Author Topic: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...  (Read 2941 times)

Offline Pugnate

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ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 11:58:10 AM »
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18498/1/

Keep in mind that these are just the 5800 and 5700 series cards alone, and this is worldwide.

Still, that's insane.

Considering that the 5 series cards are the best of the best, and of the latest generation, you've gotta wonder who the hell is buying these cards.

The reason I am surprised is that I thought this business wasn't nearly as profitable anymore.

Offline MysterD

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #1 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 12:11:29 PM »
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18498/1/

Keep in mind that these are just the 5800 and 5700 series cards alone, and this is worldwide.

Still, that's insane.

Considering that the 5 series cards are the best of the best, and of the latest generation, you've gotta wonder who the hell is buying these cards.

The reason I am surprised is that I thought this business wasn't nearly as profitable anymore.

Hardware is profitable.

It's software that isn't profitable - it's very easy to pirate.

People spend $$$ on the necessary hardware (you need this to play and you can't electronically pirate this; you'd have to literally steal it by hand) - ATI and Nvidia are making crazy $$$ on their cards.

I saw this trend back when I was at college, numerous years back - and I doubt it has changed, given card sales getting better and better. These gamers would buy the $300+ video card, then pirate most new games known to mankind - Before Day 0 or Actual Day 0 Piracy.

Offline gpw11

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #2 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 12:44:42 PM »
I have one; it's great.  It's not a shit ton faster than my old 9600GT, but it was worth the money based on speed alone.  That's the thing, it was like $140 or something after rebate (scam).  Sold the 9600GT for $65 I believe (thank you SLI for creating a market for used video cards). Hell,  I did the same thing when I bought the 9600gt; got it for just over a hundred and sold the 7950 or whatever I had before that for about $60. Oh, and the 5770 came with Dirt 2...which is awesome.

But yeah, I like the card a lot (even though ATI still doesn't compete with Nvidia with their driver support).  Runs fast, quiet, and I didn't have to get a new PSU. Bad Company 2 and Dirt 2 both utilize DX11, which actually seems pretty sweet.  BC2 only uses it for soft shadows aparently, but they look great and don't really have a performance hit...enabling me to turn off AA at 1680x1050 (or I could leave it on because the game seems to use the CPU waaaay too much and that's what's limiting my frames anyways).

Dirt 2 uses it as well and runs great.  It takes advantage of more of the DX11 features, like something to do with better shader programming or something (in over my head here, but the night courses in Dirt 2 look quite a bit better in DX 11 because of how it handles the interaction between the sand and all the lights).  The main thing, however, is we finally have official DX tessellation support...which I imagine will be used quite a bit.

Offline Xessive

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #3 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 04:58:16 PM »
There was a while when ATI/AMD fell in comparison to Nvidia's aggressive move forward with the 8000 series cards. ATI's cards were still decent but not necessarily the most competitive price-wise.

My Asus G73JH came with a Radeon HD 5870 and I have been very happy with it. The only argument I may sympathize with is the lack of physx support, but in truth it's not a major issue at all. This card is pumping out the latest games at full 1080p with no trouble.

Offline MysterD

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #4 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 05:04:21 PM »
There was a while when ATI/AMD fell in comparison to Nvidia's aggressive move forward with the 8000 series cards. ATI's cards were still decent but not necessarily the most competitive price-wise.
I'm sure like the last decade has been - ATI beats NVidia for a bit; NVidia beats ATI for a bit; repeat cycle - yeah, NVidia will probably bounce back, once they figure out the Fermi model. This is kind of like when they dropped the GeForce 5000 series - they need time to re-tool the Fermi series.

Quote
My Asus G73JH came with a Radeon HD 5870 and I have been very happy with it. The only argument I may sympathize with is the lack of physx support, but in truth it's not a major issue at all. This card is pumping out the latest games at full 1080p with no trouble.
Awesome. :)

Offline Xessive

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #5 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 05:10:03 PM »
I'm sure like the last decade has been - ATI beats NVidia for a bit; NVidia beats ATI for a bit; repeat cycle - yeah, NVidia will probably bounce back, once they figure out the Fermi model. This is kind of like when they dropped the GeForce 5000 series - they need time to re-tool the Fermi series.
Awesome. :)
Yeah, it's a cycle. Just like AMD and Intel. As long as there's a little competition the developers and the consumers will have great results. Everybody wins.

Oh yeah man, I love my G73!

Offline gpw11

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #6 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 10:19:31 PM »
I was worried about the lack of physX support as well, but after asking some people (Pug included) and looking around on the internet, I'm more than happy with my choice. DivX was sweet in Batman, but that's the only real game where it made a major impression.  It also has a pretty substantial perofrmance hit on any hardware, so any future games using it may cripple current hardware (assuming they're more graphically demanding).  The main thing though?  Lack of real support. Nvidia is choking the technology and there is very little incentive for developers to utilize it, especially when software solutions like Havok are so universal and completely sufficient.

I like the idea of hardware physics (to a point), but tying it to one manufacturer is a horrible idea and I don't think it'll be supported until there's either an open standard or someone like Havok implements a technology that can utilize all hardware.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #7 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 11:04:49 PM »
Quote
DivX was sweet in Batman, but that's the only real game where it made a major impression.

haha that's such a weird error.

Offline gpw11

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #8 on: Monday, April 19, 2010, 11:50:38 PM »
Fuck you, I'm leaving it in there.

Offline Xessive

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 12:08:54 AM »
Haha:P

Mirror's Edge took advantage of PhysX as well, but the performance hit was too much. Remember slideshow framerates? That bad.

I agree, a lot of the software physics solutions are more viable since their universal and significantly less resource intensive. Nvidia's acquisition of Ageia was meant to yield a strong monopolistic position, instead it seemed to have split the consumers and software developers; effectively making the hardware PhysX "advantage" a moot point.

I'm just grateful it's not something to really worry about; "oh God, I'll never be able to play this game because I don't have PhysX!"

I suspect one of the reasons it hasn't taken off is due to consoles too.

Offline MysterD

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #10 on: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 02:39:49 PM »
I would NOT be surprised if some of the reasons the newer ATI cards run super-good is b/c they just don't deal w/ PhysX at all...

Offline Pugnate

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Re: ATi shipped 6 million DX11 video cards in the last 6 months...
« Reply #11 on: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 03:39:21 PM »
I would NOT be surprised if some of the reasons the newer ATI cards run super-good is b/c they just don't deal w/ PhysX at all...

With PhysX being optional anyway, it isn't a factor. They run well because they are newer tech. Simple as that.