This will probably degenerate into a name-calling thread if it hasn't already, but I'll give you my thoughts on the matter.
1. Nvidia has a better reputation/brand image than AMD. That matters to many people.
2. Nvidia is a more stable company than AMD and is likely to still be around in 5 years.
3. Even if the power difference is minor, people can feel good about themselves by using less power while gaming with Nvidia.
4. A potential future SLI upgrade with NV is more likely to be beneficial due to the consistently better sli (vs crossfire) performance.
5. With NV you can buy cards that exhaust the heat out the back of the case without dealing with the hassle of ear plugs or custom fan profiles.
And, as many long-time posters will attest, I am very pro-AMD. I owned an x1950xt, 3870, and 4850 in the past, and I only went to NV after that because they had better price/performance at my price point the last couple times I bought cards. If I bought a card today I would buy a 7950 btw, but I think that this gen's pricing generally sucks for both camps so I'm holding out for the next gen.
1, Yes, nVidia is perceived as better. I'm not sure why, for people who know better, that is a reason to buy their cards, though?
2, I personally don't think AMD is going away. Besides, 5 years is an eternity in the tech business. Apple could buy Intel by then, for all we know. (Just making a point. Not saying there's any real chance of that happening.)
3, The 670 and 680 are more efficient gamers. If that were a problem though Fermi would have buried nVidia. I don't understand why it's such a big issue for AMD. Especially considering the efficiency delta is smaller than what it was for Evergreen vs. Fermi.
4, I've already had a big back and forth on Crossfire. It works fine. As far as consistent goes, the same argument could be made in reverse for Eyefinity/Surround where AMD has had more consistent performance. Both are very small markets though.
5, Have you not heard of the IceQ cooler? exhausts out of the case and is very quiet. Besides, while it's given a bit of lip service you can probably count the number of posters on this board on one hand (with fingers left over) that would consider that in their buying decision. I happen to be one of them. I actually consider it a very desirable feature.
I'll add some on the red side of the ledger.
The 7000 series is a better all around performer. The 600 series is bandwidth limited, which is only going to become a bigger weakness as time goes by, and compute limited. Both Direct compute and OpenCL are weaknesses for nVidia this series. Again, likely to become a bigger problem as time goes on. And I don't mean someday. It's becoming an issue now, with games relying more on direct compute, and it's going to continue happening.
Some nVidia features that are listed as a reason to but them are so niche that they don't even get reviewed. How important is PhysX when, even in games that use it, nVidia doesn't even feel it's important enough to have the reviewers turn it on? CUDA is another one. How important is it really when it's rarely, if ever, even tested? 3D? While both companies support it, neither seems to think it matters enough to have reviewers even sample it except in rare reviews. When the going gets real tough though, these features are usually paraded out as reasons nVidia is better.
While everyone wants to tout nVidia driver stability, what about the stability of the hardware itself? How many cards have had bios updates this gen already to address stability issues? 3... 4...? Not exactly a strong point when considering a purchase.
How about having to go months waiting for product to even purchase when they could just buy AMD and be playing games? You want to buy a card for less than $300 (last week it would have been $400) you can buy Pitcairn and have the latest performance and features. If you want nVidia you are stuck with leftover cards from last generation.
Just so you don't think I'm name calling.
Whether you are right or I am isn't important. The fact that a majority of the people would agree with you is what matters. That gets back to number "1". That's really what matters when you break it down. AMD needs to fix that if they don't want to have to continuously have to undercut nVidia's pricing to be competitive in the market.
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