Nvidia vs AMD Drivers and Game Support (single card only)

I have seen lots of back and forth on which drivers are best. Let's have a poll to better quantify this. Beats anecdotal evidence. Tell us whether your experiences were better with AMD, Nvidia, or about the same.

This is a single card poll since I have never used crossfire/sli. Somebody else with multi-cards can start a multi-card poll if they want.

Please only post if you have ACTUAL EXPERIENCE WITH BOTH COMPANIES' CARDS. We are trying to determine the facts based on real evidence.

I will start.

Previously owned the following Nvidia cards: tnt2, geforce 1, geforce 4200 ti, geforce 5900, geforce 6800, geforce 7900gt, geforce 8800gt.

For AMD, owned 4890 and currently 6870.

The following games had problems on my AMD cards: Crysis 1 (not warhead, original), Cryostasis, Red Faction Guerrilla, Sega Rally Revo, Need For Speed: Shift, Doom 3, Split/Second, Bioshock 2, Far Cry 2. Problems included: games crashing, vsync not working properly, unstable frame rates, graphics anomalies.

The following games had problems on my Nvidia cards: Mass Effect 1 (game crashed repeatedly).

So, my experience was that Nvidia drivers worked better, and I will soon be switching back to Nvidia cards because of this.

Having experienced the TDR bug along with the black flicker issue of the 560Ti cards, I gotta say it's AMD.

I've had a Quantum 3D Voodoo Banshee, a STB Voodoo 3-3000, a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro, a Diamond Radeon 9800 Pro, a Sapphire X1900XTX (God I wish Is till had it, the one with the separate water cooler), a XFX Radeon HD2600XT, a BFG Nvidia 8800GT, a BFG Nvidia 9800GT, a XFX Radeon HD4850, a PNY Nvidia GTX460, and a EVGA Nvidia GTX480.

I missed out on the whole Geforce drivers killing 6k cards, so in my experience, Nvidia has better drivers. Hands down.

I've used ATI/AMD cards for a long time and over the years, it seems that nVidia's driver were a little more "cooked" than the ATI.

I have had about 5 of each and support has been getting better over the years for each company. Certain games tend to have better for certain cards, so I think it can be difficult to determine which company has better support unless you acknowledge that support can vary depending on the game itself. With my two most recent cards(nVidia GTX480 & AMD 7970) I can say both have advantages and some disadvantages, but they are both better than Intel so I say its a moot point.

I've been using both since the Geforce 2 days, I've seen my fair sure of issues from both camps, the one thing NV had on ATI, was that CCC really sucked at first . I still prefer NV control panel to AMD but as far as drivers go again, I've problems with both camps.

I've been back and forth between the two camps, but mostly NV lately. I was using ATI prior to and around when the CC first launched, and I was one of the few who loved the CCC. However, their driver quality, which had made strong gains to that point, took a huge dive. It seems like they've been recovering ever since.

Generally, I can get similar performance and IQ on Radeon cards when compared to similarly powered NV cards. However, the Radeon cards tend to have minor glitches in games where one or two features has to be disabled. So, in my experience, I've found NV drivers to be more robust.

I've had cards from both companies and have had issues with drivers from both companies. However, nVidia has had less problems for me and also had less program compatibility issues than ATI, so my vote goes with nVidia.

They're about the same. The 7970 was close to perfect at release day in non-crossfire mode. Never gave me any issues. It's just when I enabled crossfire that I had some issues in Starwars the old republic. Turns out it was the engine itself and nothing to do with the videocards. The only game that I remember that I must disable crossfire is anno2070 with the RC11 drivers. I haven't played the game yet with the 12.3 drivers or the new anno2070 game update resolved the issue.

I had my share of pain with AMD and Nvidia. Both of them have their issues and none of them have over the years have impressed me with their driver support. Just waiting patiently for my 512-bit card with 4GB of RAM for my 2560x1600 and beyond gaming

Single card they are equal imo

Been running AMD since the HD4890 XT and have love them.. even had Eyefinity early on;; don't get me wrong as i have a 460GTX in a HTPC..

[H] needs to start testing in real world games that matter most like iRacing Sims /WorldofTanks to name afew and get away from company surported games like BatMan/HawkX crap..

I voted AMD because that has been my experience but I would say that they're really equal but different. In my experience Nvidia is quicker to fix issues with specific games but often creates problems for some older games in the process while AMD takes longer to fix issues but is less likely to introduce new issues in older games with updates. When I've had Nvidia cards it seems like most games had one or two sets of drivers that they worked well with and sometimes it was a hunt to find the right drivers, with my AMD cards I don't have to update the drivers quite as often and I don't remember ever having to find an old driver to get an older game working(though I'm aware of the OpenGL issues that some have had).

Outside of performance/problems in specific games I know both companies have some annoying issues with some of the drivers they make, it seems to happen a little more frequently with AMD but their problems are more often solved with a simple workaround.

It would be useful to hear more details on which games don't work correctly for those voting in this poll. For example, I understand that opengl games like Doom 3, Prey, and Rage do not work properly on AMD cards. Are there certain games that do not work properly on Nvidia cards?

biggles said:

It would be useful to hear more details on which games don't work correctly for those voting in this poll. For example, I understand that opengl games like Doom 3, Prey, and Rage do not work properly on AMD cards. Are there certain games that do not work properly on Nvidia cards?

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Updates to Rage have been released to fix issues. I can only speak for Quake 4 (Doom3 engine) which works fine on my 7970 and worked fine on my 6950 crossfire, 5970, 5850 crossfire setups. These games are developed on Nvidia which makes perfect sense as to why they are released with issues.

My take on this:

It varies by generation. I'll take the 6800 series NVIDIA cards over the X800XT's from ATI. The X1950XTX and that whole generation of ATI cards was solid as hell. Much better than the 7900GTX's I had before that. The AMD 4870 X2's were shit. My GeForce GTX 280's weren't perfect, but at least they worked. The GTX 580's were somewhat problematic for me. The Radeon HD 5970 was better, but not great. But I've really had a great experience with the Radeon HD 7970.

I've experienced solid drivers and soggy shit drivers out of both companies which is why I harbor no particular loyalty to either.

I only had minor issue with the green card and it was mainly caused by the game itself... Can't say the same with amd.

kingduqc said:

I only had minor issue with the green card and it was mainly caused by the game itself... Can't say the same with amd.

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Lately I've had more problems with NVIDIA than AMD. But overall this seems to trade back and fourth in my experience.

The only real "driver" issue I had was the mouse cursor bug with my Radeon 5850.

I've had multiples of each company, and the only logic I have is current product performance/value.

First of all, thanks everyone for the responses. If you have not voted yet and have experience with both companies please do so. On the other hand, please DO NOT VOTE if you do not have first hand experience with both AMD and Nvidia cards. Voting on rumors or unsupported views would be counterproductive to this poll.

Some other threads in the video card forum suggested a poll like this does not mean anything. Instead, some say a controlled study or professional reviewer is needed to establish whether Nvidia or AMD drivers are better for games. I obviously disagree or I would not have started this poll. Comments on this issue?

Do you think the pros on this site would consider such a study? Or have such studies been done elsewhere?

I think that quite a few who voted haven't had actual experience with current drivers on both sides of the fence, and now that you mention reviewers, i would guess that reviewers would actually have a more lvl head approach to this alongside the actual experience.

For single cards they are about equal (though I like the layout and configuration screen on Nvidia's drivers better). I have never had a game compatibility issue in a single card configuration from either GPU maker.

For SLI/Crossfire Nvidia's drivers are the clear winner. AMD Still just can't seem to keep up with timely profile releases that work and work well. And when Crossfire works, it is rarely as smooth as SLI.

Because of this I voted that Nvidia drivers are better.

And yet the poll was for single card only but you voted for sli... see the problem?

Revdarian said:

And yet the poll was for single card only but you voted for sli... see the problem?

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yep, because the title of the thread was cut off on the low resolution on my phone. I only saw the leftmost portion of it. I'm going to try to change my vote.

edit: Damn. Doesn't let me change it.

Revdarian said:

I think that quite a few who voted haven't had actual experience with current drivers on both sides of the fence, and now that you mention reviewers, i would guess that reviewers would actually have a more lvl head approach to this alongside the actual experience.

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Is there some way we can get Brent or Kyle to chime in on this topic?

Revdarian said:

I think that quite a few who voted haven't had actual experience with current drivers on both sides of the fence, and now that you mention reviewers, i would guess that reviewers would actually have a more lvl head approach to this alongside the actual experience.

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I've personally gone through quite a few video cards from both sides of the fence in a relatively short period of time.

• 2009: (summer) Geforce 9400 GT (bought since I "no longer play games and just need something cheap for my new build and my old 6800GT AGP doesn't fit in modern motherboards")
• 2009 (late): Radeon HD5750 (bought because I rediscovered games, but "only need something lightweight as i don't play a lot")
• 2010 (late spring): Geforce GTX 470 ("I want moar!")
• 2010 (late): Geforce GTX580 ("I want even moar!")
• 2011 (early): Geforce GTX460 1GB ("My PSU can't handle 'even moar' besides I only play counter-strike anyway" )
• 2011 (summer): 2x Radeon HD6970 in crossfire (fuck it, built a new system with 1200W PSU It can handle all the graphics I want "
• 2012 (Jan): Radeon 7970 (tired of messing with Crossfire. One 7970 should be enough)
• 2012 (Mar): Geforce GTX460 768Mb (Accidentally killed 7970 with screwdriver, had this laying around)
• 2012 (Apr): Geforce GTX680 (Should arrive between Apr 17th and 21st)

Does this count as enough recent experience accross the borders?

Probably not as much as a reviewer, but I'd guess more than the average user.

Running a 7970 in the GFs box and a 680 in mine. Both of them work flawlessly and identical performance at max OC for the games we play. shrug.

With single card and single monitor i think they're equal. With multi-gpu and multi-monitors one does better then they other. I think it all comes down to preference I've come to get used to the look of CCC and like it better then nvidia control panel.

I think eyefinity works better then nvsurround. For multi-gpu I think sli is better when it comes to getting profiles quicker.

Zarathustra[H];1038603455 said:

I've personally gone through quite a few video cards from both sides of the fence in a relatively short period of time.
...
Does this count as enough recent experience accross the borders?

Probably not as much as a reviewer, but I'd guess more than the average user.

Click to expand...

My post said a few, and yet you come, chime in after you had already admitted that you voted in the wrong way. /facepalm bro >.< lol


BTW i could swear that one of them, Kyle or Brent, said that single card was mostly a wash, and in my experience that is true, i have dealt with bugs on both sides of the fence, and can attest that most of the times it is a case of PEBCAK.

These polls come up pretty often and the results are usually the same.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1570074

Question: what about driver support for older games? I am starting to think that Nvidia has better support for some older titles (Doom 3, Bioshock 2, Sega Rally Revo, Red Faction Guerrilla, etc). This could explain why professional video card reviewers do not see an advantage for one company versus the other since they are only testing the latest and greatest games.

This could also explain the different opinions of gamers. Those of us who tend to play both older and newer games would see an Nvidia advantage, whereas those of us who stick with the newer titles might find driver support roughly equal.

I've had 4 ATI cards, 1 Intel (SB), and 4 or 5 nvidia cards.

ATI has been a hassle driver wise, every single card. The newest, 7850's been the worst, a complete nightmare. Why I would have a worse experience with a 7850 compared to old (ati) 9500 or Intel HD is beyond me.

I wish someone would start a petition for ATI to make 100% compliant OpenGL drivers, and stop slacking off in general. Anyone who thinks AMD's drivers aren't complete trash is clearly a huge blind fanboy. Even the CCC ui looks like a downie made it.

With the 38x0 and the 68x0 series both single and dual GPU modes worked fine for me.
With the 79x0 series I have not used CF but single card works flawlessly.

Keep the feedback coming. The more votes we get, the more reliable this poll becomes.