Graphics Does anyone have plans on snaking in on ATI and Nvidia?

I know there are a few graphic card makers on the market right now, usually the ones that make the cheap graphics cards, but will any company actually try to release a top of the line card to compete with ATI and Nvidia? I saw an article on a card from a canadian (i believe) company that had a card in the works but i havnt heard anything about them since. So what do you guys think?

 

I see that being about as likely as some new linux distro swapping places with Windows in market share. Which, despite how good the distro is, wouldn't happen, as there simply isn't the OEM support that Windows has.

 

there was a company that tried last year? year before? dunno was a while ago
theyy had a an awesome multi-gpu'd type thingy-ma-bob that should've been fantastic on paper but it never got off the ground

 

I don't think it's very likely, but if I had to guess a company, I'd guess Matrox They rule he 2D world... And they have a (small) market share allready...

For a new company coming out of the nothing it would be nearly impossible... exept if their design just blows the rest away, and a huge capital is invested in marketing

 

it's not likely.

The last competeing company was 3D-FX (vodoo cards).
And they were bought out by Nvidia eventually which has lead to SLI (3DFX had the original technology for this, you could plug other Vodoo cards into a master card - crossfire anyone?)


Didnt herculese have their own chipset?
Kyro? and Kyro 2? or somethign similar, they were highly successful for a while (or were they based on nvidia/ati chipset?)

 

this has got me thinking.
with the SLi coming meaning nvidia chipset would be needed.
and the crossfires needing an ATI chipset, where does this leave VIA?

ive used via chipsets before but never really liked them. is there a possibility for them to make a gfx card maybe?

 

They already do part-make GPU's - they work closely with S3 Graphics.

 

there was a dual GPU card a while ago (volary V8 duo iirc) that attempted to out-muscle the top dogs, but it was pants :/

 

thats the one i was referring to, couldnt remember the name tho

 

It had filtering problems, amongst other problems too

You can't just compete on speed - you have to compete on image quality too in this day and age.

 

How is the new PhysX from AGEIA going to be implemented? Just had a brief look at their website and it looks like it may run in conjunction with the GPU..............
I guess depending on how successful AGEIA are with this, maybe they will consider making their own GPU's with PhysX built in????

 

I think they might sell out for lots of moolah

 

I wonder how well intel could do if it created video cards. They already have some background in doing onboard video, I bet they could make a video card outside the restrictions of a chipset that would perform fairly well.

 

Yeah but Intel's onboard video is craptastic. Let them make processors and chipsets and leave GPUs to the companys that know how to do it.

I DO wonder where the PPU is going. It's one of those "well, we won't buy till games use it" "well, we won't code for it until people have them" paradoxical things. Now IIRC UE3 or something is already planning to make use of it, which could give it the kick it needs. Unfortunately it wasn't implemented in any of the current consoles which would have given it a huge boost as far as coding/engines go. The problem is that you'd almost need two entirely different versions of an engine to not rule out most people - one that calculates how burned the wall is based off of the friction of the bullet entering it plus the heat from the gunpowder explosion minus cooldown between muzzle and wall and one that just puts a little dent in whatever's behind you. And doing that's both expensive and difficult. And the end-user would want something no more complicated than a dropdown for "Physics: Software or Hardware rendering"

Of course, I don't like the idea of having to wear safety glasses in a shootout to make it so I don't go blind for the rest of the round because a carefully-calculated wall splinter found a comfy spot in one of my eyes. Yay for realism though.

That said, if it came in price to about $50 or so retail or was integrated into next-gen GPUs or cards, it'll do well.

But back to GPUs...

I don't see it happening, much like I don't see Via making CPUs for much more than their EPIA boards, a definate niche market.

 

Intel's onboard video is part of the chipset, so it kinda makes sense for them to make it to reduce the cost of a mobo for bussinesses - buying a chipset and a graphics chip costs more than a chipset with integrated graphics.

ch424

 

Anyone remember BitBoys?

/me laments the passing of 3Dfx.

 

I don't think there will be another competitor in the 3D Graphics sector for many years to come would simply require way too much funds to even get a grip on market share.

Intel and AMD, ATi and Nvidia, same thing...