Update me: Has Nvidia caught up with AMD yet (HDMI audio/Eyefinity/driver quality)

[Obsoleet]

I'm considering going to Nvidia for my next video card, do all NV cards support HDMI audio now? Also, do they all have Eyefinity? What are the requirements for triple monitor support (DP requirements), and do they have single cards that do more than triple monitor support?

I thought they had HDMI audio quite some time ago, but were generally lagging in these areas behind AMD.

Also, has the quality of their drivers picked up? My last NV card was an 8800GTX and I was no happy. I moved to a 5870 on launch day and haven't had very few complaints with the move.

Genuine questions, not trolling, just want to be sure before I ordered anything.
Thanks in advance

 

[alcoholbob]

Well I know the Nvidia version has less sampling rates than the AMD version, which has 88.2 and 176.4 which is nice to have.

 

[SolMiester]

All the 6xx series Kepler support 4 monitors and 3 for surround/eyefinity. Ports are usually 2 x DVI but not sure on the other 2 ports.
Can't help you regarding the HDMI, though think its hard to believe they don't have that sorted....guess they would need one of the other ports to be HDMI...

 

[Shmee]

What kind of card are you looking for? I think depending on the price point or your needs, I could recommend either brand.

If you want a high end card to replace the 5870, a 7950/GTX 670 would do well, but we need more information to recommend a card.

Resolution played at? Games played? But, to answer your question, nvidia drivers are generally considered to be pretty well evolved now I believe.

 

[Obsoleet]

Probably $300 or so. That's what I paid for my 5870 on launch. I mainly play League of Legends and Killing Floor. 1920x1080 (just downgraded from a 1920x1200 monitor due to more being visible at 16:9 than 16:10 in LoL- and I didn't like the black bars).

I've read about issues with the Titan drivers, which kind of scared me off- I was one of those hit with the Vista driver issues with my 8800s (8800GTs in SLI and later a single 8800GTX).

Single card only, no SLI/Xfire. I can't stand that stuff, I had multiple SLI setups starting with very expensive dual 6800GTs (launch day purchases for PCIE versions).
Zero interest in 3D stuff either. Cant stand it, wish it would die.

Mostly interested in continuing to purchase DisplayPort monitors, and likely remain on a single 1080 screen for gaming. But I do like to hook up 2 or 3 screens- I use "Eyefinity" on my current 5870.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It was only the first generation or two with HDMI where nvidia used passthrough of audio (pin to connect from soundcard) instead of having an audio chip like AMD.

nvidia drivers are generally considered to be better than AMD's, or at worst equal.

I've had no driver issues with my GTX 680, but my Radeon 6850 was fine too. I run at stock speed which seems to prevent some of the "driver problems" that overclockers run into.

 

[Obsoleet]

It sounds like they caught up in the HDMI audio department. That's pretty much a requirement for me. I went back to Radeons when the 4870 introduced HDMI+audio. That was not given the credit it deserved and I've been trumpeting that ever since.

Stock speeds here too. Never OC'd my 5870 or 8800 cards. I did OC back in my Voodoo1 - Radeon 9800(non-Pro, flashed to Pro) days. Back when we actually needed the additional performance. Since then I've run stock. I've had enough Nvidia cards through the years that I wouldn't agree if the 'wisdom of the masses' (a laughable concept) was that NV had better drivers.
It was true for a long time, esp the post-3dfx era but times changed a long, long time ago and it eventually became propaganda. Things change quickly.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Considering I've seen a GT 630 successfully pass audio through a DVI port via a DVI->HDMI adapter, I'd say they've caught up.

 

[lagokc]

Surprises me nVidia was ever behind ATi in audio, their nForce audio was pretty much the best thing around until they decided to discontinue it.

 

[Xarick]

The 760ti is coming and will be cheaper/faster than both the 7950 and 670 for $300

 

[Zxian]

If you use three monitors, I'd stick with Radeon for now. I've had some spotty performance at the desktop due to over-aggressive downclocking of video memory on both a 670 and a 680. My 7870, 7950, and 7970 haven't shown this issue at all, although they stay at full memory clocks at all times when you have multiple monitors plugged in.

For reference, I'm using three Samsung 2443BW monitors at 1920x1200 resolution.

My recommendation would be to pick up a well priced 7950 if you need something today. You can usually find one for around your price point. Out of the box, you'll get a nice performance boost over your 5870. If you want to play with overclocking, the 7900 series have quite a bit of headroom as well.

 

[alexruiz]

Considering I've seen a GT 630 successfully pass audio through a DVI port via a DVI->HDMI adapter, I'd say they've caught up.

Are you sure an additional audio cable wasn't used?
DVI cannot carry audio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

 

[Zxian]

Some manufacturers would use the additional pinouts from dual-link DVI ports to supply the audio streams using a special adapter (HDMI cabling is pin-compatible with single-link DVI). My old Radeon 4650 did this, but you had to use their proprietary adaptor in order to get the audio output.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Compatibility_with_DVI

 

[birthdaymonkey]

If you use three monitors, I'd stick with Radeon for now. I've had some spotty performance at the desktop due to over-aggressive downclocking of video memory on both a 670 and a 680. My 7870, 7950, and 7970 haven't shown this issue at all, although they stay at full memory clocks at all times when you have multiple monitors plugged in.

For reference, I'm using three Samsung 2443BW monitors at 1920x1200 resolution.

My recommendation would be to pick up a well priced 7950 if you need something today. You can usually find one for around your price point. Out of the box, you'll get a nice performance boost over your 5870. If you want to play with overclocking, the 7900 series have quite a bit of headroom as well.

I had the same issue with a 670 and two monitors. 2D performance was unacceptably choppy in Windows 7, a problem I resolved by running one screen off my onboard graphics. When I switched the Windows 8, the issue seemed to be resolved and I could run both displays off the 670--but then I switched to a 7950 anyway.

 

[Zxian]

I had the same issue with a 670 and two monitors. 2D performance was unacceptably choppy in Windows 7, a problem I resolved by running one screen off my onboard graphics. When I switched the Windows 8, the issue seemed to be resolved and I could run both displays off the 670--but then I switched to a 7950 anyway.

2D performance in Win8 is less demanding than Win7 as well.

It's odd that the 600-series cards have this issue. I ran dual monitors off my old 8800GT (2x 1680x1050) without any issues whatsoever. I hadn't tried anything nVidia between then since I jumped to the Radeon bandwagon for the 4890 cards (boy did they suck down power), then moved to 6870 and finally to 7870/7950/7970.

 

[KentState]

I've flipped back and forth between the Nvidia and AMD over the last 13 years. I find that the AMD drivers can be a little more buggy at times. I did have some issues with the 7970 in some games, while the GTX580 was rock solid. The latest drivers have been much better however.

 

[coffeejunkee]

2D performance in Win8 is less demanding than Win7 as well.

It's odd that the 600-series cards have this issue. I ran dual monitors off my old 8800GT (2x 1680x1050) without any issues whatsoever. I hadn't tried anything nVidia between then since I jumped to the Radeon bandwagon for the 4890 cards (boy did they suck down power), then moved to 6870 and finally to 7870/7950/7970.

That's because the 8800gt's didn't lower clocks/voltage during idle at all. Ati 5000 series was the first to really do this but it caused problems when using multiple monitors. Eventually it was fixed by not letting the card clock down to the lowest possible state but it increased power consumption.

It's interesting to see Nvidia apparently has the same problem, until reading this I would have advised Nvidia for multi-monitor because of the lower power consumption.

 

[willomz]

It's interesting to see Nvidia apparently has the same problem, until reading this I would have advised Nvidia for multi-monitor because of the lower power consumption.

Nvidia looks OK to me:

Titan at 12W, less than half a 7850!

 

[coffeejunkee]

Yes, that's what I said, when using multiple monitors I'd recommend Nvidia because of the lower power consumption.

But not if they actually have issues like Zxian and birthdaymonkey mentioned, caused by the same problem that Ati/AMD cards ran into, being too low clocks for more than 1 monitor.

 

[willomz]

You can always up the clocks though? If it does become choppy.

It's the memory clock that is the issue right?

 

[Makaveli]

I mainly play League of Legends and Killing Floor. 1920x1080 (just downgraded from a 1920x1200 monitor due to more being visible at 16:9 than 16:10 in LoL- and I didn't like the black bars).

You must really like this game!

 

[aigomorla]

in gaming nvidia is always greater then AMD.

Cuz AMD typicaly requires drivers after game launchs to run flawlessly.
Even then AMD can never get the water done correctly without updated drivers.
CrossFire becomes a nightmare without driver and software support.

In short... i dont want to denounce ATi/AMD.
I had a couple cards from them, however if im looking for a gaming card, i dont think i can ever look away from nvidia.

You got more games being program'd default on Nvidia then u do on ATi.
Next gen consoles may change that tho, with Ati being native on most consoles.
However until then, and i see more support for ATi without tweeks, its gonna be a while b4 i go back to ATi on my top tier gaming platform.

 

[Stuka87]

in gaming nvidia is always greater then AMD.

Cuz AMD typicaly requires drivers after game launchs to run flawlessly.
Even then AMD can never get the water done correctly without updated drivers.
CrossFire becomes a nightmare without driver and software support.

In short... i dont want to denounce ATi/AMD.
I had a couple cards from them, however if im looking for a gaming card, i dont think i can ever look away from nvidia.

You got more games being program'd default on Nvidia then u do on ATi.
Next gen consoles may change that tho, with Ati being native on most consoles.
However until then, and i see more support for ATi without tweeks, its gonna be a while b4 i go back to ATi on my top tier gaming platform.

You cannot be serious....

BOTH makers have to update drivers after a game launches. Just look at the new Tomb Raider, it had some pretty substantial playability issues on nVidias when it first launched. They then came back and patched it. Both companies did the same for FarCry 3. It is very normal to require patches after game launches.

And what on earth do you mean by "Program'd default on Nvidia then u do on ATi"? Ignoring the grammar, I assume you mean nVidias "The way its meant to be played", in which case AMD has really stepped up in this area, and most of all the big games coming out are in AMD's court.

BTW: PS4, XBox720, and WiiU all use AMD GPU's.

PS: Please stop typing like a 13 year old, it seriously hurts to read.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

You can always up the clocks though? If it does become choppy.

It's the memory clock that is the issue right?

I'm pretty sure it's the downclocking that's to blame. I was never able to get change the clock speeds for the low power states. (Granted I didn't try that hard since using the onboard graphics was a good workaround in my case.)

 

[aigomorla]

You cannot be serious....

BOTH makers have to update drivers after a game launches. Just look at the new Tomb Raider, it had some pretty substantial playability issues on nVidias when it first launched. They then came back and patched it. Both companies did the same for FarCry 3. It is very normal to require patches after game launches.

And what on earth do you mean by "Program'd default on Nvidia then u do on ATi"? Ignoring the grammar, I assume you mean nVidias "The way its meant to be played", in which case AMD has really stepped up in this area, and most of all the big games coming out are in AMD's court.

BTW: PS4, XBox720, and WiiU all use AMD GPU's.

PS: Please stop typing like a 13 year old, it seriously hurts to read.

Ive had more issues when i was on the 7000 series of ATI.
I had so many issues with the stupid cards in Xfire that i actually went back to my 580GTX in Tri Sli and sold off my 7000 series cards in xfire.
I am currently waiting on the 780GTX series to finally migrate my system into a new platform on GPU's.
And i fully intend to SLI or TRI SLI.

Ive had to flash more drivers on my system to get games to play correctly on ATI then i have had to on Nvidia.

Ask anyone who has had both cards though 1 generation.
Nvidia just plays better at launch, near launch.
Drivers are a ton faster then ATi so u dont need to wait while everyone is already half completed with the game to start the game even.
(not all games apply to the first three... but 75% of the games i do play seem to apply.)

Water is NEVER rendered correctly on ATI. <--- u think they would fix this after how many years?
Catalyst drivers require C++ installed and other software to get running. <--- WHY? nvidia doesnt need this....
Catalyst drivers constantly crash because of the C++ and other programs.

13yr old eh?
I dont think 13yr olds go though 1000 dollars+ in GPU cards each migration like i do.


The OP is asking if Nvidia caught up to ATI.
The correct statement is has ATI caught up to Nvidia.
The answer to me on whose been though more then 1 platforms on both company at top tier... says no.

I still think Nvidia has superior drivers, and superior gaming performance right out of the box.
Tweeks on both cards in the game.ini file will drastically change the performance tho.

Another thing i constantly remember doing... .ini tweeks on the game so my ATi cards would play correctly.
Ask any gamer who enjoys the resolution and definition.
The first thing we always did was look for .ini tweeks on ATi cards so the game could play acceptably on ATi, before the driver patches came out.