The latest volleys have been fired in a
war that could be seen as a positive
for consumers. Both Nvida and AMD have
released their latest graphics processing
unit (GPU) architectures in the same week,
and the timings were far from coincidental.
Nvidia launched its GT200 series GPUs
on June 16, once again staking claim to the
title of the world’s fastest graphics card.
However, this comes just months after the
launch of its previous flagship series, the
9800GTX and its dual-chip 9800GX2 variant.
Customers who would have paid Rs 40,000
and above for cards based on these GPUs
will no doubt be furious.
Only a few days later, AMD announced
the RV770 series, with a midrange card, the
Radeon HD 4850. Even though this is not
the top-end model, initial benchmarks have
shown it defeating Nvidia’s previous flagship,
the 9800GTX, fairly consistently while
generally drawing less power and requiring
less cooling. That too for a price of $200 (less
than Rs 10,000)!
Not to be outdone, Nvidia has dropped
the price of the 9800GTX to match AMD,
and announced a 9800GTX+ which will use a
shrunken die and run at higher clock speeds
to compete with the AMD card. The new
9800GTX+ looks like it will perform slightly
better for slightly more money.
But the war isn’t over yet—enthusiasts
still have the high-end Radeon HD 4870 and
a rumored dual-GPU 4870X2, to look forward
to. Stay tuned to CHIP for the latest reviews
as soon as cards with these new GPUs
launch in India.
