ATI vs. NVIDIA??? Who currently has the throne?

[GTwannabe]

Currently running a Radeon 5770... but I greatly prefer NVIDIA drivers over Catalyst. Beta driver updates are much more frequent and always worked as well or better than the official WHQL drivers. Per-game profiles were great for older games. Oh, and NVIDIA drivers don't try to install "Lord of the Rings Demo", "Communication Opt-In", and other CRAP by default.

[AMDTurbo]

If I was to buy today, Nvidia would get my vote

460 1g > 6850
470 > 6870
580 > 5870 etc

[RatboyX]

I'm going to guess that you might be a little biased though?


M

A little??????? Ha ha ha HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I love you man you are good. Understated humor has always been my favorite.

The rest off these comments are not amid at you Meridian but at others who always reply to such threads as these.

Anyway…. I’ve no real bias. I was an Nvidia user for a long time, but currently I’m running mostly AMD GPU’s

So coming from a “non fan boy” perspective, I always laugh at these types of threads. I often look at fan boy responses and say in my best Yoda voice “Ummmm The E-pien is STRONG in this one.”

I think it’s pretty funny that so many people are hung up on benchmarks that do not translate to any difference in real world game experience. “OMG I get 68 FPS in Batman and you only get 63….. LAWLS your GPU is Fail.”

Both AMD and Nvidia offer some kick ass GPU’s. Buy whichever one you like best and can afford. Then fire up your favorite game and play.

To be honest we need the reviews and benchmarks because of the crazy naming conventions BOTH companies use. The Benchmarks ARE useful in making the decision of which card to buy, it’s simply silly to boost ones ego based on the hardware you own…. Hard to believe I just said that but ummm okay there it is.

[RatboyX]

If I was to buy today, Nvidia would get my vote

460 1g > 6850
470 > 6870
580 > 5870 etc

Fair enough comparison of today’s cards… concise and correct…

One other thing your choices show is the importance of good competition in the market.

Prior to the 6850 and 6870 launch both AMD and Nvidia cards were priced a lot higher for the performance. Nvidia dropping the 470 price to compete with the 6870 was a good thing for everyone but it started with the competition.

That’s one reason I don’t like to see one brand far outshine the other… it’s bad for us all.

[jethro]

I think it’s pretty funny that so many people are hung up on benchmarks that do not translate to any difference in real world game experience. “OMG I get 68 FPS in Batman and you only get 63….. LAWLS your GPU is Fail.”

I agree with you on the benchmarks that don't offer real world performance differences, and that is why I noted differences in feature sets and functionality. The only edge I know of in this arena that goes to AMD is one card EyeFinity.

If a person buys an AMD card they don't get PhysX or 3D Vision at all, and those are pretty significant hits. Last game I got was COD Black Ops, optimized for 3d Vision and 3d Vision Surround. The last game before that was HAWX2, has superior tesselation on my 480s and 580. Last game before that was Mafia 2, has PhysX and is optimized for 3d Vision and 3d Vision Surround.

If I had AMD cards, I'd be playing these games the same ol' same ol' way I've been gaming since the 90s. I like to have the flexibility to see the added PhysX effects, play on 3 panels spanned, play on 3 panels spanned in real 3d, or play on one panel in 3d. That stuff changes the gaming experience, enhances my immersion.

[RatboyX]

I agree with you on the benchmarks that don't offer real world performance differences, and that is why I noted differences in feature sets and functionality. The only edge I know of in this arena that goes to AMD is one card EyeFinity.

If a person buys an AMD card they don't get PhysX or 3D Vision at all, and those are pretty significant hits. Last game I got was COD Black Ops, optimized for 3d Vision and 3d Vision Surround. The last game before that was HAWX2, has superior tesselation on my 480s and 580. Last game before that was Mafia 2, has PhysX and is optimized for 3d Vision and 3d Vision Surround.

If I had AMD cards, I'd be playing these games the same ol' same ol' way I've been gaming since the 90s. I like to have the flexibility to see the added PhysX effects, play on 3 panels spanned, play on 3 panels spanned in real 3d, or play on one panel in 3d. That stuff changes the gaming experience, enhances my immersion.

Well it all comes down to what you play I guess, in some cases it will make a difference in others not so much. I simply don’t think I will enjoy a game more based on PhysX or 3D Vision then I would without it. I don’t see the improvements as being that overwhelming.

Then again I don’t play any of those titles so perhaps I’m not the best gauge of that.

[Fle@B@gL@ne]

I stick with Nvidia ever since TnT2 yet ati had made headwaves last few rounds.
Glad new line out then the 470s will drop even more
I can finish new setup with Sli for Evga 470GTX S.O.C
Finally sli setup for $1500+

[jethro]

Well it all comes down to what you play I guess, in some cases it will make a difference in others not so much. I simply don’t think I will enjoy a game more based on PhysX or 3D Vision then I would without it. I don’t see the improvements as being that overwhelming.

Then again I don’t play any of those titles so perhaps I’m not the best gauge of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcpEc6kC0HM

PhysX to me is the more subtle of the two, but definitely adds to the realism of games. How many years have we been shooting wooden boxes with rocket launchers only to leave a burn mark on the box?

The effect of 3d Vision is much more dramatic:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ma...&mode=previews

For the year of 2009, I had the option of gaming at 25X16 on my Dell 3007 WFP-HC thirty inch monitor, or gaming at 16X10 on my Samsung 2233RZ 22" in 3d. I put the Dell off to the side and only used it for web browsing. This year, after getting two more 2233s, I gave the 3007 to my young son.

[JoshMST]

I'm on the throne! But it is made of porcelain. And I'm full of s*!T.

NVIDIA is busy trying to regain marketshare, so they dropped their prices dramatically. Right now it is hard to argue that the GTX 460 is not one of the best products of the year, especially considering its new price points. The GTX 580 just stomps on AMD (for the moment).

Having said that... I am running a GTX 480 in my main machine, and the noise is starting to drive me nuts. My primary work machine's monitor is only a 1920x1200 affair, and considering the type of games I play (when I have time), the HD 5870 is going back into my rig as soon as I am done with this upcoming Hydra review. The noise is honestly just too much with the GTX 480, and I have a WELL ventilated case.

So... I guess what I'm trying to say here is... I love the parity between these two companies and their level of competition is keeping prices nicely in check. But overall I like the chip technology of NVIDIA slightly better, but the AMD chips are just so efficient and relatively cool running as compared.

[RatboyX]

Call me when they get a holo deck set up. While the graphics can obviously improve a games enjoyment factor, if I don’t like the game all the cool effects don’t mean anything.

Don’t get me wrong here I’m glad for the potential these things bring to the table. As an unbiased consumer, meaning someone who has no specific brand loyalty as such, I’ll buy what falls in my price/performance range. The caveat to that is that is that if one brand or another will work better with what I currently play then I take that into consideration.

So again I will say I guess it depends on what you play before any of these features make any difference. For me they don’t add any value.

[AMDScooter]

I'm still sitting pat until the 69xx releases. Probably going back to a single card setup eventually. Heat and noise are factors that have kept me away from NV of late. My GTX275FTW was a great GPU. But my 5870 pretty much crushes it in most of the games I play (well I have 2x in xfire but even a single pretty much is not fair) .

jethro, I have demod' those NV 3D glasses before. Coolness factor for sure and I wish they supported more titles. The real drawback for me is the glasses themselves. For the amount of time I'd spend using them I wish they'd spent a few more $$ on the frames. Honestly I've seen $10 gas station sunglasses with higher quality/better fitting frames. They are just plain uncomfortable for me beyond 5 minutes or so.

[Fle@B@gL@ne]

Ok I broke down and went SLI and ordered a 2nd 470GTX.

Will it be worth it,thats to be seen!

I looking for a new deathmatch not teams

anyone can name some good DM games online not too old

I played normally 1 DM 2-3 yrs then move on
HL1
Kingpin
sof 2
I like real weapons and normal world maps.

Playing Mafia II 19by12 outside 60-51 frames in doors drops to 48-55 with one card inside places little slow down

The PhysX if you set too the setting high its not real. Med is more real than high.They need to tweak it better.

I like to get atleast 16by12 very smooth with max setting or near high setting 19by12 most games with 2.

I'm on 24in 19by12

How many years have we been shooting wooden boxes with rocket launchers only to leave a burn mark on the box?

Amen to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fle@B@gL@ne]

will 800 watt be enough for SLI and rest of the setup?

all done best setup to cost ever 1560+tax

[Sihastru]

750W-850W is enough for GTX470 SLI, depending on the quality of the PSU and on the rest of you system configuration, also OC levels. You don't specify the brand, so we can't be sure.

Get with the program???? How polite.....raised very well i see.

Can't take a joke? This sounded like a bait thread for fanbois, and it really is. I don't think you're looking for an honest answer, you're just interested in the aprooval of others. Hence my remark.

Whatever.

If you'd consider things a lot more carefully, you'd see that the GTX580 has the upper hand on the HD5970. With the HD5970 you are always dependent on driver updates for each new game. It could take up to a month to have a working CrossFire profile for that game (I like to call it MisFire). The same is true about SLI, but you see, GTX580 is a single GPU card, so it doesn't need a SLI profile in order to work close to it's maximum potential.

Another very important point is minimum framerates. Yes, you look at the pretty graphs and you see pretty bars that extend into oblivion. Maximum framerates is obtained reading one singular spike during the benchmarking session. It is irrelevant. Average framerates can be an average of anomalies. For example you could have a card that constantly switches between 120FPS at maximum and 0FPS at it's worst. The average framerates is 60FPS, a PERFECT score for playability. In reality that's severe microstuttering and makes any game unplayable.

Now we come to the story of the minimum framerates. If you are not a fanboi as you clame to not be, you'd have to agree that AMD has some very strong issues with minimum framerates in so so so many games, and they are not new, we had them since for ever... SLI does not curently have this problem, but that is not important since, again, the GTX580 is a single GPU card. For me personally, just because a card can do 240 FPS at one point, have an 110FPS average, and DROP on several occasions to under 2-3 FPS is not a sign of "the best card in the galaxy, lol". That game would be ruined for me. At that point I prefer a card that can spike to 120 FPS, have an average above 60 FPS and give me minimum framerates always above 30 FPS. Now that is something I could enjoy.

Maximum framerates make for a good e-peen measurement, boost fanbois egos, but minimum framerates determine if a game is playable or not. So when you look at graphs again make sure you're not just browsing, but actually look, and make mental notes of what games have the issues I pointed out with certain setups.

I would talk about PhysX, CUDA and those nifty programs that make use of it, but I know these things are of little concern to AMD partisans. They have very little impact on the gameplay experience thay say, then again my opinion is that MAFIA II looks kinda cool with PhysX enabled.

This is just my "raised by wolves nVidia fanboi opinion". You're free to believe whatever you want. One of these days I will learn to avoid bait threads.

[Poci]

Which games use that Poci? Seems like every couple months I get a new game with PhysX, don't think I've seen any of those OpenCL physics games.

Im not sure if there are any atm.
But im sure devs see the potential since it is not proprietized.