From AMD to Nvidia

[TAC4U]

Went from AMD to nVidia (and prior to that from nVidia to AMD) and haven't noticed any difference. Personally I prefer the nVidia drivers and games have a lot more anti-aliasing options available (FXAA, CSAA, etc) that weren't available on AMD, though there's really nothing in it. I honestly just go with the card that offers the best value-to-performance at the time.

Technically speaking the current AMD drivers offer slightly lower image quality on the 7xxx series, which was discovered by Tom's Hardware. The issue will be addressed in the 12.4 drivers. But it's not like the old day when there were really obvious hacks used by both sides. nVidia still plays a bit dirty when it comes to dealing with developers (implementations that disadvantage AMD, etc), which I'd rather they didn't do.

 

[Ollie1132]

I do believe that the Nvidia drivers aren't exactly "better" so to say but more of the fact that Nvidia is partnered to work with so many Games production companies that the drivers are then made for pretty much what the game demands of the card. Which does work well. Thats the only thing I can really say about Nvidia. Im tempted to try AMD this build round but... I do quite like Nvidia... I wonder if OCuk would let me trial two cards and see which I prefer or something.

 

[arc@css]

This is what scares me. I too heard that AMD have better IQ.

Don't forget, there is a subjective element, at least to a certain extent anyway. I've had more ATi gpu's, and while I do think that the 2d image quality afforded by them has looked better than Nvidia's, it hasn't resulted in me being disappointed with my gtx480's IQ at all, desktop or otherwise. There's also gpu generations, drivers and a whole host of other 'controls' that would be necessary to make a more accurate comparison. The IQ on my 480 looks better (imo) to that of my 4870X2 in 3d applications, but not quite so good in 2d.

Maybe try and think of it as 'image style' rather than just image quality, and as I mention in my first post, in some games I honestly can't see much difference, if any.

 

[Purgatory]

Well said arc@css . That's exactly what I was trying to say too. I'm very happy with my GTX 580, it was just a bit of minor moment coming from the AMD 5870 where I was wondering how come the image looks a bit off compared to how I normally like it, but a bit of tweaking resolved most of the issues I had with the IQ and very happy with it now. As I said out of the box both AMD and Nvidia have different image quality but can both be adjusted to how you like them. I just found I never had to fiddle with the AMD cards out of the box, maybe because my monitors were always setup to use AMD cards and when I swapped to Nvidia I had to re-adjust the monitor settings, I never adjust the colours,contrast, etc via the drivers only from the monitor settings, I find it gives better results that way as both AMD and Nvidia have pretty decent settings at their defaults in the drivers for IQ.

 

[arc@css]

^^ Tips hat.

 

[regulus]

Same monitor and 2 PC's, always wanted to compare.
The differences are pretty clear.

7970 (which has now been sold) and a 680

Its not really just claims or guessing but a direct comparison, if you compared yourself like I said the differences are pretty clear, Nvidia is definitely smoother at lower fps and overall and better drivers for certain games, and AMD has definitely got better picture quality and AA (the AA dfference is very noticeable )

Guess I got the best of both worlds then. The great quality you claim on AMD and sky high FPS to boot at all times too. All this on a lowly 5870 (soon to joined by another 5870 in Xfire).

But seriously, I buy both brands all the time. I see no difference.

 

[kitch9]

CUDA says hello. Sorry but AMD GPUs can't compete with Nvidia on most of the media production based applications on the market. I've tried an AMD 5970 and an Nvidia GTX285 (my current card) and while the 5970 trounces my card in every way possible, when it comes to development work (Photoshop, After Effects, 3ds Max, MudBox, ZBrush) it's the complete opposite.

Uhm, have you seen DP performance on the 680?

 

[sand_dune]

Nvidia definitely has poorer image quality and their much advertised AA is painful to look at. I remember Metro 20XX looking terrible on Nvidias. All in order to achieve higher speeds.

I don't know why people buy Nvidia cards, when the company only making fools of you. Take GF680 it's dynamic overclocking only works in lighter scenes, opposed to heavy scenes, where it actually is needed. So you are getting higher benchmarking scores without improvement to playability, as minfps remains the same. That's an insult.

 

[Rusty0611]

Nvidia definitely has poorer image quality and their much advertised AA is painful to look at. I remember Metro 20XX looking terrible on Nvidias. All in order to achieve higher speeds.

I don't know why people buy Nvidia cards, when the company only making fools of you. Take GF680 it's dynamic overclocking only works in lighter scenes, opposed to heavy scenes, where it actually is needed. So you are getting higher benchmarking scores without improvement to playability, as minfps remains the same. That's an insult.

You're completely incorrect.

 

[PCM2]

Even with digital vibrance it doesn't have quite the same vividness as AMD - you end up with more solid patches of color on blends where AMD are still managing higher resolution granularity.

This is a good point. Obviously as a monitor reviewer the differences between the two brands of GPU mean that it is difficult to give a good idea of what people can expect in the colour department. I often find people taking the recommended settings I give in monitor reviews (which are currently done on an AMD GPU system) far too literally and then claiming that something else is better. Often Nvidia users try to copy the settings verbatim and then add a bit of digital vibrancy to the mix. All this does is extend shade saturation and effectively gives the monitor different colour values to play with - which takes it out of its native comfort zone. This invevitably leads to a reduction in shade range which you would see in colour blends as you say.

 

[Wucked]

I've noticed that the cardboard boxes AMD cards are shipped in often have slightly more pointed corners than those of the Nvidia cards. But also that the cardboard of the Nvidia boxes often appears slightly more brown. However, the sellotape used by both manufacturers appears to be sellotape.

I find this somewhat disturbing, and as a result I will only purchase Intel CPU's for the foreseeable future.

 

[Crackatoah]

Go into Nvidia control panel and add some digital vibrance if you want more vivid colours.
The only time AMD had better IQ was against Nvidias FX range. Since then it is widely accepted that they are on par.

Have you tried using transparency AA?

That just ruins the collaborated picture and makes colours more saturated though, there isn't really any way Ive found to get it collaborated and look the same on an Nvidia system, messing with the vibrancy just makes it worse IMO.

Yeh tried to max out the SSAA and the quality just feels like AMD's adaptive AA.
I do much prefer Nvidia for games now but this is one thing thats quite important to me as I play TF2 quite allot, the SSAA (which you may not notice without comparing, or if you only use Nvidia) is very poor on Nvidia.

But I'm sure there is a way of getting good quality AA? Anybody know?

 

[Rusty0611]

Are you really noticing it as much as you say? I mean if I sit in front of my screen staring at the screen in side by side comparisons, I maybe can spot the difference like anyone. What did you buy this card for? Did you not buy it run games silky smooth at the highest settings? Or did you buy it to scrutinise it into the ground and not actually enjoy your purchase?

Crazy.

 

[Crackatoah]

Are you really noticing it as much as you say? I mean if I sit in front of my screen staring at the screen in side by side comparisons, I maybe can spot the difference like anyone. What did you buy this card for? Did you not buy it run games silky smooth at the highest settings? Or did you buy it to scrutinise it into the ground and not actually enjoy your purchase?

Crazy.

Like I say its easy to notice the AA quality difference, and its not a big difference but the colour difference is also noticeable.

But what do you mean by the rest?
I bought this card to play games and see what Nvidia's like these days as I wanted a change and to swap the 7970 for a 680.
I'm not 'scrutinising' my card to the ground... (maybe you just dont like it that I'm not a total fanboy and am not lying to myself to enjoy my purchase even more? like most people seem to do)

As I said I much prefer the 680 for games and it feels smoother, even at lower framerates (which means higher settings for the same 'smoothness') and has better drivers in older games and better overall which is a big plus, having directly compared I have just shared my thoughts and finds as I think its interesting and would like help to know if its possible to somehow get good quality SSAA on my card.

If for some reason it makes you annoyed or you don't like it then just ignore it please.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

I never noticed a difference when going from my 8800GTX/Ultra to 4870X2 or from 4870X2 to GTX 470, then GTX 680.

Only things I noticed was better performance each time when changing card.

For me the only big difference came when I went from TN to IPS monitors.

 

[TwsT]

DX 91 Vs 81 argument for CSS is all I can say

 

[psychas]

only noticed that ati had better image quality when going from 8800gts g92 to ati 4870 even when switched to 260gtx soc it performed better but i preferred IQ of 4870, cant comment now on current IQ of nvidia as after 260 never had newer nvidia cards.

 

[Elevon]

I always go AMD to Nvidia to AMD etc...with my video card upgrades ,currently on MSI 2GB 560Ti,I bumped the digital vibrance a touch even after my monitor has been colour calibrated.

I do miss the monthly AMD driver updates(unless I use my older AMD gaming rig).
However driver wise never really had any issues with either AMD or Nvidia,only time I had a serious issue was with a faulty factory overclocked Nvidia 7800GT from OcUK,I just underclocked it by 10mhz and problem solved.


Nowadays I just go for best price/performance and don't worry about drivers,believe me I game a lot so both sides get a good testing by me.

 

[Rusty0611]

Like I say its easy to notice the AA quality difference, and its not a big difference but the colour difference is also noticeable.

But what do you mean by the rest?
I bought this card to play games and see what Nvidia's like these days as I wanted a change and to swap the 7970 for a 680.
I'm not 'scrutinising' my card to the ground... (maybe you just dont like it that I'm not a total fanboy and am not lying to myself to enjoy my purchase even more? like most people seem to do)

As I said I much prefer the 680 for games and it feels smoother, even at lower framerates (which means higher settings for the same 'smoothness') and has better drivers in older games and better overall which is a big plus, having directly compared I have just shared my thoughts and finds as I think its interesting and would like help to know if its possible to somehow get good quality SSAA on my card.

If for some reason it makes you annoyed or you don't like it then just ignore it please.

Slightly contradictory. It's easy to notice but not a big difference....

Why on earth would I care if you're a total fanboy or not? Where does that even fit into this debate? I detest the term fanboy when talking about graphics cards. It's mental.

I'm not annoyed at all. I don't care what you spent your money on but I just think you're over doing the critique. Enjoy your card.

You're well over emphasising the impact of the different forms of AA. I notice them as well if I look hard but not to the extent you're hinting at. If this isn't correct and you do feel they're small differences then rein in the rhetoric

 

[Gerard]

Only real thing i ever ntoiced was ati's colours being brighter and more pleasing to the eye, thats about it. Very noticable in a game like TF2 for example.