its a brand thing.
Nvidia do have a lot better advertizing if nothing else.
I can bearly start a game without seeing "nvidia the way its meant to be played"
I just upgraded my hd 7870 to a GTX 780 but i dont see any reason why i wouldn't but a AMD card in the future.
i do go by what i can get for my money and im not swayed by physx and hair works. all i want is the most power for my pennies.
I got a really good deal on the 780 so it was a no question upgrade. some one on ebay also just ot a bargain on a 7870 as i recouped the money i spent.
but if there had been a 290x for similar money insted of the 780 theres no reason why i wouldn't have chose that.
the reall problem is people really do become brand loyal. i simply dont see it. and when you are surrounded by nvidia adverts when you start a game that does tend to sway the people who dont know better to chose those cards.
i used nvidia cards for years till about the hd 38xx cards, then i used amd for the 38xx 48xx 5770 and then the 7870 (and i have a 7850 in my server, and a dell branded low profile hd 6xxx gpu in my media center (its about the equivalent of a 5770)
So the hd range of amd gpu's really does have a place in both gaming and media..
Fallout 4 coming soon did force my hand a bit, so i went for a gtx 780 (i game at 1080p)
After overclocking the 780 as far as i could on air safely. and comparing it to the 7870 which i also overclocked as far as i could on air safely. the 780 is some where around 80-85% better
and that is at VERY similar clock speeds. (7870 was less than 100mhz faster clocked)
So in that instance the 780 is a much better card. BUT at the time of release there is not a single thing that my 7870 could not do that the 780 could do (if you dissregard physx) and it did it at a MUCH lower cost.
I do think i would have been a bit stupid if i had bought a 780 instead of a 7870 back when i did buy the 7870.
it cost me a lot less money saw me through till now. and the 780 now costed me ~£70 with postage when i factor in how much i sold the 7870 for..
again i may be slightly behind on the tech. but being like this saves me a LOT of money.
And i could not be saving money like this if i had bought the 780 new..
So i am not a fan boy.
All i want to do is play games at a solid 60fps @ 1080p
and i want to do it at the lowest price possible.
AMD have been the company that allowed me to do this since the hd38xx cards came out.
But as i just did if i get a change to buy a faster card at a low price i will buy it.
Edit
reading this back it seems i hugely digressed...
So in summary..
Nvidia have better advertizing, which then causes new gamers to think nvidia is always the better option, they become brand loyal. and amd suffer.
Enthusiasts with money to burn will pay the extra for 5fps more here or there. or just to have a feature that is rarely utilized which no one wanted when ageia owend the tech (better advertizing).
And there really arent that many of us left who buy the best card they can affoard. Which is usually an amd card, but if there is a nvidia ard that performs better for the same money, then why would you not buy that. "and the same is true in the other way. although brand loyalty will have people buying 980's instead of the fury even if they are the same price and they have the room to mount it. even though the fury will motlikley turn out to be a Decently faster card once drivers mature"