How to convince myself to go red

Kaapstad · 20 Jul 2013 at 18:36

Can anyone using AMD comment on this. I have a pair of HD 5970s and also a pair of HD 7970s in different rigs. Out of the two setups I much prefer to use the HD 5970s, the reason for this I can not put my finger on, all I can say is I am happier to use them.

Has anyone else noticed something similar ?

bru · 20 Jul 2013 at 18:41

Suarez7 said:
Just had to laugh at this, it's been proven time and time again there's absolutely no difference to image quality apart from colours may look slightly different.

Ok yes the guy may be confusing the new card seeming to have better image quality, but how anyone can argue "there's absolutely no difference to image quality apart from colours may look slightly different" is beyond me.
The sentence itself is a contradiction, the image is either the same or its different, it cannot be both at the same time. :rolleyes:

Kaapstad · 20 Jul 2013 at 18:56

bru said:
Ok yes the guy may be confusing the new card seeming to have better image quality, but how anyone can argue "there's absolutely no difference to image quality apart from colours may look slightly different" is beyond me.
The sentence itself is a contradiction, the image is either the same or its different, it cannot be both at the same time.

+1

I have found that AMD and NVidia cards do look slightly different on some games, but this I think is how the game works with the cards more than anything else. As far as image quality goes both makes of card are just as good as each other.

teppic · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:05

There are slight differences depending on the AA filters, LOD settings, and so on (even aside from the game itself), but at default settings they're usually more or less indistinguishable. Certainly you couldn't simply say one card was better than another. On top there are things like 4xMSAA vs 4xSSAA vs 4xAAA, all look slightly different. Or 4xMSAA with edge detect filter rather than the default filter, etc.

Some comparisons along those lines:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=360336

Schizo · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:08

Op,get a 770 and stop all this fanboy bashing and buy nvidia before the post start turning into a flame war to which is better,we have all been there and not worth the post's.

LtMatt · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:12

Kaapstad said:
Can anyone using AMD comment on this. I have a pair of HD 5970s and also a pair of HD 7970s in different rigs. Out of the two setups I much prefer to use the HD 5970s, the reason for this I can not put my finger on, all I can say is I am happier to use them.

Has anyone else noticed something similar ?

Have had a 4870/5850/6950 and can't say i noticed that. What i can say though is i personally prefer the image quality/colour/whatever you want to call it of amd cards. Much more vibrant colours in my opinion.

arc@css · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:48

I haven't had a red team card since the 4870X2 (and 4890 briefly), but I found the differences to be (game depending) :

more vibrant colours
bolder contrasts
softer, thicker image

What they are like now I couldn't say.

I'm playing Dishonored at the mo, and with SweetFX enabled it reminds me more of a red team image (more vibrant but other colours are heavier, darker).

Final8y · 20 Jul 2013 at 19:57

Kaapstad said:
Can anyone using AMD comment on this. I have a pair of HD 5970s and also a pair of HD 7970s in different rigs. Out of the two setups I much prefer to use the HD 5970s, the reason for this I can not put my finger on, all I can say is I am happier to use them.

Has anyone else noticed something similar ?

I really liked my Quadfire 5970s, the 3x7950s while good have not impressed me as much as the Quadfire 5970s did.

Final8y · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:00

From what i have read from some users who use both they say that AMD have more vibrant colours out of the box, there is or was also a HDMI colour issue out of the box on NV.

I do read some funny comments from both AND and NV users at times when they update the drivers and say the IQ is better even just on the desktop.

Defy Belief · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:06

Owned both, no difference, both do the jobs perfectly from experience. It's great being able to buy the best value at the time.

Confused Stu · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:20

OP, there's very little difference between a 7950/770 in the real world. Personally, I'd go with whichever is cheaper, but as you suggest you'd prefer Nvidia and would need persuading to go AMD, get the Nvidia card. If you're spending that amount of money then why risk going for something you might always feel was the lesser of the two choices?

Disclaimer - I'm not saying the 7950 IS the lesser, just that if you prefer Nvidia go for an Nvidia, if you prefer AMD, go for AMD. There's so little between them that I'd always say follow your heart.

Kaapstad · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:21

Final8y said:
From what i have read from some users who use both they say that AMD have more vibrant colours out of the box, there is or was also a HDMI colour issue out of the box on NV.

I do read some funny comments from both AND and NV users at times when they update the drivers and say the IQ is better even just on the desktop.

NVidia driver 320.18 really did make a huge difference in IQ on my cards, it was total rubbish with glitches, blank screens, missing text and this was just browsing the web.

Final8y · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:27

arc@css · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:43

Final8y said:
I really liked my Quadfire 5970s, the 3x7950s while good have not impressed me as much as the Quadfire 5970s did.

So, does a fourth gpu get more usage than we are led to believe? I guess drivers for both teams have come on a long way since quadfire / quad sli was in its infancy.

Kaapstad · 20 Jul 2013 at 20:58

arc@css said:
So, does a fourth gpu get more usage than we are led to believe? I guess drivers for both teams have come on a long way since quadfire / quad sli was in its infancy.

I think AMD are making more of an effort now the HD 7990 is available, I have found more support in the latest drivers for my HD 5970s than has been there for a while.

Another problem with 4 GPU setups is the reviewers, they often don't use CPU overclocks and game settings high enough to avoid bottlenecks and then make comments on poor 4 card scaling.

If you look at the Tomb Raider bench thread below you can see I am getting very good scaling on the GTX 690s and Titans

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=24524828&postcount=4

I am not going to pretend that all games scale like this but there seem to be an ever increasing number.

arc@css · 20 Jul 2013 at 21:01

It's encouraging to see drivers are still supporting the older cards like this.

jimfowler_82 · 20 Jul 2013 at 21:22

Fanboism aside i have a 770 and really enjoy its quality never used a 7950 but heard they very good..... ..... .. I changed from AMD to Nvidia this time...

Final8y · 20 Jul 2013 at 21:25

arc@css said:
So, does a fourth gpu get more usage than we are led to believe? I guess drivers for both teams have come on a long way since quadfire / quad sli was in its infancy.

Kaapstad said:
I think AMD are making more of an effort now the HD 7990 is available, I have found more support in the latest drivers for my HD 5970s than has been there for a while.

Another problem with 4 GPU setups is the reviewers, they often don't use CPU overclocks and game settings high enough to avoid bottlenecks and then make comments on poor 4 card scaling.

If you look at the Tomb Raider bench thread below you can see I am getting very good scaling on the GTX 690s and Titans

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=24524828&postcount=4

I am not going to pretend that all games scale like this but there seem to be an ever increasing number.

Yep the support for quadfire 5970 has been surprisingly good, constant improvements.

Jono8 · 20 Jul 2013 at 22:02

Confused Stu said:
OP, there's very little difference between a 7950/770 in the real world. Personally, Icompeted th whichever is cheaper, but as you suggest you'd prefer Nvidia and would need persuading to go AMD, get the Nvidia card. If you're spending that amount of money then why risk going for something you might always feel was the lesser of the two choices?

Disclaimer - I'm not saying the 7950 IS the lesser, just that if you prefer Nvidia go for an Nvidia, if you prefer AMD, go for AMD. There's so little between them that I'd always say follow your heart.

What? The 770 competes with and mostly beats the 7970ghz edition. The 7950 IS the lesser of the two cards. The 7950 competes with the 670 and 760?

banjoted · 20 Jul 2013 at 22:32

I went from an HD 5850 to a single 7950 and then Crossfire 7950s over the space of a couple of years. After the pain of Crossfire I've got a 780 last month and I must admit I'm finding the Nvidia experience a dream in comparison. Even when on a single 7950 I found performance to be erratic and I had far more compatibility hassle. Although that doesn't seem to correspond with what a lot of forumites say - that being that the AMD and Nvidia experience is virtually identical, Crossfire/SLI aside.