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

[GoogalyMoogaly]

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

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

I agree, your opinion is as valid as mine and mine is as valid as yours.
I was mostly pointing out that cheaper doesn't make it bang-for-buck. An Nvidia 750 is £83, so it's cheaper, doesn't make it bang-for-buck though.
I think the trouble with the AMD vouchers is that they're becoming so common that few of the games will get £15. Having to sell on codes is an unreliable way of reducing the cost (in that not everyone will get the same amount).

 

[humbug]

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

The problem is this "leg pulling" gets very very old when turns into something resembling OCD.

 

[Tonester0011]

A 750ti? Thought you're into bang for buck lol, that's poor value.
#triplequestionmark

 

[tommybhoy]

I agree, your opinion is as valid as mine and mine is as valid as yours.
I was mostly pointing out that cheaper doesn't make it bang-for-buck. An Nvidia 750 is £83, so it's cheaper, doesn't make it bang-for-buck though.
I think the trouble with the AMD vouchers is that they're becoming so common that few of the games will get £15. Having to sell on codes is an unreliable way of reducing the cost (in that not everyone will get the same amount).

I agree, as stated, my comparison was strictly 290/970.

Splitting the vouchers can net you that sort of money-give or take, the four best titles are still selling for that sort of cash give or take.

A 750ti? Thought you're into bang for buck lol, that's poor value.
#triplequestionmark

3 setups, only one stated BBFB.

BBFB doesn't come into it when that's the exact card wanted.

 

[Marine-RX179]

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?.

Thought the sub-heading of the discussion is "Is power efficiency the new must-have?", which mean we should really be just discuss about efficiency?

I expressed my opinion strictly relating to that. And if I'm completely honest, I honestly think answer to that questions is "No it is not, but instead greater performance increase per gen than the pass is THE new must-have, considering the arrival of affordable 4K monitors."

GPU manufacturers pulling an Intel...focusing on efficiency at the cost of sacrificing performance increase in the face of people who need graphic cards performance to greatly improve hugely asap for driving 4K without costing the moon seem to be timing mis-match. It's nice to have efficiency yes, but I'm more concerned about how badly is the graphic card capability in general is lagging behind in the face of 4K.

I honestly wouldn't want AMD to jump on completing on efficiency wagon and focus on pushing performance increase. But if they did jump on that wagon, and both GPU makers carry on prioritising on pushing efficiency instead of performance like that, in 4 years time when we look back, it would probably be like looking back at SandyBridge from Haswell today performance wise...

 

[Gregster]

All this bang per buck talk is laughable. Sure you can do that but when we generally ALL own high end cards, that kinda kills that argument. You only have to look at some of our systems and see what we think of BFB lol.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate not everyone is the same and where we can save a few pence, that is good but high end card users need not apply

 

[Final8y]

All this bang per buck talk is laughable. Sure you can do that but when we generally ALL own high end cards, that kinda kills that argument. You only have to look at some of our systems and see what we think of BFB lol.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate not everyone is the same and where we can save a few pence, that is good but high end card users need not apply

Bang per buck is a comparative term, it does not mean cheap, it means one is cheaper for the performance and sometimes features or it can be more expensive for the performance and sometimes features but the extra expense is smaller than the performance and feature difference.

 

[triss]

The whole problem with BFB is is its impossible to say what price each individual put on power efficiency, less heat or less noise or even that 2 extra FPS one card has over another.
Some users cant stand some fan noise, others want a cool card then the fellow up the road just wants max fps, or he wants a specific feature and they arnt wrong in saying whats best BFB in any of those cases as its a individual thing IMO

 

[Rangerjr1]

Three things that may help you.

1. You are not always right.

2. Other people are entitled to their opinions.

3. Other people are often right.

Following the above before you post can save a lot of embarrassment.

Im not embarrassed easily. BUT... I do feel for others when they claim to know their stuff and when questioned they leave the conversation instead of putting up some proof of their claim.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I had put two 290s and a 1000 watt power supply in my basket on ocuk and was waiting till my mate gave me the money he owed me to take the plunge and press buy.

Then the 970s launched and after reading reviews about how much power they consume and more importantly to me was they had DSR then I changed my basket and bought 2 970s instead saving me around £150 because I didn't have to buy a new PSU.

+1 - that was my upgrade scenario as well.

 

[andybird123]

The problem is this "leg pulling" gets very very old when turns into something resembling OCD.

And your blind regurgitation of AMD PR is any better?

 

[Final8y]

The whole problem with BFB is is its impossible to say what price each individual put on power efficiency, less heat or less noise or even that 2 extra FPS one card has over another.
Some users cant stand some fan noise, others want a cool card then the fellow up the road just wants max fps, or he wants a specific feature and they arnt wrong in saying whats best BFB in any of those cases as its a individual thing IMO

When it comes to performance you can put a price on it and many reviews do.
BFB is not about whether an individual thinks the price difference is worth the performance, it is about what is the performance difference for the price, the willingness to pay more for a small gain that is disproportionate to the price difference does not change that fact.

Willingness to pay and better bang for buck are 2 different things.

 

[tommybhoy]

All this bang per buck talk is laughable. Sure you can do that but when we generally ALL own high end cards, that kinda kills that argument. You only have to look at some of our systems and see what we think of BFB lol.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate not everyone is the same and where we can save a few pence, that is good but high end card users need not apply

All this power efficiency talk is laughable. Sure you can do that but when we generally ALL own high end cards, that kinda kills that argument. You only have to look at some of our systems and see what we think of power efficiency lol.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate not everyone is the same and where we can save a few pence, that is good but high end card users need not apply

When it comes to performance you can put a price on it and many reviews do.
BFB is not about whether an individual thinks the price difference is worth the performance, it is about what is the performance difference for the price, the willingness to pay more for a small gain that is disproportionate to the price difference does not change that fact.

Willingness to pay and better bang for buck are 2 different things.

This.

 

[Gregster]

When it comes to performance you can put a price on it and many reviews do.
BFB is not about whether an individual thinks the price difference is worth the performance, it is about what is the performance difference for the price, the willingness to pay more for a small gain that is disproportionate to the price difference does not change that fact.

Willingness to pay and better bang for buck are 2 different things.

But you can't really do that now, as it is like buying 2 different things. AMD has Mantle and Trueaudio as part of its feature set and nVidia has DSR, ShadowPlay, PhysX etc and they will both appeal to the clued up buyer in different ways. If someone works with Cuda and games, they would be silly to buy AMD and vice versa for DirectCompute...

It is no longer BFB between AMD and nVidia, it will be AMD's BFB or nVidia's. Both have differing feature sets that will appeal to buyers in a different way.

 

[triss]

When it comes to performance you can put a price on it and many reviews do.
BFB is not about whether an individual thinks the price difference is worth the performance, it is about what is the performance difference for the price, the willingness to pay more for a small gain that is disproportionate to the price difference does not change that fact.

Willingness to pay and better bang for buck are 2 different things.

Value (economics), a measure of the benefit that may be gained from goods or service

.

The price these many reviews put on it is there own, which is a valid as anyones price they wish to put on it.
Why don't we just have one review for every card instead of most tech sites doing their own? And why do most reviews have differing results or conclusions? Humans, all individuals placing different value on different aspects
Without knowing what value the end user has ,all you can do is agree its not what value you would place on it..
That user that really wants 5-10 fps more from say a 290x vs a 290 so he doesnt have to buy 2 cards and a power supply or the guy that buys a card designed to try and mitigate coil whine to stop him having a unusable to him card it doesnt matter ,, Thats BFB for them.

 

[andybird123]

When it comes to performance you can put a price on it and many reviews do.
BFB is not about whether an individual thinks the price difference is worth the performance, it is about what is the performance difference for the price, the willingness to pay more for a small gain that is disproportionate to the price difference does not change that fact.

Willingness to pay and better bang for buck are 2 different things.

Even Bang for buck us subjective, there is no saying that the games the reviewers choose as the basis is going to be reflective of what the buyer wants the card for

 

[Nexus18]

All this power efficiency talk is laughable. Sure you can do that but when we generally ALL own high end cards, that kinda kills that argument. You only have to look at some of our systems and see what we think of power efficiency lol.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate not everyone is the same and where we can save a few pence, that is good but high end card users need not apply



This.

haha, exactly this!



PS. You also need to mention that we ALL have high end PSU's too

EDIT:

I would love to be able to go back to the time of the nvidia 480 release and see what everyone was saying back then and quote those posts here

 

[tommybhoy]

Some want pure performance regardless the cost/usp/power, some want pure performance per $/£, some want usp's, some want power efficiency.

 

[Final8y]

But you can't really do that now, as it is like buying 2 different things. AMD has Mantle and Trueaudio as part of its feature set and nVidia has DSR, ShadowPlay, PhysX etc and they will both appeal to the clued up buyer in different ways. If someone works with Cuda and games, they would be silly to buy AMD and vice versa for DirectCompute...

It is no longer BFB between AMD and nVidia, it will be AMD's BFB or nVidia's. Both have differing feature sets that will appeal to buyers in a different way.

.

The price these many reviews put on it is there own, which is a valid as anyones price they wish to put on it.
Why don't we just have one review for every card instead of most tech sites doing their own? And why do most reviews have differing results or conclusions? Humans, all individuals placing different value on different aspects
Without knowing what value the end user has ,all you can do is agree its not what value you would place on it..
That user that really wants 5-10 fps more from say a 290x vs a 290 so he doesnt have to buy 2 cards and a power supply or the guy that buys a card designed to try and mitigate coil whine to stop him having a unusable to him card it doesnt matter ,, Thats BFB for them.

Even Bang for buck us subjective, there is no saying that the games the reviewers choose as the basis is going to be reflective of what the buyer wants the card for

Features and performance are 2 different things.
Money figure is not subjective as much as 4+4=8 is not subjective, 8 not being your favorite number does not change that fact that 4+4=8

You can put a factual monetary figure of performance, pounds per fps.
You can put a factual monetary figure on features, pounds per feature.

Which ever gives the most for the less pound is the better bang per buck, dont confuse individual preference, want or desire for a feature or being more popular and selling more with better bang per buck.

Whether what anything is worth to and individual is entirely different.

 

[Nexus18]

Well put final8y