I can't comment on a lot specifically, obviously but just wait to see some real world performance numbers before anything. Benchmarks are nice and all but let's face it AMD cards are generally speaking a LOT more inconsistent. For example when I build 10-20 AMD Workstations and Bench/Tune/QA (Overclock) the GPU's I find that some perform great, some perform not so great with a great margin of performance across the sample set.
When I do the same with Nvidia GPU's (Not a LOT of Maxwell Experience ATM but from speaking to my guys in the business Maxwell is even better than Kepler here), the Nvidia GPU's are for whatever reason much more consistent across the sample set and across the board they are usually better performers due to Nvidia's Software Dev team being much larger, more organized, better staffed, and most of all, because of the very large budget their team gets in comparison to AMD.
Now, with that being said I will say this and you will hear me preach this until I am out of breath:
Nvidia GPU's are far, far, far more reliable. This might get better with the new generation from AMD but I am not at all holding my breath and the guys I work with are not either. You will always get in my opinion far more VALUE out of Nvidia Cards. Period. Now again, I have been building and assembling systems for quite some time and while I am not the smartest guy out there, or even on here, [looks over at
@RussianJ with some admiration], I do have experience.
Why do I feel that AMD GPU's do NOT deliver the "VALUE" that Nvidia GPU's do even though a lot of benchmarks show that FRAMES-PER-DOLLAR wise AMD is as good or better than their counterpart? Well because of several reasons actually.
1. That thing we talked about. AMD Cards fail a lot more often. No one with any real experience in OEM System Configuration is going to dispute that. [In general Workstation and Heavy Gaming conditions is really all I can speak on as that is where my vast majority of my experience lies]. This means what? Well, for Workstation / SMB Segment it means that your business loses money. And that is never acceptable. Which is why the vast majority of that segment chooses to spend more upfront on a product that is reliable.
Now for us Gamers it does not mean the end of the world but know that I will never suggest an AMD GPU to a friend or customer or family member because there is nothing worse than gearing up for a big raid or a large Org push into occupied Corporation Territory and your GPU dies or has issues leaving you to watch your TESTBROS experience the epic and awesome battles from a Twitch Stream on your Laptop or whatever. I consider this to be a big factor in determining VALUE.
Yes, this is old data but it reflects my experience and the same experience of the guys I work with in the industry. Maxwell in my experience is just as good if not better than 7XX series. I could be wrong though, and it could be a little worse, that is the margin of error I am using.
2. AMD as a company is more difficult to work with, offers sub-par product support both in and out of the channel. I suspect this is due to their budget constraints and cutting corners in their R & D and Engineering to keep costs down as low as they are while having a very limited support department. It's a double-wammy.
3. Marketing. AMD hypes the hell out of their stuff and spend more money on Marketing and stuff in comparison to actual dev and support costs. This means that even though you are paying less and getting "more FPS", you are really paying for more marketing. They don't eat that cost. Ever. It's cost that is added into the price. AMD needs to make up on volume for their thin margins I suspect and honestly I feel from talking to a lot of the people involved that is comes down to a "Hey Apple does it why can't we" mentality. Now that should be slowly changing, or we are hearing it will at least. But still, you're not Apple dudes. So just stop.
4. Driver/Software Dev Team. Yeah it's a really bad team in my opinion. Sorry if you are reading this but you know me I call it how I see it. But yeah, this creates quite a few problems for me but as I have dropped AMD for the most part from every company I am involved in it really isn't an issue any longer. Maybe someday they will get their act together here but not really holding my breath. Meanwhile, Nvidia's team is CRUSHING it with their huge team, giant budget, superior training and recruiting techniques. I don't business that well [Looks admirably at
@Commander Kip ] but I do know that is a great business model. Except, and please excuse my digression here, but when you do this and you absolutely WRECK the competition to the point of them filing for bankruptcy and closing you are now left alone in the industry. This means one thing in America. Anti-trust bitches. So yeah, this is going to be interesting to see how it all plays out and I am betting Nvidia will "let" AMD get a little more marketshare or use some awesome business tactics to actually keep them afloat so that Nvidia is never split up by the feds.
5. RWP vs SBTR: So I have a background in racing and I know many of you don't but this is the best analogy I can come up with. So in racing I don't give a shit about the Dyno Data. I mean, it is crucial and all but the only thing I am focused on and care about is the ET. The time it takes the chassis to get down the road. The pros and winners are the guys who spend the time dialing in the traction, power to weight, gearing, and power all together to make the car go down the track quicker. I have seen many people and had many customers who thought that just by having "THE MOST HORSEPOWER POSSIBLE!" they would win. Only to have someone like myself who spent most of the time dialing in EVERYTHING to get down the track faster, than cranking up the boost or something, and doing it all again until race day, and then beating the all power guy down the track. I gots trophys to prove it.
Now, what the frakk does this have to do with GPU's you say? Well, it has to do with Real World Performance versus Synthetic Benchmarks results. We are all here for one thing, the best Real World Gaming Performance. There are a lot of factors in having the best gaming experience possible. To me I am only concerned with consistent frames per second for that buttery smooth FPS, no tearing, stuttering/jitters, dropped frames, artifacts, etc. And Nvidia has AMD beat here in my experience because of all their features that they offer and because of the fact that you can feel pretty confident that when you get an Nvidia GPU you are getting the best GPU that you can get that will get you that Real World Performance. You get what you pay folks. Benchmarks and small sample reviews are nice for baselines and general data usage but I only care about HOW GOOD IS MY GAMING EXPERIENCE GOING TO BE. A lot of people don't mind stuff like weird colors, tearing, stuttering, lower FPS dips, etc. Perhaps I am just spoiled but I really like it when the overall game is really nice. PhysX, Gsync, Higher-end Drivers, Etc all play a part in this and so that is why I suggest Nvidia.
So in closing I will just add that when someone asks me about an AMD build, and now different vendors do matter for sure, but I advise the end user to consider taking the same amount of money they would spend on an AMD build and spending it on an Intel/Nvidia build (Yes, I know we are talking GPU's here, it's the same with Chipsets too IMHO), in order to get a better experience.
TL;DR: If you have a budget and you want the best gaming experience overall, which is "value" to me, you would be best suited to spend that money on the best Nvidia GPU you could get.
You get what you pay for. At least in this business.
Okay tear me to shreds now AMD lovers :p
