DailyTech has released its review of the latest GPUs hitting the market this Fall, and it’s not inspiring:
Traditionally the Fall graphics refresh has been the battle of the titans — ATI and NVIDIA both would debut behemoth video cards in an attempt to snag the headlines from one another. Much of that changed when AMD acquired ATI last year. Not only did ATI miss the Radeon HD 2900 launch window by almost six months, but NVIDIA’s high-end GeForce 8800 became the undisputed ultra-high-end GPU as well.
This Fall, we will not get an ultra-high-end replacement from AMD or NVIDIA. Instead, November will be a clash of the sub-titans.
POINT: Right now NVidia is unchallenged in the high-end market. They have held this position just under a year. With no competitors, NVidia can afford to rest on its laurels. In other words, with no competition, the market stagnates. Imagine what would happen if the GPU side of AMD disappeared. NVidia would win and innovation would slow to a crawl.
COUNTERPOINT: Most of the profit is not made at the ultra-high end (8800 Ultra or SLI) or high-end (8800GTX). Most of the profit is made on the lower end cards. It makes sense for NVidia and AMD to concentrate on these video cards. AMD especially needs to make money since they are so far in the hole with their debt.