Why so many people are switching from NVIDIA to AMD?

[C1REX]

I've switched to AMD as well, but I wonder why recently so many people recommend AMD over NVIDIA. Don't people care about Ray Tracing and DLSS? Is it some kind of pushback against NVIDIA's pricing? I thought my decision was rare and not that popular.


EDIT: I understand that NVIDIA dominates with over 80% of the GPU market. I simply wonder why some AMD GPUs even appear in top selling GPUs on NewEgg, mindfactory.de or overclockers.co.uk. Why people on reddit recommend AMD so often. Why AMD did so well in recent Hardware Unboxed survey (40% AMD).

[C1REX]

I've only found this one
https://www.pcgamer.com/amd-regains-a-tiny-bit-of-gpu-market-share-from-nvidia/

It suggests it's worse than the peak at 20% but better than the all-time low at 10%. Still, it's at an insignificant level of 17%.

However, this topic wasn't intended to discuss the Steam chart and the obvious monopoly and market domination by NVIDIA but more about the reasoning behind why so many people made the switch. "Many" is, of course, relative. AMD had a 10% market share, so getting to 17% represents a 70% improvement or 7 percentage points. It's a massive difference and a tiny one at the same time.

The data is from before the 7800XT release, which seems mildly popular. I wonder what the real, recent sales data from Western countries is

[A&A]

In Steam's survey of hardware, you can see how Intel actually goes up and down.
October 2018 - 9.33%, NVIDIA 76.58%
February 2019 - 10.15%, NVIDIA 75%
November 2019 - 9.83%, NVIDIA 74.55
January 2021 - 8.96%, NVIDIA 74.41%
April 2022 - 8.92%, NVIDIA 75.85%
March 2023 - 6.33%, NVIDIA 82.63%

AMD most of the time had 15%

You know today's survey, also note that "other" is up 0.6% from before.

What about YouTubers? They do things for clicks because it's an easy topic to "talk" or it's just a sponsored video.

[C1REX]

Postat inițial de A&A:

In Steam's survey of hardware, you can see how Intel actually goes up and down.
October 2018 - 9.33%, NVIDIA 76.58%
February 2019 - 10.15%, NVIDIA 75%
November 2019 - 9.83%, NVIDIA 74.55
January 2021 - 8.96%, NVIDIA 74.41%
April 2022 - 8.92%, NVIDIA 75.85%
March 2023 - 6.33%, NVIDIA 82.63%

AMD most of the time had 15%

You know today's survey, also note that "other" is up 0.6% from before.

What about YouTubers? They do things for clicks because it's an easy topic to "talk" or it's just a sponsored video.

steamchart is great but it's not sales data. Old GPUs that likely make 90% of the chart delude real sales from the last 2-4 of years. The numbers can be potentially identical but they don't have to be.

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

People are switching to AMD because AMD CPU and GPUs have improved in quality since Miss Lisa Su became the CEO. Good products ALWAYS have demand.
But still the difference is huge from Intel and Nvidia in terms of market share.
8 out of 10 people still buy intel and Nvidia products, not AMD.

In the past, AMD CPUs were so inferior to intel in Single Core speed that there were a big difference in gaming fps, So people never really considered AMD for gaming, even if they offered more physical cores.

By the time AMD caught up with intel in SIngle Core speed, intel also started providing MORE CORES, So there were no reason for people to switch to AMD, except for little extra value.

In GPU market, AMD has competitive products in every SKUs except for RTX 4090, and offers better pricing. But lacks in features like RT or DLSS. Nvidia simply offers better products.
People want better products, they don't care about 10-20% price savings.

[C1REX]

Postat inițial de 🦜Cloud Boy🦜:

People want better products, they don't care about 10-20% price savings.

I think so. 10% is not enough to justify AMD. It should be around 25% in my opinion.

I was considering 4070Ti 12GB for 4K gaming. However at that time in my region 7900XTX 24GB was at nearly the same price. Slightly more but with a free game I wanted and double HDMI port I also wanted. Only ASUS does doble HDMI port on NVIDIA side.
I asked on reddit what others would do and with 30% more raster performance people were suggesting me AMD. I don’t think 7900xtx can compete with 4080 if they are at a similar price but it’s a decent alternative for 4070TI and 4070TI super if priced right.

[A&A]

4K and 12GB VRAM sounds wrong to me

[Illusion of Progress]

I think OP is referring to why more people than in the past may be switching to AMD from nVidia in the DIY/enthusiast/social media space. That's a fair question, and market share won't show this for a long time (if ever, if this doesn't remain consistent) because the DIY market is dwarfed by the OEM and mobile market, and those are predominantly nVidia leaning.

It's like going to Reddit and seeing all the RTX 4090s (or other close to top SKUs) while meanwhile everyone has x60s or x50s.

In other words, OP isn't talking about market share. OP isn't saying AMD is more popular, even for DIYs. i think OP was just asking if there was an uptick in the DIY space and honestly I do agree with their perspective that it seems there has been.

I don't expect this to translate to major market share shifts in AMD's favor soon, or again, ever since Radeon can't seem to consistently compete with nVidia in raw performance. And people will buy x50s and x60s simply because the x90 is the fastest, even if those x50s and x60s are worse values than AMD's similar priced options, or because of some "bad drivers" FUD. AMD won't gain unless the consistently compete, and they're behind now, and rumored to be ceding the high end next generation, so market share won't be reflecting this. But it does some more people have been opening up to the RX 6000 or 7000 series alternatives instead of merely considering nVidia.

Maybe I'm presuming/speaking too much for OP but I think that is what they were claiming/asking.

[C1REX]

Postat inițial de Illusion of Progress:

Thank you.

The 4090 and the top end are so important. They shape the perception of the whole product line and the whole brand.

There is a saying that "if you want the best, you buy NVIDIA," which is true, but people take it out of context. Reviewers use the term when talking about the 4090, but people use it to justify the purchase of the 1650 4GB or 3050, both in the top 10 most popular gaming GPUs on the Steam chart. In my opinion, AMD will never be able to truly compete in any segment if they can't compete at the top end.

And on a side note - Moore's Law Is Dead YT channel just shared a rumor that the 5090 will likely come on time this year at a stupid price. Other models will likely come in Q1 2025. The 5090 is in a unique position as it doesn't need a good price to get amazing reviews. It will likely boost sales of some worst value trash tier older models.

[Karumati]

Postat inițial de A&A:

4K and 12GB VRAM sounds wrong to me

because it is.
12gb is bare minimum for 4k

[DevaVictrix]

I just had a look at the steam survey... is everyone switching to AMD? I can't be bothered crunching numbers but it looks like everyone (on steam, at least) is switching to a different Nvidia card. It looks like laptops are becoming more popular too... all Nvidia based.

[Illusion of Progress]

Postat inițial de C1REX:

The 4090 and the top end are so important.

It absolutely is, and it's a marketing thing as old as time because it works.

People see you have the fastest at the top and think that by extension, you're the best through and through, when really the case might be different further down the product stack.

It's why Intel panicked and rushed the 12900KS out right before the 5800X3D launched. Or same thing with the Pentium 4 EE "Emergency Edition"... I mean "Extreme Edition" which was similarly panic rushed out before AMD was bringing something out back then. Companies will put out a 3% better product even if it's an even worse value because it might retain their image as being the best, and even if it doesn't sell itself, it keeps the image alive which keeps lower stuff selling.

Samsung is probably the equivalent of this in this SSD space. They are good mind you; they consistently make decent stuff at the top end (only they consistently have issues in many of those same top end models...) and for example this results in people picking their QVO SATA drives that are... priced the same as much, much faster alternatives.

It's part of brand recognition and most people don't research individual options because that's time and effort. They'd rather research brands because that's a shortcut.

[C1REX]

I've asked Hardware Unboxed how it's even possible that almost half of their audience has AMD - 40% vs 58% NVIDIA (or at least amongst people who took the survey). How can it be so much different comparing to steamchart GPU data 16% vs 74%.

Their answer: (yes, they did answer)

Postat inițial de Hardware Unboxed:

Mainstream vs. enthusiast. It's not surprising.

[76561199540158642]

Keep in mind that Steams Hardware Survey is flawed due to the 10s of 1,000's of computer used to simulate steam accounts, low grade data mining computers from 5, 10, 15 years ago is why Nvidia has such a overwhelming presence on steams metric hardware survey.


Most Cheap Geforce cards used Nvidia as far back as 2010 which is why this metric exists.

[Revelene]

Postat inițial de Golden Unicorn:

Keep in mind that Steams Hardware Survey is flawed due to the 10s of 1,000's of computer used to simulate steam accounts, low grade data mining computers from 5, 10, 15 years ago is why Nvidia has such a overwhelming presence on steams metric hardware survey.


Most Cheap Geforce cards used Nvidia as far back as 2010 which is why this metric exists.

How exactly do you conclude that " low grade data mining computers from 5, 10, 15 years ago" are the cause when the top GPU is an RTX 3060, which was released only 3 years ago?

You numbers are not matching up.

Also, what the heck do you mean by "simulating Steam accounts"?

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

Postat inițial de C1REX:

I've asked Hardware Unboxed how it's even possible that almost half of their audience has AMD - 40% vs 58% NVIDIA (or at least amongst people who took the survey). How can it be so much different comparing to steamchart GPU data 16% vs 74%.

Their answer: (yes, they did answer)

Postat inițial de Hardware Unboxed:

Mainstream vs. enthusiast. It's not surprising.

AMD has nothing that can attract enthusiasts what NVIDIA doesn't have.
in fact, it's the exact opposite.

AMD's only advantage is, as i have said earlier, price cut.