AMD vs. Nvidia GPUs: Who Makes the Best Graphics Cards in 2024?

If you’re in the market for the best graphics cards, it’s pretty much a binary choice: AMD or NVIDIA, with a few others battling it out for third. Often it was a simple calculation: price (AMD) or performance (Nvidia). Today, both brands are on a path to parity, and the differences are less stark.

Imagine selecting a color swatch from multiple shades of ‘pretty great.’ It’s a buyer’s dilemma, but look closely, and there are still distinctions that matter.

We dug into the details of Nvidia vs. AMD GPUs, considered the use cases, and declared a winner.

So, who makes the best graphics cards? Read on to make an informed choice based on our detailed AMD vs. Nvidia comparison.

AMD vs. Nvidia: Side-by-Side Comparison

Let’s start with a spec-for-spec look at each company’s something-for-everyone, flagship mid-range GPU: the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070.

AMD Radeon vs. Nvidia GeForce Specs

When AMD released the RX 7800 XT to take on Nvidia’s RTX 4070 late last year, it kicked off a mid-market battle between two of the top GPUs in the class. AMD had a well-earned reputation for affordable quality when it launched the RX 7800 and went one-to-one with its more upscale rival.

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is a brilliant option for gamers or video creatives who don’t want to shell out more for Nvidia’s pricier equivalent. On performance GPU benchmark comparison it wrestles the RTX 4070 to a draw – though it’s only marginally better than its sister GPU, the less expensive RX 6800 XT.

As good as it is, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4070 offers a broad mix of performance, price, and features that gamers and creatives will want at a price point that’s premium, but still within reach.

Nvidia vs. AMD: Key Features

If we delve into a detailed GPU comparison, AMD and Nvidia have different philosophies when it comes to standard software features. AMD casts the net widely to maximize compatibility across devices. Nvidia focuses on its own proprietary systems and keeping customers locked in. Despite taking different routes approaches, the overall feature sets of RX vs. RTX are very similar.

AMD’s biggest recent enhancements are Freesync and FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), which uses AI to scale up image resolution or auto-sharpen lower-rez images when they need to be rendered in a larger size.

Nvidia offers something similar to FidelityFX called Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). DLSS is more established and we think it’s more consistent than FSR when images need to be scaled up. Having said that, FSR can deliver major gains in terms of frame rate.

AMD’s FreeSync tool helps keep the frame rate of your monitor in sync with the GPU. Nvidia’s take is called G-Sync and it offers the same capability.

Both Nvidia and AMD offer built-in noise suppression to keep ambient microphone noise to a minimum.

At the GUI level, AMD takes a dashboard approach and offers all features from a single menu. Nvidia’s interface is less user-friendly, with menus and submenus separated across multiple programs.

General AMD Radeon vs. Nvidia GeForce Gaming Performance Comparison

So how do both mid-range products fare on the gaming front? Let’s look at how Nvidia GeForce vs. AMD Radeon features and capabilities translate into user experience and overall value.

Nvidia GeForce vs. AMD Radeon Pros & Cons

Nvidia was first to market, so we’ll start with them. The RTX 4070 gives gamers 1440p graphics plus advanced ray tracing. That makes 4K gaming a tangible option, though possibly diminished by a smaller 12GB VRAM pool.

AMD’s RX 7800 XT, on the other hand, maximizes its best-in-class rasterization capabilities with notable improvements to ray tracing performance. The combination is impressive, despite being a generation behind Nvidia’s RTX 4070 in terms of ray tracing performance.

AMD vs. Nvidia for High-End Gaming

Gamers are a diverse group, so let’s look at other comparable products each company offers at different tiers. Comparing graphic cards on a pure performance basis, it’s hard to find fault with either brand.

AMD Radeon vs. Nvidia GeForce GPU Benchmarks Comparison

At the budget level, both the Nvidia RTX 4060 and its near-peer AMD RX 7600 can deliver 60 frames per second (fps) or more for a mainstream RPG.

The high level of detail and clarity that 1440p gaming delivers will test most graphics cards to the limit. Moving up to mid-tier, the Nvidia RTX 4070 can deliver 72 fps, while the AMD RX 7800 XT jumps ahead at 95 fps.

Raise the bar again, however, and Nvidia starts to flex its frame rate muscles. Looking first at 4K performance with ray tracing, Nvidia’s RTX 4080 Super can deliver rates of up to 67 fps on a standard RPG. AMD’s equivalent RX 7900 XTX answers back with a small uptick to 71 fps for a standard RPG.

So far, so equal, but push the preset to ‘ultra’ for 1080p graphics with ray tracing, and the RTX 4080 Super runs at a searing 88 fps. At 42 fps, AMD’s roughly equivalent Radeon RX 7800 XT can’t even manage half that level.

Non-Gaming Features

Looking beyond gaming at other graphics-intensive applications, AMD and Nvidia follow different paths.

Nvidia cards typically come with dedicated memory for encoding and decoding media. Combined with hardware acceleration, it offers faster, low-lag performance for multimedia tasks like video production or graphics.

AMD tends to rely on its firmware for encoding and decoding. That’s a consumer-friendly approach which allows users to run the latest releases features and technologies on non-AMD GPUs (including Nvidia’s) – though naturally they run best on proprietary AMD silicon.

On the downside, AMD has a reputation for uneven driver support. Nvidia, meanwhile, prefers to keep users inside its ecosystem. Sought-after features like DLSS 3 only work on an Nvidia platform and then only with its latest generation GPU. The company’s Ampere 3000 cards from 2021, for example, only support DLSS 2 or below.

On a more positive note, Nvidia’s Studio suite has recently been updated with new features to ease creative workloads, and it has capabilities the average user will appreciate too. Nvidia Broadcast applies AI to replace backgrounds in any Zoom or other video-conferencing application. It also filters out irritating ambient and background noise from co-workers and coffee shop customers while the call is live.

AMD’s focus remains on gaming and ramping up its 4K ray-tracing capabilities. Its Radeon RX graphics architecture for laptops is designed for advanced content creation, though mainly for next-generation premium laptops.

Compatibility

Deciding who’s better at minimizing compatibility issues is tough. Both companies devote extensive time and resources to fixing compatibility and performance issues. Both release firmware updates on a consistent schedule. To a certain extent, deciding on a winner is beyond either company’s control.

Software developers tend to prioritize Nvidia graphics cards for the simple reason that Nvidia has a bigger market footprint – more people own their GPUs. In most cases, this imbalance isn’t a big deal. But it does stress the need to check the compatibility of your most-used applications, particularly those for professional or work-related use. Popular 3D graphics apps like Autodesk Maya, for example, are known to support more Nvidia cards than AMD.

For gamers, ray tracing is the place where AMD and Nvidia visibly part ways. When new drivers are needed for applications that support ray tracing, Nvidia’s optimization options are typically more advanced and glitch-free. While games with ray tracing that only support Nvidia GPUs are becoming less common, AMD cards still aren’t fully recognized by developers.

Price

Ask any gamer about the best GPUs, and they’ll likely tell you it’s AMD for price and Nvidia for perks and performance. That’s still largely true. Comparing video cards for price alone, AMD almost always comes out ahead.

AMD vs. Nvidia Price Comparison Chart

Starting at the accessible consumer end, Nvidia’s RTX 4060 (MSRP $299.99) offers great performance and features like ray tracing and DLSS support. But it’s not a knockout by any means. AMD’s equivalent in the sub-300-dollar range is the RX 7600 (MSRP $269.99). It still delivers a solid experience for about 30 dollars less.

For the mid-range segment, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 has an MSRP of $599.99. AMD’s Radeon RX 7700 XT equivalent comes at an MSRP of $449.99. While there are other options from both companies in the middle tier, there is variability in the amount of VRAM they offer, which can seriously impact the card’s performance.

At the top of the heap are AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX (MSRP of $999.99) and Nvidia’s premium RTX 4090 (a whopping $1,699.99). Needless to say, these are for serious gaming/creative activities that require intensive graphics rendering at speed.

Should You Buy AMD or Nvidia in 2024?

So, AMD vs. Nvidia, which is better for you in 2024? In the GPU space, there’s much to commend both companies. AMD and Nvidia each bring something different and valuable to the table. Meanwhile, the battle for gamers’ and creative industry hearts & minds keeps everyone sharp.

There’s a symbiotic relationship at work where both companies look to incrementally adopt the best elements of the other. That makes it a buyer’s market.

In our AMD vs. Nvidia review, Nvidia took four categories out of seven, so we have to give them the win.

Ultimately though, it’s up to you. And with PC makers using both brands in their builds, expect plenty of options for upgrades and pre-installed hardware.

AI Battle: AMD vs. Nvidia GPU News

AMD Accelerates Data Center AI Innovation With Expanded AMD Instinct GPU Roadmap

AMD is accelerating its efforts to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI market. The company plans to launch its MI325X AI processor in the fourth quarter of 2024, as AMD CEO Lisa Su announced at the Taiwan Computex conference.

This move signals AMD’s intent to compete more aggressively in the AI space, which Nvidia has been controlling lately.

Brad McCredie, corporate vice president, Data Center Accelerated Compute, AMD, said:

“The AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators continue their strong adoption from numerous partners and customers including Microsoft Azure, Meta, Dell Technologies, HPE, Lenovo and others, a direct result of the AMD Instinct MI300X accelerator exceptional performance and value proposition.”

With the expanded AMD Instinct GPU Roadmap, the company is “providing the leadership capabilities and performance the AI industry and our customers expect to drive the next evolution of data center AI training and inference.”

Nvidia Blackwell Platform Prepares the World for Trillion Parameter AI Models

On the other hand, Nvidia continues to prove its AI leader status with its new Blackwell platform.

Blackwell is touted as the most complex AI architecture ever built. It is designed to handle the demands of next-generation AI models with up to 1 trillion parameters.

Nvidia is positioning Blackwell as a comprehensive solution, integrating multiple chips, systems, and software to power a new wave of artificial intelligence solutions across industries.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in the company’s latest earnings statement:

“Blackwell samples are shipping to our partners and customers. Spectrum-X Ethernet for AI and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software are two new product categories achieving significant scale, demonstrating that NVIDIA is a full-stack and data center-scale platform. Across the entire stack and ecosystem, we are helping frontier model makers to consumer internet services, and now enterprises. Generative AI will revolutionize every industry.”

As both companies continue to innovate, AMD vs. Nvidia GPU competition in the AI markets intensifies, making the choice between them more complex yet exciting for consumers and businesses alike.

The Bottom Line

For the categories we’ve looked at, Nvidia edges ahead. However, the truth is that both AMD and Nvidia make excellent products. Do your research, consider how you’ll put your graphics card to work, and decide what features matter most.

You might try making your own table of Nvidia vs. AMD GPU pros and cons to see who wins on balance. It would be hard to go wrong.

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