I'm trying to finish my new build and I have the biggest of confusions with the GPU. I want to know firsthand what or how has AMD improved all his linux and incompatibility problems over the last years, or at least a reason why I should get a HD7970 over a GTX680 that's not price or marginally better performance. How's everyday gaming? Does it have problems with every other game like before? Can you Linux normally on them? How's the compatibility with Hackingtosh or Virtual Machines?
My experience going from a gtx280 to an HD5870 : sold the 5870 to the first buyer after 6 months of waiting for "driver improvements", went back to nvidia. Using the same card since (gtx580).
That's the most recent experience I can offer you.
Steam profile
PC Specs: I have a big e-peen
The price differences are, at least in Finland, hugely in favour of AMD. You can get a 7950 cheaper than a 660Ti, even though the latter is rather clearly inferior.
I went with 7950 in my new rig. I wanted to get an Nvidia card, but with those prices...
Originally Posted by Velko
Price is not a problem in that 50€ difference.
Nvidia currently has better / faster driver support. (imo)
I'm a AMD user myself though, you can't beat their quality / price.
That's the cause of my doubts, not the solution.
It's a debate that will never end.
All I can add to it is this from my experience. Updating AMD drivers was such a pain that I swore them off pretty much for good. The driver update was broken and had to be rolled back, yet it was still available as the latest available working driver. I've played on recent AMD cards with recent games where the card surpasses the required specs and it still runs badly on low-medium settings. The game also had a massive issue on launch where the entire screen would go black.
Nvidia
+They release drivers faster/more fequently
+They partner with most games
+Only their cards have Physx
AMD
+They're nearly always better bang for your buck (ie similar spec cards are cheaper from AMD than Nvidia)
If price is really not an issue for you and you don't mind paying the extra 50 bucks for a Nvidia card, go with Nvidia to save yourself hassle in the long run.
I'd say if you care about being 'leading edge' (and everything in your build is about that, rather than actual practical use that I can see) then you need an nVidia card - end of.
AMD are rocking on the edge, they may even stop making GPUs in the next 1-2 years - driver updates are slow and other issues are long outstanding BUT they also blow nVidia out of the water on price at many price/performance points and price matters to most people...
If money doesn't matter tho - nVidia all the way...
p.s. you appear to be trying to create a 'perfect' system - it's impossible, you'll only get wound-up in the detail and forget the point of doing it - sometimes you just make a decision and work with it. After all, if money isn't an issue you can change stuff later anyway...
Creator of Steam Greenlight LITE
Driver updates since the 7000 began have been quite a big step up AMDs front and got some pretty massive performance gains too.
The best I can offer you is I have a 7970 and it's a great card that I'm more than happy with. Even using Windows 8 I've had no issues with driver support either which obviously is nice. That's not to say I'm biased against Nvidia, my 8800 GTX was a great, great card. Really as it stands, I think both companies are on a fairly level playing field and if one is cheaper than the other, it's worthing jumping on it.
steam: sketch
That's absurd, quite frankly. AMD is making a profit on its graphics business, so of course it wouldn't just be shut down. Even if AMD goes under because of its difficulties in the CPU market, the GPU business would simply be sold off and continue on under some other name.
Removed because it's pointless in this thread
Last edited by trjp; 25-01-2013 at 01:43 AM.
Creator of Steam Greenlight LITE
AMDs support is fine for regular gaming, and in fact better than Nvidia in some cases (multi-monitor gaming eg.). And it wasn't exactly cataclysmic the last time they were sold.
Removed - same reason
Last edited by trjp; 25-01-2013 at 01:43 AM.
Creator of Steam Greenlight LITE
Edit: Serves no purpose now.
Last edited by Sakkura; 25-01-2013 at 01:09 PM.
Edit: Serves no purpose now.
Last edited by Sakkura; 25-01-2013 at 01:08 PM.
I'm gonna stop screwing-up the OP's thread with a pointless argument - I made my point and deleted everything else.
Derailing his thread just to prove technical points is daft - he asked for opinions, you gave him yours, I gave him mine - let him get on with it...
Last edited by trjp; 25-01-2013 at 01:44 AM.
Creator of Steam Greenlight LITE
I've had a few AMD cards over the years, since they do offer better performance for the price. But as the others have said I've had weird driver issues with all of them, particularly when new games were released. I also had a strange issue with my 5850 where the second monitor would constantly flicker when the card was in its low-power 2D state. AMD acknowledged it was a problem and released a "driver fix" which didn't work - the card's 2D clocks were too low and caused instability, the drivers didn't fix it. I ended up having to force higher 2D clocks with Afterburner. Maybe it was the manufacturer's fault, but plenty of other people with different branded cards had the same issue (with varying degrees of success).
Since then I'm not going back to AMD. Too many issues, too many complaints... nVidia usually have beta drivers out to meet new game releases to improve performance or resolve issues, and no nVidia card has ever given me any problems.
Never had problems with AMD/ATI cards. Been using them for 6-8 years. Never have encountered any driver problems or any problems with games.
Their recent driver update has had pretty big gains across multiple games. Using a 7950 now with no problems.
I owned AMD and Nvidia cards currently still on the same 5890 for the last couple of years.
I never had any driver problems recently, last time was like 2005ish? They improved greatly since then.
So I don't know what people are talking about.
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