Are AMD GPUs "discriminated" against by developers?

[TJ Hooker]

@renz496 ah, good point. Looks like Tom's also has some benchmarks comparing AotS async compute on/off and there's only ~10% increase in performance with async compute on with a Fury X.

 

[17seconds]

You'll be able to run your games, but you won't be able to run any of the Nvidia specific features. Of course GPU PhysX will no longer be an option (weapon debris effects in Fallout 4, for example). But then also several antialiasing options (MFAA, TXAA, FXAA, TrSSA), anisotropic filtering options (HBAO+, which can be forced on in many games that don't support it, Skyrim was a notable example), and VSync options (Adaptive VSync, Fast Sync).

Do you mean forcing FXAA at a driver level? Because I can turn on FXAA in games no problem with my R9 380. Also, HBAO+ is an ambient occlusion option, not anisotropic filtering.

Yeah, thanks for catching that, edited. And yes, while some games incorporate some of the Nvidia-developed settings, Nvidia users can force them through the Nvidia Control Panel on many games that don't support it natively.

Bottom line, the choice between AMD or Nvidia goes beyond a simplistic price-performance equation. There are graphics settings, driver support, game support, and software extras that should also be factored in. I can't tell you how many threads I've seen where someone with an AMD card was wondering how to enable GPU accelerated PhysX. Answer: this probably should have been factored into your purchasing decision.

 

[17seconds]

Hello everyone,

I would really like to purchase a Rx 480, but first I want to make sure that I will not face any backlash for my decision to go red. I have memories of people telling me that certain games ran worse for AMD cards for no real reason. That is, they had specs that would suggest maybe 60fps at 1080p, but they could only really achieve 45fps at 1080p. I would hate to buy a card and find myself unable to play certain AAA titles because developers got money from nVidia to optimize their games better for team green. This is NOT an AMD vs. Nvidia post...

In answer to your original question, yes, certain games and game developers may favor one brand over the other. Since Nvidia has ~80% of the desktop discreet GPU market, more often games and developers tend to focus on their hardware.

AMD has 24 games they feature in their "Gaming Evolved" program.
http://www.amd.com/en-us/markets/game/featured

Nvidia has 37 pages of games they feature in their program.
http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games?title=&sort_bef_combine=%20&sort_order=&sort_by=

TechGage is the only review website that I have seen that actually calls out whether the games used in their reviews favor AMD, Nvidia, or Neutral.
http://techgage.com/article/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-review-a-look-at-4k-ultra-wide-gaming/

 

[Mousemonkey]

@sleepybp, watch your language.

 

[dminzi]

I want to say thank you to everyone who has commented so far. Reading all of this has been both overwhelming and educating. From what I understand, going with AMD will decrease the customizability of a lot of my games and get rid of certain featured gfx settings from Nvidia. I plan on completing my build at the end of July so if Nvidia has released a GTX 1060 that outperforms the RX 480 at that price point I will go down that path. I will likely end up changing my mind a lot before I buy anything anyway. Here are my current possible builds if anyone cares to see. I am already on my tenth revision

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/DDshqk
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/nqtJVY
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/WWxYr7

 

[renz496]

This is my opinion but i don't think that just because nvidia have 80% market share on pc that developer prefer nvidia hardware when developing their games. If anything developer want their games to work on every hardware even on intel IGP. on pc i think it is more about how hardware vendor reach to game developer instead. This is where nvidia excel at. Part of it because nvidia have the resource to reach to developer even if their games are not triple A stuff. If follow nvidia and amd news for years you should be aware by now that amd focus mostly on triple A stuff only. Remember when nvidia promotion offering free in game credit and stuff for free to play games with their x50 line up? On the surface people take it as lame offering compared to AMD never settle triple A bundle back then. But think again. This MMO and MOBA players. What are they? They are PC gamers! Square Enix usually partnered with AMD with triple A games but i was surprise when SE actually doing promotion with Nvidia instead on FF A realm reborn. This mark the partnership between SE and nvidia and i think this might also that leads to the rise of tomb raider slips into nvidia hands when the first reboot actually was under gaming evolve banner. I think RTG are quite aware of this problem. So they try to expand their influence towards MMO gamer. Hence they are doing partnership with monster hunter online. Though with amd limited resource things won't be easy for RTG.