PC vs Mac. Microsoft vs. Google. Intel vs. AMD. There is no shortage of historic rivalries in the tech industry. But the Royal Rumble between ATI and Nvidia to the dominance of 3D graphics is one of the heaviest lot.
You can argue the contest is really between AMD and Nvidia. After all, AMD's ATI graphics of live Canadian outfit in 2006. For now, however, life on the brand as ATI graphics division of AMD. More importantly, it can be a piece of history, ATI and Nvidia are very closely linked. Both started as specialists in PC graphics, and the company took a non-PC platforms, such as gaming consoles, mobile phones and set-top boxes.
Last takeover by AMD ATI seems to be set to a very different paths to the future of NVIDIA. But let's start from the memories of a few of our favorite Nvidia vs. ATI fisticuffs from the past before taking a look at their current offerings.
RIVA and
beginning in the computer graphics 3D card I saw on the Nvidia Riva TNT2 and ATI Rage 128 and Rage 128 taken But it was Nvidia, who announced a modern GPU or Graphics Processing Unit of the powerful GeForce 256 in 1999. This was the first graphics chip with Hardware Transform and lighting capabilities. And quickly. Damn fast.
ATI responded in 2000 with a Radeon graphics card. Since then, successive generations of GeForce and Radeon are another jump in the race for dominance of the graphics. Nvidia was the beginning of the benefits of the GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 series probably having an advantage over ATI Radeon, Radeon 7500 and Radeon 8500th
But in 2002 the tables turned out awesome ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. The first fully programmable GPU shaders, 9700 Pro was much stronger than before the format. It lasted until the beginning of 2003, Nvidia GeForce response to ill-fated 5800 Ultra GPU, which never lived up to expectations.
NVIDIA returned to form a year later with its GeForce 6800th Tit for tat was made from ATI or Nvidia, or to achieve a distinct advantage. It was during this period, Nvidia has introduced a revolutionary technology for multi-GPU SLI and ATI Crossfire platform follower responded. Is there really was nothing to separate them.
Radeon think
At least it was not admitted to the ATI Poor Radeon HD 2900 XT . How tragic series Nvidia GeForce FX 2900 is too late, ran hot, underperformed, and may not match its opposition GeForce 8800 Ultra .
But in contrast to the GeForce FX, lead to a fundamental strategic rethink. AMD has decided that in future no longer be ATI's ultimate pursuit of the top GPU. Instead, it will seek the maximum bang for the buck and the introduction of two GPUs in order to meet the boards for enthusiasts demanding very high performance.
think it was the culmination of Radeon HD 4870 . Launched in mid-2008, is half the price of competing Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 but delivered at least 80 percent efficiency. It was a winning combination.
DX11 era
Of course, the graphics technology is waiting for a man and not much has changed since the series Radeon HD 4000 and GeForce GTX 200 hit the market in 2008. Late last year, unleashed ATI Radeon HD 5000 series, the world's first family of graphics chips with support for DirectX 11 API latest Microsoft multimedia, as you can see in Windows 7, but also available as an update to Windows Vista.
lasted a bit longer respond in kind Nvidia GeForce GTX family 400th In the end appeared earlier this year and since then it was these two pumps pixel graphics architecture is a fight for top honors DX11.
Topping the current single GPU tables are therefore ATI Radeon HD 5870 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 . With more emphasis on the value of ATI, GTX 480 weighs about 100 more expensive at 430 or more.
Nvidia to offer an additional price of one billion transistors on a slightly ridiculous total of three billion. You too can have a little more standard memory, 1.5 GB to 5870 with 1GB. However, it is worth noting that 2GB variants 5870 is now available for less than 1.5 GB GTX 480th
In any case, what you do not get from 480 is a huge performance benefits. So it's a bit faster than the 5870th But not as much as it should be taken of the additional cost and complexity.
Cut-down card
This is a similar story further on the next rung down the ladder graphics. Both ATI and Nvidia offer a bit lower their best versions of the graphics processor. Radeon HD 5850 is your 225 and keep 1440 with 5870 in 1600 shaders stream. Meanwhile, Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 weighs about 295 and 448 packages a powerful Nvidia CUDA cores. GTX 480, the protocol has 480 cores.
Once again, 470 is slightly faster than the ATI counterpart, but also much more expensive. Then things turned a bit more complicated. ATI is stupid money dual-GPU Radeon HD 5000 board, 5970 . In most studies the efficiency of pumps pixels, is the fastest thing out there(near NVIDIA have now taken a dual-GPU GTX 400-series). But only from time to time of its dual-GPU architecture and memory allocation will be created with it better.
Move in the middle class and the direct comparison between ATI and Nvidia are now a bit complicated. That's because Nvidia has yet to deliver cheaper chips based on the Fermi, the new DX11 architecture, which form the basis of 480 and GTX 470 GPUs.
The Radeon HD 5770 (125) Radeon HD 5670 (85) and Radeon HD 5570 (72) are lording it DX11 without competition.
Instead, Nvidia does not make the older chipsets based on DX10 technology, such as GeForce GTS 250 (125) and GeForce GT 240 (72).
Advantage Nvidia
However, Nvidia recently released a further cut-down version of the Fermi system in the new GeForce GTX 465, on sale from about 230th But what really needs some pukka mid-range DX11 chips to take the fight against AMD. I need them quickly. Before the end of ATI may also give the family the second generation of DX11 GPUs.
At this time, it is not all bad news for Nvidia. Probably has an advantage in at least one important element of DX11, tessellator equipment. Designed to spew out a large number of polygons, and therefore give more games geometric detail and realism than ever before, it may be tessellator killer feature in DX11. The first tests show Nvidia chips have more power than ATI Tessellation.
Nvidia is the way the ATI when it comes to stereoscopic 3D. NVIDIA 3D Vision is the best way to get 3D on your computer today. Works with large number of games , and is also compatible with certain 3D video formats including Blu-ray 3D. But like most other 3D display technology, a pair of sunglasses is the price of academic participation.
At least it was not admitted to the ATI Poor Radeon HD 2900 XT . How tragic series Nvidia GeForce FX 2900 is too late, ran hot, underperformed, and may not match its opposition GeForce 8800 Ultra .
But in contrast to the GeForce FX, lead to a fundamental strategic rethink. AMD has decided that in future no longer be ATI's ultimate pursuit of the top GPU. Instead, it will seek the maximum bang for the buck and the introduction of two GPUs in order to meet the boards for enthusiasts demanding very high performance.
think it was the culmination of Radeon HD 4870 . Launched in mid-2008, is half the price of competing Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 but delivered at least 80 percent efficiency. It was a winning combination.
DX11 era
Of course, the graphics technology is waiting for a man and not much has changed since the series Radeon HD 4000 and GeForce GTX 200 hit the market in 2008. Late last year, unleashed ATI Radeon HD 5000 series, the world's first family of graphics chips with support for DirectX 11 API latest Microsoft multimedia, as you can see in Windows 7, but also available as an update to Windows Vista.
lasted a bit longer respond in kind Nvidia GeForce GTX family 400th In the end appeared earlier this year and since then it was these two pumps pixel graphics architecture is a fight for top honors DX11.
Topping the current single GPU tables are therefore ATI Radeon HD 5870 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 . With more emphasis on the value of ATI, GTX 480 weighs about 100 more expensive at 430 or more.
Nvidia to offer an additional price of one billion transistors on a slightly ridiculous total of three billion. You too can have a little more standard memory, 1.5 GB to 5870 with 1GB. However, it is worth noting that 2GB variants 5870 is now available for less than 1.5 GB GTX 480th
In any case, what you do not get from 480 is a huge performance benefits. So it's a bit faster than the 5870th But not as much as it should be taken of the additional cost and complexity.
Cut-down card
This is a similar story further on the next rung down the ladder graphics. Both ATI and Nvidia offer a bit lower their best versions of the graphics processor. Radeon HD 5850 is your 225 and keep 1440 with 5870 in 1600 shaders stream. Meanwhile, Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 weighs about 295 and 448 packages a powerful Nvidia CUDA cores. GTX 480, the protocol has 480 cores.
Once again, 470 is slightly faster than the ATI counterpart, but also much more expensive. Then things turned a bit more complicated. ATI is stupid money dual-GPU Radeon HD 5000 board, 5970 . In most studies the efficiency of pumps pixels, is the fastest thing out there(near NVIDIA have now taken a dual-GPU GTX 400-series). But only from time to time of its dual-GPU architecture and memory allocation will be created with it better.
Move in the middle class and the direct comparison between ATI and Nvidia are now a bit complicated. That's because Nvidia has yet to deliver cheaper chips based on the Fermi, the new DX11 architecture, which form the basis of 480 and GTX 470 GPUs.
The Radeon HD 5770 (125) Radeon HD 5670 (85) and Radeon HD 5570 (72) are lording it DX11 without competition.
Instead, Nvidia does not make the older chipsets based on DX10 technology, such as GeForce GTS 250 (125) and GeForce GT 240 (72).
Advantage Nvidia
However, Nvidia recently released a further cut-down version of the Fermi system in the new GeForce GTX 465, on sale from about 230th But what really needs some pukka mid-range DX11 chips to take the fight against AMD. I need them quickly. Before the end of ATI may also give the family the second generation of DX11 GPUs.
At this time, it is not all bad news for Nvidia. Probably has an advantage in at least one important element of DX11, tessellator equipment. Designed to spew out a large number of polygons, and therefore give more games geometric detail and realism than ever before, it may be tessellator killer feature in DX11. The first tests show Nvidia chips have more power than ATI Tessellation.
Nvidia is the way the ATI when it comes to stereoscopic 3D. NVIDIA 3D Vision is the best way to get 3D on your computer today. Works with large number of games , and is also compatible with certain 3D video formats including Blu-ray 3D. But like most other 3D display technology, a pair of sunglasses is the price of academic participation.