My Brand Loyalty is measured in Framerate

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Over the years I have owned both ATI and nVidia video cards, firstly owning an All-in-Wonder for the vivo and a Diamond Monster 3D. The early Riva cards from nVidia were crap, played horribly and were only a better alternative to the S3 decelerators of the time. Later came the Riva 128 and managed to become a respectable alternative to even the Voodoo 2. I passed on it however as it lost to my SLI Voodoo 2's sitting next to that old All-in-Wonder still serving it's 2d purpose. After nVidia's GeForce series came out though, the 3DFX and ATI cards were left in the dust and would stay that way until the DX9 fiasco.

After the original XBox landed, nVidia seemed to figure it had it made and that the DX9 talks were a waste of time. ATI on the other hand jumped in with the x800 series and trounced nVidia into the ground with better performance and matured DX9 features after having, you know, been at the DX9 conference and all. My x800 still sits in a Media Server and has been a faithful purchase, it owes me not a cent. NVidia smartens up next time, attending the DX10 conference and is the first vendor to release a card supporting it.

King of the ring goes back and forth between ATI and nVidia, offering only a slight increase in performance with each new release between companies until ATI is bought by AMD. With the acquisition and corresponding down time, ATI falls behind the curve and takes until now to finally regain it's stride. The HD 5870 comes forth with the traditionally marginal increase to it's price comparative nVidia component, the GTX 285.

Benchmarks from various sources show the 5870 beating even the GTX 295, nVidia's flagship product while others show it barely beating the GTX 285. Regardless, the HD 5870 is the first DX11 card available and can drive six displays. NVidia on the other hand touts Cuda, 3D Glasses and PhysX support.

PhysX is the only real advantage nVidia has at the moment and as no DX11 card has been announced, ATI has DX11, more displays and is available now. NVidia is seemingly placing more concern on industrial applications with it's new Fermi Archecture, emphasizing Cuda and what it can run. Though not stated, DX11 will have to be implemented as well as some kind of expanded multi-monitor setup to compete but their shift in focus and lack of a released competing product has many concerned.

Will I go to ATI after all these years on nVidia? I left ATI because they fell behind, I left nVidia because they dropped the ball, I left ATI because they fell behind again and I will leave nVidia for dropping that same ball. Fanboys are fools, my loyalty is measured by my gaming experience.

So just to get ready for such an occasion, here are some important links.
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