Graphics card question

[fantasticCG]

Was wondering why people go for amd cards, I've always bought nvidia cards.
I was tempted by the 7970 this year as nvidia was taking a while to release the 600 series cards. I might go for one next year.
What's the pro's and con's ?

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Well mainly because of the recent AMD price cuts, it means that effectively AMD dominates the sub £300 graphics market because Nvidia doesn't have any competitive offerings at that price point. Since most gamers tend to spend around £200 on a graphics card, it means that most people are going for AMD cards atm.
I suppose some of the cons are that HD 7000 series cards draw a bit more power than GTX 600 series cards (like for like), and you don't get Physx.
Pros for the AMD cards are the massive overclocking headroom- something most benchmarks don't show. They are also better value for money imo, sub £230 for a 7950 offers amongst the best bang for the buck of all current cards.

 

[Rusty0611]

When it comes down to it? Nothing really between them. Some will prefer others just as some will prefer Samsung televisions over Sony's.

Value for money wise at the moment AMD are clearing up. Nvidia haven't really got anything to offer underneath the 670 and the 670 is still an upper mid-range GPU.

Even at the top end it can be argued that AMD are offering better value for money currently.

 

[humbug]

They ^^^^ Sum it up well

 

[Rusty0611]

The only thing you will hear frequently is that nVidia have better drivers or they support older GPU's longer and they're better in SLI set up's.

The problem with this is it is difficult to prove or disprove so it comes down to the balance of opinion really.

I personally feel that nVidia provide greater multi-GPU driver performance and on occasion better release day performance but there are plenty who would disagree. For example, it is only really in the last couple of drivers that you could argue the 7*** series are performing in BF3 where they should be.

You won't really find opinion all going one way on something like this.

 

[humbug]

Up to this point i agree with ^^^^^ That.

AMD's 7### release Drivers were woefully under performing. Its only in the last few months that the Drivers are good and the Cards performance is up to where it should be, or getting there as they are still improving, but are now good regardless.

Up on release the 7870 was getting ~ 40 FPS in Ultra preset, I myself have seen the FPS improve a lot with every new Driver since then, tho i did not think to keep track.

I used the same way Tom's Hardware bench BF3. here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=22665681#post22665681

FPS are now ~ 54 FPS @ absolute stock, that is a huge jump. keep an eye on that post as i will be adding a lot more to it.

 

[Rusty0611]

Yeah. I think the performance before the driver improvements was still OK but there was more to give though and it's good they've found it. It's been a definite curve of improvement with regards to BF3 and AMD drivers.

Hopefully they'll apply lessons learned to future titles as well.