Things Nvidia Needs to Fix

[Julio Franco]

The third and final installment in our 'Needs to Fix' series is focused on Nvidia. Having previously discussed what we feel Intel and AMD can do with their upcoming products to become more consumer friendly, it's now time to look at the green team. As before, we're looking at this from the perspective of the consumer, at the product level.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1653-things-nvidia-needs-to-fix/

 

[dj2017]

Many low end models are also misleading and in much worst ways than the 3GB GTX 1060. But users usually give the OK to Nvidia, because, you know, low end cards are for poor people, so we don't care. The tech press also doesn't care.

The GT 730 for example, sells with 64bit or 128bit data bus, with DDR3 or GDDR5 memory, with Fermi or Kepler cores. And it is advertised as a 700 series model, when the Fermi versions have questionable DX12 support.

Also another thing with low end DDR3 models is that Nvidia always posts the bandwidth you get by using 1800MHz memory. But it puts zero restrictions to it's partners, who most of them use memory with speed lower than that, usually memory with speed as low as 1066MHz, up to 1600MHz, rarely 1800MHz.

I know, cheap cards, poor cards, we don't care. Well, if all those years consumers and press was hitting Nvidia as hard as they used to hit AMD, maybe we wouldn't have seen that 3GB GTX 1060 or that GTX 970. So, enjoy it. Don't ask Nvidia to fix it. Just enjoy it, because AMD is focusing on CPUs only for the next 12-24 moths, which means Nvidia will have the absolute monopoly.

 

[MarkHughes]

Final one ? I'll be if you used this same premise on software companies you could get a few dozen more articles out

 

[Mike Gray]

Something I'd add to the G-Sync problem:
G-Sync doesn't just limit Nvidia users to more expensive gaming monitors - it actually limits us to FAR fewer adaptive rate monitors with fewer cutting edge features, PARTICULARLY in the high end area. Let's say you saved all your pennies and sprung for that sweet 1080 Ti. Looking for a curved 4k monitor with G-Sync to go with it? Good luck! How about a 4k 30-35 inch monitor with G-Sync? There's ONE ASUS model - and it's 3 years old, and hard as heck to find. Oh - and you wanted HDR with that? Sorry, no.
This has created a truly weird situation: As of summer 2018, if you want a really good card, you have to buy Nvidia - and make do with lesser monitors. If you want a really good monitor, you have to buy a Freesnyc monitor - and make do with an AMD card that can't really drive it.
Sure - first world problems. But it's still weird, and I don't understand Nvidia's thinking at all. Do they make so much money on G-Sync modules that they figure they should convince buyers to choose AMD?

 

[dj2017]

Do they make so much money on G-Sync modules that they figure they should convince buyers to choose AMD?

Nvidia wants to be the premium brand, meaning to offer features that the competition can't. Nvidia also wants to keep it's customers as loyal as possible, meaning not making it easier for them to jump ship.

In the past it was doing it with PhysX. With PhysX, they chose to lock it, giving customers one more reason to not chose an AMD card over an Nvidia one. Moving to AMD, meant losing certain effects in games. And in the PhysX case they could make money selling low-mid range GeForce cards to customers owning hi end AMD cards. But for them it was more important to have steady, loyal customers.
Now with G-Sync they try to barricade their customers inside the Nvidia ecosystem with those ultra expensive GSync monitors. If AMD was coming out with a great hi end card - probably they will not for the next 12-24 months, owners of expensive GSync monitors would have one more reason to stay with the Geforce brand. If they where using Freesync monitors, going AMD would have been a simple choice. Having to sell your GSync monitor and then trying to find a Freesync would complicate things. Just remember that when AMD realized that Vega would not be enough, they throw the Freesync parameter in the equation to make the cards look better than the Geforce cards. Nvidia is forcing GSync to it's customers, to keep them loyal.

 

[Michael Baker]

I guess my problem with Founder's Edition cards is, why would a partner release a cheaper card, especially when they are usually adding more features and better cooling to the mix? If people are willing to pay more for a FE card, they should be willing to pay the same for a card with more goodies. Which makes MSRPs meaningless.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Thank you for this article. What we are seeing here is the love of money - customers be damned. You would think that artificial influx of money from mining would have changed their ways. Maybe nvidia has turned into a fire dragon from the north?
Unfortunately AMD's video card drivers are so buggy that I just can't justify buying from them any more. I've been burned by 8+ years of trusting their brand. I guess I will just keep to my 1080p monitor and 980 card... I'm more of a casual gamer now. /shrug

 

[Azshadi]

Something I'd add to the G-Sync problem:
G-Sync doesn't just limit Nvidia users to more expensive gaming monitors - it actually limits us to FAR fewer adaptive rate monitors with fewer cutting edge features, PARTICULARLY in the high end area. Let's say you saved all your pennies and sprung for that sweet 1080 Ti. Looking for a curved 4k monitor with G-Sync to go with it? Good luck! How about a 4k 30-35 inch monitor with G-Sync? There's ONE ASUS model - and it's 3 years old, and hard as heck to find. Oh - and you wanted HDR with that? Sorry, no.
This has created a truly weird situation: As of summer 2018, if you want a really good card, you have to buy Nvidia - and make do with lesser monitors. If you want a really good monitor, you have to buy a Freesnyc monitor - and make do with an AMD card that can't really drive it.
Sure - first world problems. But it's still weird, and I don't understand Nvidia's thinking at all. Do they make so much money on G-Sync modules that they figure they should convince buyers to choose AMD?

Neither G-Sync or FreeSync are a "must have" for a good rig. I agree that the price is what throws everyone off, but at the other side you see FreeSync on $150 china panels. IMHO AMD should start charing and put a tighter control on this stuff as it's outrageous to have 2 identical monitors perform differently while under FreeSync effect thus throwing the whole segment into a "draw-of-luck" type of scenario. Personally I currently own a G-Sync panel that set me back quite a lot but if I change it, neither G-Sync or FreeSync would be a deciding factor. Just my 2 cents. With everything else I totally agree and I would like to thank Steve for a very nice read .

 

[McMurdeR]

Hear hear. I've given Nvidia a fair wack of money over the years. They do make the best gpu products, but unfortunately they also treat their loyal customers with contempt. They've done well, but they don't deserve it.

I would jump ship if I could. I'd be secretly smug if Intel takes a nice chunk out of their discrete market share.

 

[wiyosaya]

I read that the 11 series consumer cards will not have double-precision compute anymore. If that is the case, I'm done with nVidia.

 

[Jules Mark]

Thank you for this article. What we are seeing here is the love of money - customers be damned. You would think that artificial influx of money from mining would have changed their ways. Maybe nvidia has turned into a fire dragon from the north?
Unfortunately AMD's video card drivers are so buggy that I just can't justify buying from them any more. I've been burned by 8+ years of trusting their brand. I guess I will just keep to my 1080p monitor and 980 card... I'm more of a casual gamer now. /shrug

Sept 2017. Got my Vega 56@780 CAD with a FreeSync 47Hz-95Hz Crossover 3412UM 34" 3440x1440 AH-IPS Ultra-Wide Monitor @800CAD. I've under-volt and OC my Vega 56 pass Vega 64's specs. ZERO problem what so ever.
I did mined crypto for 3 months and encounter some issues with AMD drivers. But other than that, it's been smooth sailing. StarWars BF2, Prey, Wolfenstein, all smooth! There are TONS of good Korean gaming monitors now, most with freeSync support.

 

[Abraka]

What you described in GameWorks was something I was always claiming about Nvidia. I'm a computer programmer. I knew they will do that. But everyone called it a "theory of conspiracy" when I said it. I'm glad it was finally confirmed. Like most of the "theories of conspiracy" I smelled, this one turned out true too. It's easy once you know how the top management thinks.

 

[Dimitrios]

Really tired of people talking about AMD drivers for their GPU's. Those issues were pre 7000 series. I owned a 7790 2GB and RX560 4GB and with the 7790 every driver I got I was getting a lot of extra performance and we all know AMD's 7000 series GPU's aged very very well maybe because they were used in gaming consoles. My power supply went out and I had to buy a video card during the mining craze. I bought the RX560 4GB with the extra power connector since these cards are tuned very low because most were running power off your motherboard. I spent $140 and months later it went to almost $200! I have drivers that are like 3-5 months old and no issues right now. I have it overclocked pretty high and no issues. The AMD driver issue is a myth and been hearing more issues with Nvidia on Facebook last 2-3 months.

 

[NightAntilli]

Unsurprisingly, nVidia has the longest list of things to fix.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Really tired of people talking about AMD drivers for their GPU's. Those issues were pre 7000 series. I owned a 7790 2GB and RX560 4GB and with the 7790 every driver I got I was getting a lot of extra performance and we all know AMD's 7000 series GPU's aged very very well maybe because they were used in gaming consoles. My power supply went out and I had to buy a video card during the mining craze. I bought the RX560 4GB with the extra power connector since these cards are tuned very low because most were running power off your motherboard. I spent $140 and months later it went to almost $200! I have drivers that are like 3-5 months old and no issues right now. I have it overclocked pretty high and no issues. The AMD driver issue is a myth and been hearing more issues with Nvidia on Facebook last 2-3 months.

You are tired of us voicing our frustrations? Excuse us that you have never had a problem and you think we should remain silent because you are an AMD fanboi. My 7950 had ongoing HDMI audio stuttering issues. "Myth" lmao... AMD is flawless? SMH. It was (still is?) a very known problem that AMD refused(s) to release a fix for. Congrats on you finding nvidia has "more issues lately". I have not, but I'm not about to troll the nvidia posts for them to shut up. Good grief.

 

[slamscaper]

I think Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang showed us what he is ALL ABOUT during the press conference in Taipei earlier this year. His statement that quote "next-gen gaming GPUs are a long way off" was nothing but an attempt to get people to buy current gen hardware since Nvidia was left with a HUGE surplus being that they made a big mistake calculating the demand of miners.

Jensen Huang saw a big problem that would affect his company's bottom line negatively, so he decided simply to lie to us all in order to entice anyone that was waiting for the new cards to simply drop their cash on a current model instead. I suspected he was lying all along, but I hoped it was for other "not so dubious" reasons, like perhaps just trying to surprise everyone. I admit that was naive to think, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Things came into focus for me once I found out how much extra stock they had in regards to Pascal. The current leaks showing that Nvidia already has a million next-gen Turing GPUs available right now confirms he was talking smoke that whole time.

His tactic didn't work and now the company is going to have to completely eat his words and release the new cards soon, because they also need to get rid of all those new cards they have in stock. I suspect we are going to see Nvidia themselves jacking up the price well beyond their usual MSRP in order to make up for all this inventory they are getting stuck with.

So another thing they definitely need to fix are shady practices like this. I won't ever trust anything Jensen Huang says again regarding an Nvidia launch, or really anything for that matter. He's shown that he's all about the bottom line and isn't afraid to make it known.

 

[DAOWAce]

Intel and NVIDIA are the scumbags of the PC hardware industry in modern times.

Such a shame that we're forced to continue buying their products if we want the best experiences possible.

 

[Dimitrios]

You are tired of us voicing our frustrations? Excuse us that you have never had a problem and you think we should remain silent because you are an AMD fanboi. My 7950 had ongoing HDMI audio stuttering issues. "Myth" lmao... AMD is flawless? SMH. It was (still is?) a very known problem that AMD refused(s) to release a fix for. Congrats on you finding nvidia has "more issues lately". I have not, but I'm not about to troll the nvidia posts for them to shut up. Good grief.

Here I thought of you when this came into the spotlight. Just wanna rub it in.
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/th...s-amd-drivers-are-the-most-stable-gamers.html

 

[ShagnWagn]

Here I thought of you when this came into the spotlight. Just wanna rub it in.
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/th...s-amd-drivers-are-the-most-stable-gamers.html

I feel honored you thought of me , but when I referred to "buggy" and "stuttering", I meant ongoing root issues. Reproducible and reoccurring problems - daily. Not crashing and errors, I.e. stability. This report is only talking about stability.

The report also says "today", when I am referring to over a DECADE of prior problems. Perhaps in the last year or so they have cleaned up their act? I'm wondering if they have yet to fix the constant problems and bugs I had every day.

"QA Consultants release a new report"... Notice that in the link you provided there is no such report? Notice they listed which AMD drivers and cards they used, but failed to mention the nvidia side? Notice they also only put the AMD logo on that article and not the nvidia one? I smell some bias.

I'm not defending nvidia, and I'm not a fanboi. I'm just sharing my personal experience. For the record, I have yet to have a single problem nor glitch with my 980. I am not using it all that much for gaming though, which is not a fair comparison to my previous years. The problems I had with AMD were not always game related - core operating system issues, such as significant audio stuttering on the desktop with HDMI audio.

You are trying to "rub it in" healthy skin... nice try.

 

[Dimitrios]

I feel honored you thought of me , but when I referred to "buggy" and "stuttering", I meant ongoing root issues. Reproducible and reoccurring problems - daily. Not crashing and errors, I.e. stability. This report is only talking about stability.

The report also says "today", when I am referring to over a DECADE of prior problems. Perhaps in the last year or so they have cleaned up their act? I'm wondering if they have yet to fix the constant problems and bugs I had every day.

"QA Consultants release a new report"... Notice that in the link you provided there is no such report? Notice they listed which AMD drivers and cards they used, but failed to mention the nvidia side? Notice they also only put the AMD logo on that article and not the nvidia one? I smell some bias.

I'm not defending nvidia, and I'm not a fanboi. I'm just sharing my personal experience. For the record, I have yet to have a single problem nor glitch with my 980. I am not using it all that much for gaming though, which is not a fair comparison to my previous years. The problems I had with AMD were not always game related - core operating system issues, such as significant audio stuttering on the desktop with HDMI audio.

You are trying to "rub it in" healthy skin... nice try.

Ha ha good response. It's all cool.