Are Nvidia drivers really better than Amd's?

Silent_Scone · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:12

Second kidney came out this morning, hope these cards are wwwwwwwwwsssddddddd

triss · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:13

Originally Posted by whyscotty View Post
Any and all donations gratefully received

africanos23 said:
I could donate a Titan X but I'm on your ignore list. You will never see this anyway.

He can see it now

TNA · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:15

Gregster said:
See these posts make me lol (and not a dig at all and many people do it). The term "Rewarding nVidia" is comical. I reward my dogs when they do something good and they get told off when they do something naughty but the key points being "Dogs" and "Reward" nVidia isn't a ******* puppy or any kind of emotional attachment. It is a hobby/fun thing and nothing more. Some people do get wrapped up in it far too much (not saying you btw TNA) but I honestly can't understand some of the hate for either AMD or nVidia. We have seen people foaming and literally hating on people who buy hardware over the years for some curious reason.

Crazy first world problems

I see what you are saying and it is a valid point. My problem is I also agree with the other side of the argument, why would one give more money to a person or company that has done/is doing something displeasing to you.

I don't know, maybe like scotty I need help to. Lol. What do you think gregy-eye-ster?

whyscotty · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:24

triss said:
He can see it now

Thankyou

TNA said:
I see what you are saying and it is a valid point. My problem is I also agree with the other side of the argument, why would one give more money to a person or company that has done/is doing something displeasing to you.

Red or Green we're all guilty of this

TNA · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:26

Final8y said:
You going to help him out by giving him a loan

Hahahaha. Good one

Nah, I couldn't do that, the rate I predict the titan x's to depreciate with 16nm approaching, in the event I had to forclose I would make a loss on my investment. Lol

whyscotty · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:29

TNA said:
the rate I predict the titan x's to depreciate with 16nm approachingl

This is the stumbling block for me

africanos23 · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:32

whyscotty said:
This is the stumbling block for me

Actually that would be fab. I will go Quads up.

Gregster · 22 Mar 2015 at 08:45

TNA said:
I see what you are saying and it is a valid point. My problem is I also agree with the other side of the argument, why would one give more money to a person or company that has done/is doing something displeasing to you.

I don't know, maybe like scotty I need help to. Lol. What do you think gregy-eye-ster?

I am sure most use the term loosely and not actually mean it as a pet company. Sadly, life is like that though and I don't like the way Tesco do business but I still go there, I don't like the way my Job does business but I still go there. Even my local pub has kicked me out at earlier than normal closing times but I still go there

I basically don't really care that much in truth I guess. If AMD were to release a stonking card with the 390X and it kicks the Titan X a new one, I wouldn't have any issue getting those (so long as CF is catered for more so). 4K freesync would do me

Bonjour · 22 Mar 2015 at 09:12

Silent_Scone · 22 Mar 2015 at 09:16

16nm won't be here for a good while. These have a year at least in them. It's the DP1.2 that might set them back a bit. The 144hz 21:9 Acer Predator will be right on the limit for bandwidth. In actual fact it wouldn't surprise me if that panel is DP1.3.

deuse · 22 Mar 2015 at 10:01

linktoinsanity · 22 Mar 2015 at 11:58

In the past I always found NVIDIA drivers to be far better. I remember updating the graphics drivers from the CD supplied ones for my ATI Rage Pro 128mb abd it breaking Red Alert 2...

However in more recent years ATI/AMD seem to have caught up for the most part with NVIDIA (although I think the latter are still slightly better). I tend to flip between the companies every other generation. (Ie I don't replace my cards every generation so I tend to go back to a new NVIDIA/AMD every four generations.)

Currently sitting on a NVIDIA GTX770, previous card being an AMD HD6950 (which is currently sitting happily in my work machine).

Yes I have noticed the difference in the vibrancy, but am aware if it bothered me that much I could just tweak the card settings...

Another point I prefer about NVIDIA are that the cards tend to run cooler.

pgi947 · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:04

whyscotty said:
If I didn't like PC gaming as much as I do, I would quite happily bin my rig coz of the crap Drivers Nvidia has put out recently.

I'm spending more time tweaking to get things to run than I have in a long time.

I like to run 2 Gpu's (sad I know) but lately - It's been 1 step forward 2 back with Nvidia

Same boat mate, by the looks of it you can't win with either side at the moment, one takes a lifetime to release drivers and the other throws out one that's broken every other week. Actually going back to a pre-Maxwell driver today, see if that helps :mad:

Silent_Scone · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:08

Maxwell drivers are all good

. SLI scaling is still a little ropey some of the time.

Gregster · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:16

For a single card user, I would say they are equal from all of my time with both. SLI scaling was questionable at times in truth but when I look at the bench threads and see the same form of scaling on AMD, I am more inclined to think it is game engine sided but as I am no expert on drivers, I won't claim anything there.

The thing that splits them apart for me is the overall package. G-Sync has been out for well over a year now. DSR, ShadowPlay and all these things just work (except DSR in SLI on a ROG with SLI Titans). A lot of it is what you know as well and I can pretty much get anything working for myself via the NCP or failing there, nvidia inspector. The CCC is pretty alien to me and whilst I can pretty much work everything out, because I know so much about the nvidia side, I find I compare the two and maybe that is a little harsh (and others would do the same vice versa I expect).

If you are an average gamer who just games and you don't want anything fancy or add on's, you can't go wrong with either set-up really. It is when things get a little more technical (2 cards/certain monitors/enhancements), things start to separate from the 2 and for me and what I have seen, nVidia's overall package wins it for me.

pgi947 · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:28

Silent_Scone said:
Maxwell drivers are all good . SLI scaling is still a little ropey some of the time.

Good for everyone or just good for Maxwell users? The last lot have been decent, the first 3-4 months of drivers were **** poor for Kepler, so I'm going to roll back to 340.43 in an attempt to get BFH running without errors.

whyscotty · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:36

pgi947 said:
Same boat mate, by the looks of it you can't win with either side at the moment, one takes a lifetime to release drivers and the other throws out one that's broken every other week. Actually going back to a pre-Maxwell driver today, see if that helps

Let me knowhow you get on, as I'm about to throw my rig in bin

TaKeN · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:01

Gregster said:
For a single card user, I would say they are equal from all of my time with both. SLI scaling was questionable at times in truth but when I look at the bench threads and see the same form of scaling on AMD, I am more inclined to think it is game engine sided but as I am no expert on drivers, I won't claim anything there.

This is what we need, an opinion from someone who has sat on both sides of the fence recently.

I have a feeling that those who have posted with simply 'Yes or No' have only tried one manufacturers offering.

N19h7m4r3 · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:07

In my own humble experiences I've been frustrated by both on many occasions.

Although AMD's have annoyed me far more, especially when it comes to Crossfire. They're usually late for games profiles, and they still don't work with Windowed games. Never mind if I had a game open in a window and went to youtube; my graphics driver would stop responding.

Many times it would just reset it self, but too often it would crash my system. I can't stand their Crossfire drivers as a result.

Even so, my worst experience for NVIDIA drivers were always with my old GTX 470, often giving my BSODs.

As it stands, I would always prefer NVIDIA for multi GPU, and dont have much preference over either for single powerful GPUs' drivers.

At the moment, G-Sync, and FreeSync also come into play. I'll most likey get the GPU and monitor solution that's the best overall, but I'm waiting a bit there.

I recently got the GTX 980, and it's so much better than my previous AMD FirePro D700's, although now the Titan X, and up coming R9 390X have my attention.

David Bisset · 22 Mar 2015 at 13:08

Gregster said:
For a single card user, I would say they are equal from all of my time with both. SLI scaling was questionable at times in truth but when I look at the bench threads and see the same form of scaling on AMD, I am more inclined to think it is game engine sided but as I am no expert on drivers, I won't claim anything there.

The thing that splits them apart for me is the overall package. G-Sync has been out for well over a year now. DSR, ShadowPlay and all these things just work (except DSR in SLI on a ROG with SLI Titans). A lot of it is what you know as well and I can pretty much get anything working for myself via the NCP or failing there, nvidia inspector. The CCC is pretty alien to me and whilst I can pretty much work everything out, because I know so much about the nvidia side, I find I compare the two and maybe that is a little harsh (and others would do the same vice versa I expect).

If you are an average gamer who just games and you don't want anything fancy or add on's, you can't go wrong with either set-up really. It is when things get a little more technical (2 cards/certain monitors/enhancements), things start to separate from the 2 and for me and what I have seen, nVidia's overall package wins it for me.

Gregs answer seems pretty decent - I feel they are the same but then I'm only ever single-card so have nothing to contribute to multi-card based arguments. Most of the arguments that one side or the other is better seem to relate to scaling or multi card profiles for single games etc which is irrelevant for the majority of people but of course not to everyone.

For me I don't care about the extra fluff that both vendors provide and don't use any of it so it terms of extra software features I'm not the person to ask (I hate both equally

) so won't argue with his POV here.

On the overall winning front - due to the above I don't see either vendor as ahead for my personal uses, so it all comes down to what is available at the price I happen to be looking at. In desktop parts that means for me it's likely to be AMD. In mobile I care more about power use so nVidia have an edge there but availability of machines with what I want in them at a price I'm willing to pay is the ultimate decider and laptop options are so erratic I can't say either brand for sure!

My worst recent experiences have been with nVidia but it's a laptop GPU which I suspect I'd have found annoying either way, I'm more a desktop person!