AMD Hitting Nvidia Where it Hurts: The Games

[GuitarrassDeAmor]

http://www.nordichardware.com/image3.php?id=33AMD's newfound zest for life has made it look for what would really, really hurt the competition. The answer? the game developers. I'm not sure if you've heard, but Blizzard has grown pretty big these days. World of WarCraft has been an indescribable success. It's been known for a while that Blizzard has been looking at implementing DirectX 10.1 with one of its future games. The fact is that it's more than one, or two.
If AMD has played its cards right, Blizzard is not only looking to implement DX10.1 support, and in best-AMD-case scenario, DX10.1-exclusive effects, with future games, but also patch current games with DX10.1 for additional performance and effects. If everything comes together for AMD, this means that StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, future World of WarCraft add-ons, and more games from Blizzard will sport DX10.1, something which NVIDIA is unable to handle hardware-wise.
That's not all though. We recently learned that AMD is looking to team up with more developers, and if there's one engine that has loved ATI hardware for a long time, it's the Valve Source engine. ATI is apparently hoping to ensnare Valve as well, and have DX10.1 support with future games like Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2 and the rest. Knowing how flexible the Source engine is, we wouldn't be surprised if current games would be patched to further boost performance and additional effects through DX10.1.
Game developers have a tendency to play it safe though, and whether there will be any exclusive effects or not remains to be seen. We see no reason for why they shouldn't implement DirectX 10.1 though, the worst that can happen is that people with compliant hardware will get a performance boost where DX10.1 makes a difference over DX10.0.


http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7904.html

:)

[sneezymarble]

Kudos to AMD. I was as big a skeptic as anyone prior to this launch but they've really managed to pull through. I'm anxious to see the 1GB 4870 and 4870X2 benchmarks later this summer. I may end up going with ATI for the first time since I started gaming (I didn't have a computer during the FX period, if I did I'm sure I would have gone ATI then) and I've been PC gaming since Voodoo 1 days.

[Playstation_3]

ive been a nvidia man all my life too, and ive just upgraded my xfx 8800gts extreme overclock version, for a sapphire 4870 gddr5 and it owns.
my old card (8800gts) was no slow coach but this 4870 really does fly, it plays the crysis beta demo with all setting on high with ease and in the crysis benchtest it gets avg 50fps now all that for a £170 card.
4870 ftw.

[radic202]

I will stick with nvidia all the way until I see that ATI can really prove what they are made of! Over all the years and all my computers ATI has falied me miserabely every time....And the Cataclyst System is the worst of all!

Currently SLIng 2x 8800GTXs and never ever have I had a problem with the cards so far and when I run DX10 on the 2 or 3 games that can run it, they are simply amazing.....just wait until Age of Conan get DX10 then DX10.1 implemented in the game and we will see the difference on how NVIDIA is still supreme in the graphics cards world!

[ex nihilo7]

When I get money to afford a new PC, I'm going to wait until AMD is on top processor wise while Nvidia is on top at the same time. Yeah, I guess I'm weird. Looks like AMD buying ATI is starting to work well for the company.

[Recipe7]

I'm anxious to see the 4870x2 myself. It's scores will probably turn me towards ATI for the first time. I don't see any resolution for NVIDIA till next year at the least, their 280 seems like a bust due to the price.

[OKlondon]

Yeah I m starting to look towards Ati now after sometime with Nvidia, but if Valve and blizzard go more towards Amd/Ati then I will diffinately get Ati from now on. Due to the only games I will be playing in the future is:

Blizzard games
Valve games (cant wait for left 4 dead)
Deus Ex 3
Spore and (maybe sims3)

Thats it really so half my games will support Ati.

[GuitarrassDeAmor]

Erm....well...everybody go look at Nvidias price cuts. Everybody knows ATI will be making them soon, but...

[sneezymarble]

I'm guessing we'll see another price cut if the 4870X2 scales well. I'm really pulling for ATI to get the X2 working well and scaling properly in games. If it does, it'll be a huge win and I'll probably end up going ATI this fall.

[Perfect Sin]

Been nVidia as far as I can remember. What if I don't want to go ATi?






Change scares me...:oops:

[Stewie Skywalker]

I'm thankful ATi is putting up a fight now, it helps tame these incredible card prices. I'm still holding out for the card that manhandles Crysis though.

[F34R]

what are the benefits of the .1 for dx ?

[voom99]

I have gone from Nvidia to the latest ATI 4850 card. I'm delighted with it, I can now play Crysis at 1920x1080 cloned thru my 24" Dell and 60" Bravia at the same time (Crysis looks AWESOME on that. I can play Race Driver GRID at native 1080p resolution at a crisp framerate in the 50s unlike the PS3 version which barely reached 30fps at 720p and looks grainy and blurry as hell compared to the pc version. I'm also playing Unreal Tournament 3 at 1920x1080 cloned across to the big tv and it's super wow!

Very happy. It's given my 3 year old single core AMD 4000+ rig a new lease of life. Its performance in Crysis proves that dual core / quad core means jack. I'm keeping up with the current benchmarks posted in review sites. ATI has made me a PC gamer once again. :)

[ZombieInfected]

I've had 2 ATI cards, and until they support dual monitor PROPERLY and deliver good drivers, I can live without the snazzy effects, and be happy with a stable nVidia card..

[F34R]

I've always purchased my cards on price/performance based decisions. If AMD takes that crown, I'll switch on my next purchase. I don't have any brand loyalty lol, I have money loyalty.