Battle of the GPUs: Is power efficiency the new must-have?

[andybird123]

I do think though that with more efficient cards comes faster cards eventually, I just don't know why amd have nothing to release to compete on newer tech right now.

I think nvidia realised that 20nm was going to be a bust and realised they needed something out for the christmas sales and caught AMD asleep at the wheel

“Building semiconductors is like playing Russian roulette. You put a gun to your head, pull the trigger, and find out four years later if you blew your brains out.”

 

[humbug]

I agree with Tommy, the 970 is simply the first Nvidia GPU in a long time that isn't significantly over priced, its still not what you would call in-expensive at £250+

The 290 is still better bang for £

 

[Gregster]

He's trying to call you out on derailing which is stupid if you ask me. Since when were people that anal about something unless they had a personal grudge?

A few like that here and no matter how or what is said, it gets pulled apart for oneupmanship. I don't much care and water off a ducks back.

 

[andybird123]

I agree with Tommy, the 970 is simply the first Nvidia GPU in a long time that isn't significantly over priced, its still not what you would call in-expensive at £250+

The 290 is still better bang for £

Going by sales data, not everyone else agrees with you and tommy

 

[Ian Evey]

Don't forget to thank nvidia for the big price drops on 290 cards, roles have changed from last year.

 

[Orangey]

NV went off the deep end with boutique pricing some time after G92

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_series#8800_GT

£150? for a card that beat the top ATI and punched WAY above its weight in general. They could've gone mental then and there but they didn't quite have the mind control signal fully tweaked yet.

 

[tommybhoy]

I just don't know why amd have nothing to release to compete on newer tech right now.

Because AMD don't need to compete on anything so far from Nvidia, AMD's currant lineup are still strong enough to compete(with wins) with Nvidia.

980 wins hands down with superior power req.

But,

290X only 8Gb gpu to market.

Going by sales data, not everyone else agrees with you and tommy

As I said andy read it again 'milking'.

Which only echoes my post, imo, (part)of the reason sales are sky high is because Nvidia has 'brainwashed' their ardent supporters that long, it looks a bargain.

The vast majority purchasing them haven't purchased gpu's in years-because previous gen Nvidia users haven't saw reason to purchase the milked ones.

 

[Rofflay]

I agree with Tommy, the 970 is simply the first Nvidia GPU in a long time that isn't significantly over priced, its still not what you would call in-expensive at £250+

The 290 is still better bang for £

You forget about DSR, HDMI 2.0 and temps too i actually think the 970 is still better. Maybe if you play Mantle games, But for most people i think that is why 970 is selling better.


I think people are being dishonest, Or just do not want to admit small is sexy. I have an Air 540 here with 4770k, 980 AX860i and im annoyed now seeing how i could have went Matx and 650w inside something akin to a ROG G20. I know it is coming it is only a matter of time until what we all own is dead.


This time next year all builds bar multi-gpu are going to be matx, 650w power supplys and incredibly small and cool. You will be able to pick it up like a console and take it to a different room with a steam controller if that is your thing. Im jealous a bit but by the time 4770K is old that is going to be what i buy.

 

[Tonester0011]

Tommy, you do realise you still have to purchase the card and then hope/bother to sell off the codes to recoup your bang. Also ignoring the 970 is faster than the 290, offers more features etc.

 

[Nexus18]

I think the 970 pricing is VERY good but it isn't the best BFB imo, that belongs to the 290.

Now if the 970 came with all 3 of those ubisoft games OR was priced at <£220 then the 970 would be the BFB.

Tommy, you do realise you still have to purchase the card and then hope/bother to sell off the codes to recoup your bang. Also ignoring the 970 is faster than the 290, offers more features etc.

- it is extremely easy to sell game codes on here, ebay etc. Takes 5 minutes to create thread, post photos etc. and then a minute to transfer bank details to whoever wants to buy it

- there are loads of great games to choose from so there is no need to hope that they sell as they "will" especially if you choose alien isolation, starship citizen and one of the other great games i.e. sniper elite 3

You will generally get lower prices on here but get a decent bit more money on the likes of ebay.

 

[humbug]

Going by sales data, not everyone else agrees with you and tommy

95% of the worlds population are followers, the remaining 5% are leaders

 

[andybird123]

I wouldnt describe alien isolation or sniper elite 3 as "great" so much as "generic"

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Sorry, but I don't recall having any discussion with you regarding "bang for bucks" or "buying decision" or "AMD cards" with you...all I said was people that overclock obviously care more about performance than efficiency, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

I'm not saying improvement in efficiency is not a good thing, but for people making too big a deal out of the lower power-consumption who in turn would use high voltage to push as high overclock as possible on their graphic card is as contradicting and unconvincing as someone preaching the benefit of being vegetarian while chowing down huge piece of chicken thigh.

It is what it is...I simply don't see the need to overly hype up about lower power consumption, especially when considering it is at the cost of holding back performance improvement (barely faster than last gen cards).

One could just as easily highlight the negativity on lack of progression in performance as the positivity on the improvement on efficiency...it's all simply down to point of views or how it is perceived.

And please stop the goalpost shifting and turning this into an Nvidia vs AMD thing, when my analysis and opinions were specificially regarding efficiency and performance and their relationship in the context of graphic card (regardless of what brand it is, the same principle still applies).

While I agree with a number of points you made, the highlighted one was what my point was concerning. You could just as easily say that If you buy AMD for bang-for-buck, then you shouldn't buy multiple card unless the scaling is 100% or waterblock them as it won't improve performance in line with the cost. That is a contradicting and unconvincing argument for buying something because it's bang for buck, AMD or Nvidia. The thread title is called Battle of the GPUs and you don't want comparisons to be made?
Is that just because you don't have a counter point?

AMD still have the BFB with the 290X, better performance, better games (Ubisoft

) and better built boards that don't have endemic coil whine.

Careful people will accuse you of turning this into an AMD vs Nvidia thing!

I chuckled as all Nvidia users are ecstaticbecause the 970 price point looks extraordinary amazing when it's not-by a long shot, it only looks fantastic because Nvidia have been 'milking' their customers since I don't know when.

I'm not bashing Nvidia for 'milking'-the Nvidia brand is that strong, they can do it where as AMD can't get close brand awareness wise-although they are getting better year on year, hopefully they can claw some more back, it can only better future gpu's for all.

AMD has been doing it for years and years now, Nvidia don't have the price covered, they have a long way to go in regards to bbfb.

Performance wise-they have a small/large performance advantage covered but they also lose out in similar fashion against the 290-game dependant.

BBFB:

1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (97NPH6DT6XTZ) £247.99



-~£20 game voucher=~£227.99


1 x XFX Radeon R9 290 DD 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-290A-EDFD) £215.99




- (~)£15+£15+£15+£8=£53 game vouchers=~£162.99

290 v 970

BBFB=290 saves you ~£65

That just makes it cheaper, doesn't make it bang for buck. I'm also not sure you'd get £53 for the game vouchers. Remember that Nvidia card comes with a voucher too. Did you subtract that?

EDIT: just seen that you did.

 

[andybird123]

95% of the worlds population are followers, the remaining 5% are leaders

judging by q3 results, your ratios might not be far wrong for q4
By leaders i am assuming you mean "ever dwindling last bastion of AMD supporters"

 

[Orangey]

I do not think HDMI 2.0 has any bearing on the vast vast vast majority of purchases. Maybe a few people who for some reason want to hook up their PC to a 100" screen with crappy PPI.

And it seems NV forgot about DSR as well as there are still plenty NV owners who can't use it with their setup.

 

[humbug]

judging by q3 results, your ratios might not be far wrong for q4
By leaders i am assuming you mean "ever dwindling last bastion of AMD supporters"

Just out of interest how would you feel about a GPU market entirely dominated by Nvidia?

Or even just Nvidia on their own.

 

[Tonester0011]

Snip

Damn, son.
You sound expert

I've always given my codes away, never bothered selling them as it's too much hassle. That's down to the individual though, and if you're desperate to claw back some dollar from your card purchase, by all means.

Just don't forget, you still have to part with your money first.
970 is £30 more expensive than a 290, it's faster and offers more features. Don't quite know how it isn't the better value card tbh.

 

[Nexus18]

Not sure what the are for.... you made it out like it was a right PITA to sell game codes when it really isn't.

Not my problem if you are too lazy to sell game codes on

edit:

I was able to sell my game codes in 2 days iirc for a total of £37 back in June (I didn't have the choice of AI or starship citizen)

I wouldnt describe alien isolation or sniper elite 3 as "great" so much as "generic"

GET OUT!

AI is an amazing game, you won't get a game that has better atmosphere to it than AI.

I didn't like SE 3 but reviews were pretty good and most people here seemed to like it.



Oh and I should mention, that if I was going for 2 GPU's (and didn't have a good PSU) then it would be the 970's since you would need a pretty good PSU for 2x290's (and this is were the less heat and noise would really start to show over the 290's)

 

[andybird123]

Just out of interest how would you feel about a GPU market entirely dominated by Nvidia?

Or even just Nvidia on their own.

Hulk Smash!!!!!!!!!!!


Joking aside, it would be awful, competition is good for consumers, AMD have been good competition and this is the result, some of the best cards and prices weve had in the last 5 years

Doesnt mean i cant enjoy pulling a few legs along the way though

 

[tommybhoy]

That just makes it cheaper, doesn't make it bang for buck. I'm also not sure you'd get £53 for the game vouchers. Remember that Nvidia card comes with a voucher too. Did you subtract that?

Tommy, you do realise you still have to purchase the card and then hope/bother to sell off the codes to recoup your bang. Also ignoring the 970 is faster than the 290, offers more features etc.

I stated a concise description on how to achieve a BBFB saving.

My BBFB opinion is as valid as any other users opinion.

Tone, I'm under the impression you think of me as AMDFanboi no.#???

My Performance Rig: 290X CrossFire-BBFB!

MY Other Rig: 670

Oh, and then there's this:

Spoiler

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750Ti Gaming OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N750Ti TF 2GD5/OC) £119.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow PC Case - Black (CC-9011070-WW) £69.95
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.95
Total : £279.88



STUNNING

Does this look like AMDFanboi no.#???

Peace mate.