Graphics War

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.