nVIDIA GPU counterattack / AMD's 45nm Phenoms to compete with Nehalem?

[Gorath Sodom]

nVIDIA has had trouble with AMD's latest GPU offerings in the highend segment. The Radeon HD4870 and HD4870 X2 held up against GeForce GTX 260 and 280 far better than nVIDIA hoped. However, in the midrange segment, things are looking up. The GeForce 9800 GT / GTX / GTX+ are able hold their own against the HD 4850 quite well, the 9800 GTX+ actually a better buy if you ask me. As for the low end, nVIDIA's pretty much reigning. ATI has yet to release their HD4600 series to take on GeForce 9600/9500, but nVIDIA is preparing a pre-emptive strike with GeForce 9550, though no specs have been released.


As for the CPU front, it is speculated that Intel's new uberFLOP beast, Nehelem, now Christened as Core i7, maybe more of a server chip rather than a gaming chip. While it will definately be faster for regular computing tasks, the weak L2 cache (256K) might actually make it weaker for gaming than current Core 2 processors. Though the L3 cache might help, it might not be enough. AMD's Phenoms have double the L2 cache, so it's quite possible where 45nm Phenom (which is to be faster than current 65nm Phenoms clock-for-clock and boasts higher frequencies) is weaker in basic computing, it might be faster in gaming. Imagine that... AMD might one day be known as the PC gamer's company. Their mobo chipsets and graphics cards are quite well, and if their CPUs could share that success, Intel and nVIDIA just might fall by the wayside...