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Looking over these new Doom 3 benches, it strikes me as amazing how quickly nVidia has turned itself around, from the Dustbuster FX and 3DMark scandal to now, apparently, kicking ATi's ass all over the place. Clearly the GPU industry is a volatile place, but who do you think has the upper hand in a more strategic sense at the moment? Put another way: If you had to invest $10,000 in either company's stock, and were in for the long haul, where would you put it?
Personally, I have to hand it to nVidia... the 6800 line (and the GT in particular) seems to be the best-engineered of the current lineup. One point that doesn't get emphasized enough is that the X800Pro/XT is essentially a higher-clocked 9800, while the 6800 series is new from the ground up. ATi will definitely have to switch architectures at some point, probably a year from now when the next-next-gen cards start showing up. Similar point with SM3.0: yeah, games don't need/use it right now (I'm torrenting Farcry 1.2 as we speak), but a year from now it will be ATi's first try at an SM3.0 implementation vs. nVidia's year of refinements. People have also pointed out that ATi has committed itself to developing the GPU's for both the Xbox Next and whatever the new GC is called... I know they're a smaller company payroll-wise than nVidia, have they stretched themselves too thin?
I have nothing against ATi, I think they've made some great cards in the past and the X800 is certainly a fine product, but it looks like they're gonna have an uphill battle in the years to come.
Personally, I have to hand it to nVidia... the 6800 line (and the GT in particular) seems to be the best-engineered of the current lineup. One point that doesn't get emphasized enough is that the X800Pro/XT is essentially a higher-clocked 9800, while the 6800 series is new from the ground up. ATi will definitely have to switch architectures at some point, probably a year from now when the next-next-gen cards start showing up. Similar point with SM3.0: yeah, games don't need/use it right now (I'm torrenting Farcry 1.2 as we speak), but a year from now it will be ATi's first try at an SM3.0 implementation vs. nVidia's year of refinements. People have also pointed out that ATi has committed itself to developing the GPU's for both the Xbox Next and whatever the new GC is called... I know they're a smaller company payroll-wise than nVidia, have they stretched themselves too thin?
I have nothing against ATi, I think they've made some great cards in the past and the X800 is certainly a fine product, but it looks like they're gonna have an uphill battle in the years to come.