Member Avatar for aVar++

I'm getting one of the following soon:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-MS
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gtx-770-directcu-ii-oc-28nm-pcie-30-7010mhz-gddr5-gpu-1058mhz-boost-1110mhz-cores-1536-dpor

I can't decide which one to go with.

AMD with mantle or nvidia with free games & solid drivers?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

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Quick summary for (and following ): both the R9 280X and GTX 770 were competitive upper‑midrange cards around late 2013. The practical choice usually comes down to three things — monitor resolution/VRAM needs, operating system/driver priorities, and the specific partner (cooler, warranty, price). ’s point about Nvidia’s stronger Linux drivers and CUDA ecosystem is an important factor for anyone doing compute work or running non‑Windows systems.

Mantle was AMD’s low‑level API aimed at reducing CPU overhead and improving minimum framerates in titles that supported it. That advantage was game‑specific rather than universal, so for many titles the two cards produced very similar real‑world FPS. For higher resolutions or multi‑monitor setups, the card with more effective VRAM and a beefier board cooler usually gives the better experience; at 1080p the differences are smaller and driver stability/noise/power often matter more.

Driver features and partner designs change the day‑to‑day experience: Nvidia tended to offer steadier drivers for gaming and Linux, plus CUDA for GPU compute; AMD offered multi‑display and aggressive price/performance in some titles. Reviews of the exact card model (factory OC, cooler design, noise) are more useful than chip‑level comparisons.

Practical checklist before buying:

  • Confirm monitor resolution; prefer cards with 3GB+ for 1440p or multi‑monitor.
  • Verify PSU wattage and required 6/8‑pin PCIe connectors and measure case clearance.
  • Compare partner models for cooling, noise, and warranty rather than only the GPU name.
  • If switching vendor, do a clean driver uninstall (DDU) before installing new drivers.
  • Treat game bundles as temporary — buy on price/performance and long‑term support.

Short recommendation: pick GTX 770 for driver stability/CUDA and generally quieter/lower‑power setups; pick R9 280X when raw price/performance at higher resolutions or extra VRAM matters most.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Either of these will handle modern video games at very high resolutions and framerates. It then becomes a matter of preference. Myself I prefer nVidia gear, but that is because I run mostly Linux and they have better drivers for Linux currently than AMD. Also, if you want to do some serious math processing, the CUDA cores of the nVidia cards is totally awesome, and they have very good support for programming them.

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