Don't forget NVIDIA
Things looked a bit more promising on the GPU side for AMD, with the launch of the jewel in its crown - the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - which became the fastest consumer graphics card in the world.
NVIDIA was clearly feeling rather left out after all this and it wasn't about to let AMD get away with nicking its title without a fight. So completely by accident, it published a bunch of press releases talking about how important things other than outright speed are in a graphics card. This was on exactly the same day AMD announced the fastest ever graphics card. What a coincidence!
Of course the releases could also have been timed to come immediately before NVIDIA's latest quarterly earnings announcement, which everyone knew was not going to be one for the trophy cabinet. Apart from AMD raising its game and everyone in the West saying: "Aaaagh, a recession! We'd better hibernate in the broom cupboard until it's over," having to set aside $200 million to cover its weak die/packaging thing led to a $120 million loss for the quarter.
Unperturbed, NVIDIA still found time to get one more piece of coverage out of us this week. It saved the best for last and, having told us there's more to life than speed, it promised to take the performance crown back from AMD before the end of the year. We're sure HEXUS will be the first place they come with the news if they do.
