3 ms·

I'm not saying that AMD's current cards are slouches (I'm planning to buy one myself this year when I build my next computer) but they certainly do not meet the

I'm not saying that AMD's current cards are slouches (I'm planning to buy one myself this year when I build my next computer) but they certainly do not meet the performance bar set by Nvidia's current high-end models (the RTX 2080 Ti and Titan RTX) which is what I mean by "properly high-end". Those are admittedly niche products due to their high pricing but it is important for AMD to have a competitive product in that segment since many people don't do a lot of research and if all they know about GPUs is "Nvidia has the fastest cards" (or an equally-uninformed salesperson tells them that) and buys a 1060 over a 580 based on that "knowledge" then AMD lost a sale.

craftyguy 8y ago
> they certainly do not meet the performance bar set by Nvidia's current high-end models Assuming you can't tell the difference between, say, 100fps and 150fps, isn't the 'performance bar' a bit arbitrary after a certain point if the hardware runs the vast majority of the software thrown at it?
- MrRadar 8y ago
  Objectively you are correct. However, as the rest of my comment indicates there are important marketing and brand-value perception reasons to have a true high-end card: how many professional gamers (streamers, e-sports, extreme overclockers, etc.) who do buy this class of GPU are there playing with AMD cards vs Nvidia cards? How many (tens/hundreds of) millions of views do they collectively get playing games with Nvidia hardware? Nvidia has likely gotten millions of dollars in effectively free marketing just for having these cards. AMD's GPU market share has been shrinking with the general gaming audience despite the fact that their mid-range cards have been very price-competitive with Nvidia's offerings during the same time period they've lacked serious competition at the high-end. While focusing on the mid-range where the highest volume of GPUs are sold is the rational market strategy it may not be a winning market strategy in the real world.

craftyguy 8y ago

> they certainly do not meet the performance bar set by Nvidia's current high-end models Assuming you can't tell the difference between, say, 100fps and 150fps, isn't the 'performance bar' a bit arbitrary after a certain point if the hardware runs the vast majority of the software thrown at it?

MrRadar 8y ago
Objectively you are correct. However, as the rest of my comment indicates there are important marketing and brand-value perception reasons to have a true high-end card: how many professional gamers (streamers, e-sports, extreme overclockers, etc.) who do buy this class of GPU are there playing with AMD cards vs Nvidia cards? How many (tens/hundreds of) millions of views do they collectively get playing games with Nvidia hardware? Nvidia has likely gotten millions of dollars in effectively free marketing just for having these cards. AMD's GPU market share has been shrinking with the general gaming audience despite the fact that their mid-range cards have been very price-competitive with Nvidia's offerings during the same time period they've lacked serious competition at the high-end. While focusing on the mid-range where the highest volume of GPUs are sold is the rational market strategy it may not be a winning market strategy in the real world.