No, I’m not asking which one of these two is the better brand. Technically, I am allowing you to pick sides of AMD vs Nvidia. The answer should be clear-cut to all gaming fans, and have their hearts set on getting the best gaming experience on their favorite platforms.
Both Nvidia and AMD are high-quality companies that have been significant investments and could make great investments in the future.
I believe that Nvidia’s current market position and future growth potential are slightly better than AMD’s and that these differences are likely more significant than their current valuation gap.
However, it’s a close call considering that AMD currently seems to have more momentum, and I believe both companies can be suitable long-term investments.
To decide which chip is better, I must first look at its specs, features, and price. I’ll compare the values and features of both Nvidia and AMD’s latest GPUs to help you decide which company’s cards will best fit your needs.
An Overview of AMD’s Technology
Advanced Micro Devices is a big name in computing. AMD, founded in 1969 in California, has, through a succession of mergers and sales, become what it is today.
Instead of manufacturing its own goods, AMD began by improving existing microprocessors and other products. Through growth and acquisition, AMD is a prominent producer of CPU technology for desktop computers, servers, GPU graphics technology, HPC and AI processors, FPGA processors, and network accelerators.
AMD’s main rival is Intel. The founders of both firms worked at Fairchild Semiconductor. AMD expects $26 billion in 2023 sales. The 2006 purchase of ATI Technologies was notable.
This became AMD’s GPU division. In the previous decade, AMD has struggled against rivals. Its FX line of CPUs and GPUs couldn’t compete with Intel’s offerings. However, With Ryzen CPUs, AMD has made a significant comeback in recent years. With 7nm RDNA-based Radeon GPUs, AMD is back on pace.
An Overview of Nvidia Technologies
Nvidia is the pioneer of the successful graphic processing unit and the global leader in visual computing (GPU). In the 1990s, NVIDIA appeared to compete with ATI and 3DFX.
A cloud gaming service called Nvidia GeForce Now broadcasts video games from distant servers to compatible hardware like Google Stadia, Xbox Game Pass, Shadow, or PlayStation Now.
When you reverse all mouse (or controller) codes, you get 1440p 120fps gaming footage. You can reach the nearest data center out of the more than 20 that are used worldwide.
Games are run on the best Nvidia graphics cards (RTX) depending on your membership plan so that they will look fantastic on your end. Neither GeForce Now nor its curated library sell games.
To play games you already possess or will purchase, it instead connects to your Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, or Uplay online accounts.
Many game publishers restrict GeForce Now usage, but thousands do not. Before AMD took control, NVIDIA revolutionized the computer graphics industry and dominated ATI. Many gamers prefer NVIDIA’s GeForce GPUs.
Do you need to use them? Who argued against the competition?
Let’s examine AMD vs NVIDIA GPUs’ prices, performance, features, and other aspects.
AMD vs Nvidia: Pricing And Availability
Who has more excellent value, AMD vs Nvidia GPU? The last two years were a joke, not a hilarious one, but things have improved. Many of the current graphics cards are at or below MSRP at retail.
AMD GPUs are used in many PCs that sell for or below MSRP, with only the expensive RTX 3080 Ti and higher selling for or below MSRP.
AMD’s RX 6600, RX 6600 XT, RX 6650 XT, RX 6700 XT, and RX 6750 XT offer the best FPS per dollar. Nvidia’s RTX 3060, 3050, and 3060 Ti aren’t terrible, but you pay 15–25% more per FPS (and get DLSS for that money).
At $1,800, the RTX 3090 Ti is the worst bargain, offering marginally higher performance than the RTX 3080 Ti. AMD’s RX 6950 XT costs less and competes well with the 3080 Ti, but as prices go down, AMD gains ground.
The RX 6600 has 0.23 fps per dollar spent. The RTX 2060 from Nvidia’s previous generation Turing RTX 20-series earns 0.196 FPS/$, whereas the best RTX 30-series part only scores 0.176 FPS/$. AMD’s RX 6500 XT likewise offers 0.176 FPS/$.
AMD vs Nvidia: Exclusivity And Features
Ray tracing is now supported by both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. Both support adaptive sync technology (with NVIDIA doing so with its G-Sync tech, whilst AMD does so with its FreeSync tech).
NVIDIA, on the other hand, is consistently the superior brand, even though both of its competitors provide many of the same technology as standard features. Even without DLSS, for instance, NVIDIA’s ray tracing performance is much higher than AMD’s. DLSS is not used unless it is DLLS’s own.
When it comes to adaptive sync, the quality of NVIDIA’s G-Sync is often higher, and it offers superior latency than AMD’s FreeSync. NVIDIA is also in the lead when it comes to the process of video encoding and decoding.
The Ampere codec allows for higher-quality encodes while reducing their CPU time. NVIDIA graphics cards should be considered if you place a high level of importance on the features of a GPU.
AMD vs Nvidia: Gaming Performance
It is challenging to compare the gaming performance of AMD and Nvidia due to the wide variety of available graphic cards. A few themes do, however, stick out. AMD and Nvidia produce similar video cards.
The RX 6800 XT, RX 6900 XT, and RX 6950XT are the best cards from AMD, while the RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, 3090, and 3090 Ti are the best from Nvidia. These cards can support 4K at 60 FPS or higher in most PC games. AMD’s RX 6950 XT and Nvidia’s RTX 3090 Ti received 8/10 from IGN.
The top-tier cards from AMD and Nvidia are identical. Performance in the middle is competitive. Nvidia RTX 3070 is the top graphics card, according to IGN. RX 6700 XT from AMD delays. AMD’s Radeon RX 6500 XT dominates the entry-level market.
Despite not being as quick as many had anticipated, the RX 6500 XT can perform better than the GTX 1650. Budget Nvidia cards fight back if you have more money to spend.
RTX 2060, RTX 3050, GTX 1650 Super, GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Ti, and Radeon RX 580 and RX 5600 XT are used by AMD. Budget cards from Nvidia are easier to find and have a better value than those from AMD.
AMD vs Nvidia: Power Consumption And Efficiency
Nvidia dominated GPU power efficiency before Navi. Using Navi and Big Navi, AMD was able to improve its efficiency. To close the gap, Navi utilized new architecture and 7nm FinFET processors from TSMC.
Even a 50% improvement couldn’t make up for how far behind it was. While AMD’s Big Navi’s Infinity Cache increases efficiency, Nvidia’s Ampere architecture pushed higher clocks at the expense of performance. Big Navi and Ampere are tied.
| GPU Name | V-RAM | Base Clock | Power Consumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| RX 6950 XT | 16GB GDDR6 | 1890 MHz | 335W |
| RTX 3090 Ti | 24GB GDDR6X | 1560 MHz | 450W |
| RX 6900 XT | 16GB GDDR6 | 1825 MHz | 300W |
| RTX 3090 | 24GB GDDR6X | 1395 MHz | 350W |
| RX 6800 XT | 16GB GDDR6 | 1825 MHz | 300W |
| RTX 3080 | 10GB GDDR6X | 1440 MHz | 320W |
| RTX 3080 (12GB) | 12GB GDDR6X | 1260 MHz | 350W |
| RTX 3080 Ti | 12GB GDDR6X | 1365 MHz | 350W |
| RX 6700 XT | 12GB GDDR6 | 2321 MHz | 230W |
| RTX 3070 | 8GB GDDR6 | 1500 MHz | 220W |
| RX 6600 | 8GB GDDR6 | 1626 MHz | 132W |
| RX 6600 XT | 8GB GDDR6 | 1968 MHz | 160W |
| RTX 3060 | 12GB GDDR6 | 1320 MHz | 170W |
| RTX 3060 Ti | 8GB GDDR6 | 1410 MHz | 200W |
| RTX 3050 (8GB) | 8GB GDDR6 | 1552 MHz | 130W |
| RX 6400 | 4GB GDDR6 | 1923 MHz | 53W |
| RX 6500 XT | 4GB GDDR6 | 2310 MHz | 107W |
| GTX 1650 | 4GB GDDR5 | 1485 MHz | 75W |
I measured GPU power use on all current and recent graphics cards from both brands using Powenetics hardware. Third-party cards have also been tried, but I’ll only use reference designs in the charts. The most recent hardware uses less electricity than earlier Nvidia GPUs.
An RX 6950 XT uses the highest power, RTX 3080 12GB (custom card), RTX 3090, 3080 Ti, and 3080. The AMD RX 6900 XT and 6800 XT GPUs come next. It’s more challenging to declare a victory away from the extremes.
AMD’s RX 6700 XT uses a little more energy than the RTX 3060 Ti but less than the RTX 3070. The RX 6600 XT and RX 6600 both require electricity, as do the RTX 3060 and 3050 (8GB). RX 6400 is the only GPU in use today without a PCIe 6-pin power connector, even though RX 6500 XT needs more power than GTX 1650.
AMD vs Nvidia: Ray-Tracing And Upscaling
Nvidia offers upscaling and ray tracing. Nvidia outperforms AMD in both ray tracing and scaling. Control and Cyberpunk 2077 both have problems. AMD’s ray tracing is inferior to Nvidia’s.
Different companies produce various GPUs. GPUs in the Nvidia RTX series have ray-tracing cores. Specialized cores for ray tracing. Ray accelerators exist at AMD.
Ray tracing hardware, but weaker cores, are present in AMD GPUs. Deep Learning Super Sampling from Nvidia (DLSS). Ray tracing will lower the frame rate even with Nvidia graphics cards.
With A.I., DLSS improves game performance. DLSS ultimately enhanced games. The 30 and 20-series Tensor cores are used in DLSS.
Tensor cores use an AI model built from game scans to reconstruct images in real-time. FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD’s upscaling solution (FSR). Unlike DLSS, FSR supports AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
It does not have exclusive photos using hardware or AI. AMD enhanced the spatial upscaling of FSR. FSR and DLSS are distinct but have different objectives.
FidelityFX Super Resolution evaluation shows that FSR increases performance but lowers visual quality. Enhancing native resolution is DLSS. Upscaling is needed for ray tracing.
For the best performance and visual quality, turn on DLSS or FSR. Ray tracing is preferable over DLSS. Older Nvidia cards are the only ones that support DLSS.
AMD vs Nvidia: For Budget Cards
In this category, I’ll look at the RX 5500 XT and GTX 1660 as the top budget AMD and NVIDIA cards for around $200. They both reflect their former flagship technology (AMD’s RDNA and NVIDIA’s Turing) admirably. I am not talking about RDNA 2 or Ampere because there are no budget cards around this pricing bracket.
| GPU Names | RX 5500 XT | GTX 1660 |
|---|---|---|
| Stream Processors/CUDA Cores | 1408 Units | 1408 Units |
| Base Clock | 1647 MHz | 1530 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1845 MHz | 1785 MHz |
| V-RAM | 8GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit | 192-bit |
| Dimensions | 9.7 x 5 x 1.9 In | 9 x 4.4 x 1.4 In |
| Power Consumption | 130W | 120W |
| Required PSU | 300W | 300W |
While the RX 5500 XT has a higher base clock rate (1647 MHz) than the GTX 1660 (1530 MHz), AMD leveraged this to their advantage by offering a higher boost rate (1845 MHz), which is greater than Nvidia’s boost clock (1785 MHz). Even though you won’t notice a difference, observing how far this competition has gone is intriguing.
AMD has 8GB GDDR6 RAM, which is superior to NVIDIA’s 6GB GDDR5. It has more memory bandwidth and an L2 cache, but NVIDIA utilizes less power for the GTX 1660. NVIDIA’s software is what makes its hardware great.
Despite AMD’s specs and power consumption, NVIDIA performs better. As gamers care more about performance than power consumption, NVIDIA wins.
AMD vs Nvidia: For Mid-Range Cards
I’ll examine the AMD RX 6700 XT and the NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti as two excellent mid-range GPU solutions in this area. The fight in this tier is more interesting because cards aren’t as evenly matched as they once were. In terms of performance, benchmarkers consider the RX 6700 XT superior.
| GPU Names | RX 6700 XT | RTX 3060 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| Stream Processors/CUDA Cores | 2560 Units | 4864 Units |
| Base Clock | 2321 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2581 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| V-RAM | 12GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| Dimensions | 10.5 x 4.3 x 1.6 In | 9.5 x 4.4 In |
| Power Consumption | 230W | 200W |
| Required PSU | 550W | 550W |
Regarding performance, the RTX 3060 Ti is on par with the 6700 XT and closes the gap at 1440p. The cost is one of the essential inquiries. RX 6700 XT is $479, while RTX 3060 Ti is $399.
This brings up the following issue: which card offers more value?
Although it is debatable if these cards should be compared, they represent each brand’s best midrange cards. Performance for the price paid for the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6700 XT cards is acceptable. RX 6700 XT is the better card; therefore, AMD wins despite the price difference.
AMD vs Nvidia: For High-End Cards
NVIDIA has a considerable advantage because AMD didn’t offer anything competitive with NVIDIA until the RX 6000 series. Before I evaluate AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards, I must first deal with the problem.
Both businesses have produced outstanding enthusiast-class cards. I’ll contrast the RX 6800 XT and RTX 3080 even though AMD’s RX 6900 XT is only $200 more expensive than NVIDIA’s RTX 3080. The cost of the RTX 3080 is more than the midrange.
| GPU Names | RX 6800 XT | RTX 3080 |
|---|---|---|
| Stream Processors/CUDA Cores | 4608 Units | 8704 Units |
| Base Clock | 1825 MHz | 1440 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2250 MHz | 1710 MHz |
| V-RAM | 16GB GDDR6 | 10GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 320-bit |
| Dimensions | 10.5 x 4.7 x 2 In | 11.2 x 4.4 x 1.6 In |
| Power Consumption | 300W | 320W |
| Required PSU | 700W | 700W |
When paying $650–700, the $50 price difference is not significant, but the performance is. In terms of raw rasterization performance, the RX 6800 XT is superior. The RTX 3080, however, performs better in ray-tracing.
Although this technology is young, AMD ought to know better. Performance-wise, it couldn’t compete with NVIDIA. However, future driver updates and new games that are AMD-optimized ought to boost performance.
Ray tracing is uncommon, even with DLSS from NVIDIA. Visual quality is slightly worse with this option, but performance is improved.
AMD vs Nvidia: Who Makes the Best GPUs In 2023?
The RTX 3000 series dominates in games and artistic applications. Of all, performance isn’t everything. It’s challenging to select a winner for everyone because PC components have become increasingly attractive in recent years.
If you’re creative, look at the Nvidia RTX 3000 series, particularly the RTX 3080 Ti. Get the AMD RX 6700 XT if you’re a serious gamer and want the most significant value possible.
I don’t believe anyone wants the brand wars to end as a fan of PCs. Considering how closely these two families compete, introducing new GPUs is even more exciting.
There was no debating which brands to purchase for a very long time, but today I have fantastic options from both manufacturers for various demands and price points. If you’re still unsure, know that each GPU I’ve discussed is a fantastic choice for upgrading or building a new PC.
My Final Thoughts On It!
With both firms launching some of the most potent and reasonably priced graphics processing units (GPUs) ever seen on the market, the competition between AMD and NVIDIA is fiercer than ever.
The affordable options include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT are examples of high-end GPUs.
Graphics from Nvidia and AMD are excellent. Both businesses rely on the rivalry to survive. There is a reason why the performance of Radeon and GeForce GPUs is comparable in the Nvidia vs. AMD debate.
Every company aspires to increase mindshare, which is advantageous for all. They are competing for money, learning from one another’s errors, and enhancing the law.
Currently, Nvidia dominates the 4K market. The RTX 2080 Ti is your best option if you can afford it if you want your PC to keep up with your Ultra HD monitor. Nvidia and AMD are probably comparable if you have a limited budget and are looking at mid-range GPUs.
