Should We Use AMD or Nvidia When Choosing a Graphics Card?

The graphics card war between AMD and Nvidia is escalating day by day. The graphics cards produced by both brands are actually most beneficial for gamers. Due to the competition between AMD and Nvidia, not only the variety of graphics cards increases, but also both companies try to pursue a competitive pricing policy as much as possible. So, who is the winner in the battle of giants? Let’s take a look together at whether we should prefer AMD or Nvidia for our graphics card choice when building a system.

According to Steam, players prefer Nvidia

Digital game platform Steam, as it does every year, has shared its player reports for the first half of this year. According to the report released by Steam, the preference of players using the platform is Nvidia. Indeed, according to the published report, among the most used graphics cards, AMD graphics cards have not even made it to the top 10.

According to Steam’s statement, the top 10 most used Nvidia graphics cards are as follows:

AMD or Nvidia?

Before choosing between AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, you need to decide what you will use the graphics card for. Whether it’s for 3D modeling, work, or gaming, you need to determine this first. This is because AMD prioritizes VRAM in its graphics cards, while Nvidia prioritizes bandwidth in its cards. For 3D designs, VRAM is much more important.

The Difference Between AMD and Nvidia Graphics Cards

There are various differences between AMD and Nvidia graphics cards in terms of both software and hardware, as well as in terms of heating.

• Interface difference: While AMD provides users with a dedicated interface where they can perform detailed operations, Nvidia allows this to be done through the control panel. Although both companies offer technical freedom to users, the fact that AMD’s application is proprietary gives it a slight edge.
• Difference in image quality: While we could say that AMD has a slight edge due to its proprietary application, unfortunately, it falls short compared to Nvidia in terms of image quality adjustments. Nvidia, leveraging the foundation of Windows, allows users to make many intricate adjustments regarding image quality on the graphics card.
• Performance and game settings: AMD provides gamers with the FRTC (Frame Rate Target Control) technology, allowing them to adjust in-game frame rates. However, Nvidia’s G-SYNC technology offers much finer adjustments.
• Hardware differences: As mentioned earlier, Nvidia tends to be more generous in terms of VRAM, while AMD is more conservative in this regard. According to Nvidia, bit rate is much more important than VRAM.
• Ray Tracing: Ray tracing teknolojisi yani ışın izleme teknolojisi, oyun sektöründe deyim yerindeyse devrim etkisi yarattı. Bu konuda ciddi yatırımlar yapan Nvidia, RTX ekran kartları modellerinde bu teknolojiyi başarıyla kullanıcılarına sunuyor.

AMD Graphics Cards and Their Advantages

One of the reasons AMD is highly preferred is its emphasis on VRAM, as I mentioned. The company’s new generation graphics cards, such as the Radeon RX 6000 series, can offer 4K resolution with their supported VRAM capacity.

Advantages of AMD Graphics Cards:

• Price-performance ratio: AMD prefers to release its graphics cards at much more affordable prices compared to its competitor Nvidia. The gamer-friendly company manages to take a step ahead in terms of price and performance.
• High resolution support: AMD has consistently managed to stay one step ahead of its competitor Nvidia in terms of high-resolution support.
• FreeSync technology: Developed by AMD as a counterpart to Nvidia’s G-SYNC technology, FreeSync aims to reduce delays, screen tearing, and input lag between the monitor and the graphics card.

Advantages of Nvidia Graphics Cards

Nvidia is actually the sole company in the graphics card sector. Although its rival is AMD, AMD’s main focus is on producing processors. Competing with Intel in the processor market, AMD also competes with Nvidia in the graphics card market. So, according to some experts, while AMD has mastered processors, Nvidia has excelled in graphics cards. If you approach it with the logic of everyone sticking to what they know best, Nvidia will stand out in this regard.

Advantages of Nvidia Graphics Cards:

• Ray Tracing: As mentioned above, Nvidia’s revolutionary technology, Ray Tracing, significantly distinguishes the brand in the gaming industry.
• Optimization: Although not as supportive in terms of interface as AMD, Nvidia excels in screen card optimization. With its application called GeForce Experience, it can optimize screen cards for specific games.
• NVENC Encoding: Nvidia is one of the companies that first recognized gaming and content streaming. With the growth of platforms like Twitch and YouTube, gaming broadcasting and content creation have become significant industries. Nvidia’s NVENC technology in its graphics cards makes the job much easier for content creators. Thanks to NVENC, the quality and speed of video and image processing increase significantly.