nvidia vs amd for skyrim differences?

[dragonslayer2k12]

I am thinking about buying an amd card in the next two months and selling off my gtx560ti 1gb vram card. I don't like amd and have always had problems with them since the late 90's and that has kept me away from amd. Every time I tried one of their products and I have tried many over the last 12 years it has always been the same problems of weird graphics anomalies and driver issues that sometimes led to BSOD regardless of what OS I was running. I am hopeful that the latest driver updates from amd will change all of that as they have stated they have fixed a lot of old problems aka z fighting issues and dx9 related problems.

 

So what is the routine for all of you current amd owners around here to run skyrim just as good as someone does with nvidia setup? For me and my current nvidia card I just have to use recent or latest drivers and it is no problem. But I have seen posts around here in the past where things like HUD elements don't show correctly like stamina bar doesn't change when running etc. Do the latest amd drivers work correctly with skyrim?

 

Why do I want an amd card?

 

The next generation of consoles looks to be ALL powered by amd, nvidia no longer has a lead in console and as pc gamers we are stuck waiting for console ports to pc because with the exception of crysis 3, there are no true pc games anymore so I am thinking that in the future next 10 years or so it would be better to own an amd card? Also the prices seem slightly cheaper for amd and should get cheaper after a while since they have announced they don't have anything new for pc coming out this year and currently neither does nvidia but nvidia has good reason to release new products since they are not in the consoles and have to keep up somehow. Their prices suck though and I can't see paying over $200 for an nvidia card this time around. The stock coolers on their current cards are terrible looking and probably work terrible too. At least XFX seem to have some decent looking coolers on their amd cards with two fans and the heatsink fins going the same direction. My case a raven 2 has three big ol 180mm fans on the bottom blowing straight up so cooling any card correctly will be no problem but I would think the arrangement of cooling fins all pointed towards the top of my case (back of the amd card) would work best for me.

[cyrus224]

As someone who has owned both, I have pretty strong opinions on them. The thing is you're going to find a lot of people who are going to be fanboys about either card, so its hard to get a real opinion.

 

I've owned both throughout the past 15 years or so. I build a lot of computers, and usually tend to talk people out of Nvidia now. I had a lot of problems with Nvidia, I had a lot of problems with drivers, and I loved how when I switched I got updates all the time, often on release of major games. My friend is a Nvidia Fanboy, and wont use ATI, but he has had nothing but issues. He stands by Nvidia being better even though we both bought cards of the same level at the same time, and he had at least 25% of his games that wouldn't even run without finding fixes. After years he has finally decided he was being stubborn and is going to switch.

 

Some people will go into Nvidia benefits with PhysX, but I havent really cared about it. I have no problems running it as software without the hardware aspect.

 

I also should point out that I have had no issues with Skyrim and my ATI card, at any point, even from day 1. Actually I don't recall a single game that I have had graphic issues with, and I own over 200 games on steam.

 

In the end, both cards are going to do well for you, no matter which way you go. A lot of it is going to just come down to personal preference.

[Aminados]

I owned and ati 4870x2 and that was the only one from ati, I really didnt like the card because games didnt just feel smooth with all the stuttering it had, they have crappy drivers too and by the looks of this benchmark ati gameplay is still choppy compared to nvidia

 

http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited/9

 

I HEARD somewhere that skyrim is prettier with a nvidia card then with ati/amd, as in graphics quality. As for ps4 having amd and all that, I'm also wondering whats going to happen next year but my guess is there´s going to be a jump in graphics for pc aswell so probably current card's are going to be pretty crap anyway and I really believe nvidia will not let us down.

[FiftyTifty]

@Aminados The reason for your issues for the crossfired 4870 cards is because they're in crossfire. And you probably weren't using the latest catalyst profiles.

 

Crappy drivers? How so? No worse than NVidia. And if you mean that the CCC is pish, there is always RadeonPro/Ati Tray Tools.

 

@OP My views and experiences are pretty much the same as cyrus'.

 

Anandtech has GPU benchmarks that you can use to compare selected NVidia and AMD GPUs.

 

@cyrus

 

Just nitpicking, but calling AMD by the name ATI is like calling NVidia 3dfx. Call 'em by dem real monickers!

Edited February 23, 2013 by FiftyTifty

[Aminados]

Yes x2 is in crossfire and I know crossfire/sli makes games more choppy but nvidia makes it less then "AMD" and the benchmark about micro-stuttering proves it and of course I allways had the latest drivers, actually I was always checking for newer one in hopes of fixing choppy gameplay but they never came and is still choppy today even with 60 fps..... but hey that was just my experiance and in case your wondering no i´m not an nvidia fanboy.

[FiftyTifty]

The 4000 series was never that good for crossfire. The issues have been lessening with each driver released, and with each series released as well.

[blove]

I have trouble placing any faith in a review that shows a 660Ti beating a 7950.

[Aminados]

The 4000 series was never that good for crossfire. The issues have been lessening with each driver released, and with each series released as well.

Yes meaby thats the case, however the benchmarks I see on smoothness, nvidia always wins single and dual gpu, but hey bench marks might be lying!

 

I have trouble placing any faith in a review that shows a 660Ti beating a 7950.

It's techreport, have faith. note the benchmark was done on windows 8 so fps might not be the real thing because of drivers (nvidia drivers are better).

Edited February 23, 2013 by Aminados

[blove]

Have you read that comment thread?

[Pevey]

About 6 months ago, I put the 2x6950s in Crossfire I had been using for a while in a build I made for my uncle and switched to 2x680s in SLI. No big difference, once I figured out how to tweak them. AMD and Nvidia each have their different quirks in terms of getting to the right settings.

I was using the 6950s at Skyrim's release, and it did take AMD quite a while to release a driver that made Crossfire play nice with Skyrim, whereas SLI worked much sooner. I think Skyrim looks a little better with Nvdia, but that is (1) very subjective and (2) specific to one particular game and subject to swing the other way with whatever game you're into next. Bottom line, if you buy a high quality card and keep your drivers up-to-date, you'll probably be fine either way, IMO. Go with the best deal you can find.