nVIDIA, AMD, what are the pros and cons of each side?

[Exodus]

after two time i see that nonsense... i can't help ... A mid end R9 290 doesn't exist : it's a high end, and there is no low end, mid end, high end for one model of GPU, also even on Stock OC from a custom model, a 290 will allways be above a 770 be it for a small %, and OC isnt that complicated now with the "power limit" you set it to 50% (or less ... ) you push the core/mem to 25-50mhz more you test the stability, rinse and repeat

I know a ''mid end 290'' doesn't exist. It's a way of talking. What I wanted to say was a gtx 770 with a high base clock and a excellent cooler and more Vram vs a r9 290 decent stock speed and cooler. But anyways it doesn't matter since you answered my question.
And when overclocking, is there a noticeable difference with the heat/noise or with the power consumption? I'm kinda worried on this point.

But as you said, Newegg isn't the best price examples for him anyway, cuz he don't trust em for some reason.

As far as AMD vs Nvidia in general, it's really hard to predict which will be the better to go with. They both have their pluses and minuses and both seem to be waffling lately. I was really pleased with my $330 purchase on my 7970 for a yr or two, and it came with 3 decent games, but lately there's a lot of top games it doesn't do as well with as I'd like. The problem is, it's sometimes hard to tell whether it's mostly game coding, endorsement favoring, bad drivers, drivers that are written more for newer models than older models, etc. The latter is what I experienced a lot with my last ATI/AMD cards, then they up and relegated them to Legacy support. Nvidia's drivers in the past have always worked longer for older models, and it's looking like more of the same now maybe.

One of the things I'm waiting to find out is if Nvidia will increase the VRAM on high end Maxwells. I'd like to see 4GB.

Newegg is fine since I can equalize their prices with a price policy.

And do you think we will get some news about Maxwell before the end of this summer? I'll try to see if I can wait a bit more. But from what I've read on another thread, people seem to think that be a big difference.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

And do you think we will get some news about Maxwell before the end of this summer? I'll try to see if I can wait a bit more. But from what I've read on another thread, people seem to think that be a big difference.

Impossible to say since anything but an Nvidia announcement is speculation usually, and they don't reveal anything until just before launch.

 

[Mussels]

as someone with systems on all sides of every fence:


Screw going by brand. dont even think like that. go by model.

is nvidia better than AMD? well a titan beats a 5830 i guess, but my 7970 rapes my 550ti.

each generation, some cards stand out as being great value for money, or great performance per watt - use THOSE criteria to choose a card, based on whats out at the time of purchase.

 

[GreiverBlade]

But as you said, Newegg isn't the best price examples.

yep... yet the cheaper 780 is 100chf more than the cheaper 290 where i am, and even worse it's on level of the cheapest 290X, we can find 2nd hand with sometime near fulll warranty 290 for 250chf and less whereas 780 are most of the time just 5% cheaper than retail, or even higher price because the seller take buyers for fools (and sometime it works xD)
and i see the same ratio on nearly all etailer listing i see "around the world" (with some good and surprising exceptions)

The problem is, it's sometimes hard to tell whether it's mostly game coding, endorsement favoring, bad drivers, drivers that are written more for newer models than older models, etc. The latter is what I experienced a lot with my last ATI/AMD cards, then they up and relegated them to Legacy support. Nvidia's drivers in the past have always worked longer for older models, and it's looking like more of the same now maybe.

well the bigger model are supported long enough, although my 3650 or 4870 aren't supported anymore my LP 5450 and R7-240(wait wrong example ) (and help a lot in a SSF old bag for movies )

on game coding i agree, the 580's i had (4 in total 1 ref zotac 2 matrix asus 1 ref evga) did better in 1 game for me but it was a known "to run better with nVidia" mmo

One of the things I'm waiting to find out is if Nvidia will increase the VRAM on high end Maxwells. I'd like to see 4GB.

agreed, i took a 290 because of that and also because 4gb and more, models from nV are out of budget, tho this year Maxwells will be the "smalls" one the big one is for 2015 if the news are correct.

And when overclocking, is there a noticeable difference with the heat/noise or with the power consumption? I'm kinda worried on this point.

heat/noise mostly but with custom cooler it's a minor problem, power consumption well it goes along but it's also minor, regular user don't need to worry about OC in the end a good factory OC with custom design would suffice for any actual and upcoming game (in case of a 780/290 and above) specially for 1080P and still enough for 1440/1600P.

each generation, some cards stand out as being great value for money, or great performance per watt - use THOSE criteria to choose a card, based on whats out at the time of purchase.

^this, 8800GT,4650,260,7950 where good example and now the 290

 

[mroofie]

how about some add the cool features that come with NVIDIA gtx cards and no its not just physx

Im on the verge on buying a card and im looking at amd and nvidia and gtx cards cost more but i get more than what amd is offering.

too many fanboy's here

amd budget gaming but at a cost !
nvidia gaming % slower costs more but comes with major gaming features!

 

[Vario]

If you want Nvidia get a 770 or get a 780. PNY's 770 XLR8 OC 2GB is fine for me at 1080P but if you want 1440P or to be able to run Ultra for a few more years it wouldn't be enough. As games inevitably become more detailed, I'll be content with "High" settings for a few years.

I sold my 7970 at the height of the litecoin bubble and bought the 770 to replace it. The performance is very similar but I have less problems, the 7970 wasn't stable due to it being preowned. The PNY XLR8 OC 770 I have is one of the more powerful pre-overclocked 770/680 cards with a 1254 core clock (boost) and an 1800 memory clock.

If you want 290 level of performance but Nvidia you'd need to spend the extra for a 780.
With Nvidia you get Phys-X, ShadowPlay (captures gaming video for you with minimal added latency) and Geforce Experience which presets and hopefully optimizes your game's graphics to match what your machine can run.

 

[GreiverBlade]

how about some add the cool features that come with NVIDIA gtx cards and no its not just physx

Im on the verge on buying a card and im looking at amd and nvidia and gtx cards cost more but i get more than what amd is offering.

too many fanboy's here

amd budget gaming but at a cost !
nvidia gaming % slower costs more but comes with major gaming features!

talk about fanboy talk, what are those features that AMD lacks? and what they offer more for the cost added? Shadowplay? that's one indeed but is it decisive?

also AMD is budget gaming but at a cost? which one? power consumption? (marginal)
i had a a 460, 5850, 560, 6950, 580x4, 270, 270X, and now a 290 and the last one is by far the best bang for bucks i had, i have a close friend who has a similar setup as mine but his GFX is a 780 his rig cost quite a bit more than mine due to that and except in some particular case ie: wow, watch dogs, other "nVidia inclined" games (which are quite a few in fact) his system is marginally slower (not a huge gap ofc) for me the price difference between a 290 and a 780 is not justified by Shadowplay or Gsync (which ridiculously add more money to spend to get it to the initial buy).

ok GeForce Experience autotune... well AMD did not the right thing with Raptr (the app can set up the settings according to your configuration just same as Experience, with some hiccup ofc) i use neither of them ... no need for them

 

[Vario]

Nothing wrong with having a brand preference, its just going to cost mroofie some extra cash to go to a 780 instead of a 290.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Nothing wrong with having a brand preference, its just going to cost mroofie some extra cash to go to a 780 instead of a 290.

true that... i had both brand and i had good experience with both brand.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

...what they offer more for the cost added? Shadowplay? that's one indeed but is it decisive?

Well for those with GCN AMDs (7000 series and beyond), AMD DOES have Raptr's Game DVR now. It's just in the beta stage so far and only does 10 minute replay saving, but it's very similar in features and performance to ShadowPlay.

Anyone with a GCN AMD card that want's something like ShadowPlay needs to get on Raptr's Game DVR feedback forum and let them know just what features you want (including longer replay saving), and what it works well at and not so well at.

 

[GhostRyder]

how about some add the cool features that come with NVIDIA gtx cards and no its not just physx

Im on the verge on buying a card and im looking at amd and nvidia and gtx cards cost more but i get more than what amd is offering.

too many fanboy's here

amd budget gaming but at a cost !
nvidia gaming % slower costs more but comes with major gaming features!

No it does not?

Nvidia has PhysX, AMD has tressFX thought PhysX got a little more adoption is on the dieing path while TressFX got one major game I can think of.
Shadow Play now has Raptr Game DVR to compete with
AMD gives you 3 games from a pretty big list to choose from Nvidia gives you Watchdogs and in some brands give a few others in some cases.
AMD gives you Mantle, Nvidia gives you Gameworks

It could go back and fourth like that forever but does not make either a better value in the end. All that matters is the performance at the price you want to spend, neither have an edge in everything and it comes down to whatever price you want to pay and the performance your expecting for that price. Features and sets of add on's rarely make anything more enticing than the other in this day and age and should not be really used to justify buying a GPU because either side will most likely have something comparable in the end.

You should buy the card that fits your budget and your needs, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Well for those with GCN AMDs (7000 series and beyond), AMD DOES have Raptr's Game DVR now. It's just in the beta stage so far and only does 10 minute replay saving, but it's very similar in features and performance to ShadowPlay.

Anyone with a GCN AMD card that want's something like ShadowPlay needs to get on Raptr's Game DVR feedback forum and let them know just what features you want (including longer replay saving), and what it works well at and not so well at.

i was about to post this:

"




If you've already heard about the Game DVR beta, apologies in advance -- but we're kind of excited about this and want to make sure everybody knows. We've added the most requested feature to AMD Gaming Evolved: continuous gameplay recording so you never miss a highlight, as well as manual start/stop recording!

Our gameplay capture takes advantage of hardware-accelerated encoding via AMD's Video Codec Engine (VCE), which means you'll see virtually no performance impact while recording. Based on independent benchmarking performed by AnandTech.com, the difference in frames-per-second with Game DVR on versus off was "consistently less than 3%."

Our redesigned client UI makes it super easy to set up, too. From the Home tab in the client Control Center, simply click Record to turn on Game DVR. With our Replay capability, we automatically capture your last 15 seconds of gameplay time (by default -- you can bump that all the way up to 10 minutes), then save a clip when you hit Ctrl + /. And with Record, use Ctrl + ; to start and stop gameplay capture at any time. You can then use the Gallery to upload clips directly to YouTube."

You should buy the card that fits your budget and your needs, nothing more, nothing less.

^this except the fact that if you have the budget for a 780 don't go 780 but 290 for cheaper and same perf or 290X for around the same price and more perf.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Games today need a minimum of 3 Titans Blacks in SLI. Anything less honestly you will take a massive performance hit when you game at the resolution you want to game at on any PC. Even with 3 you are not really future proof. Console game developers "code to the metal" now so the massive overhead a PC creates you will need a LOT more GPU power to compensate than in the past. You can water cool cheaper GPU's but the over all you need Titan Blacks and 16 gigs of RAM to maintain a decent frame rate due to the next gen specs.

PC gaming isn't for noobs. There is a lot of misinformation out there. I suggest you read some reviews.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Shocked no one has mentioned Matrox gfx cards.





I think a GeForce GTX 770 is a good candidate with oc headroom; easily comparable to a Radeon R9 290 for about $50-80 less.

GTX770 like the 680, scale pretty terribly when overclocked. That was one of the main downsides of the 680 compared to the 7970.

Games today need a minimum of 3 Titans Blacks in SLI. Anything less honestly you will take a massive performance hit when you game at the resolution you want to game at on any PC. Even with 3 you are not really future proof. Console game developers "code to the metal" now so the massive overhead a PC creates you will need a LOT more GPU power to compensate than in the past. You can water cool cheaper GPU's but the over all you need Titan Blacks and 16 gigs of RAM to maintain a decent frame rate due to the next gen specs.

PC gaming isn't for noobs. There is a lot of misinformation out there. I suggest you read some reviews.

And there you have it everyone, the art of trolling.......

 

[Hilux SSRG]

GTX770 like the 680, scale pretty terribly when overclocked. That was one of the main downsides of the 680 compared to the 7970.

The 680/770 scaled well in oc with about a 20% less power draw compared to 7970, I think you may be wrong there.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

The 680/770 scaled well in oc with about a 20% less power draw compared to 7970, I think you may be wrong there.

Dude, I owned a 680, also had it on watercooling. First hand experience I can say that overclocking it did not yield all that much in performance like 5-7fps max (less depending on the game) with a 100mhz+ increase in clock. The 680/770s have less throughput then the 7970s. I upgraded to a 780, and overclocking the 780 has scaled a lot better when overclocked.

From TPU 680 Review:

Here we see 2.9% real life performance gained. Also note the increased amount of upward spikes in Shogun 2, BF3 and Dragon Age 2, which are caused by games that love to run higher clocks, yet are not blocked by the power limiter from doing so.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Dude, I owned a 680, also had it on watercooling. First hand experience I can say that overclocking it did not yield all that much in performance like 5-7fps max (less depending on the game) with a 100mhz+ increase in clock. The 680/770s have less throughput then the 7970s. I upgraded to a 780, and overclocking the 780 has scaled a lot better when overclocked.

Your particular 680 card may have not gotten a large enough performance increase but that is not the case for many people who were able to get 10-15-20% oc increases from the 680s/770s. At a lower power draw than 7970. Both cards are/were great at oc. The 780s are a different beast altogether and not comparable to 680s/7970s.

I hope you did get more than just a +100mhz bump on that 680?

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Your particular 680 card may have not gotten a large enough performance increase but that is not the case for many people who were able to get 10-15-20% oc increases from the 680s/770s. At a lower power draw than 7970. Both cards are/were great at oc. The 780s are a different beast altogether and not comparable to 680s/7970s.

I hope you did get more than just a +100mhz bump on that 680?

I am going by what the talk was when I had the 680, and the trend was that if the 680 and 7970 are overclocked the the same percentage, the 7970 would edge the 680 out. I do not remember my exact clocks on my 680, but I think I maxed at like ~1250mhz.

 

[Vario]

Games today need a minimum of 3 Titans Blacks in SLI. Anything less honestly you will take a massive performance hit when you game at the resolution you want to game at on any PC. Even with 3 you are not really future proof. Console game developers "code to the metal" now so the massive overhead a PC creates you will need a LOT more GPU power to compensate than in the past. You can water cool cheaper GPU's but the over all you need Titan Blacks and 16 gigs of RAM to maintain a decent frame rate due to the next gen specs.

PC gaming isn't for noobs. There is a lot of misinformation out there. I suggest you read some reviews.

Will a Razer Naga bottleneck a Titan Black?

 

[erocker]

Generally most tech enthusiast forums don't condone these XXX vs. XXX threads. Well... we now have 4 pages to mull over. Good enough!