AMD vs Nvidia: GPU wars 2013

[pam]

Advanced Desktop Computing is at its sweetest point right now.
Performance has never been an issue...getting the right price has.
Most gamers and users wont even consider things like power saving features and the maximum power draw..
Today only one thing matters: Max power consumption of a GPU.
Refined 28nm manufacturing process by Major foundries across the planet( primarily Global Foundries and TSMC(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) are the new age 'corporate' giants and celebrities who stay away from the world of mainstream advertisement are the shot callers for major IP(intellectual Property) consultants.
Global Foundries is funded by a bigger giant ATIC(Advanced Technology Investment Company) and again ATIC's parent company is Mubadala Development Company-- A UAE based firm. Ofcourse making microchips requires investment and resources (Not cash) with a higher purpose and value. Access to oil farms across the arab world allows for the effect to occur. Unlike any mainstream industry the spectrum of requirements for microchips is beyond imagination.

There are other major manufacturers also in our solar system..Intel, Samsung etc.

So 28 nm process is really special compared to the older 40 nm for GPU's. It allows for extremely low power consumption and heating of the core.

Even more than performance is that the flagship highest-end cards of a few years ago with power requirements and excess heat dissipation becomes laughable when you consider the extremely low power requirements and negligent heat produced by new mid-range cards based on 28 nm process which also hand in hand provide the same performance of those older cards!

Couple this with performance levels being chewed up by every new generation you get a faster card at a cheap rate and power consumption next to nothing.... at least by today's standards.

Both AMD and Nvidia have a come a long way since the last 4 years.
AMD's major selling cards are: 7850, 7770, 7750, 7950, 7870.......all these cards are priced as per performance.

Nvidia' major selling cards are: GTX 650Ti, GTX 660, GTX 660ti, GTX 670 and older GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570......leaving aside the 500 series the 600 series prices are strategically managed.

Be aware prices come down slowly but surely within a 12 month span and beyond and upto nearly 30% for the major cards...the gtx 570 is a much older card but is cheaper than the gtx 660ti and this card(660ti) performs nearly equal to or in some cases better than a gtx 580.

Practically Nvidia cards before the 600 series were notorious for power consumption and get hotter.
Eg: The GTX 560 ti is an excellent performer even today for major game titles but the power consumption is more than what the card delivers. Its gets pretty hot too but is taken care by partners who advertise very well and deliver too.

AMD GPU's power consumption has always been neutral and never bad, but they got pretty hot especially the 6000 series.
Eg: The Radeon 6790 draws less power on load and more power usage when idling. But on moderate work-loads the power-consumption is 2 to 3 times more which means it consumes on average more power than a gtx 580 and nearly half of it on full load.
The Radeon 6850 and 6870 are no different.

And yes its written all over the electric bill.

All 6870 and 560 ti owners have a warrant to upgrade their cards for reasons like these.

The gtx 660 ti and Radeon 7870 are in a different league alltogether. As one would put both AMD and Nvidia have got their "s**t" together.

Now it all boils down to price: How rich are you...NO ....Its always how poor are you??
The poorer you are the more strategically you gauge and check the benchmarks of what suits you best and how much you want to 'break' your budget.

AMD pros and cons:
pros: very low power consumption on low, medium and high workloads,
very little heating,
driver stability:INVALID,
SLI driver stability:INVALID,
perfect for linux.

cons: prices for now,
No FreeBSD support.

Nvidia pros and cons:
pros: very low power consumption on low, medium and high workloads,
very little heating,
driver stability:INVALID,
Crossfire driver stability:INVALID,
perfect for linux.
Good FreeBSD support

cons: prices for now.


VERDICT: AMD vs Nvidia ---- For 2013, I leave it to you the buyer. They have both come up(in a million ways). If you want to save money wait till the prices for the 660ti and 7870 drops. If you require CUDA and 'like' phys X then you can buy Nvidia.
People after using AMD for years get fed up and buy Nvidia and vice versa....well that's the trend now.