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nVidia vs AMD: Your pick and why.


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I personally favor Nvidia. While I really don't have much experience with GPUs, I have tried both AMD and Nvidia and I can safely say that Nvidia was a much smoother experience.

Drivers were easier, regarding laptops Optimus worked great (mostly, although contrary to popular belief it didn't seem to have that bad of an issue with choosing the intel GPU in demanding programs), and I also like Nvidia's overall aesthetic better. Plus, my first "good" (by that I mean non-Intel) GPU in a PC that I had was a 6800 GT, which I fell in love with at the time :P.

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I have been changing between amd and nvidia all my life. And all i can say is that im currently on nvidia just because i needed the cuda at work. Other than that it really doesnt matter a bit what make i go with.

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This is my personal experience of course, not intended to upset anyone as I've owned countless desktop and laptops with AMD/ATI and NVidia.

1) Driver quality - Nvidia has always had better driver support for the latest games and bigfixes come quicker

2) Features - Specifically to multi-GPU features, but probably driver related like above I have always had better luck running SLI than crossfire. Also love physx games.

3) Game developer support and compatiblity - I have had several Physx supported games and always had to mess with them to try to get that feature running on AMD, I can't think of a single game that didn't run all features on NVidia

4) Hardware (reliability) - Never had problems with either manufacturer

5) Cost - I bet almost everytime I have had to pay more for Nvidia tha AMD, but for all of the above reasons I feel it is worth it, and not really a big part of my decision

I lean towards Nvidia always now, as I basically gave up on AMD with my last AMD laptop. I know they both have their benefits but I have always had better experience with Nvidia.

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It took a long time for me to finally decide between the 670 and 7970 and I finally went for the gigabyte 7950 windforce 3, this card is an absolute beast because it OC's so well and is very stable and cool, + it was worth the money, got it about 100€ cheaper than with a 7970 or 670. :)

This time my vote goes for AMD/ati. Although I do like nvidia as well.

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I'm not a "trademark" fanboy. Usually I'm a "tech" fanboy..

Whoever gives the best packet will take my money. And this paket include: Performance, Price, Old or New tech, driver, other software support. Considering the all thing is never so simple as it seems , especially nowadays with economic crysis. At the end, I've always picked nvidia cards to the present, but more because of the habits with nvidia softwares than other aspects I usually had to consider. ATi nowadays is a valid option: drivers are more frequent and with less problems, tech and performance are great, lack of software and marketing is repaid with considerably lower price. If you have not budget problems, I'd suggest nvidia but today, more than in the past, is a hard and very "case sensitive" choice.

I agree with you on that. I don't understand users that stick to one side and don't listen to positive points regarding the other(as users on both sides of the spectrum act in this close minded way). Every now and then one company pulls ahead of the other, outdoing it with this or that, and then the other company retaliates outdoing the other one. This cycle continues and will always continue so long as there are at least two opposing companies vying for the customers. In the current situation the 7970m is a bag of problems on any laptop that isn't Alienware(because others cannot disable enduro) so for most users getting a 680m is the best way to go. Albeit, there is the chance that a 7970m fix might be released soon but how long did it take for AMD to show any sign that they even were aware the problem existed? 2 months, maybe 3? That right there convinced me to go with a 680m because I don't want to wait for 'what if' solutions that may never come.

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I personally prefer Nvidia because of their drivers and features, such as ambient occlusion. I had a few AMD cards in the past, but their poor driver support has always brought me back to Nvidia. It's doesn't mean I will always be a fan of Nvidia though, I am a little ticked at them for pulling voltage control on their 600 series cards. Maybe, if AMD get some nice features like Nvidia, I will jump ship back over to the red side.

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If AMD can pull a great driver suport from now on i think it's a great cheaper alternative. I don't take sides, i only choose the one that is the best at the current generation. I waited months for the release of the 680M before jumping to a new laptop with a 7970M, and then waited a couple of months to see if AMD would release a fix for enduro porblem's. Than i would compare the 2 cards. No fix came so i opted for the 680M like 0xsergy. The 680M worked great out of the box.

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Split decision...

1.: Overall, Nvidia wins, but not by much... both hardware vendors managed to cause bad system problems in the past, but in the last 1-2 years, I do not recall any significant problems

2.: Nvidia. Physx is irrelevant, and so is 3D, but CUDA is very nice. Also, Nvidia has better custom resolution options, which is very important to me (unfortunately not on my new notebook).

3.: Small win for AMD - I have not run into any major problems with any GPUs in games recently, but AMD seems to work better on older games

4.: Draw. Had some overheating problems with both in the past, but right now, both are working without a problem.

5.: Win for AMD

For my job, I need CUDA, so I need Nvidia. Otherwise, I would choose AMD.

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AMD/Ati has been much better and reliable in laptops then Nvidia because of the heating problems. I have had a few Asus C90P with dead nvidia cards running hot constantly, switched to ATI at the time and everything went well, less heat less problems low noise etc. Now days they both run the fans loud but in gaming mode it's to be expected.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Used to be AMD for price but nVidia won me over with consistently better performance for my money

The crucial word being "MY" (in "for my money"). For MY money, I pick AMD, the 7970M/Enduro debacle and nVidia's current supremacy notwithstanding.

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This one is a tough call for me.

I have always used both cards at about the same time and changing between both. After having been unable to use a desktop for months, I finally splurged on a portable desktop and had a choice between 7970M and GTX680M. In terms of longevity and support, I picked Nvidia in this situation since the 7970 has been out since summer and hasn't had much fixes for the Clevo laptop.

In terms of drivers and support from the desktop side, I was fine with both cards (went from: GT8600, HD 4870, GTX 260, HD 6870) and had no issues besides being unable to play newer games without having to overclock or upgrade.

I guess I join the neutral boat then.~

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I generally don't take sides. Was a happy ATI customer for years and never wanted anything else. I haven't been happy with ATI/AMD products since 6900M series. Had repeated problems with 6970M, 6990M and 7970M hardware malfunctioning (all three) and generally poor driver support since AMD took the reigns. I've been very pleased with GTX 580M SLI and GTX 680M SLI... awesome performance and much better drivers.

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It's like choosing one from your 2 favourite meals :Banane04:

I have experience with both manufactures, and none of them I regret.

And yes of course nVidia has better driver. But now I'm seeing AMD catching up pretty fast.

As in nVidia 3D, I'm not using this feature ever (until now), thus no plus in this feature (for me)

AMD cards tends to run a little bit hotter. But then when it comes to C/P ratio.. ooh la la :D

AMD clearly wins my wallet LOL

Currently using nVidia one (570M) and looking forward to AMD (7970M) beause of it's C/P ratio $-)

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I am for Nvidia. It is like Intel in the processors and Windows in the OSes. You feel that they have a plan for the future while AMD is trying to survive and still be somehow in competition. Nvidia creates new technologies while AMD is trying to clone it. It is always behind the Nvidia.

How many complaints did I hear about AMD driver? A lot! While only complaints about Nvidia's drivers were about Beta drivers. Almost never about WHQL.

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Mainly only because of drivers. I have always run multiple GPU,s and in my old x7200 had dual 6990,s and it was a nightmare for me in terms of driver / game compatibility issues etc.. just lots of little bugs all the time so since then went to Nvidia and never had a problem since. neither is perfect but i can't stand driver issues. If AMD could sort that area out they would be hard to beat IMO..

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