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ATI Wins Bid For Next Xbox
TypoNAM writes "CNET News is reporting that graphics chip underdog ATI Technologies has signed a contract with Microsoft to produce components for future versions of the Xbox game console, beating out market leader Nvidia." According to the article, "The announcement ends months of speculation over whether Nvidia, the leading maker of graphics processors for PCs, would renew its troubled partnership with Microsoft on the Xbox."
6 days changes a lot in the graphics card business...... So much for Nvidia cashes in on Xbox chips
Well, Nintendo said it stopping production of the GameCube
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
If you RTFA, you would see this link: http://news.com.com/2100-1006-983593.html?tag=nl
"Men lie."
"Yeah, about sleeping with other women, but never about bioluminescent plankton."
-Dan Brown
"We selected ATI after reviewing the top graphics technologies in development and determining that ATI's technical vision fits perfectly with the future direction of Xbox," Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft's home and entertainment division, said in a statement..... "Nvidia has really given a lot of signals...that they're trying to distance themselves from Xbox2,"
The second part of that statement (the part about nVidia) came from an analyst, not from a statement from anyone at Microsoft. The full quote about nVidia was:
Nvidia has really given a lot of signals...that they're trying to distance themselves from Xbox2," Michael McConnell, an analyst for Pacific Crest Securities, said earlier this summer. "That relationship has really soured over the last year...Microsoft in general is just not a very nice partner to deal with. I think the whole experience left Nvidia with a bad taste in their mouth."
My prediction:
Tomorrow's a good day to buy nVidia stock.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Um, calling ATI an underdog is a gross misrepresentation. Not only do they have the best performing chips, but their marketshare is actually dominant in many areas.
http://www.beyond3d.com/#news7249
DX9 Marketshare:
ATI 40%
nVidia 60%
Integrated Marketshare:
ATI 21%
nVidia 27%
Laptop Marketshare:
ATI 68%
nVidia 32%
In most cases, nVidia's share in the last quarter fell, while ATI's was on the rise. Plus, ATI will be in all XBox sales and Playstation sales.
Underdog? That's one brawny underdog.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
On the contrary, ATI recently started canvasing the various community forums to get beta testers for their new Catalyst Linux drivers, which they recently started serious development on. I've got the betas running here now, and I must say they are very very good - I'd put them on par with nVidias Linux drivers at the very least. There's a link here to a forum post from one of ATIs driver guys discussin the matter.
"First off, nVidia has better drivers. This is important."
Better drivers where? Windows? Linux? We are talking about the X-Box2 here. I can promise you that the drivers for ATI's card on the X-Box2 will be very good. They will be working very close with Microsoft to get the performance they need.
----- "Blame the guy who doesn't speak English." -- Homer J. Simpson
"the PS2 still has a higher fillrate than any PC graphics card"
>>PS2 has a fill rate of 1.2 gtexels/s and 2.4 gpixels/s
This is misleading. The PS2 only has 0.5 texels per pixel, which would look awful on a high-res monitor. PC graphics cards use 2 texels per pixels. For PS2 to have the same quality pixels as PC's the developers would have to reduce the pixel fillrate to a pathetic 600 mpixels/s.