Poll: What do you prefer: AMD or NVIDIA?

[FileTrekker]

So, what team are you on, and why?

I've almost always used NVIDIA cards, mainly because I prefer the drivers that the cards get, as well as some of the extra features the higher end cards get (such as G-SYNC and DSR)

I think AMD's cards are pretty competitively priced in the high end, though, but they seem to get less so the lower down the range you get.

What about you guys and gals?

 

[Albino Boo]

What no team rocket! I am appalled.

NVIDIA all the way. AMD's drivers are just bad, so you never get the full value of the hardware. The drivers are just spaghetti code with work arounds plastered over work arounds.

 

[Barbas]

I like integrated graphics in my laptop, because it decreases the overall weight, meaning that kicks get more distance and less broken feet.

Or, failing that, some nice nVidia, because those GPUs have better support and neat ancillaries in my experience.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I've always used NVIDIA in all my previous computers. Great cards but terrible drivers.
I think NVIDIA's card names are easier to categorize at a glance than AMD's weird numbers though it's always a case of guessing really.

I think, or hope, there is going to be some kind of revolution in graphics cards soon because of DX12 being Win10 only and NVIDIA forcing their online-auto-updating NVIDIA Experience software or whatever it's called.

 

[cathou]

i had one AMD card once in my life and it was crappy, so i promised to myself to never buy amd anymore. i'm really satisfied with my nvdia cards i had so far

 

[The Enquirer]

Yea, I'm going to have to go with Nvidia. AMD isn't terrible if you're building a cheap system because you get more bang for your buck up until a point, but eventually it's just way better to go with Nvidia.

On the note of integrated graphics, I had a friend who thought his framerate was fine until I told him to set it to windowed mode and turn the graphics settings all the way down. He was playing Mass Effect. The nearly 9 year old one.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

AMD man here. That's right, I'm a man. I have had 3 nVidia cards in my gaming lifetime, all of them have failed miserably and numerous borked driver releases. The only 2 AMD cards I have lost was from a power surge that killed almost every appliance in my house, and a card that lasted almost 6 years before dying from overclocking/overheating. By comparison, the nVidia cards died within weeks of the warranty expiring. Apart from the one in my old Vista laptop, but that was one of the graphics cards nVidia knew were faulty, but shipped them out anyway.

 

[FileTrekker]

AMD man here. That's right, I'm a man. I have had 3 nVidia cards in my gaming lifetime, all of them have failed miserably and numerous borked driver releases. The only 2 AMD cards I have lost was from a power surge that killed almost every appliance in my house, and a card that lasted almost 6 years before dying from overclocking/overheating. By comparison, the nVidia cards died within weeks of the warranty expiring. Apart from the one in my old Vista laptop, but that was one of the graphics cards nVidia knew were faulty, but shipped them out anyway.

You sound pretty unlucky there dude, on both sides of the coin. I've never managed to loose a single graphics card!

I can certainly understand you feeling burned by that experience though. But I think the third party vendor who makes the card has a lot to do with quality and reliability, for example I trust ASUS cards implicitly but I've got a friend who tends to buy cards from a lesser known company called Pallit and they've died on him a few times.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

You sound pretty unlucky there dude, on both sides of the coin. I've never managed to loose a single graphics card!

For a very brief time, I thought one of my AMD cards died a horrible, horrible death. Turns out, it was just that one part of Arkham Asylum right after Scarecrow drugs you.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

I am rooting for AMD right now, mostly because they are at risk of going bankrupt but still produce excellent quality products. A Nvidia monopoly would be truly terrible for consumers. I currently game with a R9 390x (my first AMD card) and could not be happier with how it performs. It has a far superior price to performance ratio compared to its Nvidia counterpart, the GTX 980. AMD's new Crimson UI and drivers are excellent, possibly on par with Nvidia's software.

AMD gets a bad rap that it doesn't really deserve while their innovations and achievements go largely unrecognized. Nvidia seems to have gained so much market share that people don't even consider the competing product...some sort of mindshare effect.
That said, if Nvidia offers a truly superior product for an equal or lower price when I upgrade my current GPU, my money will obviously go to them. Extreme brand loyalty is just plain stupid.

 

[Freyr]

I have been building my own computers for a really long time, and I have almost always gone with Nvidia since the 3DFX days trekker mentioned in the poll. That said, my existing card is an AMD one, basically for the same reason Higgs mentioned above. I think that if AMD does go down then we can kiss goodbye to any real competition and thus development both from Intel and Nvidia.

The AMD card has been doing the job, and I have yet to encounter any driver problems that ATI used to be infamous for.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

I've used a healthy amount of both, but I always prefer the Nvidia cards I have.

When I really started getting into PC gaming, I started with an AMD 6770, and that got my through most of the games well enough.
However, from there I upgraded to the GTX 480 from Nvidia, and that thing was a powerhouse for sure. For awhile, I don't think there was any game that card couldn't handle.
Today I'm rocking an overclocked 980ti, so you could say I went a bit overboard with the upgrading. Oh well, it's my money and I know I'm terrible with it. I would almost say it was worth it anyway. Almost.

I don't know, I think it's a case of Nvidia having a better grasp on the GPU market, as most games tend to have features specifically optimized for them. Unfortunately, I'm contributing to their monopoly by only using Nvidia cards for my last three system upgrades. I don't think I've used AMD since the 7870.

 

[Amir Kondori]

So, what team are you on, and why?

I've almost always used NVIDIA cards, mainly because I prefer the drivers that the cards get, as well as some of the extra features the higher end cards get (such as G-SYNC and DSR)

I think AMD's cards are pretty competitively priced in the high end, though, but they seem to get less so the lower down the range you get.

What about you guys and gals?

You can't know that you prefer the drivers if you haven't used an AMD card in the last four years. As someone who has used both a lot, both personally and as someone who worked at a system integrator for years, if anything AMD's drivers have been overall better and more stable over the last few years.

I prefer AMD overall because of their commitment to open standards and platforms, which helps all gamers in the long run. Nvidia's pulled a lot of moves I consider shady over the years, so despite using their products they are definitely one of my least favorite hardware companies.

Currently I run a GTX 980, as the reference R9 290 I bought was trash in every category but performance. I will give Nvidia props for pushing g-sync, as it makes a huge difference, but I do wish at this point they'd just adapt the open standard. I don't want to have to switch monitors every time I switch GPUs.

P.S. Physx is stupid

 

[pookie101]

ive always used amd cards except for this latest one from nvidia and its given me nothing but trouble so yeah amd next time

 

[Faky]

I had both but lately i had mostly AMD graphic cards. And never had any issues with those - while in Nvidia i had a few (blue screens, vent at full speed sometimes....) The latest one is also AMD - R9 290, but next time i am sure to switch to Nvidia.
Mostly because i am trying out linux and amd has just bad performance there. And i mean baaad. Most of the games (3d) are on the edge of being playable, while in windows they run very smoothly. I heard Nvidia is the way to go with linux so i am willing to try out.
Also i didn't like the - get a free game (Civ beyond earth) with the graphic card and when i bought it, i saw it was a limited time offer ...so no game for me. At that moment i was already in the "F* you AMD" mode so this linux stuff made my choice quite clear in the future.

 

[mad825]

I think, or hope, there is going to be some kind of revolution in graphics cards soon because of DX12 being Win10 only and NVIDIA forcing their online-auto-updating NVIDIA Experience software or whatever it's called.

I think the PASCAL architecture is coming out late this year. More oomph for less power draw. I'm keep an eye on this so I can replace my 750TI.

 

[Evil Moo]

I had a laptop with an AMD card before my current desktop which has NVIDIA. I found with the AMD it was pretty much 50-50 whether a driver update was going to cause some crazy bugs in random games. I've had absolutely no trouble with NVIDIA, so I'm currently favouring them.

 

[Callate]

My experience has led me to feel NVidia cards run cooler, consume less power, and tend to be more stable, so I prefer them. The latest benchmarks also suggest better frame-rates and broader support. Your mileage may vary.

 

[LostCrusader]

Nvidia all the way, I don't plan on ever getting another AMD card after my last computer. I can't remember which card it was, but I had 2 mid tier graphics cards crossfired and they worked great for a long time. Then it was like AMD forgot that the setup was possible and the drivers stopped working with both cards and my performance went to shit on games that were previously fine.

 

[laggyteabag]

I am using Nvidia, right now, but I am not really all that fussy, and will pretty much go for whatever is the best performing card at the time. Right now, I am using two GTX 970s. I had a GTX 580 before that, and an AMD 5870 before that. AMD cards tend to run hotter and draw more power, sure, but their R9 300 series are full of great cards that beat out Nvidia in a lot of cases.

I find brand loyalty to be fairly meaningless, and you can end up losing out on a lot of great stuff that way. If I had waited until now to buy a GPU, I probably would have gone AMD instead of Nvidia, though, PhysX and Gameworks are pretty cool for the few games that use them.