Geforce vs Radeon features

[DavidGraham]

This is a summary of all the game/performance features between GPU vendors, whether they are exclusive or mutual, whether they are driver level features or chip features. The thread will be used to track all the constant updates AMD and NVIDIA introduce to their drivers, suggestions and corrections are welcome.

AMD current exclusive features:
-Driver level full fledged overclocking utility through Radeon Wattman
-Control fan speed through Radeon Wattman
-Driver level monitoring of temp, fps, clocks, utilization in-game through Radeon Overlay
-Dynamically reduce power consumption through Radeon Chill
-Stream to wireless VR headsets through ReLive VR


NVIDIA current exclusive features:
-Add HBAO for dozens of older games through driver level AO integration
-Modify in game graphics by post process filters through FreeStyle
-Integrated Reshade functionality in the driver through FreeSytle
-Free roam camera inside games through Ansel
-Capture in game screenshots at resolution of up to 64K through Ansel Super Resolution
-Upscale in game screenshots at 8K resolution through Ansel AI UpScale
-Apply filters and greenscreen effect on in game screenshots through Ansel Filters
-Automatic capture of impressive in game moments through Highlights
-Ray Tracing for DirectX 12 and Vulkan games
-Upscale in game resolution using AI through DLSS
-Increase in game performance in both Vulkan and DirectX 12 through Variable Rate Shading
-Increase rendering quality in VR games through Variable Rate Super Sampling
-Increase performance of VR games through Multi-Res Shading
-Automatic Optimization of in game settings through Game Optimize
-Modify muted colors from the control panel through Digital Vibrance
-GameWorks effects, which include:

• GPU PhysX for dozens of games
• TXAA for dozens of games without TAA implementation
• HFTS shadows for a handful of games
• VXAO for a handful of games
• CUDA effects for a handful of games

Mutual AMD and NVIDIA features:
-Integer Scaling:
Works better with AMD, as AMD supports all GPUs, while NVIDIA only offers it to select GPUs.

-Image Sharpening:
Works better with NVIDIA as NVIDIA supports all APIs and offers it on all GPUs, while AMD doesn't support all APIs or all GPUs.

-Super Resolution (downsampled resolution) thorugh AMD Virtual Super Resolution and NVIDIA Dynamic Super Resolution:
Works better with NVIDIA as NVIDIA supports up to 16K resolution, and gives the user the ability to control the sharpness of the downsampling, while AMD only supports 5K, and doesn't have a sharpness control.

-Low Latency response time through AMD Anti Lag and NVIDIA Ultra Low Latency:
Works equally well on both GPU vendors.

-Max Frame Rate Cap through AMD Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) and NVIDIA Max Frame Rate:
Works better with NVIDIA, as NVIDIA supports a range of 20fps cap to 1000fps cap, while AMD only supports 30fps to 300fps.

-In game recording through AMD ReLive, and NVIDIA ShadowPlay:
Both are arguably equal in features and quality.

-Variable Refresh Rate through AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync:
Works better with NVIDIA as NVIDIA supports almost all screen options (FreeSync, G-Sync, OLED), while AMD is only limited to FreeSync ones.

-Multi Monitor Gaming through AMD EyeFinity and NVIDIA Surround:
Works better on AMD as AMD supports mixed setup modes, while NVIDIA doesn't

 

[WhiningKhan]

Works better with NVIDIA, as NVIDIA allows direct GIF recording

Oh dear God. This is what Beyond3D means nowadays?
It feels so wrong to spend (working time) typing this (why am I even doing it?), but AFAIK this groundbreaking technology was included in AMD drivers near the end of 2018.

 

[DavidGraham]

AFAIK this groundbreaking technology was included in AMD drivers near the end of 2018.

Indeed it is, thanks for the correction.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

"Digital Vibrance" has been a feature in Nvidia display drivers for some time and can increase color intensity to produce rich, striking deep colors on the desktop and in games. I'm not sure AMD makes this feature available at the driver level.

 

[orangpelupa]

can you add this?

RADEON ReLive VR -> 1st party wireless VR support

EDIT:
also this?
NVIDIA HDTV vs PC Monitor detection. used by Nvidia to disable/enable RGB or 4:4:4 as needed. But its buggy

 

[DegustatoR]

-Driver level monitoring of temp, fps, clocks, utilization in-game through Radeon Overlay

All such monitoring is "driver level", the difference is that Radeon drivers have built-in overlay which shows this while Geforce drivers don't and you need to use 3rd party tools like MSI AB - or Win10's Xbox / Gamebar overlay (whatever it's called these days) - with them. The information is provided by the driver in both cases.

-Upscale in game screenshots at 8K resolution through Ansel AI UpScale

This feature was announced with Turing but I'm not aware of any game where it's actually available.

-Ray Tracing for DirectX 12 and Vulkan games

Hardly an NV exclusive driver feature.

-Increase in game performance in both Vulkan and DirectX 12 through Variable Rate Shading

This is an API feature too and not NV exclusive. Intel's Gen12 (ICL) support VRS Tier 1 as well.

Works better with NVIDIA as NVIDIA supports almost all screen options (FreeSync, G-Sync, OLED), while AMD is only limited to FreeSync ones.

There are:
- h/w+protocol implementation levels, which are: G-sync, Freesync HDMI, VESA Adaptive Sync, HDMI VRR
- s/w+driver implementation levels, which are: G-sync, Freesync (and Intel's one, dunno it's name).
As of right now NV supports their G-sync driver implementation over G-sync, VESA Adaptive Sync and HDMI VRR h/w implementations.
AMD supports their Freesync driver implementation over Freesync HDMI and VESA Adaptive Sync h/w implementations.
Also there's an updated G-sync h/w module available now which is using VESA Adaptive Sync h/w protocol instead of NV's proprietary one and because of this AMD's Freesync driver implementation is able to work on such G-sync displays now.
So I dunno if saying that VRR works better with NV now is accurate since they are very similar if you look only at newer monitors/displays.

 

[Malo]

The purpose of this thread is subtle

 

[BRiT]

I scanned for Catches Fire but I dont see it listed.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

This feature was announced with Turing but I'm not aware of any game where it's actually available.

I think there are a few games that can use Ansel Up-Res to render 8K screenshots.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

NVIDIA HDTV vs PC Monitor detection. used by Nvidia to disable/enable RGB or 4:4:4 as needed. But its buggy

Is it unique to Nvidia software or do you have the same feature on Radeon software?
BTW have not had any issues with HDTV or PC Monitor detection, or with output color format. Issues might be hardware specific?

 

[DegustatoR]

I think there are a few games that can use Ansel Up-Res to render 8K screenshots.

Super-resolution and AI upscale are two different things.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

Super-resolution and AI upscale are two different things.

I would think in this context they are the same.

AI Up-Res: Take Super Resolution images Using AI
GeForce RTX graphics cards feature Tensor Cores, processors that power and accelerate AI features for gaming. Ansel RTX’s new feature, AI Up-Res, uses these Tensor Cores to apply AI-enhanced resolution scaling so you can save your NVIDIA Ansel in-game photos at up to 8K.

 

[DavidGraham]

This feature was announced with Turing but I'm not aware of any game where it's actually available.

It works right now in hundreds of games as it doesn't need game support. It uses the Tensor cores to upscale the image to 8K.

Hardly an NV exclusive driver feature.

It's however currently exclusive to the brand.

All such monitoring is "driver level", the difference is that Radeon drivers have built-in overlay which shows this while Geforce drivers don't

Yes, end result is the user will use third party in the case of NVIDIA, while he won't need to in the case of AMD.

Also there's an updated G-sync h/w module available now which is using VESA Adaptive Sync h/w protocol instead of NV's proprietary one and because of this AMD's Freesync driver implementation is able to work on such G-sync displays now.

This has yet to be released I think, no known current monitors support it AFAIK.

RADEON ReLive VR -> 1st party wireless VR support

Can you explain this further?

 

[WhiningKhan]

-Low Latency response time through AMD Anti Lag and NVIDIA Ultra Low Latency:
Works better with NVIDIA as it supports all GPUs, AMD does it only on select GPUs.

It is supported on Radeon HD7700 and newer, so the declaring a winner is hardly relevant... Wouldn't it be much more productive to actually list the supported hardware and other limitations for the features?

 

[DavidGraham]

It is supported on Radeon HD7700 and newer

Yes it is, but DX9 is only supported on Navi cards, no such restriction on NVIDIA GPUs.

"Digital Vibrance" has been a feature in Nvidia display drivers for some time and can increase color intensity to produce rich, striking deep colors on the desktop and in games. I'm not sure AMD makes this feature available at the driver level.

It's available through Radeon Overlay, the user can modify saturation, hue ..etc on the fly.

 

[orangpelupa]

Is it unique to Nvidia software or do you have the same feature on Radeon software?
BTW have not had any issues with HDTV or PC Monitor detection, or with output color format. Issues might be hardware specific?

I don't remember my Radeon ever switch its output format when I changed my TV modes. Nvidia on the other hand, switch between Nvidia controlled and windows controlled.

 

[orangpelupa]

Can you explain this further?

With Radeon cards, you don't need to use 3rd party apps to enjoy wireless VR. Because amd already have Radeon Relive VR that taps into Radeon relive game recording capability, and stream them to VR headset (oculus quest, go).

With Nvidia, you would need to use 3rd party apps like ALVR or virtual desktop to enjoy wireless VR.

For me, amd relive vr works really good. It have low latency, and super smooth performance. Maybe because it was made by AMD itself.

While on Nvidia, ALVR have stutter (works fine on Radeon). Virtual desktop have more lag.

All of these despite Nvidia Turing NVENC supposedly have much better hevc encoding capabilities than Radeon VCE. What even weirder is that NVENC stutter issue not only could happen with 3rd party apps but also with 1st party app (e.g. GeForce experience). According to notes on OBS, the stutter will happen when video game in foreground took too high GPU processing priority. Now I'm way out of topic, sorry.

 

[WhiningKhan]

Yes it is, but DX9 is only supported on Navi cards, no such restriction on NVIDIA GPUs.

Apparently that is no longer the case, DX9 anti-lag support was added recently for earlier GPUs.

 

[Davros]

It's available through Radeon Overlay, the user can modify saturation, hue ..etc on the fly.

Is that the same though, since nvidia also have those settings plus digital vibrance

 

[Deleted member 2197]

It's available through Radeon Overlay, the user can modify saturation, hue ..etc on the fly.

It is different in that saturation, hue and similar features boost all colors uniformly. Vibrance does not change well-saturated colors and will only boost the more muted, dull colors. This has been requested for inclusion in Radeon software for quite some time. I currently use it at a setting of 52-53 (default 50) to give that extra "pop" to any dull colors on the desktop and games.