The GPU Vendor Bias Admission Thread

[Arachnotronic]

Interesting. I knew these forums were AMD-centric, but I didn't expect it to be by an over two to one margin (of those giving a preference).

I am not surprised that AMD has won, but like you I find the margin of AMD's victory here quite intriguing.

 

[Aristotelian]

I prefer buying the fastest possible component I want at the time I'm interested in buying, period. For buying this sort of product, demonstrable numbers are what influence my purchasing choice. I don't understand people who feel like they are part of "teams" - in the sense, I have used predominantly Nvidia gpus since the TNT 2 Ultra, but I did switch to ATI when I thought performance was better.

Brand preference for me kicks in for purchases where: 1) more money is typically involved; and 2) there are many more factors at play. As a good example, consider this comparison:

2016 Cadillac ATS-V vs. 2016 Mercedes-AMG C63

I would buy the AMG hands down. For things that are more difficult to describe - like the interior of the AMG makes me feel like I'm in a serious car. Performance is roughly equal (the ATS-V is better in a number of metrics, but not enough to sway me). And I am something of an AMG fanboy. But I won't be buying an AMG C63 because "I want the fastest car possible" - the purchasing decision is based on many different factors (that I won't go into huge detail here as this isn't a sub-forum about cars).

But when I'm buying PC parts? Fastest I can afford - irrespective of brand.

 

[Mahigan]

Regarding green vs red, see attached video. The human eye sees green better than any other color. Why are green lasers so visible compared to red lasers at the same energy levels? I already answered that above. Nvidia knows this. Everyone knows this. But you do not know this...until now.

https://youtu.be/U_lUST8Dofo?t=76

Lady in Red... She's dancing with me...

Red catches your eye, green is everywhere.

 

[maddie]

If Polaris is as competitive as Raja Koduri and others believe, then AMD should be gaining quite a bit of market-share going forward, once they have their introduction organized properly. There are many, including myself, looking to upgrade video cards this year.

I am, at present, a pro AMD person. Too many shady shenanigans from Nvidia.

 

[tential]

I think most of us are capable of objectivity, especially those of us lacking the excess of disposable income to buy the absolute newest cards every time they launch.

I lean towards what ever company has the fastest card in the price bracket that I'm able to afford at that time. For me that was GTX 260, GTX 560ti, GTX 780, and 980ti (I have a better job now ) This upcoming generation I would really like to own an AMD card if it's competitive with the top offering Nvidia has to offer. Fury X just wasn't compelling to me when my 980ti runs at 1525 core without breaking 80C (MSI Gaming 6G). For this generation 980ti was just too good to pass up.

HDR, Freesync, and VR superiority are heavily influencing me to try out AMD this upcoming generation. Ultimately whoever has the best performing card with a rich feature set in regards to display technology in the 980ti/Fury X price range will win my money this time.

Even though fury x crossfire is on par or faster than the 980ti,the poor single card performance turned me of so much I didn't want it

Polaris will be my next card.

 

[Silverforce11]

One thing occurred to me...

If there is so many people biased towards AMD, and so many people saying that best hardware will win for them... why the market has 80/20% split for Nvidia?


Looks like its the mindshare. Because objectively if we factor performance, DX12, compute power and the hardware features - for this better solution is AMD.

If we factor GameWorks, DX11, Efficiency, CUDA - here is no brainer - Nvidia.

Why has it that Nvidia has such high marketshare with all things considered?

Because AMD damaged themselves. They were their own worse enemy. People avoided the 290/X due to it's bad rep.

Can you imagine how different it would have been if Hawaii launched with proper coolers?

1. Instantly 10% higher performance due to no throttling.
2. Runs cool.
3. Runs quiet.
4. Uses slightly less power due to less leakage at lower temps.

What's the final product?

390/X caliber GPUs in 2013!

The wreckage that would inflict on Kepler would be as lopsided as the wreckage Maxwell 970/980 inflicted on the R290/X (which had a tainted reputation). AMD just renamed it 390/X with extra vram and suddenly it's recommended over the 970/980!

They had a GREAT engineering result all that time, but their management screwed it up.

All it was, was a clear demonstration that management back then were clearly out of touch with gamers, for them to think it's okay to ship those GPUs with those poor reference coolers. It just reinforces the idea that AMD is budget, cos they ship a cheap ass cooler on a premium card.

Fiji also suffered from 20nm -> 28nm design issues, TSV and HBM shortages, so it could never be priced to compete. But it's really the reference 290/X that hurt them the most.

 

[Silverforce11]

From reading these posts, it appears to me that one of the big reasons why NVIDIA are outselling AMD is due to the fact that many AMD owners don't feel the need to upgrade due to how well their GCN cards are aging. GCN lacks planned obsolescence.

In part, yes. Because someone who has a 7950/7970 still has excellent performance in games these days compared to the 670/680. They can even often run better quality textures and so their games look great.

Again, same for the R290/X, if you had a non-reference model, you essentially already have 390/X, so why would the 970/980 entice upgrades? Certainly a lot of 780/Ti users jumped onto Maxwell from what I see on forums.

An OC 390X performance class is still excellent, so my OC R290X delivers, I saw no reason to get Fury X (it was under-performing my expectations anyway). So the only good upgrade path, will be Polaris. It better delivers!

 

[Ma_Deuce]

I am not surprised that AMD has won, but like you I find the margin of AMD's victory here quite intriguing.

I'm not too surprised considering some of the heavily biased posts by posters claiming to be completely unbiased. No one is without bias, I wonder where the chips would fall if there was only two choices.

After seeing enough gameworks in action, I'm starting to have a negative bias toward nvidia.

 

[DooKey]

I like new shiny things so I could care less what the color is. First company to beat my current card gets my business first. I've always done business that way. If the second company comes out with a faster product (doesn't matter how much faster really) I upgrade again. Rinse and repeat.

 

[railven]

I voted AMD. As much as I'd like to claim I'm neutral, I'd still buy a Radeon if it served my purposes. I did buy a 290X for the basement PC. I'm also not surprised by the poll results.



Someone here mentioned that AMD's biggest enemy is it's own community. I would agree to a certain point. It seems in eagerness to "win" they tend to put all their eggs in one basket and hang on every PR slide AMD gets out there. Don't get me wrong, I see it from the NV/Intel crew too, but for some odd reason it always feels like the Pro AMD guys take it to the next level.

Small example: the laundry list of DX12 game. It was argued that majority of AAA titles would be DX12. It was almost cemented as fact. Yet NV blocked a few titles, and now MSFT cancelled Fable Legends. The hype train gets so built up when it derails, I can't even laugh anymore. Just look at the hype for Zen. Woof. Did no one learn anything from Bulldozer? Now after the Fury X "overclocker's dream" and the constant 'wait for overvolt/clocking tools, you'll see" I pretty much give up on having positive expectations from AMD.

 

[Midwayman]

If somehow I was looking at identical product other than the name, I'd pick AMD simply because they are more open than Nvidia. That's never the case, so I just buy the best power/cost ratio.

 

[bystander36]

I tend to be slightly biased by what ever my last purchase was, but not always in a good or bad way. I can't say I'm AMD or Nvidia biased, as it fluctuates and is only mild. I also can't say I'm completely neutral.

I'm pretty impressed with how many chose AMD, considering how much some AMD fans claim everyone is Nvidia biased. I also thought things were more neutral on these forums.

 

[moonbogg]

Most people don't spend time on forums though. Average gamers have no idea that NVidia cards have the lifespan of a house fly. Many forum people will buy AMD next round. Too bad that's not enough.

 

[bystander36]

Most people don't spend time on forums though. Average gamers have no idea that NVidia cards have the lifespan of a house fly. Many forum people will buy AMD next round. Too bad that's not enough.

But the thing is, that is only a recent occurrence and very well may not continue. It's most likely a blip during a transition into a new era of gaming. Both brands have had those times before. Every generation of GPU's is a gamble by both companies, as they don't truly know what direction the dev's will take in the future. AMD has made some choices which worked in their favor this go around, as well as some poor ones. Nvidia has as well.

 

[NomanA]

I am firmly in the camp of selecting the best possible graphic card for a certain target price range, but these days I do have very strong bias against nVidia cards, and all because of one reason. I'll not buy an nVidia card, until they start supporting VESA adaptive-sync. A $700-1000 part of your PC, which is tied to a specific GPU vendor instead of an industry standard, is a horrible development.

Hopefully, nVidia will have Adaptive-sync support soon.

 

[thesmokingman]

If Polaris is as competitive as Raja Koduri and others believe, then AMD should be gaining quite a bit of market-share going forward, once they have their introduction organized properly. There are many, including myself, looking to upgrade video cards this year.

I am, at present, a pro AMD person. Too many shady shenanigans from Nvidia.

Imo the enthusiasts are more easily turned by an improved product stack but we're not the users that will reflect in the pie charts. It's the 95% 'ers that will take a lot of work for AMD to turn around. It will take a revolutionary win for them to turn the mass market around. I doubt they have it in them for something like that.

 

[Mahigan]

Imo the enthusiasts are more easily turned by an improved product stack but we're not the users that will reflect in the pie charts. It's the 95% 'ers that will take a lot of work for AMD to turn around. It will take a revolutionary win for them to turn the mass market around. I doubt they have it in them for something like that.

Yeah, the recent converts to PC Gaming console folks who use words like "peasants" to describe folks with lesser performing hardware and who high five themselves after writing an incomprehensible post in a forum believing they've "owned" a techy nerd actual PC geek.

 

[richaron]

I'm also surprised by the poll results, but I suspect they are not completely representative. Even in this thread you can see people claiming to be neutral then slipping into their regular agenda of attacking one side. I, like many (most?) others have a bias against nVidia because of shady business practices, and correspondingly I value the AMD's support of open principles.

Is it not therefore conceivable that those same values prompt me to vote honestly in this poll? And correspondingly...

 

[bystander36]

I'm also surprised by the poll results, but I suspect they are not completely representative. Even in this thread you can see people claiming to be neutral then slipping into their regular agenda of attacking one side. I, like many (most?) others have a bias against nVidia because of shady business practices, and correspondingly I value the AMD's support of open principles.

Is it not therefore conceivable that those same values prompt me to vote honestly in this poll? And correspondingly...

This is why I didn't vote. It's too tough to pick one of those groups, as they don't describe my history at all. I'm very unbiased throughout my history, but at the time of a particular purchase, I probably seem biased towards that brand. Of course I choose to make that purchase because I thought it was the best purchase at that time. At times I might even seem to want to defend that purchase when someone is attacking it. Then other times I'll pick the underdog subconsciously and what is considered the underdog is often confusing on these forums. AMD is getting hammered in sales, yet Nvidia is constantly attacked on these forums and not always justly.

It's too complex for me to answered with the 3 categories listed.

 

[AnandThenMan]

The results are not surprising at all. People that take the time to read tech forums tend to get educated and see through the marketing smoke screens. But most people don't bother so the best marketing wins not necessarily the best hardware.

Pretty simple stuff.

 

[3DVagabond]

This is why I didn't vote. It's too tough to pick one of those groups, as they don't describe my history at all. I'm very unbiased throughout my history, but at the time of a particular purchase, I probably seem biased towards that brand. Of course I choose to make that purchase because I thought it was the best purchase at that time. At times I might even seem to want to defend that purchase when someone is attacking it. Then other times I'll pick the underdog subconsciously and what is considered the underdog is often confusing on these forums. AMD is getting hammered in sales, yet Nvidia is constantly attacked on these forums and not always justly.

It's too complex for me to answered with the 3 categories listed.

You're overthinking it.

 

[thesmokingman]

I'm also surprised by the poll results, but I suspect they are not completely representative. Even in this thread you can see people claiming to be neutral then slipping into their regular agenda of attacking one side. I, like many (most?) others have a bias against nVidia because of shady business practices, and correspondingly I value the AMD's support of open principles.

Is it not therefore conceivable that those same values prompt me to vote honestly in this poll? And correspondingly...

Yeap, but voting on principle is one thing, but voting with one's pocket book is another. We'll have to wait and see how AMD can capitalize on this.

 

[maddie]

This is why I didn't vote. It's too tough to pick one of those groups, as they don't describe my history at all. I'm very unbiased throughout my history, but at the time of a particular purchase, I probably seem biased towards that brand. Of course I choose to make that purchase because I thought it was the best purchase at that time. At times I might even seem to want to defend that purchase when someone is attacking it. Then other times I'll pick the underdog subconsciously and what is considered the underdog is often confusing on these forums. AMD is getting hammered in sales, yet Nvidia is constantly attacked on these forums and not always justly.

It's too complex for me to answered with the 3 categories listed.

I hope you realize that polls are merely a snapshot in time. Not eternal.

 

[bystander36]

I hope you realize that polls are merely a snapshot in time. Not eternal.

The point being, a person may seem biased at one point, but they aren't. There are also plenty of people who probably don't think they are biased, yet clearly are when looked at by another unbiased person.

I'd like to think I'm unbiased, but I'm sure I'm not entirely unbiased.

 

[maddie]

But the thing is, that is only a recent occurrence and very well may not continue. It's most likely a blip during a transition into a new era of gaming. Both brands have had those times before. Every generation of GPU's is a gamble by both companies, as they don't truly know what direction the dev's will take in the future. AMD has made some choices which worked in their favor this go around, as well as some poor ones. Nvidia has as well.

That's the thing.

Nvidia never had this market-share. It's a recent development. How do you grow revenue when you own the market? Even Intel has ARM to worry about. If AMD dies, Nvidia will have no competition.

Yes, they are expanding into other fields, where they might make tonnes of sales, but in the gaming market, to increase revenue, you raise ASP and/or encourage a more rapid turnover. Many businesses do this by having a sleeker, more capable replacement. Nvidia seems to be hastening this process more than normal obsolescence would indicate.

I dread to see what a 90%+ market-share would bring.