PC Gaming Discussion - AMD vs. Nvidia

[cmdrdredd]

If this generation has taught me anything its that driver quality is essential. I remember over two years ago many were arguing that AMD had resolved their problems and now had a good driver package. 19 bugs raised later, many of them game breaking and I couldn't disagree with that initial premise more. Most of my raised bugs still haven't been addressed, 1.5 years later. I really wish their driver team could get it together and produce a better product, because AMD is definitely giving us better hardware/$ at most price points. Their hardware is top notch at the price point they are at, but it seems to be crippled by bad software over and over. It has improved, I remember days when AMD drivers couldn't be installed at all, but its still not at an acceptable level.

For the next generation I'll look at the trade offs of performance and price and thermals and power consumption and I'll make a call based on the performance differences I see. But if AMD really does beat NVidia by say 20% cost at the same performance I'll wait a few months and watch carefully for initial problems with the drivers. I'll pay very careful attention to all the reported bugs and issues and hunt around all the reviews. AMD has fooled me twice into buying products that reviewed well but in practice often were unplayable, it wont happen a third time.

I wont bother with the new consoles I suspect, I have a PC that is more powerful than they are and I think it likely most of the exclusives will also appear on PC post release, to ignore the largest platform would be kind of daft. But there is only one game (the division) that I would like to play but its far from worth buying a console for.

Consoles are bigger gaming platforms than PCs. Don't fool yourself into thinking that people with PCs in their home actually have gaming PCs. Also, there will always be games that never ever appear on PC. That's why they are called exclusives in the first place.

Power has never mattered, PCs have always been more powerful than consoles but that doesn't give us all the games.

Yeah, Nvidia has had how many card-killing drivers now?

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/warning-nvidia-196-75-drivers-can-kill-your-graphics-card/7551

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18518818

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=341316

http://gizmodo.com/373076/nvidia-responsible-for-nearly-30-of-vista-crashes-in-2007

You do realize there are more people reporting crashes with one product over another because there are more users of that hardware right?

And how old are those drivers? 196.xx? Seriously? We're on 326.xx now...try bringing up something relevant

 

[SiliconWars]

You do realize there are more people reporting crashes with one product over another because there are more users of that hardware right?

You do realise that never in history has Nvidia had anything like those numbers more? Never in history has Nvidia had 3x more users than ATI. Not even close. Yet here we see them with 3x the driver faults.

On top of that, you see the Intel numbers? Who do you think had more PC's with graphics (and therefore graphics drivers) in them? And yet Nvidia has 3.5x more crashes than Intel. How do you explain that other than the obvious?

And how old are those drivers? 196.xx? Seriously? We're on 326.xx now...try bringing up something relevant

Clearly you didn't click the links either? Is the decade-old AMD CPU burning more valid?

The worst thing about Nvidia is they have a continuing history of card-killing drivers over the past few years. That means they have a serious quality control problem and the next one probably won't be far away.

196.75 - March 2010
267.52 - March 2011
320.18 - June 2013

I do it because of peace of mind. Less issues, less dramas, better drivers, everything just works.

Sleep easy, Phil!

 

[escrow4]

Going from a Titan to a 7870? 3930k to FX 6300? I'm sorry, but did you fall and hit your head or something? Why on earth would you do that if you already have the hardware?

Because I feel like it. And I'll find out for myself if AMD really is as bad as the fanboys say it is.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You do realise that never in history has Nvidia had anything like those numbers more? Never in history has Nvidia had 3x more users than ATI. Not even close. Yet here we see them with 3x the driver faults.

On top of that, you see the Intel numbers? Who do you think had more PC's with graphics (and therefore graphics drivers) in them? And yet Nvidia has 3.5x more crashes than Intel. How do you explain that other than the obvious?

Clearly you didn't click the links either? Is the decade-old AMD CPU burning more valid?

The worst thing about Nvidia is they have a continuing history of card-killing drivers over the past few years. That means they have a serious quality control problem and the next one probably won't be far away.

196.75 - March 2010
267.52 - March 2011
320.18 - June 2013



Sleep easy, Phil!

I never mentioned anything about a CPU...so again. bring up something relevant. 320.18 never killed any cards. There were false reports of cards dying but not proven to be driver related.

 

[SiliconWars]

I never mentioned anything about a CPU...so again. bring up something relevant. 320.18 never killed any cards. There were false reports of cards dying but not proven to be driver related.

If you think my links showing Nvidia driver issues over the past 3 years aren't relevant then god knows what you must think about Phil's decade-old AMD CPU burning. Of course you didn't actually bother to comment on the relevancy of Phil's comments, instead attempting to dismiss mine as being irrelevant.

 

[Red Hawk]

Because I feel like it. And I'll find out for myself if AMD really is as bad as the fanboys say it is.

You're going to get a worse experience, not because it's AMD, but because you're taking a big step down in raw graphics and CPU power. I would at least think you would go from Nvidia & Intel's best to AMD's best (7970 GHz edition and FX 8350, if not one of those crazy high clocked FX CPUs)

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I've never minded the performance from the AMD/ATI camp but their drivers are just so atrocious that I dont think I can bring myself to buy another. My last AMD was a 5870 and it was hot, suffered from the grey screen of death where the entire screen would go grey and not recover and not to mention fairly frequent "Display driver has recovered" messages. I am now with nvidia with a 770 and havent had any problems in the month or so ive had it which is more than i could say for the AMD.

 

[Red Hawk]

I would get "Display driver has recovered" messages back when I used a 5770 and sometimes on my laptop's 5470, but I eventually discovered that it was because the drivers were installed incorrectly, thanks to me neglecting to properly uninstall the last drivers. In other words, PEBKAC, not anything specific to the drivers.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Used to have nothing but issues with amd cards,then suddenly the 12.11 drivers turn a once unpleasant experience into one that honestly was and maybe even better then nvidia.

Stuttering plagued a gtx670 card i had so bad in BF3 i went back to using my 7850 and luckily it disappeared,and now i am currently using a gtx650 non ti and the stuttering is not present as of 326.41 beta and sadly have been the best drivers i have ever in over a year.

Up to purchasing whatever card is the best in my price range as of now as both teams are equally as good now to me.

 

[stahlhart]

Since, as expected, no one is respecting OP's stated intent for this thread any longer, we're done here.
-- stahlhart