Should Nintendo renew their contract with ATI for the future

[Ooh-videogames]

I think they should because ATI seem to be getting better in designing GPU's. Does anyone think that the next-generation GPU's will have the performance gaps they have today like the XBox has a large gap in its performance between it and the PS2, with the GC in the middle or will it be an even playfield with no visual difference?

 

[CaptainHowdy]

ATI has surpassed Nvidia bigtime, the 9700 is amazing.
many people are in wait, for the NV30, then ATI announces they have yet another chipset to beat it before it even gets here.

 

[Steve Dave Part Deux]

NEC and Hitachi are rumored to be Nintendo's partners on their next console(which is also rumored to be a "digital hub" similar to what Microsoft and Sony have in the works). Nintendo is quite fond of both teams that they worked with on Gamecube and will probably request their services again. I also believe the next Nintendo box will likely use a PowerPC variant.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Do guys see Nintendo using the same storage medium for their next system with more storage space or will they go to regular dvds.

 

[zurich]

If they do, then MS will have no choice but to go to NVIDIA for Xbox2.

I'm sure Nintendo also likes ATI as instead of following NVIDIAs purchase-model price plan for the Xbox, they collect royalties off games instead.

ATIs been steadily getting better at hardware, but their drivers are still ass. And as hardware gets more complex, so does the software. NVIDIA may have lost the .13u gamble, but imo they're still a much, much, much more solid firm than ATI.

zurich

edit: Nintendo will never conform to mainsteam media formats, I'm sure their next box will read off plush toys or something

 

[FiggyG]

Zurich, have you used ATI's recent drivers? They work well with new and old games, but when a new game is released, nVidia releases drivers for people to use the game without problems, and many report the drivers mess up on their other games. (even nVidia drivers aren't perfect, is my point) Now that ATI is doing better software development, they will be a very strong contendor with nVidia.

 

[Blade]

I think that Nintendo will work with ATi again. ATi is good now'a'days..

 

[CaptainHowdy]

for anyone who has been PC gaming for a while
ATI's drivers have gotten so much better
Nvidias drivers have been getting worse, the last Dets were horrible..
everyone rolled back the day they got them.

 

[Glonk]

ATI has surpassed Nvidia bigtime, the 9700 is amazing.
many people are in wait, for the NV30, then ATI announces they have yet another chipset to beat it before it even gets here.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Where do you guys see polygon counts going (raw) for next-gen, also what features that couldn't be implemented in hardware the will be next-gen?

I say 500 to 700p/s but I may reaching a bit. And as for as features (graphical), I have no idea.