What's the deal with these Nvidia cards?

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by larsbaby, Jul 13, 2011.

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  1. larsbaby

    larsbaby Guest

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    Having only ever owed one Nvidia card (8800gt)in all the years i've been building pc's I beginning to wonder if it's time I should try them again.

    How often do nvidia release new drivers? Is it monthly like to AMD or just random?

    How do they deal with SLI? Do they have caps like AMD or is the profile built into the drivers or something else?
    How do you feel about dual GPU like the 590/6990 over SLI/CFX?

    Can you use Afterburner/radeon pro with Nvidia cards or do they have something similar.

    I dont care about power consumption.
    Noise will not be an issue as I will water cool them.

    As you can tell I know ZERO about the modern Nvidia brand so am hoping you can give me some advice.

    Am currently using ATI5870 in CFX and there pretty good but with the next generation coming before the end of the year or maybe Q1 2012 I might be ready to jump ship.
     
  2. ESlik

    ESlik Guest

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    In my opinion,Nvidia is hands down the better Video card. Driver issues and SLI etc. are not any different than Radeon. There are all kinds of tools to download for overclocking etc .that do pretty much anything Radeon can do. I say Nvidia,all the way.
     
  3. Ieldra

    Ieldra Banned

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    From my experience nVidia driver releases tend to be more frequent and they solve most issues pretty fast, then again there are so many TWIMTBP games out there that are optimized for nVidia...
    I don't think there's any major differences though, aside from nVidia exclusive gimmicks like PhysX and 3D Surround etc.

    Just go for the best bang for the buck
     
  4. stone-eye

    stone-eye Guest

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    As someone who's used both through the years i'll say honestly there isnt much in it. ATI used to be worse at drivers but to be honest the only reason nvidia are seen as more constant now is that so many third party ones are leaked and modded or they have split their product brands out to quadro/tegra and they are then modded.

    In some aspects nvidia wins in others its AMD. Go based on individual products rather than some silly concept of brand loyalty team red/green bull.
     

  5. Corrupt^

    Corrupt^ Ancient Guru

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    Imo it's a bit down to preference, but generally you'll get a little less "hassles" with NVIDIA cards/drivers.
     
  6. crap daddy

    crap daddy Guest

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    Wait until next year when Kepler is out and then decide. Nvidia was always good to me that's why I don't want to experiment with the others. Can't say nothing about AMD, the last Ati card I had was a radeon 9600 AGP.
     
  7. TechnikL

    TechnikL Master Guru

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    They are both very good, the only real upgrade I see from what you have is the GTX580, even then if you just have one you might not see much of an improvement, (2 - 5870's keep up to the 580 pretty well) provided your crossfire is kicking in.

    If I were you I would wait for next gen. from both companys before you buy something new. Then it will be worth the effort and $.

    PS, only time will tell which is the better card at that time
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2011
  8. larsbaby

    larsbaby Guest

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    Thanks for all the info posted so far...and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by them.
    I was expecting plenty of love for Nvidia and lots of slamming of AMD but it's been very calm.
    The reason why I asked about how often Nvidia release drivers is because when back when I had an 8800gt and it took them like 3months to release updated drivers...From then on I've always had ATi/AMD.

    Why do Nvidia always appear so expensive...i.e. GTX580 £375 compared to HD6970 £260

    I know the GTX580 is the most powerful single GPU but is it worth the extra £100+

    Besides the extra speed what else are Nvidia giving me for my cash?
     
  9. crap daddy

    crap daddy Guest

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    Look at the GTX570. It's cheaper than the 6970 and on par/slightly better. So this expensive kind of legend is bull****. If you wanna brag that you have the most powerful GPU in the universe the cough up more bucks.
     
  10. davetheshrew

    davetheshrew Guest

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    had both many times now and gotta say from first hand experience Id now stick with nvidia, just a lot less hasstle, thing is Im happy with the perf this card gives, with my 6970 I was never happy and allways was waiting for beta drivers that more often than not were crap.
     

  11. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    How is nVidia releasing drivers more frequently? AMD releases new drivers monthly. nVidia can have upwards of 3 months between driver releases. In fact, over the last year...nVidia has released 7 WHQL drivers for the GTX460(5 still listed on their site). If you go by the drivers still listed for the card....they've only released 10 drivers in the last year, including betas. ATI/AMD released 12 drivers over the last year.
     
  12. angmar

    angmar Guest

    if you have crossfire 5870 I would def wait it out the couple more months for 28nm keplers then purchase. I think you will be much happier doing that. Not that there is anything wrong with the 500 series they are fantastic cards for sure. But with x-fire 5870s your not exactly hurting. If you were looking to make this purchase 6 months ago I would say go for it...but with keppler getting ever closer to release it would kinda be a shame now.
     
  13. larsbaby

    larsbaby Guest

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    So Nvidia haven't improved then since I had my 8800gt way back when.
    Some would argue that AMD have to release drivers every month as they are usually crap.
    Thing is I want to know that if there is a driver issue on a new game release I don't want to have to wait up to 12weeks for a possible fix. Its the one thing that put me off Nvidia in the past is that their paying customers don't always appear to be a priority.
     
  14. Brendruis

    Brendruis Maha Guru

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    If you're asking which has better drivers in my opinion it is nVidia. My main reasoning comes down to the design of the user interface. Whenever I have used CCC (the ATI control panel) in the past it as always seemed very flashy and colorful to draw attention but not as focused on utility and navigation. On the other hand, the newer nVidia set has a very clean and easy to use interface that doesn't clutter up the screen with logos and other BS. Maybe it's just me coming from an IT support and programming background.
     
  15. Corbus

    Corbus Ancient Guru

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    Nvidia always appeared in my eyes as the Greedy Company who wants to get as many followers as possible with their physx , optimised games, 3d surround etc ...they have a good marketing segment. And i say again they appear greedy in my eyes and yes sometimes they do seem like they don't give a crap about customers but only care about their money. But i must admit that they didnt fail me once, i mean i dont remember ever having any problems with their drivers , not any major problem at least , i don't care if they release a driver once every week or every 5 months as long as i don't have problems with the current drivers ...yes i had some performance problems with some newer games but after the games released Nvidia proptly responded with optimised drivers for that game. Other than that no probs at all.. Nvidia seems to have more initiative and be more ambitious than AMD , AMD just lets Nvidia have their way and then try to copy them. That's just my opinion.
     

  16. HeavyHemi

    HeavyHemi Guest

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    Wut? Nvidia still has 10 listed since Nov 2010 and another one coming out shortly. That's 8 months. Meaning more than one per month.
     
  17. TruMutton_200Hz

    TruMutton_200Hz Guest

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    This. The cheapest Radeon 6970 that I could find was 293 € and the cheapest GTX 570 that I could find was only 264 € so it's all in the mind... With Nvidia you still get better drivers like usual, overall better minimum fps like usual (which matters alot more than average fps does), PhysX and CUDA (admittedly, ATI has Stream but unlike with CUDA there are almost no apps that use it). I'm not an Nvidia fanboy but I wouldn't want to be an ATI fanboy even if you paid me to.
     
  18. TruMutton_200Hz

    TruMutton_200Hz Guest

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    Fixed.
     
  19. nexu

    nexu Maha Guru

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    I always look at the performances (min & average fps) of titles (or based on 3D-engines) I play a lot or intend to play a lot.
    Drivers wise, well both got good and bad releases. Tho SLI seem to be/and is more mature than Crossfire.

    But both got some really great competitive products going on with excellent price/performance ratio. Something that was different back in the 8800 days, where NVIDIA were highly overpriced due to lack of competition on the market.
     
  20. Deathspank

    Deathspank Guest

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    Nvidia are the best.
     

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