Monday, February 4th 2013
It's Sony, Not AMD in GeForce Titan's Crosshair
When we first heard of NVIDIA launching its GK110-based consumer graphics card by as early as February, it took us by surprise. Intimidating naming (GeForce Titan 780?) aside, the graphics card is hoping to better NVIDIA's current-generation flagship, the dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690, in a single-GPU package, but does the graphics card market really need NVIDIA to launch its card at the moment? Perhaps not, but the answer lies not with AMD and competition in the graphics card market, but Sony, and competition between PC and console platforms.
Over the weekend, it surfaced that Sony would introduce its next-generation PlayStation console (codenamed "Orbis") later this month, and it would mark the beginning of the next-generation of game consoles. PlayStation 4 features an updated hardware feature-set, and promises to raise the bar with graphics detail that the console industry held with an iron fist for the past half decade. This presents a challenge for not only NVIDIA, but PC gaming in general. Here's how.
It's no news that PC graphics have always trumped consoles, but lost out on the "cost factor." Advocates of consoles falsely compare the cost of an entire PC (approaching or crossing $1,000) with a $300 console. In our opinion, marketing honchos at both NVIDIA and AMD failed to adequately present the argument that a graphics card as a single component costs exactly the same as a game console, and transforms desktop computers that average households already own, into gaming PCs.
With the introduction of the next-generation PlayStation "Orbis," PC graphics companies such as NVIDIA need to launch new products to remind the masses that PC gaming looks, feels, and plays better than consoles, even the newest ones on the block. NVIDIA just happened to have the GK110 lying around.
The GeForce Kepler 110 (GK110) is NVIDIA's (possibly the industry's) biggest GPU. Conceived around the time when the 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process at TSMC was relatively new and prone to yield problems, it was put on the back-burner when NVIDIA realized its second fastest chip, the GK104, stood a real chance against AMD's "Tahiti" high-end GPU. Even as New Year's 2013 approached, the most audacious speculators in the press were led to believe that NVIDIA would take its time launching the GK110 with its GTX 700 series, some time much later than February. What changed? Well for one, Sony and Microsoft agreed to chart out their next-generation console launch schedules, so either's products get maximum market exposure, and that is bad for the PC platform.
The GeForce "Titan" 780 GK110 card, hence, is NVIDIA not only batting for its own GeForce brand (which already leads AMD Radeon in the PC space), but PC gaming in general. We don't expect to see crates full of these graphics cards making their way to stores just yet, but a text-book NVIDIA launch. Over the decade NVIDIA learned that when it has limited initial inventories of a new product and yet wants to avoid the dunce cap of a "paper launch," (a launch that's just on paper, with no public availability), it pools up just enough quantities of the product for worldwide press (for launch date reviews), and limited launches in key markets such as the US and EU.
Over the weekend, it surfaced that Sony would introduce its next-generation PlayStation console (codenamed "Orbis") later this month, and it would mark the beginning of the next-generation of game consoles. PlayStation 4 features an updated hardware feature-set, and promises to raise the bar with graphics detail that the console industry held with an iron fist for the past half decade. This presents a challenge for not only NVIDIA, but PC gaming in general. Here's how.
It's no news that PC graphics have always trumped consoles, but lost out on the "cost factor." Advocates of consoles falsely compare the cost of an entire PC (approaching or crossing $1,000) with a $300 console. In our opinion, marketing honchos at both NVIDIA and AMD failed to adequately present the argument that a graphics card as a single component costs exactly the same as a game console, and transforms desktop computers that average households already own, into gaming PCs.
With the introduction of the next-generation PlayStation "Orbis," PC graphics companies such as NVIDIA need to launch new products to remind the masses that PC gaming looks, feels, and plays better than consoles, even the newest ones on the block. NVIDIA just happened to have the GK110 lying around.
The GeForce Kepler 110 (GK110) is NVIDIA's (possibly the industry's) biggest GPU. Conceived around the time when the 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process at TSMC was relatively new and prone to yield problems, it was put on the back-burner when NVIDIA realized its second fastest chip, the GK104, stood a real chance against AMD's "Tahiti" high-end GPU. Even as New Year's 2013 approached, the most audacious speculators in the press were led to believe that NVIDIA would take its time launching the GK110 with its GTX 700 series, some time much later than February. What changed? Well for one, Sony and Microsoft agreed to chart out their next-generation console launch schedules, so either's products get maximum market exposure, and that is bad for the PC platform.
The GeForce "Titan" 780 GK110 card, hence, is NVIDIA not only batting for its own GeForce brand (which already leads AMD Radeon in the PC space), but PC gaming in general. We don't expect to see crates full of these graphics cards making their way to stores just yet, but a text-book NVIDIA launch. Over the decade NVIDIA learned that when it has limited initial inventories of a new product and yet wants to avoid the dunce cap of a "paper launch," (a launch that's just on paper, with no public availability), it pools up just enough quantities of the product for worldwide press (for launch date reviews), and limited launches in key markets such as the US and EU.
86 Comments on It's Sony, Not AMD in GeForce Titan's Crosshair
I see btas point but think its prob much simpler.
CASH dam pone
And how DARE you suggest I'd do the same thing! My heart is pure and honest and of course I'd never think of price gouging my customers like this. Never!
Mods! Do something about mailman for such insolence! j/k :laugh:
AMD decided their 6970 replacement should be priced at $550 because it was faster than the GTX580, nevermind that it was replacing a $375 part. Nvidia then followed suit: when it found that the replacement for its $250 part was competitive with AMD's $550 offering they decided to launch at $500, instead of properly replacing their previous midrange offering.
If AMD wasn't around during Kepler's launch, I imagine Nvidia would've acted like Intel, and simply refreshed their existing products at their established price points -- GK104 badged as 560Ti and priced at $250. Likewise if the GTX580 didn't exist when AMD was launching the 7970, then it probably would've launched at exactly the same price the 6970 had.
3dfx's problems are actually pretty well documented.
-Kicking their board partners in the nuts by deciding to manufacture and sell their own cards when they bought STB. Taiwanese TSMC and UMC quality >>>>>>>>Juarez, Mexico quality
-A management that burnt money for a hobby
-Dumping 20% of their workforcethen (over) paying $186m for GigaPixel.
- Slow and overhyped hardware development. Massive delays with the Rampage chip and competing cards that quickly overhauled 3dfx's raw performance while adding features like 32-bit colour, T&L, better than 256x256 texture support. 3dfx's Voodoo line were already being overhauled by Matrox's G400, Nv's TNT2/GF2 GTS, ATi's Radeon, and STMicro's Kyro.
You might also remember that not only were 3dfx not turning a profit when they sold their IP to Nvidia, they were effectively bankrupt with the prospect of their cards failing compatibility with AGP 3.3V
So, great cards for their day and the vanguard for PC gaming (at least the 3D part), and implemented some awesome tech (AA, T-Buffer etc.)- but 3dfx's problems stemmed from bad money/resource management, an over reliance on artificially inflated performance thanks to GLIDE, and a slower product cycle and feature set additions than the competition.
seekingalpha.com/article/1152151-don-t-believe-this-nvidia-rumor?source=yahooSteambox, Shield, Ouya and God knows what else will be also gaming consoles. For better or worse it remains to be seen. Everybody nowadays is building a gaming console but yes, Nvidia lost big with the established consoles.
i agree with what erocker has already said.In my view if they really intended to fight Sony in console war they need some fire to fight with fire. Console is very different with PC in so many aspects. In addition, they have different market segment. All in all, this would be surely good for us as pc gamer (not console gamer) if nvidia releasing their titan card to the market on this last february.wrong movemeh..
I'm still going with wishful thinking, bring on the Titan!
i think if amd and nvidia truly wanna compete with consoles they need to make a solution for external gpus, that way it works on anything using usb3.0/dp or whatever
amd needs to have both consoles in their pockets though for the added profit, nvidia does not.nice
AMD was present in both the Wii and Xbox 360 but that hardly did any good to them, those kind of design wins only help to pay the bills and keep the machine going.
Nevertheless the Titan will definitely be a sight to behold. Maybe AMD should rename their next chips Saturn, or Olympia.
this gpu is rumoured able to do 2x, 4x and even 8x MSAA. what a beast console box.
i wonder what gpu specification inside the playstation 4 is.
so, i understand why nvidia seems so desperate releasing their titan.
All they are doing is clearing out all of their scrap GK110 stock anyways.
The ones that don't make it for Tesla etc.