A Successful Counter-attack

To say that NVIDIA hasn't been having the best of times would be something of a gross understatement. After losing some market share to ATI and their popular Radeon HD 4800 series of cards, they were subsequently dealt a harsh blow when a substantial number of their GeForce 8400M and 8600M mobile-GPUs were found to be suffering from heat-related issues.

However, fight back they did and it could be said that they have mounted a somewhat successful comeback. Their refresh of the GeForce GTX 260 with 216 stream processors looks good, especially with the new driver upgrades; and recently, Apple has decided to employ NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400 mGPUs on their MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

The guys in green are certainly gaining steam, and the GeForce GTX 295 is continuing their fine form. Forgive us if we seem to be waxing lyrical about this new card, but this card is in all aspects better than the card it set out to beat. It runs faster, cooler and more efficiently. More crucially, it is also cheaper. Set to retail at launch for US$499, this makes it slightly cheaper than Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, which are going for around US$520 on Newegg. Should you be expecting price cuts from ATI then? Highly likely, we think. Even considering the pricing of the existing GeForce GTX 280 cards, the GTX 295 looks appealing to the point we think you can expect some gradual price revisions to the 280 models.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 is quite simply the fastest card money can buy. On top of that, it surpasses the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in all aspects. The ball is now squarely in ATI's court.

In sum, it would not be superfluous to say that NVIDIA has finally countered ATI's advances, and that the GeForce GTX 295 is at this moment the best graphics card money can buy. However, it remains to be seen how NVIDIA can transfer its successes in the enthusiast segment to its mainstream one. As of now, their mainstream cards are still very much from the last era - the GeForce 9800 GT is actually an 8800 GT in disguise, while the GeForce 9600 GSO is really an 8800 GS in a fancy frock. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so it's imperative that NVIDIA take what makes their high-end cards good and transfer it to their mainstream offerings.

In the meantime, NVIDIA can rest assure that their new flagship will remain the fastest single graphics card for some time to come. In addition, NVIDIA has also announced the GeForce GTX 285, essentially a 55nm refresh of the GeForce GTX 280, and we can't wait to see how that turns out (tune in next week for that answer). Right now however, all eyes are on ATI if they are conjuring any counters, but from what we know to date, it's unlikely until the next refresh.