Nvidia has become one of the 10 most valuable companies in the world in just a few months, crowning what started with the crypto boom. But while Nvidia is marketing products and technologies for the future, as a gamer I have given up – for now.
I’ve always thought that brand loyalty is a silly thing, especially when it comes to technology. A product should be tested for its suitability, depending on the intended use. A graphics card, for example, is evaluated on factors such as performance, energy efficiency, performance, and cost.
The company that makes the product should also be included in the decision if it can be committed to society or produce products that are environmentally friendly, for example.
Now, no one can say that Nvidia makes bad graphics cards. In fact, the company has implemented many features in recent years: G-Sync, ray tracing, DLSS, and Reflex, to name a few. Especially in the top division, Team Green is brutal Price of RTX4090 he has no enemy. And yet, as soon as I found myself due for a PC upgrade, I chose an AMD graphics card.
Although my GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has served me well for many years, I recently switched to an RX 6950 XT from AMD. Here are my personal reasons for doing so.
Also read: Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti vs. RTX 3060 Ti vs. AMD 6700 XT
The trap of new technologies
In the last few years, Nvidia introduced some new technology and finally (for now) won the competition against AMD. With ray tracing, Nvidia has established an art that will be with us for some time to come and in which Team Green is a pioneer. DLSS upgrade technology is still ahead of AMD and Intel in other ways.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that these innovations are not really compatible – and this is a problem for consumers. For example, they say Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), whose latest version of 3 including frame creation is compatible with 40 modern Nvidia cards.
So if you bought a 20- or 30-series card in the past years, maybe because of a lot of money because of the prices of graphics cards of the last few years, now you are already looking at the bottom of the tube.
There is a technical reason why these new technologies do not work on older cards. However, as a consumer I don’t like the feeling when a valuable product is sent to the old department by the manufacturer after a few years. Especially since there is another way, as AMD shows.
While Nvidia has some good arguments on its side from a technology perspective, AMD has not taken any action in recent years – and is following a very different path. AMD makes its proprietary technologies available to as many users as possible. One example of this is FreeSync, which, unlike G-Sync, works with larger monitors that are often cheaper than those with G-Sync certification.
It becomes clear when comparing FSR and DLSS. Although AMD’s technology is compatible even with competing graphics cards from Nvidia and Intel, Nvidia does not often exclude GPUs from its home when it comes to new applications. For example, DLSS only works when using an RTX GPU, older GTX models are left out in the cold, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation works with current RTX 40 graphics cards. AMD relies on industry standards and open solutions, while Nvidia uses its own solutions.
It seemed like Nvidia was bringing new products to the market without addressing the needs of existing customers. Team Red may be a little behind in terms of modern technologies, but it relies on open technologies and should not hide in important areas such as rasterization and memory.
And although ray tracing is now used in more and more games, without ray tracing you can play any game, but without rasterization you can’t play any game—except for a few path-tracing ones.
AMD focuses on the essentials
Although Nvidia, and thanks to the company’s transition to AI technology, is the most successful driver, AMD has been focusing on fundamentals in recent years. A bright example is the built-in video memory, which is becoming more important for high resolution and detail.
Recently, Nvidia has also shown with the RTX 4060 that the company does not do well in the compromise between the use of new technologies and a strong configuration. Powerful ray tracing and DLSS 3 are not really useful if the 8GB video memory is not enough for modern full HD games. Especially since all of these technologies are increasing memory requirements.
AMD also does not have these flaws, as Radeon RX 7600 with 8 GB of RAM it also shows, but usually has a good memory configuration, especially between midrange and high class. An illustrative example of this is Price of RX7900 XTXwhich not only has more video memory, but is also cheaper than its Nvidia counterpart, the Price of RTX4080. And even when it comes to rasterization performance, AMD cards are often equal or even ahead of Nvidia at the same price.
Good price-performance ratio
If we leave the RTX 4090 aside for a moment (at a starting price of $ 1,600 it is not important for my purchasing decisions), you will find AMD equal to any Nvidia card in terms of memory devices and performance. And in most cases, the AMD card will be cheaper.
Of course, if you value ray tracing and prefer DLSS to AMD’s FSR, this question doesn’t arise. Because in this area Nvidia can’t be beaten right now, and that’s why the company can also make its prices very high.
AMD, on the other hand, deserves and wants to prove it with old arguments, which are strong, some available technologies, and enough memory at an attractive price (compared to the competition). And if, like me, these points are important to you, then you should consider Team Red for your next PC upgrade.
Also read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti vs. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
AMD Software Adrenalin Edition vs. Nvidia GeForce Experience
But not only the hardware, but also the software should be involved in the purchase decision.
As a long-time user of Nvidia graphics card, it still doesn’t make sense to me why the manufacturer can’t combine all the functions in one program. If I want to change the monitor or refresh, activate G-Sync or use Dynamic Super Resolution, I have to do this in the Nvidia control panel, which, by the way, still looks the same as it did 20 years ago.
AMD
If, on the other hand, a driver update needs to be done, the game is automatically edited or the game is recorded or played via ShadowPlay, then GeForce Experience is necessary. As an old hand, I now know where to find settings, but for newcomers it’s useless if you have to click two apps until you find what you want. Additionally, using GeForce Experience requires a user account.
With AMD, on the other hand, the AMD Adrenalin Edition software can be installed along with the driver. There is no need to log in and all services can be conveniently accessed in one app.
Editor’s note: This article was translated from German to English, and first appeared on pcwelt.de.