For a long time the graphics market was asleep. Five years ago, watching developments in this market space was the IT equivalent of watching 24 hours of Big Brother. NVidia and ATI were doing their best Intel/AMD impressions and there was not a lot to talk about in terms of competition.
NVidia was dominant in desktops - the biggest and most profitable sector - and ATI held the high ground in the notebook space. ATI lacked the technological edge it needed to make a real difference to nVidia's dominance in the PC sector.
Fast-forward five years to a much-discussed auction on eBay, where a bizarre bidding war was rumoured to be under way, in which ATI and nVidia were offering millions of dollars for the bundling rights to an eagerly awaited game.
Suddenly, the graphics industry, like an old graphics card, has been swapped out for a far leaner and more aggressive beast.
