AMD V NVIDIA

Maverick wrote on 2/4/2013, 3:48 AM
Can't think why but ever since I built my first PC many moons again based on an AMD processor I have always bought AMD graphics cards. Perhaps someone back then convinced me of better compatibility or some other reason.

My current CPU is AMD FX-6100 and graphics is AMD 6700 series. GPU acceleration shows up whenever I do an upgrade to the driver but the second time I run Pro 12 it disappears again.

So, was wondering whether I should swap to a GTX 570 which has favourable reviews here and elsewhere. But, are NVIDIA card just as useful in an AMD motherboard or would there be issues?

Cheers.

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/4/2013, 10:38 AM
Motherboard will have very little to do with it most likely.

However, from reading the forums, GPU acceleration support is spotty for many and isn't worth it for some.

For the price of that card, I'd say look in to upgrading your CPU instead. Could make more of a difference.
ingeborgdot wrote on 2/4/2013, 12:51 PM
I have better luck with a good processor. I have a Xeon E3- 1245 and it rocks compared to a Nvidia 570 GPU processing. I have not had good luck with gpu processing. I have had a better experience with a 7870 than my current 570 and will soon be getting rid of the 570 and getting another 7870 or a 7950.
SuperG wrote on 2/7/2013, 9:26 AM
I think the Nvidia 500 series is the last to use the original fermi architecture and last to work well with OpenCL. AMD should, you'd think, continue to work well with OpenCL out to their latest models.
VidMus wrote on 2/7/2013, 12:11 PM
"I think the Nvidia 500 series is the last to use the original fermi architecture and last to work well with OpenCL."

I just did a quick research and I noticed that drivers higher than 296.10 include windows 8 and the 600 series of cards.

296.10 stops at Windows 7 and the 500 series.

Could it be that the reason why drivers higher than 296.10 work poorly and/or at least not as well with Vegas 12 is because they no longer support OpenCl very well?

With driver 296.10 and Vegas 12 I can have any amount of ram set for the preview and it will work just fine. On any later driver if I set the ram for more than zero Vegas will preview poorly and stop at random times while rendering. Ram at zero with the later drivers while it works is slow compared to what I get with driver 296.10.

I also noticed that without a higher number driver that my 560Ti is not recognized in Vegas 12 with Windows 8. The only option with driver 296.10 is 'off'.

So maybe Nvidia is quietly dumping support for OpenCl as well as being totally focused on games and forgetting us NLE users?

Maybe they do not like something that supports their products as well as AMD's products.

I always had doubts about OpenCL because I doubt very much if Nvidia and AMD would play nice together with it.

How much of what I am saying is speculation, I do not know but when one thinks about the heavy competition between NVidia and AMD as well as the focus on games I would not be a bit surprised.

Looks like that unless one uses an extremely overpriced Quadro card, GPU use is game over in the future! At least for NVidia.

I am now back to Windows 7 and the 296.10 driver and it looks like I will stay there until my 560ti dies.

A side note: In spite of being certified Windows 8 compatible, the version of BIOS on my new MSI MB is not compatble with Windows 8. That is why I had a difficult time with how it worked with my data drives and why USB 3 did not work. I will not flash the BIOS for the sake of Windows 8!

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com/ccm
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/7/2013, 12:57 PM
So maybe Nvidia is quietly dumping support for OpenCl as well as being totally focused on games and forgetting us NLE users?

Nvidia quietly dumping a stranded feature while their competition isn't? Oh noooooooo.... They'd NEVER do that and they've never done that before.....

;)


(first major GPU maker to dump pre-DX9 support was..... Nvidia! Took ATI years later to do that & only on later cards. Nvidia disabled it on all their drivers+cards they were supporting).

But you could be right.
pilsburypie wrote on 2/7/2013, 2:00 PM
Not too sure about your CPU or what you would have to get to beat it, but from my limited first hand experience with my Intel i7 3770k @4.4Ghz and GTX570 GPU, the GPU only adds a little to things like render time. From my tests about 15%.

SuperG wrote on 2/7/2013, 5:19 PM
I recall reading somewhere on the net that Nvidia was dumping certain features in their Kepler (600 series) vs their Fermi design in order to save money and put more focus in the features used specifically by games. This hosed-up some primary features used by OpenCL.


Here a start:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-12.html

Here's the take-away:

"Finally, Nvidia's Kepler-based cards exhibit a stronger showing. But again, it's the company's previous-gen architecture that comes out on top."

-- noting that only in the last test did the GTX660 show a good result, but it still was worse than the previous generation.