Well they are getting better, honest! JPR (Jon Peddie Research) has calculated that there has been about a 22% rise in shipments of GPUs over the previous year for the third quarter of 2008. This is in spite of recessionary fears that have been haunting consumers for some time now. In other news, ATI finally seems to be giving Nvidia something to worry about.
The 4830 is a mid-range GPU, not exactly aimed at gaming enthusiasts with deep pockets, more like for the general gaming population. That’s good because it carries a price tag that is suitable for most gamers too. The 4830 will effectively compete with the likes of the Nvidia 9800 GT card.
The main problem with all ATI graphics cards is that the drivers available for them are not as effective. Nvidia on the other hand has just announced that their next driver (Nvidia Forceware 180, Big Bang II) release will raise the performance of their graphics cards by at least 10% (at least for the 8/9 series). This means that anyone who reads reviews on the pros and cons of any graphics card before going out to buy it will immediately favor the Nvidia cards. Not only that but many popular games are in the Nvidia ‘The Way Its Meant To Be Played’ project whereas very few games have ATI advertisements in them and consequently many people don’t even know that there is a rival for Nvidia.
All is not going well for Nvidia though, in recent weeks the reliability issues in some of their graphics cards has not been taken lightly. Even more worrying (for Nvidia) is that the 4870 is looking like a serious contender and holds up better on a money-performance ration than Nvidia’s 200 series.
In any case, it looks like prices are going to continue in a downward trend at least for products aimed at casual gamers.
I’m definitely interested in getting a 4830. I’ve tried to support ATI over nVidia as often as possible, and finally it will make price/performance sense as well!