Do Nvidia optimised games offer much extra bells and whistles graphically?

justwondering · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:38

Currently running a 290, but Im fancying a 1060, various benefits etc, mostly lower power usage and a bit faster.

I know physx was a thing in some games, but often when I load a newer game, the Nvidia logo pops up, what extras graphically does nvidia add to a game other than optimization?

I read somewhere that one guy said after using his nvidia card and then borrowing his friends AMD card that playing the same games was like playing a empty game, which I presume is based on the various little extras a Nvidia optimised game might offer.

Does anyone have any examples of recent games where using a Nvidia card offered extra graphical options that added extra on screen visual features?

old gamer · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:44

cant say ive noticed any real difference tbh, physx seems a good idea but does not get used nearly enough

David Bisset · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:55

Most games offer the same graphics to both sides, with varying performance hits. Sometimes the perf hit on one side is enough to make you turn it off, e.g. with physx effects but even that isn't common.

Gregster · 26 Jul 2016 at 09:58

PhysX is the only real difference in visuals and that doesn't get used much. Looks good in the Batman games though and I would rather have it than not

tommybhoy · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:01

Batman AK smoke and Fo4 debris was the last ones iirc, look great imo, there is a performance penalty but if it is too much fps loss or if you don't like it you can turn it off.

Jono8 · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:01

Just started playing Arkham Knight and i must say the Nvidia gameworks stuff is very pretty (rain and smoke etc).

Love hairworks in Witcher 3 as well. Looks very good.

Ticonderoga · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:11

Going from R9 290 to GTX 1060 would mostly be a sidegrade though.
You would hardly be able to see the difference in fps between the 2 gpus

Seanspeed · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:17

Some do, some dont.

PhysX effects are going to be one of the very few areas that are basically Nvidia-only.

Hairworks is tesselation heavy, so works better on Nvidia cards. Not sure if things have changed with Polaris, though.

My consistent favorite Gameworks effect is HBAO+, but that works on AMD cards just fine.

VXAO is a game changer and apparently uses passthrough geometry shaders introduced on Maxwell to help reduce performance, so I'm guessing this is best utilized on modern Nvidia cards, but again - not sure if things have changed with Polaris. Only one game uses this - Rise of the Tomb Raider - and it's extremely performance heavy even with Nvidia but OH MY GOD it is amazing. A bigger leap than going from no AO to HBAO+ if you ask me. It honestly makes HBAO+ look flat. Cant wait til we have the power to run this in most games.

TXAA was really good at first, but often doesn't work properly in many new games, and it has generally been surpassed in both quality and performance by SMAA-based temporal solutions.

Percent soft shadows are a nice little extra, but are very performance heavy and since shadows are one of the settings I'm always quick to drop to find performance, this isn't one I've ever really managed to take advantage of. Nice to have if you've got performance to spare.

Arkham Knight is the last game I remember that uses a fairly large suite of Nvidia effects that actually make a noticeable difference and wont absolutely destroy performance.

This is a good place to scroll through and see what games use what:

http://www.geforce.co.uk/games-applications?title=&sort_bef_combine= &sort_order=&sort_by=

EDIT: Oh yea, I forgot to mention MFAA. In many games that use MSAA, enabling MFAA via Nvidia Control Panel basically gives you double the MSAA coverage for a negligible cost. Nothing game changing, but definitely nice to have.

richb83 · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:21

Ticonderoga said:
Going from R9 290 to GTX 1060 would mostly be a sidegrade though.
You would hardly be able to see the difference in fps between the 2 gpus

Would I be right in assuming R9 390 to GTX 1060 would also be a 'sidegrade'?

Seanspeed · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:30

richb83 said:
Would I be right in assuming R9 390 to GTX 1060 would also be a 'sidegrade'?

390 is a 290 with higher stock clocks. I'd say more memory, but 290 had 8GB variants.

1060 is still an upgrade from these cards, though. Just not a big one.

Jono8 · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:31

richb83 said:
Would I be right in assuming R9 390 to GTX 1060 would also be a 'sidegrade'?

Kind of yes. It is slightly faster overall but if it was me i probably wouldnt bother (unless you really want much lower power draw/heat and possibly noise depending on the cooler on the 390).

Glanza · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:32

Only game that I can think of that would let you see more stuff would be Borderlands 2 with Physx.

Seanspeed · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:35

Glanza said:
Only game that I can think of that would let you see more stuff would be Borderlands 2 with Physx.

Borderlands 2 had the best PhsyX implementation ever. Even on Low, it improved the richness of the visuals greatly.

Definitely one to go back to if you haven't played it yet or wouldn't mind revisiting it.

richb83 · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:36

Jono8 said:
Kind of yes. It is slightly faster overall but if it was me i probably wouldnt bother (unless you really want much lower power draw/heat and possibly noise depending on the cooler on the 390).

Thought as much, I'll stick with the 390 for now.

bfar · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:39

Gameworks effects look pretty but they dont always make particularly efficient use of GPU cycles. They're usually limited to AAA titles, and are often used as a marketing attraction. I wouldn't bother with most of it tbh.

HBAO+ is good though.

justwondering · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:56

Wow thank you for all your excellent replies, I might just hold our for a bit longer, the information has helped me, it is a shame nvidia do not offer more extras, considering how often I see Nvidia gameworks logo on games, still tempted as always, but I'm definitely more informed, I game at 1080, so not much point jumping in for a 1070

justwondering · 26 Jul 2016 at 10:58

I ment to add, I have seen batman running on a 970, the rain effect did look excellent and the smoke from the bat mobile looked great too, nice extras, if only every game had a few extras

Jono8 · 26 Jul 2016 at 11:00

justwondering said:
I ment to add, I have seen batman running on a 970, the rain effect did look excellent and the smoke from the bat mobile looked great too, nice extras, if only every game had a few extras

The smoke is awesome. Looks epic powersliding and then ejecting whilst going fast all in a big plume of smoke

KonfuciousK · 26 Jul 2016 at 12:22

Seems it's been mostly answered by I thought Id add my two cents. It's a weak card to consider an upgrade. Right now either two 480's(which is what I went with) or a single 1070/1080 would really show you a sizeable difference in performance.

980ti is also a great and cheap option now.

nashathedog · 26 Jul 2016 at 12:44

richb83 said:
Would I be right in assuming R9 390 to GTX 1060 would also be a 'sidegrade'?

Seanspeed said:
390 is a 290 with higher stock clocks. I'd say more memory, but 290 had 8GB variants.

1060 is still an upgrade from these cards, though. Just not a big one.

290's only came with 4 gb's It was the 290x that had 4 or 8. A 390 can out perform a 290x or at least match it so it would certainly be a waste of money doing such an upgrade.

Currently the only worthwhile upgrade path for a 390 is a 1070 or 1080.