My personal AMD v. Nvidia thoughts

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kevineugenius

[H]ard|Gawd
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Recently changed from 2x 6870s to a single GTX 670. The price is fairly similar, but there is a little extra money toward the Nvidia side for this transaction, I am noting that to be fair.

However, for a 3 monitor setup, AMD gave me multiple headaches and "why can't I just push this button and have it work?" moments. Nvidia was essentially plug n play. Their software is 8000 times better.

The speed is also much better but, again, that's not a great comparison. All I'm really saying with this thread is: Nvidia did a great job implementing their features into usable and easy software without headaches and glitches where AMD falls severely short. CCC has actually been a crap program ever since I can remember, I don't know why they can't take a hint and start over or fire the guy in charge or something. Straight up, though, I'm so impressed with Nvidia right now I'm in danger of becoming a fanboy.
 
Not exactly fair to AMD since you didnt try a current generation AMD single gpu card, but alright.
 
lbj. said:
Not exactly fair to AMD since you didnt try a current generation AMD single gpu card, but alright.
Click to expand...

True. It's a little known fact that the 7000 series makes the CCC morph into total awesomeness!
 
His last-generation AMD cards use current-generation AMD software, so the software itself is on equal footing.

I'm inclined to agree. AMD cards have generally worked alright for me, and AMD produces perfectly fine hardware and reasonably good drivers, but everything about the overall software experience is so incredibly poor compared to the same experience NVIDIA offers, from driver installation to control panel implementation. In my opinion, anyway.
 
Popcorn.gif

Also, I've never had issues with CCC on both crossfire and single-gpu setups.

Never had issues with NCP either, for what it's worth (currently have a 670).
 
So you went from one last gen AMD multi card setup to one current gen nVidia single card setup and decided to make an AMD vs nVidia thread over it? Makes sense. :rolleyes:
 
lame. Where's that Thumb down voting?

Gee, single gpu is easier than multi-gpu. go figure!

You could have done the same thing with a SLI 550 and moved to a single card 7970 and had the same experience.
 
Single card is almost always better than a multi-card setup.
 
My personal AMD v. Nvidia thoughts
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hurrithreadgy6.jpg
 
J Macker said:
lame. Where's that Thumb down voting?

Gee, single gpu is easier than multi-gpu. go figure!

You could have done the same thing with a SLI 550 and moved to a single card 7970 and had the same experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I have a few gaming rigs right now. Ive been pretty much exclusive to AMD video cards since the 4850 was released. One with XFX 5850, one with PNY 470 GTX and one with two 7970s. No driver issues, glitches, crashes, problems, or issues on any of my rigs.

I will admit, i love the geforce 470 GTX performance per dollar ratio (got mine for $80)
 
Is this thread really necessary? I could post my personal opinion and both vendors would have a page long laundry-list of problems. Does it matter though? No, because there are too many variables involved in those problematic circumstances that only I and a couple of other people have faced.
 
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I've gone with AMD twice in a row now (currently a 6850). All my friends have at some point also gone with AMD. Everyone, including me, is now a Nvidia fan (and I don't even have a Nvidia card yet). All of us have experienced some sort of major stability / driver / performance problem with AMD in recent years. As our group switches over to Nvidia, one by one we no longer have major GPU problems. I thought my last AMD card (4850) was a fluke - it apparently was not, as I now have problems almost as bad with my current card (though a driver update a little while back solved ONE of the months-long issues).
 
I was happy with ATI/AMD when i used single 9700/2900/4850 - trying cf with x2 6850 was pure nightmare.
 
Let us stop making completely subjective "I like x vs x video card brand based on complete nonsense" threads please. Apple to orange comparisons are useless and provide no real insight or positive momentum. Last gen tech will always be somewhat inferior to the newest editions...
 
The AMD vs Nvidia GPU debate is a hot topic because the products are so equal and the small difference that makes people buy one or the other is often very subjective.
Some people will rate the power usage high, others the screen options others the total OC potential, once the decision has been made most people want to be validated in making a good decision or may project their subjective values onto others, which in the world of the Internet leads to fanbios posting horrible crap.
The sad thing is that there is little difference between choosing AMD or Nvidia.

Seeing this thread has not hit the fan, I'll chip in with my subjective opinion.

I have just switched from a GT240 GDDR5 to a HD7850 and comparing the two cards on performance, OC ability, features or build quality is not fair, correct or relevant.

On the driver side, I really like the HD7850 over the GT240. Nvidia never really dedicated a lot of driver attention to the GDDR5 version leading to problems with memory clock, corrupted textures and finally missing textures when the memory requirements passed 512 MB.
No the card is not dying, these problems have come and passed with different driver revisions.

Looking at the control panel, Nvidia gets my vote here CCC is a mess in windows and is missing a lot of features and information in Linux. I have still not found the current clock and fan speeds for the card when using the Linux version of CCC.

Feel free to ask for more of my subjective opinions on the cards.

Would I have preferred to stay in the Nvidia camp?
Yes I would simply because I already had a Nvidia card. But I have been waiting since the 4xx gen for a Nvidia card that really looked like a solid 1050P or 1080P card with power consumption in the 100 Watt area. I finally got tired of waiting for the next great thing, looked up what was available a couple of weeks ago and decided I would buy a HD7850.
 
Well excuuuuuuuuse me for getting a new piece of hardware that was impressive right out of the box and functioned perfectly in such a simple way that I actually felt a little tinge of happiness in the back of my otherwise useless-opinion-storing braincase and wanted to put something semi-public up to show my genuine pleasure that a good product had made its way into my hands.

OOOOOH, perish the evil notion that someone has an *opinion* about something on the internet. Quickly, let's flame him for not posting things that are either A) factual or 2: something we agree with.

Shoot, I even made it a "props to company x for doing a good job with y" type thing, not an "I hate company x and company z is so much bbqwtfwafflelol better" thing...

More of my stupid and inane opinions aside, maybe someone should just lock / delete this thread before it get trolled into the fan. Sorry for getting excited about something cool that happened, next time I'll just put on my cool internet tough guy glasses and go yell at something for no reason.

I could offer a rebuttal to every stupid thing that has made it into this thread, but I'd rather go enjoy my nicely-functioning hardware complete with lovely software instead.
 
kevineugenius said:
Well excuuuuuuuuse me for getting a new piece of hardware that was impressive right out of the box and functioned perfectly in such a simple way that I actually felt a little tinge of happiness in the back of my otherwise useless-opinion-storing braincase and wanted to put something semi-public up to show my genuine pleasure that a good product had made its way into my hands.

OOOOOH, perish the evil notion that someone has an *opinion* about something on the internet. Quickly, let's flame him for not posting things that are either A) factual or 2: something we agree with.

Shoot, I even made it a "props to company x for doing a good job with y" type thing, not an "I hate company x and company z is so much bbqwtfwafflelol better" thing...

More of my stupid and inane opinions aside, maybe someone should just lock / delete this thread before it get trolled into the fan. Sorry for getting excited about something cool that happened, next time I'll just put on my cool internet tough guy glasses and go yell at something for no reason.

I could offer a rebuttal to every stupid thing that has made it into this thread, but I'd rather go enjoy my nicely-functioning hardware complete with lovely software instead.
Click to expand...

I've had a 7950, 7850 and two 660Ti's, and I agree with your statements, its no secret nVidia has better software and is more user friendly.

I miss my 7850, but honestly some of the things/tweaks/work around's you just don't have to deal with when it comes to nVidia, and I haven't had my PC randomly black screen once now with either 660Ti, GASP lol..

Both sides have their problems, but there's something to be said about plugging in a new piece of equipment and having it work right out of the box.
 
I tried out a quadfire 5970 setup a few years back, was the worst experience ever. AMDs driver team was totally incompetent with that card. If I ever tried to upgrade past either the 10.4 or 10.5 driver it would BSOD immediately after trying to do anything that remotely used the GPU, even watching movies would trigger it If I stayed on the old old drivers it would STILL frequently BSOD just take a day or two tops before it did it.

I had a ASUS and a XFX because back then they were in low quantity and I couldn't find 2 from the same vendor but both were reference cards so that shouldn't have mattered. Really it didn't matter because I finally got fed up and pulled one out and the cards and STILL had BSOD issues, pulled that one out and put the other one in, yup still BSOD.

Got really fed up after almost a year and went out and got a GTX580, which according to reviews should have been a side grade at best, but immediately all BSODs went away, I actually doubled my FPS in the games I cared about, and it used way less power which was immediately noticable in my room.

My 580 chugged along just fine until I saw the reveal of the 690 at which point I thought "that's a magnificent piece of hardware, I really don't need it but by god I'm gonna have it", and despite my previous issues with dual GPU cards got one back in may. Just like the 580 before it, it works gloriously, noticably improved frame rates with even less power usage currently powering almost 10million pixels of screen real estate.

So for me, considering my experiences, driver stability and quality is now the #1 thing I look at when I'm even thinking about buying a new video card, and as [H] said in their opinion piece, AMD is severely lacking. The 5970 was supposed to be AMDs crowning jewel but they couldn't be bothered to give it proper support after their customers shelled out $600 per card. Just google "5970 BSOD", tons of people had this issue and the issue where drivers couldn't be updated, then google "GTX690 BSOD" I didn't see one that linked the BSOD issue to the hardware, they were mostly "I'm getting BSODs, oh and there's a GTX690 in my system specs".

nVidia may have the occasional driver issue ("oops melted a few cards"), but issues on the green side seem to actually get fixed (like replacing the cards they melted) where AMD seems a bit more content to take our money and run.

$1200 on AMD garbage, not touching their crap until either nvidia gets way worse or I start hearing on these forums how AMD not only caught up with nvidia but surpassed them in quality.
 
I love the way my nVidia cards just work with no hiccups over the years. Never had to google how to make certain games work or which driver to roll back to to make sure something didn't crash. Dollar for dollar the FPS are usually not as high, but its been a pretty trouble free ride with nVidia. In the past I felt the image quality was better with nVidia but last five years or so I haven't noticed a difference.

On the other hand I love the fact that I get a lot more bang for my buck performance-wise with AMD. For instance my old 9800 Pro that I could flash to a 9800XT and my 6950 that I unlocked (actually it was already unlocked from the factory, I just had to flip the switch) to a 6970. And all of them have overclocked decently. There may be more hassles, but I always feel like I am getting my moneys worth with AMD.

So if I am building a machine for my friends/family I will always go nVidia. That will have me spending less time trouble shooting their systems. If building a machine for home use I go with whichever is the best deal at the time- factoring in the possiblility of unlocking/high overclocking with AMD, or trouble free gaming with nVidia.
 
I ended up getting a laptop with nvidia 570m to play games that would not work correctly on an amd 6870 card. Way I see it is that if you go with amd it is good to have a backup pc with nvidia graphics. Red Faction Guerrilla, Sega Rally Revo, Split/Second, Rage and others are simply not playable on the 6870 but work fine on the laptop.

Agree that amd is better bang for the buck, trouble is amd sometimes fails the "it just works" test.

See poll below for nvidia vs amd drivers, single card only:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1683315&highlight=poll

190 responses, 9% say amd drivers better, 56% prefer nvidia, and 34% say equal (as of today).
 
kevineugenius said:
Well excuuuuuuuuse me .

OOOOOH, perish the evil notion that someone has an *opinion* about something on the internet.
Shoot, I even made it a "props to company x for doing a good job with y"

More of my stupid and inane opinions aside,

I could offer a rebuttal to every stupid thing that has made it into this thread, but I'd rather go enjoy my nicely-functioning hardware complete with lovely software instead.
Click to expand...

So you had an older set of cards, you maybe had a little problem hooking up the video cable to the third monitor on that set up, then you go spend the money on a current generation nvidia card, then make a bunch of characterizations about ATI because of it, then you get butthurt because people point out the faulty premise of said allegations?

Really?

Get back to us when you graduate Middle School.
 
Comte said:
So you had an older set of cards, you maybe had a little problem hooking up the video cable to the third monitor on that set up, then you go spend the money on a current generation nvidia card, then make a bunch of characterizations about ATI because of it, then you get butthurt because people point out the faulty premise of said allegations?

Really?

Get back to us when you graduate Middle School.
Click to expand...

+1

Obviously it's awesome when you get something new and it "just works". But this thread was unnecessary to begin with since you didn't try a single 7xxx card. If you did and still had problems, then it's a different story. You didn't think about the other side in your post so people just pointed it out for you, no need to get so sensitive over the internet.......
 
I've still not seen any explanation as to how the CCC improves as a result of moving from one generation of hardware to the next generation. Would anyone care to field this one?
 
thanks for your opinion, while I don't lean one way or the other, I've had my share of issues with both camps for multi-gpu setups.


give the guy a break, he bought cards from AMD they gave him trouble, he bought one from NV and it didn't hes just telling you about it, you're free to NOT read this thread and move on.
 
biggles said:
See poll below for nvidia vs amd drivers, single card only:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1683315&highlight=poll

190 responses, 9% say amd drivers better, 56% prefer nvidia, and 34% say equal (as of today).
Click to expand...

Wow. Nice evidence. *sarcasm*.
The problem with nvidia fanboys is just that: they're fanboys. Very vocal ones too. I'm really sick of amd vs nvidia threads. There's no value to arguing about it. Fanboy trolls posting shitty threads like this one should be banned.
 
J Macker said:
Wow. Nice evidence. *sarcasm*.
The problem with nvidia fanboys is just that: they're fanboys. Very vocal ones too. I'm really sick of amd vs nvidia threads. There's no value to arguing about it. Fanboy trolls posting shitty threads like this one should be banned.
Click to expand...

Fanboy implies bias, but the poll records real data. Perhaps you would like to chime in on the poll (assuming you've not already done so). Polls with hundreds of replies are superior to a single user's anecdotal evidence. It is worthwhile information for prospective video card purchasers.
 
kevineugenius said:
Well excuuuuuuuuse me for getting a new piece of hardware that was impressive right out of the box and functioned perfectly in such a simple way that I actually felt a little tinge of happiness in the back of my otherwise useless-opinion-storing braincase and wanted to put something semi-public up to show my genuine pleasure that a good product had made its way into my hands.

OOOOOH, perish the evil notion that someone has an *opinion* about something on the internet. Quickly, let's flame him for not posting things that are either A) factual or 2: something we agree with.

Shoot, I even made it a "props to company x for doing a good job with y" type thing, not an "I hate company x and company z is so much bbqwtfwafflelol better" thing...
Click to expand...

This thread isn't about your happiness with a new product. The moment you titled the post "AMD v. Nvidia," people come into the thread with guns ready. What else do you expect with a title like that? Then we get to your original post. You claim that Company X has better _____ than Company Y based off an unfair comparison (multi-GPU vs single GPU). Of course people are going to start flaming after that.

In short, you did make a "I hate company x and company z is so much bbqwtfwafflelol better" thing... it might not have been obvious to you, but it's obvious to anyone with a brain.
 
-Dragon- said:
I tried out a quadfire 5970 setup a few years back, was the worst experience ever. AMDs driver team was totally incompetent with that card. If I ever tried to upgrade past either the 10.4 or 10.5 driver it would BSOD immediately after trying to do anything that remotely used the GPU, even watching movies would trigger it If I stayed on the old old drivers it would STILL frequently BSOD just take a day or two tops before it did it.

I had a ASUS and a XFX because back then they were in low quantity and I couldn't find 2 from the same vendor but both were reference cards so that shouldn't have mattered. Really it didn't matter because I finally got fed up and pulled one out and the cards and STILL had BSOD issues, pulled that one out and put the other one in, yup still BSOD.

Got really fed up after almost a year and went out and got a GTX580, which according to reviews should have been a side grade at best, but immediately all BSODs went away, I actually doubled my FPS in the games I cared about, and it used way less power which was immediately noticable in my room.

My 580 chugged along just fine until I saw the reveal of the 690 at which point I thought "that's a magnificent piece of hardware, I really don't need it but by god I'm gonna have it", and despite my previous issues with dual GPU cards got one back in may. Just like the 580 before it, it works gloriously, noticably improved frame rates with even less power usage currently powering almost 10million pixels of screen real estate.

So for me, considering my experiences, driver stability and quality is now the #1 thing I look at when I'm even thinking about buying a new video card, and as [H] said in their opinion piece, AMD is severely lacking. The 5970 was supposed to be AMDs crowning jewel but they couldn't be bothered to give it proper support after their customers shelled out $600 per card. Just google "5970 BSOD", tons of people had this issue and the issue where drivers couldn't be updated, then google "GTX690 BSOD" I didn't see one that linked the BSOD issue to the hardware, they were mostly "I'm getting BSODs, oh and there's a GTX690 in my system specs".

nVidia may have the occasional driver issue ("oops melted a few cards"), but issues on the green side seem to actually get fixed (like replacing the cards they melted) where AMD seems a bit more content to take our money and run.

$1200 on AMD garbage, not touching their crap until either nvidia gets way worse or I start hearing on these forums how AMD not only caught up with nvidia but surpassed them in quality.
Click to expand...

That's funny because I had the same exact problems you faced on the 5970 with my quad-SLI GTX295 setup. Google GTX295 BSOD and you'll see a plethora of problems.

Even the 295s still act funky with today's games, black screening at random parts in WvWvW (GW2), stuttering in Skyrim, textures missing in SWTOR.

Like I said, both companies have their fair share of crappy problems and no one is safe.
 
I feel the same way though I'm probably biased. My friends and I all play TERA and the guys with AMD cards all have problems. Although it could be the TERA producers fault and not AMD. However Nvidia is definitely not perfect either I remember my Geforce MX440 and my GTX285 gave me nothing but headaches.
 
lbj. said:
+1

Obviously it's awesome when you get something new and it "just works". But this thread was unnecessary to begin with since you didn't try a single 7xxx card. If you did and still had problems, then it's a different story. You didn't think about the other side in your post so people just pointed it out for you, no need to get so sensitive over the internet.......
Click to expand...

I might reply to you because you seem to actually have a valid point where you've considered what is going on from an intelligent standpoint whereas the rest of the people on here are making wild assumptions about my past behavior and my motivations for making the thread and as soon as the name-calling starts, my experience with human psychology tells me that there is no point in continuing to try to reason with the baboon.

Yes, this thread was fairly unnecessary. However, telling me that posting an opinion on a forum is pretty dang unnecessary, too. That's what people do ffs. It wasn't a direct comparison between two cards of the same generation in the same setup and guess what? It almost never will be because a standard human in the US economy can't afford to try every single video card ever made before forming an opinion. It's an o.p.i.n.i.o.n. The only point of this thread is if someone else happens to be upgrading and wondering which "camp" to go to, which a stupid and ludicrous idea to assume that you have to either be a fanboy of one side or the other, and they too don't have enough money to try every single card, maybe I can help them make a decision if, say, software quality and ease of install is important to them.

I don't feel I need to defend myself, but geez... why don't you guys take a little bit of a search through the [H] posts with Kevin's name on them and find out that I did try a 7xxx card in a different system build and got 2 DOA in a row so I couldn't even do a fair evaluation of them. Or maybe that I've been using CCC since the 9xxx series off and on or that I've used multiple different brands of video cards, multi and single, since we freaking had "SLI" between one 2D card and one 3D card. Nope, let's assume the idiot only ever built 1 system in his entire life and only had 2 graphic setups and now he's comparing the two even though it's purely unfair because one is a smidge older. You know what we ended up putting in my buddy's tower when the 7xxx's didn't work? A GTX 480. There's a generation gap for ya, and guess what? The 480 worked 100% out of the box. It may or may not be faster, it's hard to speed check something when it doesn't work at all.

Your real problems seem to just be my title. I guess I should've just said "I hate baby seals and CCC" instead.
 
I've just bought my first AMD card (7950) and have always had Nvidia in the past.

I've not had any problems with either.

While it's seems to be the common opinion that AMD software/drivers are worse, so far I have had no issues and it was simply plug and play.

Not saying people don't have valid issues with AMD, but it's not everyone's experience.
 
i think its pretty obvious who won this gen, i dont know why some people here are still in denial.

bringing an old game like Metro2033 and some console ports that run a tad better on on AMD to me is really baffling and double face palm like reaction when someone recommends AMD over Nvidia this generation.
 
I think the problems you had were more a function of Multi-GPU and AMD's poor driver performance in that arena, even though they were putting out better FPS numbers.

I ran into the same thing with my HD6950's, and bought a GTX670 on release day after seeing the reviews. The GTX670 has been worlds better first hand.

I don't really believe that one card is better than the other, or the drivers are really that much better- with single cards. While AMD appears to have caught up a little in their Crossfire drivers, or so current users claim, I'm still hesitant. There was literally no indication that the HD6000's would micro-stutter like they did, and AMD did drop the ball on at least two games I played (BF3 and Skyrim).
 
I'm not even worried about the problems I had, I just liked how smooth and perfectly easy it was to get a 3-monitor setup on the GTX (either in 3600x1920 or in 3x 1200x1920 modes). I'm not saying AMD is bad (though CCC is bad, always has been, don't argue) I'm trying to say "good job, Nvidia, you have impressed me".
 
Absolute fail of a thread. Comparing different generations? Check. Directly comparing dual and single GPU solutions? Check.
 
wabbitseason said:
Absolute fail of a thread. Comparing different generations? Check. Directly comparing dual and single GPU solutions? Check.
Click to expand...

They're actually not that far off. Comparing two adjacent generations is extremely common, and as it has been said, AMD's current software runs on their last generation cards.

My HD6950's were technically faster than my GTX670, but firsthand experience revealed the exact opposite; though as has been also said moving from two cards to one should noticeably improve your experience as well.

He said 'personal' in the title. These are his experiences, and they're totally in line with what the community has observed. This is only trollbait for the ignorant.
 
Plus, why is everyone saying two cards should be more difficult that one card? They go in the same kind of slot on the mobo, they have the same power connectors, a bridge is not hard to install, and inside the software you hit one checkbox to enable it. It's a stupid argument to try and say that MY argument is stupid.

Besides that, different generations being compared is abso-freakin-lutely necessary. Why? Because there's morons out there that think a GTX 600.001 is better than a GTX 590 because "the number is bigger." Grow a brain stem, then a brain, then share your opinion in your own stupid thread rather than telling me I'm a moron for feeling that two high end cards that are one generation behind a single high end card should've maybe held their water a little better.

Every time I deal with people I'm reminded of why I don't deal with people.
 
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