kemosabe said:
Honestly, I don't think ATi expected R300 to do as well as it did versus nv30--I think ATi was as surprised as everybody else at how far short of the mark nv30 turned out to be. And I have no doubt nVidia was shocked to its bones at how far above their mark R300 turned out to be...
That's the kind of thing that I love to see in a market--it means it's healthy and vigorous. nVidia was well on its way towards a boring, incremental approach to 3D technology that would have spoon fed all of us in measured little dollops according to 5-year master plans, much in the same way Intel did things prior to the K7. R300 was a major and unexpected surprise and threw a monkey wrench into all of that nonsense.
I like it when companies are intent on producing the best products they can make as fast as they can reasonably do it--and that's the kind of long-range competition I hope that ATi has sparked in the 3D chip sector. It means exciting times for us, I think. I'd like to see nVidia stay in the game--most definitely. But not with substandard, non-competitive products. Not with products which are 70% marketing. No way. But even if nVidia is cursed with a tragic flaw and fails to mend the fences and lay the bridges it needs to stay in the game, the market is just too big for a single dominant player. If one of them goes down it just opens a door for someone else. Viva la competition!...