2014-02-08 09:19

*This is a rant, and a long one at that*



I'm so tired of hearing about AMD sucks this and NVIDIA blows that. All the fanboys in these forums are getting annoying. AMD fanboys think AMD is the second coming and NVIDIA is the devil. NVIDIA fanboys think AMD is the guy that buys his parts from that shady Asian (sorry that's stereotyping, but we all know a Indian/Chinese store that sells name brand electronics at like half the price) and NVIDIA is the guys that builds his GPU in a hermetically sealed lab. The truth is both companies cut corners.



AMD - corner cutting:

The new R9 sereis (not the 290/x) make use of old re branded cards, however they are taking short cuts in the production of new cards and use cheaper components. I'm not saying these cards are cheaply made, but they have cut costs to reduce the price of these GPU's. I've heard of 3 RMA's in the last 2 months. It might also be due to the sheer volume of R9 280x cards that have been sold. (I was so close to buying the Saphire R9 280x Toxic - that card is hot! But then it sold out in like a week)



NVIDIA - corner cutting:

RAM, always RAM. Why did they use a 192bit bus on the GTX660ti (my GPU). Seriously! Also you need to buy a top of the line GPU to get a 384bit bus where AMD has this pretty much standard with all their GPUs. People are gaming at 1080p and higher and a 256bit bus is bare minimum. Thats why AMD GPU's bench so much better with high AA titles. Same goes for the 2GB memory. 99% of the time 2GB is adequate but on high ensd GPU's this is a slap in the face.



Then we get to price. AMD is not the good guy when it comes to price! When the 7000 series was released they were crazy expensive! NVIDIA released their 600 series at a lower cost and at the time they monstered the 7000 series by AMD (A good driver update by AMD put their GPU's back in the running, was it beta 12.1?). Whoever releases their new series first charges more. AMD and NVIDIA do it. I will give it to AMD they are quick to cut prices, where as NVIDIA take their time.



Next we move on to the software. And this is where I laugh at the AMD fanboys. Firstly FreeSync. AMD has no intention of ever releasing this software. It was simply a tech demo to prove they can do something similar to G-Sync(which I will get to in a second). Then we move on to mantle. I am disappointed that AMD and NVIDIA didn't work on this together. As a low end pc owner myself mantle is exactly what I needed. My poor i5 2400 is struggling in its old age. AMD said NVIDIA was more than welcome to use this new API, but of coarse the API doesn't support their architecture so that's like iStore giving out free iPhone chargers to Samsung owners. (In case you don't get that, Samsung and iPhone use different connectors for their charges - side note I heard apple might ditch their connector? ). I'm bot yet convinced mantle will last, it'll be too much effort for developers to produce games that support two API's especially since the PC market is the least lucrative.



Now G-Sync. WTF was Nvidia thinking? Let's release a device that can connect to (high end) monitors to replace vsync and reduce the amount of stutter when a computer dips below 60fps and charge $200 for it. Oh and you'll void your warranty if you choose to install it. G-Sync is exactly what I need for my low end system once again. My game dips below 60 fps at times and it does stutter because of vsync, but of coarse I would need to go out and spend $200 on the chip and another couple of hundred on a screen that supports it. With hat cash I could replace my GPU/CPU and then I wont have FPS dips and I won't need G-Sync. Redundant technology at that price as if you can afford to spend that much money, chances are you have a killer pc. ShadowPlay is nice though, thank you NVIDIA.



In closing you should never show loyalty to a company. Their one and only goal is to make as much cash of you as possible. If NVIDIA went out of business amd would over charge you like no one has ever overcharged you before. Same goes for NVIDIA. Competition leads to better products at lower prices for us.



*Special mention goes to AMD and their Never Settle bundles. I liked that initiative!

Knowledge is something not often displayed on these forums.