PC Gaming Discussion - AMD vs. Nvidia

[BlockheadBrown]

**NOTE**
This is not supposed to be a free-for-all in regards to fanboy bashing or negatively ripping on someone's opinion. This is meant to be a meaningful and non-abrasive discussion of technology and the possibilities going forward in regards to PC gaming. Be civil and polite please.

I have a GeForce 660 that I'm fairly happy with. EA released a statement (then clarified) recently that their Frostbite based games will be "optimized" for AMD "first". With all the next gen consoles using AMD parts, it's not surprising to see this type of thing. While it doesn't mean that Nvidia will go out of business or anything, I am curious as to your take on EA's statement and the potential shift in the gaming side of things.

Stated another way: There have been developers (and will still be ones) that prefer one camp's hardware/drivers/support over another. That said, do you think that any of this (all consoles going AMD) will have a significant impact on PC gaming?

I'm debating selling off the 660 at some point and picking up one of the new AMD 9xxx cards (or whatever they'll call 'em) once they're available in my price range. A side note for all of you is what would make you choose one or the other given the statement above?

Lastly, do you see yourself skipping PC gaming and just going full-on console?

 

[ShintaiDK]

The optimized for AMD, nVidia or whatever is simply BS PR and nothing else. It just means that AMD or nVidia payed money to fund development and can release optimized drivers at release. And the other company will have optimized drivers a month later. After then there is no benefit owning either card as such in terms of that exact game.

And only the Xbox One uses the same API as PC. So any PS4 optimizations wouldnt transfer to the PC port.

While Nvidia-based systems will be supported, the company won't be able to develop and distribute updated drivers until after each game is released.

 

[RussianSensation]

A side note for all of you is what would make you choose one or the other given the statement above?

Don't care about what any PR states. Will always wait for the full game to come out and check for real world benchmarks. As far as future-proofing goes, I will just upgrade to 20nm and then 14nm GPUs and rely on pure grunt of future PC GPUs to play console ports. HD9970 is not that card as it won't be fast enough during the lifespan of PS4/XB1. Therefore any optimizations for HD9970 are unlikely to matter since by 2H of next year we'll be talking about 20nm GPUs that are 50-75% faster :thumbsup:

Lastly, do you see yourself skipping PC gaming and just going full-on console?

Definitely not. I play games for the games, not the hardware. If there are great games on the PC, or console, I'll buy them. Certain genres I play are superior on the PC. Certain games on consoles won't ever be on the PC. It makes little sense to me going exclusive on either platform.

 

[stahlhart]

**NOTE**
This is not supposed to be a free-for-all in regards to fanboy bashing or negatively ripping on someone's opinion. This is meant to be a meaningful and non-abrasive discussion of technology and the possibilities going forward in regards to PC gaming. Be civil and polite please.

Good luck. You're going to need it.
-- stahlhart

 

[ruhtraeel]

I split my time between Nvidia and AMD; my laptop has an Nvidia Geforce 550M, and my desktop has 2 5870's. I also have an Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 lying around.

If I were to buy a graphics card, it would most likely be from AMD as they usually have better price to performance. I don't mind that the drivers are worse, as being a Computer Science major, I am naturally inclined to spend 20 hours to fix a problem with my computer if I have to. If Nvidia came out with a product that has a good price/performance ratio, or if AMD starts overpricing their components like the FX 9590, I would buy Nvidia.


I barely use my Xbox 360, as you need to pay to play online. I use my Wii/GC a lot, but that is because I play Super Smash Bros Melee competitively, so that doesn't really count.

I plan on upgrading to a single Radeon 9970 when it comes out with the Quadro FX 4600 for PhysX, as my 5870's have had crossfire issues for a while and the 1GB VRAM just isn't enough a times.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Also, if console optimized. That means HD7xxx only. Any newer/older card and those "optimizations" are gone.

 

[RussianSensation]

Also, if console optimized. That means HD7xxx only. Any newer/older card and those "optimizations" are gone.

This statement is not true. Optimizations are GCN driven, not HD7xxx driven. If next 3 generations of AMD cards are all based on GCN just like VLIW-4/5 stuck around since 2006, it'll apply.

You also state that optimizations will only matter based on API level. This is again not true. The game code may use DirectCompute and if future iterations of GCN 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 generations continue to improve on DirectCompute, then the more games use DirectCompute, the fastest AMD cards will be. However, NV can always improve their Compute performance, which is expected starting with Maxwell. But we should see a huge performance difference between GCN and VLIW parts moving forward, such as 7970GE outperforming 6970 by 80-100% with games that use compute more.

 

[boxleitnerb]

There is nothing wrong with Nvidias DirectCompute performance in (current) games.

Looking at the average of modern games, either
a) GCN doesn't have the DirectCompute advantage (in games) that many people believe in
or
b) DirectCompute isn't used much in those games

 

[BlockheadBrown]

There is nothing wrong with Nvidias DirectCompute performance in games.

Looking at the average of modern games, either
a) GCN doesn't have the DirectCompute advantage (in games) that many people believe in
or
b) DirectCompute isn't used much in those games

I'm guessing it's more "b". The next 10 years or development should be very interesting!

 

[boxleitnerb]

Yeah, it's impossible to tell for us. Game developers and AMD write about DirectCompute, but how extensively it is used in game A or B, cannot be said.

 

[Ibra]

Nvidia hands down.

Carmack also revealed that he prefers Intel’s CPUs and Nvidia’s GPUs

 

[Anarchist420]

nvidia.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Next year I may buy AMD...who knows? lol

I'll also have all the new consoles so...

I dunno what one(s) will be my most played.

 

[Carfax83]

Stated another way: There have been developers (and will still be ones) that prefer one camp's hardware/drivers/support over another. That said, do you think that any of this (all consoles going AMD) will have a significant impact on PC gaming?

No it won't. Look at G.E titles or TWIMTBP games, they are not guaranteed to run faster or better on their sponsor's hardware.

A good example is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider started out as heavily favoring AMD cards, but over the months, NVidia has been steadily optimizing for the game with each driver release, to the point where with the latest beta 326.41 drivers (which has increased performance for Tomb Raider), they have for all intents and purposes, caught up with AMD.

And Tomb Raider was one of those best case scenarios for AMD because not only was it a G.E title, it also used Direct Compute for TressFX.

Dirt Showdown is another strong AMD title, in which the 326.41 drivers have significant performance gains, although I'm not certain it brings NVidia up to parity.

Far Cry 3 is a G.E title, that also runs faster and better on NVidia hardware.

I'm debating selling off the 660 at some point and picking up one of the new AMD 9xxx cards (or whatever they'll call 'em) once they're available in my price range. A side note for all of you is what would make you choose one or the other given the statement above?

I chose NVidia of course. I've used NVidia for years, and they've seldom let me down. AMD on the other hand, is one debacle after another. The last time I tried AMD was with the 4000 series, in which I stupidly bought two HD 4870 cards knowing I could run into issues.

Crossfire was screwed up back then, and generations later, it's STILL screwed up. The fact that it has taken AMD this long to even address that problem, to me speaks of either their lack of financial support for their driver division, or their incompetence. Either way, it's doesn't speak well of them.

Lastly, do you see yourself skipping PC gaming and just going full-on console?

Have you lost your mind? Hell no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Red Hawk]

Judging by the graphics cards I've purchased for myself (Radeon HD 5770 & 7870) and for my family (Radeon HD 5670 & Geforce GT 520), on whole I appear to be an AMD user. That's not to say I dislike Nvidia; I got a PC with a 9800 GT a while back before I started buying my own cards and enjoyed the experience.

I rarely touch consoles these days. I only go near them when I want to try out a console exclusive, like Halo or Zelda.

 

[sushiwarrior]

My video cards: 7300GT SLI, 8800GT, GTX260+, GTX560Ti, and now an HD7950. I'm a sucker for cards which are overclockable and tweakable, and Nvidia just seems to be shying away from that now. I want all of the options unlocked, I don't want "GPU boost" choosing my clocks instead of Afterburner, I just want to pump some voltage into my card, bring it up ~30-40% in clocks, and watch sparks fly (hopefully not literally :awe

 

[bystander36]

I have a 3D Vision monitor and no desire to stop using 3D Vision or consoles, so I'll be sticking with Nvidia. If I wasn't into 3D Vision, I would consider AMD cards, so it would be up in the air.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Got a free 660ti so nvidia

 

[Cerb]

What about: PC - both? My desktop is a Geforce, but everything else seems to be Radeon, including my emu box. What I upgrade to is going to depend on price/performance and included interesting games, if any. Both sides have had their share of driver issues, performance differences become pretty minor w/ some AA added, and I'm not tied to either side.

 

[SiliconWars]

It should be pretty obvious to everyone that when the console programmers really start to get to grips with and start to squeeze the most out of GCN, having a GCN graphics card in your PC is going to be a big plus.

AMD will have to do almost nothing at all to optimise any game that is ported from the consoles. Nvidia will have to do the same work on every console game to get them up to the same level.

 

[hjalti8]

My video cards: 7300GT SLI, 8800GT, GTX260+, GTX560Ti, and now an HD7950. I'm a sucker for cards which are overclockable and tweakable, and Nvidia just seems to be shying away from that now.

pretty much the same here. This is the first time ive gone red. Voltage locking is not cool :'(

 

[Carfax83]

It should be pretty obvious to everyone that when the console programmers really start to get to grips with and start to squeeze the most out of GCN, having a GCN graphics card in your PC is going to be a big plus.

AMD will have to do almost nothing at all to optimise any game that is ported from the consoles. Nvidia will have to do the same work on every console game to get them up to the same level.

From what I've heard, a lot of the developers will be developing from the top down for the next generation.

That means, the PC will be the lead platform. Watch Dogs is one example of this, and Assassin's Creed IV another. And of course the DICE games will have the PC as the lead platform..

With the greater similarities between the PC and the next gen consoles, the top down development strategy makes a lot of sense..

So basically, you're blowing the GCN optimization advantage way out of proportion.

 

[NIGELG]

This unscientific poll's results so far shows that this is probably an AMD shill site:\.Lol.

I use AMD simply because they have never let me down.So many bad experiences I had with Nvidia cards not to mention Nvidia's annoying PR and fanatics.D:

I have had great experiences with 9800 Pro,4850,5850 AND 7970 and I enjoyed my three free games from buying my 7970 too......

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Right now I have an AMD card but in a year who knows? Ill buy whatever card offers best price/performance, dont care about brands or "optimizations", considering how many times TWIMTP works better on AMD cards and vice versa

PS4 sounds highly attractive as well since consoles usually have a ton of exclusives Ill never get to play on PC, but Im not a console gamer at all so its still up in the air

 

[SiliconWars]

From what I've heard, a lot of the developers will be developing from the top down for the next generation.

That means, the PC will be the lead platform. Watch Dogs is one example of this, and Assassin's Creed IV another. And of course the DICE games will have the PC as the lead platform..

With the greater similarities between the PC and the next gen consoles, the top down development strategy makes a lot of sense..

So basically, you're blowing the GCN optimization advantage way out of proportion.

It doesn't matter as either way they'd be using GCN. If you have GCN hardware in the consoles, and GCN hardware in the PC it's an easy decision on which hardware you develop games on either way.

You'd have to be pretty out there to consider developing a game on Nvidia PC hardware just to have to optimize it for your main selling platform all over again. Why do that? Well, basically you wouldn't.