And based on my experiences, this appears to be the case. Even in the old days before I understood computers much, I liked how their executable first uninstalled the old and then installed the new driver without interruption which was a nice touch.

Given 2 cards of similar performance and price, my first instinct will be to pick the nvidia card every time. Forgive me...

 

[darckhart]

my first true 3d card was a diamond stealth 3000. was quite happy until i couldn't play glide games (descent) with it. got very annoyed. needed 3dfx.

as of now, well all the small players got squeezed out so we only have two from which to choose. personally, i go for perf/price. although nv's practices as of late make me not like them too much. as for the their driver/suite packages, i think they both suck. i wish they'd give the necessary dlls and then i'd just use some other 3rd party app to do my configurations.

as for my non tech friends/family, nv and amd will not sway them either way because they don't care enough. i suspect that nv has the bigger name recognition at this point.