Nvidia 3D Vision Vs. AMD HD3D: 18 Games, Evaluated

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

It’s about time that someone performed a meaningful comparison of 3D-enabled games using Nvidia’s 3D Vision and AMD’s HD3D. We put 18 different titles under the microscope to determine which technology gives you the most playability, most often.

Dragon Age 2

AMD HD3D and the TriDef Ignition Driver:

Good 3D result with Virtual 3D mode

The TriDef driver delivers an ideal result in gameplay with very slight hair artifacts during cut scenes

Stereoscopic playback doesn’t seem to work at all in the TriDef driver's normal 3D mode, but in Virtual 3D, the game is rendered almost perfectly, aside for some slight hair anomalies during cut scene playback.

Nvidia 3D Vision:

Not recommended

The skybox problem is distracting during gameplay, but the cut scenes suffer from more problems when using 3D Vision.

This game suffers from a lot of post-processing problems when using 3D Vision. Most of them seem to disappear when the overall quality level is set to High instead of Very High. But text is often improperly shown in 3D space. The skybox is also offset in each eye. Aside from this, the cut scenes employ a lot of effects that don't work in 3D, and the depth-of-field effect causes a lot of problems. Usually cut scenes don't have a large impact on the user’s 3D gaming experience. But in this BioWare game there are a lot of them. We’d steer clear of this title when using 3D Vision.

Don Woligroski
112 Comments Comment from the forums
  • renick
    nvidia 3d vision is best in all............
    Reply
  • Kamab
    Except for the ones where it's not recommended. Good thing I have one on this rig! Now I just got to shell out some cash for some 3D Tech.
    Reply
  • the_krasno
    3D is over hyped in my opinion, it will be some more time before games can correctly exploit it.
    Reply
  • falchard
    Everytime nVidia pushes out a proprietary format they shoot themselves in the foot. They just can't make it marketable with such a low market share. You need something like Microsofts 90% market share to think about making a closed standard.
    Anyone notice the bevel on the Samsung model. That beautiful for multi-monitor.
    Reply
  • Scanlia
    Great comprehensive review! Loved it.
    Reply
  • alyoshka
    Nice one, and really long awaited.
    Reply
  • i tried Tridef in EVE online, absolutely stunning. :)
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    During preliminary testing, we noticed that a decent Phenom II X4 had some trouble providing smooth frame rates, and mid-level graphics cards were cut down to their knees

    Time for Bulldozer!!!
    Reply
  • assassin123
    i loved it great review keep it up
    Reply
  • RazberyBandit
    Would it kill Tom's to use high-resolution pop-up pics? It's nearly impossible to discern any differences in detail or artifacts when comparing such low-resolution images. C'mon...1024 x 317? Seriously?
    Reply