| Graphics card giant Nvidia have had a difficult time of | | | | The GTX 480 is aiming squarely for the goal of |
| late. After dominating the market in the past with | | | | fastest graphics card on the market, the card comes |
| their massive selling Geforce 8800 series, they | | | | with a hefty price tag and is competing with ATI's |
| arguably rested on their laurels somewhat as their | | | | 5870/5970 cards. Benchmarks of the GTX480's |
| major rival in the market, AMD floundered, unable to | | | | performance show that in one respect it has |
| compete with Nvidia in both price and performance. | | | | achieved its goal. Out of the box it beats the ATI |
| Over the past couple of years the tables have | | | | cards in most games and benchmarks in terms of |
| turned and now AMD, with their ATI Radeon | | | | performance. This is only one part of the battle in |
| graphics cards are enjoying dominance in the market | | | | winning over consumers however and there are |
| and it is now Nvidia playing the part of the troubled | | | | factors which may push the GTX480 out of favor. |
| underdog. | | | | The first problem is the price - although faster than |
| With their existing range of graphic cards in trouble, | | | | the ATI cards the Geforce costs more. The |
| Nvidia have been hard at work with a new series of | | | | performance lead is there but somewhat negligible- |
| products to reinstate themselves as market leader. | | | | the extra cost is not. In a time when peoples purse |
| The new technology now under the label 'Fermi' has | | | | strings are tight, many people will be willing to save a |
| now finally arrived on the market for home users | | | | few dollars at the expense of a marginal |
| with two new cards now available - the top end | | | | performance increase. The card is also large, uses a |
| Geforce GTX480 and the mid range Geforce | | | | lot of power, is noisy and runs very hot, even at idle. |
| GTX470. There has been huge speculation over | | | | These are not factors which set well with gaming |
| recent months about the price and performance of | | | | enthusiasts. |
| these cards, with rumours abound of Nvidia being | | | | So has Nvidia turned the war around? Not yet. The |
| plagues by performance and design issues along with | | | | technology in the new cards shows promise but the |
| poor chip yields (the percentage of chips produced | | | | newly released cards are not yet in a position to |
| which are deemed to be useable from any given | | | | start taking chunks out of ATI quite yet. It will be |
| manufacturing batch). Through this fog of internet | | | | interesting to see what Nvidia can do in the next few |
| speculation the new cards have finally arrived. With | | | | months as it refines its production processes and |
| reviewers and consumers finally able to test the | | | | begins to release mid range cards with more |
| cards out for themselves it is time to see whether | | | | competitive price tags on the market. But for now at |
| Nvidia can regain their crown. | | | | least, ATI remains the graphics card king. |