If you had used a gaming computer before, you must have heard of the GeForce or a ATI Radeon Graphics cards installed in your machine to power the video processing. In fact the reality is that both of these 3D cards represents two hardware giants namely Nvidia and AMD, who are dominating the desktop, notebook, workstation as well as mobile industry for video rendering. Yes that’s right they manufacture the GPUs or “Graphics Processing Units” which are mandatory hardware for powering your gaming computer.
No matter which modern card you choose, you will be able to run games such as Crysis 3. Battlefield 3, Batman AA and AC, Mirrors Edge, Call of Duty 4, Borderlands 2, Mafia 2 but the performance level will differ from card to card. Also the OpenCL frameworks strengthening their roots in the upcoming cards so we expect a total new generation of graphic cards in future. Some of the top card contributors powering their cards with GPUs from AMD and Nvidia includes: Sapphire, EVGA, MSI, ASUS. Let’s discuss strengths and weaknesses to find out the good and bad points of both of these card manufacturers. This article does not cover specific card models nor the technology perspectives instead compares on the basis of general opinion of gamers about both the companies.
Nvidia: Desktop/notebook graphics card technology GeForce
- Expensive Cards: GeForce Graphics cards are relatively higher in price in comparison to ATI Radeon.
- Built For 3D Performance: These are built for large scale 3d environments where you need more 3d details on reliable large resolutions.
- Better GPU controller: Each Nvidia card comes with a powerful hardware inspector that provides an in-depth analysis of the GPU but better control to tweak the hardware to achieve better performance.
- Better Driver/Hardware Support: One of the coolest part about Nvidia is reliable hardware support and no complain drivers with automatic periodic driver updates. This fact attract large number of consumers who seek peace of mind without worrying of the cost involved.
AMD: Desktop/notebook graphics card technology Radeon
- Affordable/ Budget Friendly: AMD is famous all over the world for producing low cost hardware for budget minded gamers. This is true for graphics displays, processors as well as motherboards and has been an ideal option for building cheap gaming computer.
- Better Dual Monitor Performance: In terms of running games with multiple displays, AMD provides a reliable performance.
- Driver/Graphics Problems: Probably the only down side of ATI Radeon cards is their buggy drivers which gives issues from time to time.
- Better Overclocking Options: AMD cards are popular for being providing better band for the buck. One reason is their extreme tweaking for better clockspeeds which makes them a good option for your gaming PC.
