October and November
October
NVIDIA finally got some of its high-end graphics mojo back in October. The new architecture, codenamed Fermi, was shown at the company's GPU Technology Conference. Designed with parallel processing in mind, Fermi was a distinct departure from previous NVIDIA GPUs.Keeping in with modern history, NVIDIA took a few well-aimed potshots at Intel and, somewhat portentously, derided the chip giant's Larrabee GPU.
NVIDIA, it seemed, was giving up some high-end GPU leadership for more mass-market appeal - Tegra and Zune HD being a case in point.
AMD, though, forged ahead with more DX11 cards, this time with the Radeon HD 5750 and HD 5770, but skirted around the issue of general availability for its high-end GPUs.
The biggest news of the month, without doubt, was the release of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. We took an exhaustive, seven-part look in time for launch, and reckoned that Windows 7 was rather spiffy, all things considered.
Bringing a lack of amity to new levels, NVIDIA and AMD engaged in some written jousting, leading to the publication of long email chains and game-tampering accusations. GPU companies, eh?
November
Not content with having dominance in the high-end GPU environment, AMD drove it home with the super-fast Radeon HD 5970, taking back the performance crown that had, on balance, belonged to NVIDIA since the introduction of the GeForce GTX 295 in January.The company then also took a pop at the netbook market, presumably because it had nothing in that space all year, in a market where an estimated 35m units were shipped in 2009.
Microsoft crowed about Windows 7 sales, NVIDIA caricatured Intel, and both Intel and AMD talked up their supercomputing prowess. IBM probably bit off more than it could chew by trying to simulate the human brain.
The festive spirit certainly overcame Intel as it decided to deal with AMD's litany of anti-competitive complaints by dipping into the wallet and handing the Austin outfit a cool $1.25bn in cash
NVIDIA's GeForce 300 series came in with a whimper, whilst AMD's all-conquering Radeon HD 58x0s remained AWOL - maybe holed-up in a container-ship somewhere.
