EA and NVidia team up
by J. Donavan Stanley · in General Discussion · 04/11/2003 (6:29 am) · 8 replies
According to this article EA and NVidia have formed an alliance of mutual promotion. The bit that caught my eye was "EA will also discuss opportunities to implement NVIDIA-specific features and special effects in several upcoming EA titles" this is gonna blow for consumers if it gets out of hand.
#2
04/11/2003 (7:12 am)
Everyone uses windows? I don't. And many people don't and many more people won't in the future. And who cares... EA... do you only play EA's games? It's obvious you won't NEED this features to play any EA game, most likely you'll be able to shut the down or something similar. I do use a nvidia card, but I know there are many radeon users out there, I don't think this is anything to worry about... I don't play EA games anyway.. except for the Need for Speed 5... Oh... and that leaves more room for non-hig-end-hardware users to buy GarageGames titles :)
#3
nVidia has sat on their laurels and let ATI get ahead of them design and architecture wise.
04/11/2003 (7:24 am)
this is nothing but hot air, this failed miserably with 3Dfx trying to get game companies to support their proprietary interfaces and features, which some did, most did'nt because of the extra work with little return on the investment, which nVidia ended up buying 3Dfx and commiting the same mistakes 3Dfx did with the release of the extremely short lived and now discontinued GeforceFX ( NV30 ). They stopped production on the GeforceFX ( NV30 ) cards already and are re-tooling for the NV35 to be manufactured by IBM.nVidia has sat on their laurels and let ATI get ahead of them design and architecture wise.
#4
My point was that it's often detrimental to the end-user when people are forced to pick a certain platform/OS/hardware/library.
On another note, the article poster on slashdot stated that EA was going to support games on all pc platforms featuring nvidia hardware. I haven't been able to verify that statement in the press release, but if it's true, this is definitely good news for linux gaming. Of course, I'll just have to wait and see.
04/11/2003 (7:29 am)
By everyone uses windows, I mean 95%+ of computer gamers...Probably even closer to 97 or 98%.My point was that it's often detrimental to the end-user when people are forced to pick a certain platform/OS/hardware/library.
On another note, the article poster on slashdot stated that EA was going to support games on all pc platforms featuring nvidia hardware. I haven't been able to verify that statement in the press release, but if it's true, this is definitely good news for linux gaming. Of course, I'll just have to wait and see.
#5
I think nVidia and Ati do a good job of driving each other to continuously improve on their hardware and drivers. And as far as I'm concerned, nVidia can do no wrong by me because of their awesome linux support.
04/11/2003 (7:33 am)
Jarrod, I really agree with you. nVidia has really dropped the ball regarding their current generation of cards. Hopefully, this won't cause them to go out of business like 3dfx, because, there really won't be anyone left to compete with Ati. I much prefer a field dominated by two strong players (a la Intel/AMD), then just one monopoly (a la windows).I think nVidia and Ati do a good job of driving each other to continuously improve on their hardware and drivers. And as far as I'm concerned, nVidia can do no wrong by me because of their awesome linux support.
#6
I know as a programmer that the features on the FX are fantastic compared to even working on Geforce3's etc. And they have a good few improvements on the Ati cards... which won't get leveraged because it restricts people to the nvidia cards...
... leading to the solution of teaming up with one of, if not the largest software producers to do 'exclusive' titles so they can use these somewhat cutting edge features.
Never bought into the console / wars / pc component preferences etc. To me it's always about the games, consoles are so agressivly priced now that they are only the price of a few games. Maybe nvidia will start 'subsidising' their state of the art cards so they can sell more exclusive titles. And that would be a "Good thing"(tm).
04/12/2003 (4:48 am)
nVidia kind of strike me as a better company than Ati. The GeforceFX isn't as bad as everyone makes out (too loud though), their developer support is very impressive (and in my experiance second to none). We'll not see software that really pushes any of the latest cards for a good while.I know as a programmer that the features on the FX are fantastic compared to even working on Geforce3's etc. And they have a good few improvements on the Ati cards... which won't get leveraged because it restricts people to the nvidia cards...
... leading to the solution of teaming up with one of, if not the largest software producers to do 'exclusive' titles so they can use these somewhat cutting edge features.
Never bought into the console / wars / pc component preferences etc. To me it's always about the games, consoles are so agressivly priced now that they are only the price of a few games. Maybe nvidia will start 'subsidising' their state of the art cards so they can sell more exclusive titles. And that would be a "Good thing"(tm).
#7
simply a marketing ploy, which is necessary for
companies, but sucks for us, the consumer. NV
and ATI want to distinguish themselves by the
features in their cards. So they don't get
together and make a standard way of doing things.
Thus there will be feautures that each respective
card has that the other does not and programmers
that are smart will go for the common denominator
in order to reach the widest audience. Thus
those features are likely never to be used. So
NV goes to EA and gives them some kind of deal
in exchange for EA making use of some of those
exclusive features. Then if someone is running
an NV card their graphics may be a bit flashier.
What NV gets out of the deal is that consumers
may prefer their card to get the extra junk, and
ATI may feel compelled to implement NV originated
features, thus putting them in a following role.
It is an obvious reaction from NV lagging ATI on
pure price/performance at this time. How do
they get people to prefer their card?
What is not obvious is why EA does it. From their
perspective it takes more work to implement the
extra NV exclusive junk and doesn't really help
them sell games. So NV must be giving them
something for it, a good deal on hardware, free
advertising, maybe pack-in exclusives.
This is absolutely not a good thing for consumers
or developers. Best for us would be if all
features were agreed standards and cards
competed exclusively on price/performance.
So yeah, competition is good in some ways, but
in other ways it sucks.
04/13/2003 (2:05 pm)
Neither of these companies is "better". THis issimply a marketing ploy, which is necessary for
companies, but sucks for us, the consumer. NV
and ATI want to distinguish themselves by the
features in their cards. So they don't get
together and make a standard way of doing things.
Thus there will be feautures that each respective
card has that the other does not and programmers
that are smart will go for the common denominator
in order to reach the widest audience. Thus
those features are likely never to be used. So
NV goes to EA and gives them some kind of deal
in exchange for EA making use of some of those
exclusive features. Then if someone is running
an NV card their graphics may be a bit flashier.
What NV gets out of the deal is that consumers
may prefer their card to get the extra junk, and
ATI may feel compelled to implement NV originated
features, thus putting them in a following role.
It is an obvious reaction from NV lagging ATI on
pure price/performance at this time. How do
they get people to prefer their card?
What is not obvious is why EA does it. From their
perspective it takes more work to implement the
extra NV exclusive junk and doesn't really help
them sell games. So NV must be giving them
something for it, a good deal on hardware, free
advertising, maybe pack-in exclusives.
This is absolutely not a good thing for consumers
or developers. Best for us would be if all
features were agreed standards and cards
competed exclusively on price/performance.
So yeah, competition is good in some ways, but
in other ways it sucks.
#8
first of all, what standarts? OpenGL standart? DirectX standart? If all video cards manufacturers made their cards to the OGL standart we wouldnt be where we are today. Thanks to id/nVidia we are seeing ogl evolve. Oh and if DirectX 3D dictated standarts... no thanks I dont want Microsoft driving our video card evolution. That would mean no support for anything but windows. other then that... what standarts? I think nVidia is just playing smart. You will still be able to play those games on an ati card, oh and you think ati will sit still? I think the current overal state of the graphics hardware industry is pretty healthy atm.
my 2 kopeiks.
06/13/2003 (5:45 pm)
Best for us would be if all features were agreed standards and cards competed excusively on price/performancefirst of all, what standarts? OpenGL standart? DirectX standart? If all video cards manufacturers made their cards to the OGL standart we wouldnt be where we are today. Thanks to id/nVidia we are seeing ogl evolve. Oh and if DirectX 3D dictated standarts... no thanks I dont want Microsoft driving our video card evolution. That would mean no support for anything but windows. other then that... what standarts? I think nVidia is just playing smart. You will still be able to play those games on an ati card, oh and you think ati will sit still? I think the current overal state of the graphics hardware industry is pretty healthy atm.
my 2 kopeiks.
Torque Owner Yacine Salmi
--EDIT
spelling.