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[Hexus] Review: AMD and Nvidia's 2014 driver progress

Silent_Scone

Silent_Scone

Silent_Scone

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Definitely worth a look.

2014 was an exciting year for the desktop graphics market for numerous reasons. In January AMD’s board partners released the first non-reference R9 290(X) graphics cards, fixing the highly publicised thermal-throttling issue. February saw the entry of Nvidia’s newest GPU architecture, Maxwell, with the GTX 750 Ti bringing unprecedented power efficiency to the PC gamer.

The interlude between the low- and high-end Maxwell releases, March through August, saw fierce price competition between AMD and Nvidia. This was enhanced further by a flood of cheap used AMD graphics cards made redundant in the Cryptocurrency market as ASIC miners eventually prevailed.

Nvidia used September to launch high-end Maxwell parts, the highly popular GTX 970 and flagship GTX 980 GPUs. AMD responded with massive R9 series price cuts, particularly on the R9 295X2, which AMD now designates as the main competitor to the GTX 980. Furthermore, AMD introduced a new mid-range GPU, the R9 285, to bolster its sub-$250 position against Nvidia’s GTX 760.

In that action-packed year of graphics card releases and price wars, we want to take an alternative perspective; drivers. How have AMD and Nvidia fared throughout 2014 with driver performance? It’s certainly an interesting area to cover as very few publications take time to assess driver progress, yet drivers very often form a fundamental pillar of AMD-Nvidia debates.


AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB
AMD Radeon R7 265 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB
Start of Year WHQL Driver
Catalyst 13.12
Catalyst 13.12
GeForce 332.21
GeForce 334.89
End of Year WHQL Driver
Catalyst 14.12
Catalyst 14.12
GeForce 347.09
GeForce 347.09
In this article we will be assessing driver progress between the AMD and Nvidia WHQL-certified drivers available on the first, and last, day of 2014. To do this we will be using two high-end and two mid-range GPUs from both companies. The configuration of our testing is outlined in the table above.

Did 12 months of driver progress result in noteworthy performance gains? Let's find out.
Click to expand...

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/79245-amd-nvidias-2014-driver-progress/
 
No one anymore at this moment in time can really use the word amd drivers are bad.
Them days are long gone, and in fact I believe are the much better set out of the two GPU departments.

Not only is this based on this sites results but also based on user feedback on this very forum from some of its high profile users.
 
shankly1985 said:
No one anymore at this moment in time can really use the word amd drivers are bad.
Them days are long gone, and in fact I believe are the much better set out of the two GPU departments.

Not only is this based on this sites results but also based on user feedback on this very forum from some of its high profile users.
Click to expand...

Hmmm Shankly saying AMD drivers are better, without ever using nVidia cards. Seems fair I guess.
 
shankly1985 said:
No one anymore at this moment in time can really use the word amd drivers are bad.
Them days are long gone, and in fact I believe are the much better set out of the two GPU departments.

Not only is this based on this sites results but also based on user feedback on this very forum from some of its high profile users.
Click to expand...

What sites results?

The articale linked in the OP said
From a performance standpoint there's little evidence that points towards the superiority of either AMD or Nvidia drivers, both companies delivered equivalent performance boosts to their customers throughout 2014. It's worth considering that there is another side to this story that numbers and graphs simply can't account for; bug fixes and new features are both crucial responsibilities of driver releases.

During 2014 both AMD and Nvidia had essay-length release notes for most driver revisions, making it hard to quantify which company has squashed more bugs. In any case, a higher or lower number wouldn't necessarily prove anything. More bugs fixes aren't always good, it could simply mean more bugs slipped through pre-release quality controls.
Click to expand...

It doesnt say AMD is better then Nvidia or Nvidia's better then AMD
 
Gregster said:
Hmmm Shankly saying AMD drivers are better, without ever using nVidia cards. Seems fair I guess.
Click to expand...

What makes you think I never use Nvidia GPUs? You do know I have family and friends lol

@triss am pointing out that old saying AMD drivers are bad are long gone..
And that sites shows this, and I believe that there now the better set.. This isn't 100% fact it's just me believing in what I believe to be the case right now..

As right now no one should ever buy a GPU based on its drivers. I have seen people on here in 2014 ask that same question how is amd drivers, I have also seen people on here bash them.. It's more user error or damaged hardware before the drivers.
 
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Martini1991 said:
I'm always going round a friends house, playing on their PC enough to gain and objective view of their PC drivers over a year period.

Oh no.
Click to expand...

Did I ever use that to gain on my point no.. I don't use them enough to do that.
I was simply pointing out to Gregster that I do use Nvidia cards.
You correct though not enough time to judge them.
 
shankly1985 said:
Not only is this based on this sites results but also based on user feedback on this very forum from some of its high profile users.
Click to expand...

The problem with that is a large number of people have moved from AMD to NV with the launch of the 900 series of cards, and you are always far more likely to encounter issues when moving between GPU manufacturers. Additionally, you are far more likely to be jumped upon and even insulted on this forum if you start talking negatively about AMD's drivers. So people see this and think I cant be bothered with this nonsense.
 
Meh.

I use both brands, I had issues in 2014 with drivers from both brands, I rolled back to earlier drivers and waited for the issues to be solved in later drivers.
 
shankly1985 said:
What makes you think I never use Nvidia GPUs? You do know I have family and friends lol

@triss am pointing out that old saying AMD drivers are bad are long gone..
And that sites shows this, and I believe that there now the better set.. This isn't 100% fact it's just me believing in what I believe to be the case right now..

As right now no one should ever buy a GPU based on its drivers. I have seen people on here in 2014 ask that same question how is amd drivers, I have also seen people on here bash them.. It's more user error or damaged hardware before the drivers.
Click to expand...



No one anymore at this moment in time can really use the word amd drivers are bad.
Them days are long gone, and in fact I believe are the much better set out of the two GPU departments.

Not only is this based on this sites results but also based on user feedback on this very forum from some of its high profile users]
Click to expand...

No actually you said they are better drivers are based on the sites results (which say they are roughly equal) and feedback on this forum..


You know as well as i do many posters will read the thread without even looking at the article and assume the site results said one was better
I'm lucky i've never had a issue with either AMD or Nvidia's drivers
 
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Not bad, used a 290 and GTX970 last year and to be honest the Nvidia drivers were a little better in terms of multi-GPU support and stability.

But AMD have come a long way in 2014 in terms of drivers and if they have a another year of improving like they have then everyone is in for a treat in 2015.
 
I don't really use Nvidia, but I don't ever recall have any driver *issues*.

And the conversation about drivers can be weird. Like, I can easily rag on the lameness of support for AMD's VSR in terms of resolutions and aspect ratio support (Although, one and the same I guess) versus Nvidia's DSR. Both are in the drivers.
 
Cant speak for nvidia, but amd's driver releases over the year have for me just gone from strength to strength. Not had a single issue with any of them and mantle has worked flawlessly in every game thats had it.

Hoping amd keeps up the good work, i'm down for free performance any time.
 
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