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nVidia vs AMD: Your pick and why.


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In our 680M SLI vs AMD 7970M Crossfire article, we cited a multitude of reasons that we felt gave nVidia the edge over AMD despite the price disparity. Specifically with respect to multiGPU setups, we noted that the 7970M Xfire just didn't seem as smooth as 680M SLI (despite achieving performance parity) and there was more noticeable microstuttering which adversely affected gameplay and perceived smoothness.

From our article:

During game play we noticed that the Crossfire setup did experience more noticeable stuttering even when the frame rate was well into the 60s or higher. Case in point is Battlefield 3, when playing on Grand Bazaar using the 7970M Crossfire, microstuttering was very evident yet the same was not true on the same map and server with the 680M SLI. In Batman Arkham City while running the built in benchmark, I noticed areas of very visible stuttering that simply were not there with the 680M SLI and again the same was experienced in Borderlands 2.

....

As we outlined in this article, during testing we ran into several issues with the AMD cards that were both software and hardware related. With respect to software, we felt the AMD Catalysts were still not up to par with NVIDIA’s GeForce drivers and as a result we experienced visual and performance anomalies not seen with the 680M SLI. Crossfire is improving but we still experienced a lot more microstuttering with it than SLI.

Well now HardOCP just published a 7970 vs 680 multidisplay comparison and they had this to say in their conclusion:

There is no question that SLI feels smoother, thanks to the added technology that NVIDIA employs to address this very topic.....There is a distinct performance advantage for Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition CrossFireX compared to GTX 680 SLI. We still however "feel" there is also a distinct smoothness advantage with SLI that AMD has yet to capture. This is subjective call, but all [H]ardOCP editors agree on this.

BTW friendly tip for Radeon 7970M Crossfire users: Download Radeon Pro, it has a feature to help smooth out the microstuttering for AMD cards and it works quite well. It's pretty sad that a third party developer is able to fix what AMD still cannot accomplish through drivers.

http://www.radeonpro.info/Download/R...ro_Preview.exe

Release notes:

- New: Dynamic Vsync Control (DVC) support. This feature controls how vertical synchronization is applied at rendering time, automatically turning it off when frame rate is below monitor's refresh rate to reduce stuttering and turning it on when framerate is above or equal to monitor's refresh rate, improving smoothness.

- New: Dynamic Framerate Control (DFC) support. This feature acts like a frame rate limiter with smoothness control, just set a frame rate target and RadeonPro will try to keep it as close as possible while maintaining frame rendering times close to each other to avoid stuttering.

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@Brian - good info, bro. It's nice to have a red vs. green review for the desktop cards that reinforces our findings on the mobile side of the house.

There is no question that SLI feels smoother, thanks to the added technology that NVIDIA employs to address this very topic.....There is a distinct performance advantage for Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition CrossFireX compared to GTX 680 SLI. We still however "feel" there is also a distinct smoothness advantage with SLI that AMD has yet to capture. This is subjective call, but all [H]ardOCP editors agree on this.
This "performance advantage" is more true in the desktop scenario than it is in the mobile graphics game. I love brute force... what performance enthusiast doesn't? But, it's hard to be excited about performance when malfunction and reliability issues tarnish that experience.

RadeonPro is a great program. I am glad to see it being updated. I used it all the time before I finally abandoned the hope for satisfaction with AMD products.

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.

I agree with this. I think it is accurate. It's very sad to me... I was satisfied with ATI graphics cards for many years and it has been discouraging to watch what has happened with their graphics cards under the AMD brand.
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  • 2 weeks later...

If we are talking about mobile sigment - I will go with Nvidia (drivers, temperatures and 3d kit). Desktop - I am still using crossfire with 2x Asus 5870 V.2 OC edition)) And more than happy with) And also it is metter of how much money do you have)

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  • 3 weeks later...

AMD. PhysX is pretty useless and only supported for a few dozen titles. Nvidia is the only one among the three big graphics makers that doesn't support the open source implementation for Linux. AMD supports overclocking with the drivers, while Nvidia hasn't done that for generations of their products. Nvidia is more expensive.

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This is an easy one for me: Nvidia. I have tried a few times to give AMD a try it has backfired on me. Every desktop I have made with AMD has had issues with crashing and general instability.

I decided to give their laptop version a chance with my first Alienware. It was ok but it still left something to be desired. I don't like that it took them forever to update their drivers, when Nvidia does it almost weekly to improve their cards. In the year that I had my AMD Alienware I think they update their card drivers twice. Though, I think part of that problem was that I could not use their drivers I had to wait for Dell to put then out because AMD's drivers would break the video card switching. I don't have that problem now with Nvidia. Physix support didn't bother me so I don't count that against them.

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I've generally always preferred AMD. But with the advent of steam for linux, I wanted the best support and nVidia pretty much has this in the bag.

just real quick

steam box is announced (not officially) but you know, its supposed to run on linux, but windows is possible too :P

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I've grown partial to nvidia pretty much out of habit. I used techspot.com's desktop buying guide when I started getting into system building and it always seemed like nvidia was always the top value in the upper market of GPUs. AMD gpus couldn't stay recommended for long because something from nvidia is always stealing the performance crown back. I'm all about a good price in the high performance arena.

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Nvidia all the way driver updates are more common by far and they seem to have better relationships with software houses for pushing games from the get go !!

Not to say ATI/AMD make bad card's a few friends have them but i'll sit happily in the green camp :3

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I just switched back to NVIDIA's 680m after trying AMD for 6 months. I guess I had the roughest experience as it was in a P170EM which forces Enduro passthrough (not a great idea) which AMD completely screwed up in their drivers initially. They fixed almost all of these performance issues in recent betas, but apparently not for DCS and that's what I need gaming performance for most of the time. Also, it's 6 months since release and most people have to spend serious hours installing beta drivers to get close to NVIDIA performance, which is again, not cool. I found that the AMD cards also run hotter a the same perf level.

It seems that the AMD hardware itself is pretty robust (with the exception of the first batch of 7970m cards which were recalled on Clevo side, not an actual AMD issue)

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Nvidia handily beats AMD in most objective criteria, but I can't help but root for the underdog. AMD, while completely botching Enduro (until 12.11 at least) still offers extremely powerful mobile gpus at a significant discount compared to Nvidia. My choice comes down to my budget... if I have to choose between the 7970m and the similarly priced Nvidia card (675mx) AMD wins hands down. If I'm going all out and not sparing any expense, then I'm going with the 680m for its better drivers, overclocking potential, performance, and features.

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I have always tried to buy Nvidia but my last 4 computers have been ati/amd based. The price for performance is just not there when comparing Ati/Amd to Nvidia. I just bought a m17x r4 and had to go with the 7970m because of the price difference to the 680m. $550 vs $200 (when i bought it) for not much of an improvement... pity really... Oh well I guess I have no loyalties to either company so its always price performance for me now. But AMD/ATI has just been on top of there game lately.

Like the old days though if you want top notch best of the best its Nvidia Intel combo.

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I'd go with Nvidia for sure. I've got dual 6970hd's in my laptop and driver updates (sparse as they are) do not come close to dealing with the plethora of issues plaguing crossfire issues in a variety of games. Although Nvidia cards usually cost more at similar performance levels, I'd gladly pay that premium for the superior drivers.

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With current driver releases from both sides, I have to lean towards Nvidia this time around. I was able to use the AMD 7970m for quite a while. It is a great performer especially with current release titles but falls short on older/less supported games. AMDs GCN architecture needs more driver support in order to be a better recommendation compared with Nvidias current card. You will see severely erratic performance on AMDs side as the GPU sometimes does not fully load on certain games. They are working on some of those issues especially when they release the 13.2 driver but its still a long road. I am now using a Nvidia 680m and its almost flawless except for some issues surrounding the 310.90 driver. This is all based on their current flagship cards and does not reflect future flagship cards.

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  • 1 month later...

I got my girl friend an amd gaming laptop, but it stutters in battle field 3. I think it is some amd driver issues...The main thing I would consider is the performance vs price issue, right now I just ordered my new 17' laptop with 675mx inside of $1230, but if I go for 7970M or 680M it would be at least $1500. And in the second place, AMD would not match Nvidia. So right now I would prefer nvidia.

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All valid points. Just had both xfire 7970m and 680m sli recently, the xfire came out of the box with screen flickering, turned out to be faulty xfire cable. Performance was better in the games I was playing, all these reports of 680m being faster wasnt true for me. But one of the 7970ms failed so back the whole laptop went, replaced with sli 680ms for £400 more! Oh the pain! Slightly worse performance fps wise but trouble free free free!

I must be mad, but things like screen brightness adjusting, AA, they just weren't working with xfire, sli is smoother too, and when oc'd....omg!!

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