Why do people buy Nvidia cards?

chief barker · 26 Feb 2012 at 05:38

Subliminal Aura said:
Perfect, you're completely correct which is why complex algos are pieced together externally whilst the modules themselves are computed 'efficiently' on the GPU. GCN is improving but is still not efficient enough to take the complete payload.

Currently the only benefit is to the developer and not to the overall performance of the cluster. Maybe in year or two it'll improve but for now it's a complete waste of money to move our architecture over to it.

ps What projects if any are you involved in ?

F that .....all I want to know is how many Fps I can get in BF3 maxed out

bhavv · 26 Feb 2012 at 05:39

Because the GTX 460 and 560 tis were absolute beasts for their price tags.

My question would be why do people buy £300+ GPUs from either Nvidia or AMD when the mid ranges are always so much better for price / performance.

chief barker · 26 Feb 2012 at 05:45

xsistor said:
I needed to use them to compute some Iterated Function Systems very rapidly and do Lebesgue integration on them.

What, what and a what?

Threepwood · 26 Feb 2012 at 05:57

bhavv said:
My question would be why do people buy £300+ GPUs from either Nvidia or AMD when the mid ranges are always so much better for price / performance.

Obvious answer is obvious.

straxusii · 26 Feb 2012 at 07:16

Mattuk69 said:
Im not an AMD fanboy or anything like that, though i do prefer them due to the price. But its always bugged me to why on earth any1 would buy Nvidia cards when they cost loads more and perform less. I understand paying more for an Intel CPU because the peromance increase is better then its AMD counterpart.

But a GTX 580 3gb for £480? When a 7950 can out perform it for like a £130 less. I've notice this threw the years... Why do people buy Nvdia cards?

Pathetic attempt, D-, try harder

Marine-RX179 · 26 Feb 2012 at 07:50

straxusii said:
Pathetic attempt, D-, try harder

While he's at it, he should throw in how the 8800s are slower than the 4870, despite the latter latter card came 2 years later.

Jay794 · 26 Feb 2012 at 07:56

I think it's personal preference, I prefer the look of the AMD cards compared to the Nvidia cards, although someone pointed out that some of the cards e.g. Twin Frozr's look exactly the same lol

bhavv · 26 Feb 2012 at 08:10

Comparing a 7970 to a GTX 580 makes as much sense as comparing a GTX 580 to a 5870.

People obviously bought 580s because prior to the 7970 they were the fastest single GPU card.

shadesofgrey said:
Obvious answer is obvious.

No its not. A pair of GTX 560 tis were always far better and cheaper than a single GTX 580. Same as a pair of 6850s compared to a 6970.

DarrenM343 · 26 Feb 2012 at 08:42

IMO Nvidia offer better quality products, are better developed. Out of the cards I've owned I've had one failure (Ati 4870*2), I've also owned a few Ati cards which I consider not ready for the market. Video playback very poor for example, and Catalyst drivers failing during RDC sessions to the machine with the card.
Nvidia cards look better (often metal casing instead of plastic), IMO last longer, have better average performance than maybe the stats suggest, are just generally better developed especially the drivers.

However, if AMD produce the right product (ie, best at the moment) at a time when I am looking to buy I will consider them

Personally preference and knowing you often get what you pay for in life means I don't mind paying the extra £ more, even if only offers the same performance on paper, which as indicated above does not always equate to real life experience.

Final8y · 26 Feb 2012 at 08:48

JeffD said:
As a person who has been using both ATI/AMD and Nvidia hardware for longer than I care to remember (ah, when ISA video cards were the rage)......and currently have a mix of ATI/AMD and Nvidia hardware running in my 5 home computers (what happens when you have 8 people in the family)......

IMHO one cannot make a general statement that one is better than the other as both sides have their pros and cons. This is why one can go into various forums and find a wide variety of people either touting no issues and many more people listing all the problems they have.

Reason: there are too many variables in the world of computing where a specific configuration/piece of hardware/software may work great for one person yet what appears to be the exact same system having major issues for another person....hardware problem? software problem? computer configuration? virus? something not related to the video card?

In my household I have very few problems with any of the cards we have (lucky?).

My only real suggestion (I know....not taking a stand like some folks here) would be to look at your specific hardware configuration as well as software that you are currently using as well as plan to use in the next year or two and see if there are any trends as to whether one gets the nod over the other. Then look at how often you upgrade and decide how much you should sweat a purchase or not....then throw the dice and hope for a winner.

JeffD

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost.php?p=1336851994&postcount=47

Schizo · 26 Feb 2012 at 08:48

NeptuneUK said:
I frequently alternate between AMD/ATI and Nvidia cards. I simply buy whichever card gives me the best performance in my price range. Last time round it was the GTX570.

same here,price is the most important issue for me,i dont care if there good card's for x amount,if ive got £150 ill spend that and not a penny more.

got a 570 now which i got a very very good price and im chuffed to bits with it.

will keep this card for quite a while yet.

and i had been with amd for a long time.

james.miller · 26 Feb 2012 at 08:59

bhavv said:
My question would be why do people buy £300+ GPUs from either Nvidia or AMD when the mid ranges are always so much better for price / performance.

shadesofgrey said:
Obvious answer is obvious.

bhavv said:
No its not. A pair of GTX 560 tis were always far better and cheaper than a single GTX 580. Same as a pair of 6850s compared to a 6970.

there are lots of reasons why people would choose one card over two. Power, heat, the lack of complexity re SLi: and xfire and their associated issues. Seems pretty obvious to me!

bhavv · 26 Feb 2012 at 11:02

james.miller said:
the lack of complexity re SLi: and xfire and their associated issues.

These issues are mostly myths invented by people who have never even owned a multiple GPU setup.

Regarding heat, the temperatures on both my cards are lower than a single GTX 580. Regarding Power consumption, the performance per watt is significantly better on the mid range SLI / Crossfire setups too.

jkkc313 · 26 Feb 2012 at 11:10

for me, it depends value fo rmoney, if via makes a great gpu then i will go for it... its performance vs money

ANN1H1LAT0R · 26 Feb 2012 at 11:58

Mattuk69 said:
Im not an AMD fanboy or anything like that, though i do prefer them due to the price. But its always bugged me to why on earth any1 would buy Nvidia cards when they cost loads more and perform less. I understand paying more for an Intel CPU because the peromance increase is better then its AMD counterpart.

But a GTX 580 3gb for £480? When a 7950 can out perform it for like a £130 less. I've notice this threw the years... Why do people buy Nvdia cards?

Your camparing a card that came outover a year ago to a card that came out less than a month ago which isn't the best comparison really.

And you choose to pick the expensive 3gig version of the GTX580 which is an extremely rare card. With your camparisons no one would go for Nvidia your right......

However if you used real comparisons its easier to see why people choose one over the other and vice versa. The GTX 580 was the fastest single GPU card available at the time and until the 7xxx were released still was and so that was a major selling point.

Nvidia cards also seem to perform better when AA is enabled or MSAA over higher resolutions.

When Kepler is released we can once again compare top end cards and see which is better this year

I for one choose Nvidia for a few reasons. I got the GTX580 for £300 including VAT brand new as I was messed around by the shop over other components on waiting times and they offered me a thank you discount

Secondly I use 3d Vision so I need an nvidia card

Thirdly Radeon went downhill after the 9700pro years ago and after that I went Nvidia and never looked back HOWEVER once the new GPU by nvidia is released Ill then maybe change. Depends on whats going to be better for duel GPU gaming. Ill either go 2x580 GTX if the cost is too ridiculous for the newer cards or 2x680GTX or 2x7970 etc. Needs reviews for the ultimate decision

darrenbe · 26 Feb 2012 at 12:03

I bought nVidia card for the CUDA extensions, I do a lot of work that uses software that takes advantage of that...saves me mucho time. I recently moved from the Radeon platform....

james.miller · 26 Feb 2012 at 12:12

bhavv said:
These issues are mostly myths invented by people who have never even owned a multiple GPU setup.

Regarding heat, the temperatures on both my cards are lower than a single GTX 580. Regarding Power consumption, the performance per watt is significantly better on the mid range SLI / Crossfire setups too.

so two 5770's would outperform my 5850 (this part is not in question) whilst producing less heat? that's nonsense (running cooler does not mean its producing less heat!) and so is your first comment about the issues being mostly myths. Performance per watt has nothing to do with it, either. some people are governed by a maximum power consumption, or heat output, and like I said its pretty obvious why people would choose a single card in those instances. Wouldnt catch my running two 570's in my htpc, for example.

bhavv · 26 Feb 2012 at 12:22

Each card would be able to have a lower GPU temperature in a proper setup.

When the 5800 series launched, two 5770s could be had for just £10 more than a single 5850. SLI / Xfire is obviously not a htpc thing, but two 5770s would easily run on a 650 watt PSU.

SimonMaltby · 26 Feb 2012 at 12:24

I have had many ATI and Nvidia cards and every time I go to an ATI card that looks good value and better on paper i'm always disapointed with both the general look / feel in games and the fact that the ATI drivers have always seems less reliable.

ATI drivers, particularly for xFire, always seem to be late to support new games in my opinion.

Maybe its just what i'm used to in terms of the look and feel, but what I would say is that the Nvidia cards I have had have just worked where as the ATI cards have required much messing about.

Gregster · 26 Feb 2012 at 12:25

Mattuk69 said:
Im not an AMD fanboy or anything like that, though i do prefer them due to the price. But its always bugged me to why on earth any1 would buy Nvidia cards when they cost loads more and perform less. I understand paying more for an Intel CPU because the peromance increase is better then its AMD counterpart.

But a GTX 580 3gb for £480? When a 7950 can out perform it for like a £130 less. I've notice this threw the years... Why do people buy Nvdia cards?

Would you have brought a 7950 6 months ago?

My point being the 580 was the top card available and came with a top price. Now we have the 7970 which is the top card hence the price.

Easy when you work it out.