nVidia? or stick with AMD?

Currently I have a xfx 7850(i know bad choice should have gone with 7870) I'm thinking of upgrading it. Should I,
-Stick with AMD and get 7870 and cf it?
-go with nVidia([size=11]any suggestion of card for this? I want the one that best $ per performance[/h])

my budget is around $400
the only reason I ask this is because I was wondering is it worth it to switch to nVidia when there are a lot of thing use nVidia such as project shield

If my memory serves correct, there isnt much performance diffrence between 7850 and 7870. Its there, but not praticularly big

I got myself 7870 because that version had 2 vents, was quieter and i can overclock it if neccesary.. Mine is this.

MSI Radeon HD 7870 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC

You could get a AMD 7950 for around 300 USD and that has more power than 7870.

Just software overclock your card (AMD hands you a bunch of tools in the CCC to do just this) if you're looking for more power and remember, two years from now there will be cards out that are twice as powerful as what's currently on the market, so save your money. Is there actually any game you're having trouble maxing out? Sometimes visual effects, especially particle effects, are rendered by your CPU, so you may want to take a look at upgrading that first.

Get a 7970, i bought mine here.

I'd say get a 7950 they're 300 if you live in US.

so thing like project shield not worth the switch to nVidia? also from the suggestion, I assume it better to get 1 single card then get get a 7870 and cf the one I have?

This should help



Get a single card. Having 2 graphics cards increases wattage and might result a need to buy a new PSU. Seriously, if you want better card, you should go for 7970.

i know what the crossfire and what card i need. Also my psu support crossfire and it 750wats i'm sure it can handle it no problem.
What I'm asking is stay with amd? or go for nvidia card something like 660ti which i also ask if i go to nvidia what card should i look for.
the reason i transferring to nvidia is new gaming stuff such as project shield where it use nvidia card and not amd card (correct me if i'm wrong).

@Data Zero
I saw that graph before and I know that i can use 7870 or 7850 with the one i currently have. What i'm asking for that is, is 7870 cf with 7850 better then 1 7970? also, is it good to switch to nvidia card instead of amd?

Tis really up to you. Project shield is that handheld andriod thing right? Doesnt it have its own built in nvidia graphics card? I dont know the details since Ive only every bothered with pokemon in terms of portable gaming but I dont think you can just up and install a pc gpu into it and I cant see it using the gpu remotely or something... So I wouldnt worry about the brand. The best way to choose is to check how well certain cards do on recent releases and which company the developers favour for said games.. But really, when all said and done, theyre not alot different.
Your current card isnt all that old so you dont really need an upgrade yet but if you really must definetly just go for the latest generation of cards that are in your price range. So the 5900s for amd and the 600s for nvidia right? (although 780 just came out recently). I have a 570 nvidia. My only complaint is its dedicated memory is too small for extensive texture modding in skyrim (tis only 1.25gig, you need atleast 2gig for it). everything else can play lagless on max aside from the most recent of direct x11 games. I believe the 7870 was the price equivelant of the 570 when I bought it. Anywho

The only real difference between amd and nvidia is that nvidia has physx. If you have to upgrade and are willing to spend $400 go for the amd 7970 or gtx 670, they are comparable in price and performance. The 670 is a better card for the money though. Another difference is the software you use, I personally like amd's ccc better than nvidia's control panel, but to each their own.

EDIT: As far as crossfiring your current card, it would be about as good as a single 7970 or 670 and a lot cheaper. Its really up to you what you decide to do.

I have an msi 7850 twin frozr (2gb overclocked edition) and it's perfectly fine for what I do. If you aren't facing any graphic lag or anything, just leave it.

Obligatory link to the GPU hierarchy chart on Tom's:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Bottom-line - both AMD (ATI) and NVidia make good cards, use what you're familiar with or what your purse can bear. In the past both companies have screwed up things with their drivers, but in the long run neither company's worse than the other.

Right now ATI has a bug in Catalyst Control Center that might lead to BDODs, installing the driver without CCC circumvents the problem. Since I'm an ATI users I'm not familiar with the problems of NVidia cars, you'll need to ask someone who's a) uses such a card, b) not a fanboy. (Good luck! People have an inane attachments to brands they use nowadays).

I totally agree with that... sadly what i'm really interest in is project shield where i can almost any computer game portable with just wifi. Sadly, since it made by nvidia, I haven't seen anyone post anywhere saying it compatible with AMD card that why i wanted to switch.

Project Shield is for nvidia only so if that is what you're into then go for a nvidia card.

Source: http://shield.nvidia.com/play-pc-games/ from the page GPU: GeForce GTX 650 or higher desktop GPU (Notebook GPUs are not supported at this time)

I guess i better save my money till project shield come out and see if they support amd or any mod out there for it.

I highly doubt that the shield will support amd especially since the shield is made by nvidia. So if you are interested in the shield you should save for a gtx 650+ gpu.

Never go with AMD if you're planning multi GPU, or at least not yet. Other than that I see no issue with both

Or the new $250 GTX 760 which have incredible performance scale and pretty damn close to the $650 GTX 780, when using 2 way GTX 760 SLI.