News AMD vs Nvidia: Who Makes the Best GPUs?

[Admin]

In the AMD vs Nvidia competition to make the fastest and most efficient GPUs possible, there can be only one winner. We look at performance, features, drivers, power and more in crowning the current champion.

AMD vs Nvidia: Who Makes the Best GPUs? : Read more

 

[mitch074]

For me, it's AMD all the way: they are the only ones with a serious product with open source support.

 

[DZIrl]

For me, it's AMD all the way: they are the only ones with a serious product with open source support.

Well, I wrote about my experience with AMD support before and now how it looks with NVIDIA: I had an issue and submitted a ticket. In a day or two quite large reply with steps what to try. So, completely opposite to AMD!
Also my AMD drivers experience (motherboard) is everything but satisfactory! There were several articles about it. On NVIDIA side "Geforce Experience" app allows me to switch between game and studio driver at run-time without rebooting, check for update and install them, etc.

On HW side as we see NVIDIA is faster but also, like Intel, more expensive. AMD still does not have Ray Tracing.
All this is very good cause like Intel NVIDIA will be forced to reduce price and they already did. A bit but did.

 

[bit_user]

For me, it's AMD all the way: they are the only ones with a serious product with open source support.

Yes, between those two, AMD is currently the only good open source citizen.

However, Intel also has open source drivers and makes many open source contributions. Furthermore, they're pretty much the last one still supporting OpenCL (which, before someone mentions it, is actually the foundation of their oneAPI stack).

 

[yeeeeman]

Drivers and Software is a tie???!???
Were you a bit drunk when you wrote this article?
Reddit, forums, youtube, the internet is basically full of people showing bluescreens, blackscreens, flickering and various other problems with the RX5700 series and you say this is a tie?
It is like you are comparing two cars, one with a flat tire and one not and say they are both ok....
Amd is pure crap on drivers. Software is more feature packed, I give you that, but everything is useless if drivers are so utterly crap and who knows, even the hardware has some unfixable bugs that are just patched in firmware/software.
So currently there is basically no discussion.
Cheap people buy AMD but then start to cry on reddit.
Smart people pay a bit more for an nvidia card and enjoy a quality experience.

On HW side as we see NVIDIA is faster but also, like Intel, more expensive. AMD still does not have Ray Tracing.
All this is very good cause like Intel NVIDIA will be forced to reduce price and they already did. A bit but did.

AMD cards are bought by people that want to cheap out and enjoy saving 20 bucks but then complain about the bad experience...

 

[spongiemaster]

For me, it's AMD all the way: they are the only ones with a serious product with open source support.

AMD has so much open source software support because they can't afford to fully develop the software to a polished product themselves so they dump it into open source and hope someone will do it for them. The company's history going back to their ATi days is littered with failed software features they promised on launch day that never were fully developed. AMD should open source their Windows drivers too. There's no way the community at large would produce drivers as consistently terrible as AMD has and take so long to fix known bugs.

 

[mrv_co]

I've been very happy with my PowerColor 5700 XT. I'm content to wait another generation for hardware (not to mention more games) at this price point that can actually run ray tracing at respectable frame rates without so much of a compromise on resolution and quality.

 

[mitch074]

AMD has so much open source software support because they can't afford to fully develop the software to a polished product themselves so they dump it into open source and hope someone will do it for them. The company's history going back to their ATi days is littered with failed software features they promised on launch day that never were fully developed. AMD should open source their Windows drivers too. There's no way the community at large would produce drivers as consistently terrible as AMD has and take so long to fix known bugs.

Oooh, butthurt much. I've been gaming on Linux since 2006 with both Nvidia and AMD cards, and right now, the biggest hurdle I had right after rebuilding my rig was, format and install the new system boot, install the very latest developer build for the Mesa drivers (just because, and a 60 Mb download that contains the very latest fixes for the very latest games is good), install Steam (3 clicks, login), install Doom Eternal and play it, I do mean the BIGGEST problem I had with that process was setting up a Bethesda account...
Said game just ran beautifully @1440p Ultra Nightmare on a reference RX480 8Gb.
Doing the same for Nvidia required me to enable proprietary drivers, download a compiler and a linker along with the kernel's symbols, determine which driver version was best for my card (because it's not the very latest model, see), wait for the 500 Mb download to finish, wait for the compilation to end, reboot, redefine my monitor's setup in Nvidia's proprietary tool and then hope it would work (which it doesn't always).

 

[nofanneeded]

Well had AMD bought Nvidia instead of ATI , we would have said AMD is the best lol. it is ATI team guys, bought and inseted in AMD.

 

[spongiemaster]

Oooh, butthurt much. I've been gaming on Linux since 2006 with both Nvidia and AMD cards, and right now, the biggest hurdle I had right after rebuilding my rig was, format and install the new system boot, install the very latest developer build for the Mesa drivers (just because, and a 60 Mb download that contains the very latest fixes for the very latest games is good), install Steam (3 clicks, login), install Doom Eternal and play it, I do mean the BIGGEST problem I had with that process was setting up a Bethesda account...
Said game just ran beautifully @1440p Ultra Nightmare on a reference RX480 8Gb.
Doing the same for Nvidia required me to enable proprietary drivers, download a compiler and a linker along with the kernel's symbols, determine which driver version was best for my card (because it's not the very latest model, see), wait for the 500 Mb download to finish, wait for the compilation to end, reboot, redefine my monitor's setup in Nvidia's proprietary tool and then hope it would work (which it doesn't always).

Congrats on your linux experience, I guess. None of this has anything to do with anything in my post.

 

[mitch074]

Congrats on your linux experience, I guess. None of this has anything to do with anything in my post.

No, it's just that it goes against your world view that AMD needs the community to run their graphics cards on Linux. It's not, it only allows them to have the best experience on Linux. On Windows Nvidia is king, on Linux not so much.

 

[AJNameS]

NVIDIA

 

[spongiemaster]

No, it's just that it goes against your world view that AMD needs the community to run their graphics cards on Linux. It's not, it only allows them to have the best experience on Linux. On Windows Nvidia is king, on Linux not so much.

Open source ≠ Linux

Open source software can be used on any OS. AMD does not open source their software for the exclusive benefit of Linux users.

 

[deesider]

No, it's just that it goes against your world view that AMD needs the community to run their graphics cards on Linux. It's not, it only allows them to have the best experience on Linux. On Windows Nvidia is king, on Linux not so much.

Not a lot of incentive to accommodate the 0.5% https://www.statista.com/statistics...ems-used-on-the-online-gaming-platform-steam/

 

[deesider]

Drivers and Software is a tie???!???
Were you a bit drunk when you wrote this article?
Reddit, forums, youtube, the internet is basically full of people showing bluescreens, blackscreens, flickering and various other problems with the RX5700 series and you say this is a tie?

AMD may have terrible drivers, but Nvidia has GeForce Experience, which is just as bad.
Nvidia does not provide GeForce Experience as a way of improving life for their customers - it exists solely to collect data for Nvidia. Everything in GeForce Experience could be provided in the base driver, but instead they lock away the extra features to coerce customers to install it. That alone justifies a tie for software between Nvidia and AMD.

 

[PapaCrazy]

AMD may have terrible drivers, but Nvidia has GeForce Experience, which is just as bad.
Nvidia does not provide GeForce Experience as a way of improving life for their customers - it exists solely to collect data for Nvidia. Everything in GeForce Experience could be provided in the base driver, but instead they lock away the extra features to coerce customers to install it. That alone justifies a tie for software between Nvidia and AMD.

You either put up with AMD's free love ineptitude or Nvidia's "we own you" competence. Some people can't stand the idea of instability or incompatibility, and other people can't stand the idea of being controlled. Pick your poison.

 

[mitch074]

Not a lot of incentive to accommodate the 0.5% https://www.statista.com/statistics...ems-used-on-the-online-gaming-platform-steam/

0.89 % as of april (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Survey-April-2020) it doesn't make it any less true.

 

[Herbrecht]

I completely disagree with all the conclusions of this "article".
First of all, Nvidia's RTX is completely lacking support. A total failure. Hundreds of titles flamboyantly promised at launch have completely disappeared. Only a handful of games supported it, with debatable success and insane impact on performance. Thus, it's clear RTX can't be defined a feature at all. I would define it more like a flaw.
DLSS? 1? 2? 3? Whatever. A very pompous name for yet another upscaling and sharpening technology. Nothing to see here.
DLSS to help RTX? Oh, yes, why not? So RTX can achieve some decency in performance. Now, I wonder: what if only DLSS is used? Far better performance than have RTX activated. Once again, RTX is just a failure.
Wanna discuss prices? Ok. At current prices (and associated performance) the AMD's RX 5700 XT destroys the even more expensive RTX 2060 S and performs almost like the over 100$ more expensive RTX 2070 S and RTX 2080, making all of those three cards a mockery. The RX 5600 XT annihilates the GTX 1660 family of cards, no point of discussion here. The RX 5500 XT crushes the GTX 1650 Series, with only the RTX 1650 S putting up some kind of fight. But the 5500 can be found with 8GB, the 1650 is not so lucky.
Price/performance ratio? It's simply a slaughterhouse: Nvidia can't compete at all.
All in all, Nvidia has an edge over AMD only where AMD doesn't have any cards: in the 800$ and above price bracket. Everything else is just AMD superior value.
Thus the "just buy it" approach is just a plain scam for the users.
I only hope people can read this and think about it, before spending their hard-earned bucks. If they do! Because the next generation is getting close, and with gaming consoles performing like a 2000$ PC at a humiliating 400$ price everything is in discussion. Also, next AMD cards (which equip the new consoles) have all the features that Nvidia so miserably failed to implement in the PC gaming industry. The GPU market is on hold, currently.
"Just DON'T buy it", save money, and decide next year. If you must buy now, go AMD, hands down.

 

[Herbrecht]

On a side note, Nvidia's founder, Jensen Huang, is a former AMD employee.
For your knowledge about the past of the two companies.

 

[Herbrecht]

Drivers and Software is a tie???!???
Were you a bit drunk when you wrote this article?
Reddit, forums, youtube, the internet is basically full of people showing bluescreens, blackscreens, flickering and various other problems with the RX5700 series and you say this is a tie?
It is like you are comparing two cars, one with a flat tire and one not and say they are both ok....
Amd is pure crap on drivers. Software is more feature packed, I give you that, but everything is useless if drivers are so utterly crap and who knows, even the hardware has some unfixable bugs that are just patched in firmware/software.
So currently there is basically no discussion.
Cheap people buy AMD but then start to cry on reddit.
Smart people pay a bit more for an nvidia card and enjoy a quality experience.


AMD cards are bought by people that want to cheap out and enjoy saving 20 bucks but then complain about the bad experience...

Funny enough, all the major tech-media clearly stated that they had no issues at all on a daily usage experience. Thus, I would gladly assume that all the complaints are made by people unable to run a PC system, or completely fake. What I've found REALLY strange, is that all those complaints popped when the RX 5600 XT has been released (the card that literally destroys all the mainstream market), while the RX 5700 XT has been on the market for almost a year with no particular complaints floating around. Exceptionally timed, I'd say... But with no tinfoil hats worn, third-party agencies made their researches and published them, resulting in AMD having far better drivers than Nvidia. Search it on Google and satisfy your appetite for actual knowledge from professionals, not from fanboys crying over the forums.

 

[larkspur]

I completely disagree with all the conclusions of this "article".

1. Gaming performance. AMD currently has nothing even close to the RTX 2080ti. Nothing wrong with giving NVidia the crown here.
2. Power comsumption. Again, less performance per watt from AMD. That's just the way it is right now. Do I care? No, but it is true.
3. Featured Technology. RT is featured in a few games. AMD still doesn't have it. Since AMD-powered new consoles will have the ability to use it, it appears that it will catch on. While I wouldn't buy a first-gen RT card, it is something that NVidia has and AMD currently doesn't. Pretty clear win for Nvidia there.
4. Drivers and software. Jarred calls it a tie. Fair enough. In my experience AMD and Nvidia have been comparable, but I definitely hear more about glitchy drivers from people with AMD cards. I haven't experienced this with my RX 580 but the newest driver release notes from AMD continue to state mysterious black screens with RX 5xxx cards as a known issue. I think a tie is fair enough.
5. Value proposition. As you point out, price to performance is a pretty convincing AMD win. Certainly not a "slaughterhouse" but convincing enough. That's what Jarred wrote.

So why do you "completely disagree with all the conclusions of this article"? The only point that you argue against in your post is the featured technology. I guess you think it should be a tie? But there are games that use the RT cores. There are games that use the tensor cores... AMD currently has released zero hardware that can run RT in those games. AND the industry has signaled that RT is going to be a thing - even the new consoles will support it.

 

[King_V]

Yet, I'm that weird outlier where I've had issues with Nvidia, and not AMD/ATI (not even the driver issues with Navi).

In fact, I've had MORE issues with Nvidia vs AMD, despite having had far fewer Nvidia cards. Hardware failures, specifically, though with one card on one particular motherboard, I did have quite a lot of what appeared to be (based on the logs) driver-based reboot/crashes. Yes, I am only one case.

(Yes, including my GTX 1080 which has recently been replaced under warranty with a refurb, and which, oddly, seems on initial brief testing to have the same issues as my original card - a card which worked flawlessly for two years).

Yet, the moment I read this article, I immediately thought "Yeah, going to have a lot of screaming about how AMD drivers are way worse."

 

[Herbrecht]

1. Gaming performance. AMD currently has nothing even close to the RTX 2080ti. Nothing wrong with giving NVidia the crown here.
2. Power comsumption. Again, less performance per watt from AMD. That's just the way it is right now. Do I care? No, but it is true.
3. Featured Technology. RT is featured in a few games. AMD still doesn't have it. Since AMD-powered new consoles will have the ability to use it, it appears that it will catch on. While I wouldn't buy a first-gen RT card, it is something that NVidia has and AMD currently doesn't. Pretty clear win for Nvidia there.
4. Drivers and software. Jarred calls it a tie. Fair enough. In my experience AMD and Nvidia have been comparable, but I definitely hear more about glitchy drivers from people with AMD cards. I haven't experienced this with my RX 580 but the newest driver release notes from AMD continue to state mysterious black screens with RX 5xxx cards as a known issue. I think a tie is fair enough.
5. Value proposition. As you point out, price to performance is a pretty convincing AMD win. Certainly not a "slaughterhouse" but convincing enough. That's what Jarred wrote.

So why do you "completely disagree with all the conclusions of this article"? The only point that you argue against in your post is the featured technology. I guess you think it should be a tie? But there are games that use the RT cores. There are games that use the tensor cores... AMD currently has released zero hardware that can run RT in those games. AND the industry has signaled that RT is going to be a thing - even the new consoles will support it.

1. Is that difficult to compare apples to apples? Or you have some disfunctional understanding?

2. Energetic efficiency is almost equal. RDNA2 will be even more efficient.

3. Nvidia's RT is just an aborted tech rushed out to achieved it before AMD, with Microsoft and Sony, could launch it on consoles, it's quite obvious.

4. Independent third party agencies did their job, and the outcome is well know, and I believe them far more than your opinion.

5. AMD's value is a complete massacre of Nvidia's offer, not just "a slight margin".

Final consideration: it is AMD that will bring RT to the gaming industry, with consoles. Nvidia tried, and failed. This is also pretty obvious.

For your delight:

View: https://youtu.be/oCPufeQmFJk

 

[spongiemaster]

Thus, I would gladly assume that all the complaints are made by people unable to run a PC system, or completely fake.

So you think AMD users report more problems because they are dumber? That should go over well with the AMD faithful... I don't buy that argument. If you haven't seen any review sites acknowledge AMD's driver issues, then you have never spent a moment on youtube. Most of the major review sites have had videos about AMD's drivers within the past 6 months. From Anandtech's 5700 XT review (pre 5600XT):

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier in my testing observations, the state of AMD's OpenCL driver stack at launch is quite poor. Most of our compute benchmarks either failed to have their OpenCL kernels compile, triggered a Windows Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR), or would just crash. As a result, only three of our regular benchmarks were executable here, with Folding@Home, parts of CompuBench, and Blender all getting whammied.

Drivers and software. Jarred calls it a tie. Fair enough. In my experience AMD and Nvidia have been comparable, but I definitely hear more about glitchy drivers from people with AMD cards.

And remember that Nvidia has about 75% market share for the dGPU market. If you're hearing more complaints about a company selling 1/3 the number of cards as the competition, that indicates a dramatically higher percentage of users experiencing problems.

 

[Herbrecht]

So you think AMD users report more problems because they are dumber? That should go over well with the AMD faithful... I don't buy that argument. If you haven't seen any review sites acknowledge AMD's driver issues, then you have never spent a moment on youtube. Most of the major review sites have had videos about AMD's drivers within the past 6 months. From Anandtech's 5700 XT review (pre 5600XT):







And remember that Nvidia has about 75% market share for the dGPU market. If you're hearing more complaints about a company selling 1/3 the number of cards as the competition, that indicates a dramatically higher percentage of users experiencing problems.

I've heard some rumors about Anandtech loyalism to Nvidia's cause...
I've watched a video from Hardware Unboxed, in which Steve made very clear statements about that, citing Paul's Hardware and Bit Wit too.
Sounds very much like a timed smearing campaign to me.

"I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi".

PS: I also believe your marketshare infos come directly from Steam. Change your sources.