It's Official, I hate Radeon.

After YEARS of being a rabid fanboy of the AMD/ATI GPU's I've decided to make the switch to Nvidia.

My most recent ati purchase was an XFX HD 7770 Core Ed. The card itself looks epic, but that's all that is awesome about this thing.

Any newer games can't be played longer than 10-15 minutes on anything higher than medium settings, as well as you can't use hdmi with one of the dvi ports, for tripple monitor set-up you HAVE to utilize a displayport adapter.

The worst is the random blue-screening the ati drivers cause whenever I load,play,pause,resume any form of video.

It also idles unnecessarily hot at 50 degrees Celsius, and breaks 70 under minimal stress.


I just purchased a new gpu, which will be the first Nvidia I've ever owned.

I've gotten the ASUS GeForce GTX 770, which will be replacing my current Radeon HD 7770. According toreviews and statistics I've read this should be a major upgrade, granted my current card only has 1 GB gddr5 ram and the new one has 2 Gb gddr5 ram, so I'm naturally expecting it to run better.


Any thoughts and input from any long-term Nvidia users would be appriciated.

Vortiki
Any newer games can't be played longer than 10-15 minutes on anything higher than medium settings, as well as you can't use hdmi with one of the dvi ports, for tripple monitor set-up you HAVE to utilize a displayport adapter.

The HDMI/DVI issue is because one of the DVI ports shares bandwidth with the HDMI port. That's pretty standard on mid to low end cards.

As for gaming... You do realize the HD7770 isn't really a gaming card, yes? Medium settings sounds generous - the HD7770 is a mid to low-end card. You're lucky you're gaming at all.
A little research before your purchase would have helped you out:
www.expertreviews.co.uk...

that review boils down to "nice card, shame about the gaming".

The worst is the random blue-screening the ati drivers cause whenever I load,play,pause,resume any form of video.

I'd put my money on your power supply being the issue there, and not the card. You may bump into this same issue with your new card too, if that's the case.

It also idles unnecessarily hot at 50 degrees Celsius, and breaks 70 under minimal stress.

That's pretty normal for a card as compact as yours. 50 degrees is a bit high for idle - 40/45 would be better... and 70 while gaming or watching HD video sounds about right. GPU's always run hotter than CPU's, so don't expect CPU-like temps.


I just purchased a new gpu, which will be the first Nvidia I've ever owned.

I've gotten the ASUS GeForce GTX 770, which will be replacing my current Radeon HD 7770. According toreviews and statistics I've read this should be a major upgrade, granted my current card only has 1 GB gddr5 ram and the new one has 2 Gb gddr5 ram, so I'm naturally expecting it to run better.

the GTX 770 is a much higher range card, and a much higher specced card than the HD7770 (the two aren't competitors, they're aimed at entirely different markets), so yes, you'll see better performance.

Don't expect to see significantly better performance based on the RAM though - that's really only for storing textures etc., so having an extra GB will have much less of an impact than you'd expect - unless of course you're running multiple monitors and you have games running at ridiculously high resolutions (that's when the extra RAM comes in handy).

Anyway.
enjoy your new card. Team Green makes some nice GPUs, so you can't go too far wrong.

reply to post by Vortiki


I bought raedon card off Newegg for $35.00 and its been flawless.

Sounds like a problem I had with an ATI card I had used a while back. XP Vista era. Same problems as the OP. I eventually figured out a trick. When I re-installed my operating system, I removed the ATI card and stuck in a cheap Nvidia card to do the install. Once all the updates for windows was done, I removed the Nvidia and replaced it with my ATI gaming card. Once I loaded the ATI drivers and it ran great. If I had started with the ATI card for the install I would have had issues.
I don't know why exactly it would matter but I had to do the same thing recently on another desktop. Only this time it was the opposite. Install with an ATI card and then later swap it with an Nvidia.

reply to post by Awen24


Thanks for the input.

I knew the hd7770 wasn't considered "high-end", but I wasn't aware of how poorly the card preforms until after I bought it.

As far as my power supply being an issue, I don't think that's the case as I'm running a modular 1000 Watt Psu.


This is the first time I'm hearing anything about what temps your gpu should run at. I know that CPU should never go over 170 degrees F, but I have no clue what is an "allowable" temp for any GPU.

As for the multiple monitors, I am running a 32 inch HDTV in 1920 by 1080 on HDMI and a secondary running 1440 by 900 with a vga adapter to the hdmi compatible dvi input.

Also I would love to be able to set graphical settings in my games to the highest settings without having to worry about performance issues, do you think the GTX 770 is capable of doing just that? And do you have any idea what temps I should be expecting when running safely under a heavy load?

SasquatchHunter
reply to post by Vortiki

 

I bought raedon card off Newegg for $35.00 and its been flawless.

I assume you aren't doing any graphically demanding gaming on high resolution monitors?

It may be that you just got a bad card it happens from time to time. Just RMA it.

buster2010
It mat be that you just got a bad card it happens from time to time. Just RMA it.

The problem with that is that I removed the plate to apply new thermal paste under the assumption maybe the factory stuff was no good. (This was before I recently discovered my current temps were considered "safe" for a gpu)

In doing so I had to break the sealed sticker on the screws to the fan plate, voiding my warranty and nullifying any chance of RMA.

reply to post by Vortiki


Just for your entertainment...

www.digitalversus.com...

Best card on the market for the price HANDS DOWN.

It even slaps the Titan around like a read headed step child.

~Tenth

tothetenthpower
reply to post by Vortiki

 

Just for your entertainment...

www.digitalversus.com...

Best card on the market for the price HANDS DOWN.

It even slaps the Titan around like a read headed step child.

~Tenth

That doesn't exactly have practical uses for the everyday gamer. Those thousand dollar cards are more for studio work, like making games and movies. Impressive as it may be, I have lost my faith in AMD's "budget" cards, when I can spend a few more dollars and go Nvidia for considerable more BANG for my buck.

reply to post by Vortiki


no no, I'm serious.

The 290X or the one just below it:

www.anandtech.com...

Are NOT just middle of the road cards like you are used to. These are high performing, low cost and extremely reliable.

Just take a gander at all the benchmarks. There's no review out there with anything negative other than the loud sound it makes. These are for gamers, trust me. With 4DK coming out as a standard soon and new engines like Crytek 3 and Crystal Tools, it's going to get much harder to play games on systems with less than optimal specs.

Both these cards are under 600$

GIGABYTE GV-R929XD5-4GD-B Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready

www.newegg.ca...

~Tenth

Sorry to say that you purchased a low-end card and 50ºC isn't abnormal because depending on the card it can go pretty high up there. Typically you'll want it less than around 80ºC and if it gets too hot it will hopefully turn itself off and your computer will crash. As for the driver issue, it may be your computer. Perhaps there's something on your computer that's conflicting with the ATI drivers and unless you knew how to debug (which I'm guessing you don't) it's probably best to see what happens if you try running it on a new windows build. In my experience, the issues you're encountering are usually because of a conflicting driver or software that's running. If you're running manycam for example, it might BSOD.

Anyways, you can RMA it which is fine since you bought a under-preforming card anyhow, you might get lucky and get to buy a better card afterwards. Don't rely on tomshardware because it's completely bias / paid off. For the best bang for your buck, ATI is the way to go and nVidia won't keep you away from BSOD or any of that, it's part of the nature of things. I use both, both have done well for me but I know it's best for now to invest in ATI simply for the money savings. However I would strongly recommend not investing into an AMD processor, stick with intel.

reply to post by Em2013


I was planning to reformat when the new gpu arrives and start over clean like I had done when I installed my current HD770.

The issues I am experiencing have been right off the bat from a fresh windows install. I am wondering if maybe I didn't just get a defective piece of hardware.

At the same time, I've heard from many local sources that Nvidia seems to be more stable under heavy load than Radeon.

reply to post by Vortiki


I always leaned that way myself but I think that's just pride talking. I think they are both pretty stable, although I have experienced more problems with ATI self-installers than nVIDIA. I don't trust refurbished ATI cards however, I've tried two and wasted a lot of money since there were no returns. Wait for black friday / cyber monday, there's bound to be some good cards for sale on amazon.

Vortiki

buster2010
It mat be that you just got a bad card it happens from time to time. Just RMA it.

The problem with that is that I removed the plate to apply new thermal paste under the assumption maybe the factory stuff was no good. (This was before I recently discovered my current temps were considered "safe" for a gpu)

In doing so I had to break the sealed sticker on the screws to the fan plate, voiding my warranty and nullifying any chance of RMA.

Check into the company some of them allow you to put on after market coolers. Most of them know people are going to overclock them.

Vortiki

SasquatchHunter
reply to post by Vortiki

 

I bought raedon card off Newegg for $35.00 and its been flawless.

I assume you aren't doing any graphically demanding gaming on high resolution monitors?

Dual monitors 22"LCD monitor using DVI 47" 1080P LCD TV HDMI. I can run PS with a fairly large painting, play music, have IE , Maya, all going at the same time without a hiccup. Stream 1080P crystal clear. No problems with UDK, Unity, or Cryengine while using multiple apps. This is 5 yr old computer with 4gig ram.

I might slow down in PS with something like 10,000x10,000 canvas and some huge brush but those are unrealistic settings
The only app I've had problems with is painter x3. I think there is something wrong with that app I have no idea I just checked out the trial.

buster2010

Vortiki

buster2010
It mat be that you just got a bad card it happens from time to time. Just RMA it.

The problem with that is that I removed the plate to apply new thermal paste under the assumption maybe the factory stuff was no good. (This was before I recently discovered my current temps were considered "safe" for a gpu)

In doing so I had to break the sealed sticker on the screws to the fan plate, voiding my warranty and nullifying any chance of RMA.

Check into the company some of them allow you to put on after market coolers. Most of them know people are going to overclock them.

Well I have been told that my 70 degrees Celsius under heavy load isn't that bad for a gpu. I was only achieving that by removing the side panel from my HAF X case and putting an industrial house fan there to suck the air out.

I still get random crashes from loading videos, mostly on youtube. I've also read somewhere online about incompatibilities between Radeon GPU/firefox/java

Vortiki

buster2010

Vortiki

buster2010
It mat be that you just got a bad card it happens from time to time. Just RMA it.

The problem with that is that I removed the plate to apply new thermal paste under the assumption maybe the factory stuff was no good. (This was before I recently discovered my current temps were considered "safe" for a gpu)

In doing so I had to break the sealed sticker on the screws to the fan plate, voiding my warranty and nullifying any chance of RMA.

Check into the company some of them allow you to put on after market coolers. Most of them know people are going to overclock them.

Well I have been told that my 70 degrees Celsius under heavy load isn't that bad for a gpu. I was only achieving that by removing the side panel from my HAF X case and putting an industrial house fan there to suck the air out.

I still get random crashes from loading videos, mostly on youtube. I've also read somewhere online about incompatibilities between Radeon GPU/firefox/java

If you haven't already check this out. Never had a problem playing any type of media file
even with integrated graphics.
K-lite

I have a Radeon HD 6900 series and haven't had any problems with gaming, videos, or anything else for that matter.

My computer is only about a year old and prior to this one, I've always been a GeForce kinda gal. But the guys at my favourite computer store talked me into going with the Radeon gpu this time around when I decided it was time to build a new system. And so far, they haven't let me down.

12 hours of playing Skyrim - temps are good, fans are purring, and graphics haven't missed a heartbeat.

No complaints from me... and I swore I would never change over from my beloved GeForce.

reply to post by SasquatchHunter


I use a conglomeration of AutoGordianKnot and CombineCommunityCodecPack to cover everything in there and more.

I know it isn't an incompatibility with any specific codec, it is an issue with the GPU.

The HD 3850 I had before the 7770 didn't have any issues with anything besides the fact it was getting old.