Any benefit to sticking with brands across the system?

FatRakoon · 7 Mar 2014 at 15:57

Just wondering. I seriously doubt there is any benefit, but I certainly do get teh feel good factor.

What I mean is simply that I have a number of systems, and they seem to mostly be intel or AMD Chipset motherboards, but in the example of say my AMD Sabretooth system, it has an AMD CPU ( I got one with an intel as well, but bear with me on this ).. Its an AMD CPU on a Motherboard that has an AMD Chipset, and therefore, it uses the AMD Catalyst driver pack.

Now, will I benefit from running an AMD GPU as opposed to an nVidia one?

Obviously, taking the speeds of the GFX Card into play of course.

Now, for me, its purely the feel good factor really... I just feel comfortable in using ATI cardsin Moptherboards that use the AMD Catalyst drivers... Thay way I get one all-in pac kage for everything.

Bit sad I know, but is there any actual benefit?

:(Rhodri:) · 7 Mar 2014 at 16:51

I don't believe there is any benefit and it also means you need to be more careful if you ever need to do a driver sweep (having previously owned a 5970 this was every driver install for me) that you don't delete your chipset drivers with the GPU ones.

Razor Time · 9 Mar 2014 at 15:37

None at all

Boomstick777 · 9 Mar 2014 at 17:41

No, but Gigabyte for the motherboard is a good start, build with a solid base. I've built hundreds of PC's. Gigabyte is the best imho.

cheesyboy · 10 Mar 2014 at 14:59

Funnily enough, there is some evidence that Nvidia GPUs are favoured by AMD CPUs over AMD GPUs (i.e. AMD CPUs actually prefer Nvidia GPUs)

See here (summary page of lab test);
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-scaling-bottleneck,3471-12.html

FatRakoon · 10 Mar 2014 at 16:03

I can go with that!

I used to only go AMD & nVidia, a large reason behind that is nVidia support for Linux was so much better.

Its only really in the last couple of years that I have gone with this AMD / ATI plan.

( My most used PC is an AMD and nVidia combo - therefore proving myself to be a plonker against his own beliefs )

Tony Williams · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:41

Sometimes yes - can be more compatablebut you don't need multiplesets ofsoftware,eg mygfx is msi so if Ihave2-3msi cards I installonelotof thiersoftware but if Asus, XFX and msi I may use 2-3 diff types of programs.

Not really that much but they look nicer having two MSI cards using TF coolers and not all different. Also colour schemes - my mobo is asus and it's black and red so I like things to match -even my cable ties are red (or black)

I've msi gfx
asus mobo and router
Logitech keyboards, mice (or ms)
thrustmaste3r wheel
my hdds (seagate,wd,samsung,htachi)
CM make my v8 whcih aint in use but cosmos 2 as a case is nice

I think going agaist it hdd's in RAID are usually better indifferent brandsand flash drives incase bad batch or failure

SORRY about spelling my keyboard sticks and annoys me as spacing is hard.

Tony Williams · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:47

As to the mixing AMD bussiness I use to thnk:

ATi was Intel - boring and smart. *normal glasses on*
AMD was ....get on sunglasses in Winter - game with nothing but your socks on: nVidia and AMD

This was 10yr+ ago - I remember DUAL core on PCs being like WHO NEEDS XEON I HAVE 2 CPUs!!!

KIds eh? phones with 8 cores. *phew*

cpu and gpus always leapfrog.

FatRakoon · 11 Mar 2014 at 17:24

Tell me about it.

I even have a quad core Sound Card FFS!

I mean???? WinAmp has never sounded so.... The same!

Seriously though, I do feel in a lot of things, its often a waste of time.

I mean for example, my slowest PC is a Hex core AMD 3.2. That is now rtesigned to a Media Center... Admittedly, with 8GB RAM, running off a pair of 60GB SSDs for RAID on C: and a 3TB for D: and it has a 7770 Vapor PC so it also plays some games etc, but its mostly for Media. but the thing is, that in use, and for 95% of all the things I do, its no slower than my fastest PC, or any of my PCs come to that.

And yet, like a complete idiot, I keep on upgrading and buying more and more stupid stuff that I dont need ... I want... But dont need.

My latest knocked up PC is my 980X - A 6 Core i7... I bought a Mobo & 930 CPU only a few weeks ago, saw that it can take a 980 6 core, and thought sod it, lets do it.

Again, the thing is, that its not really any faster than any other PC I have... Not for most uses... Sure, benchmark and I see big number differences, but in truth, if I dont benchmark, I wont know.

As for my frigign phones... mine is a Quad core 1.5 and yeah, I can even cut it down to one core to save battery FFS - ON A PHONE!!!! and hell, unless I am being lied to, you can even get 8 core phones? Now, its thats untrue.. .Lets just wait 5 minutes and it wont be.