Even by falling behind rivals, ATI and plagued by delays in the introduction of the NV30, nVidia seem invincible when it comes to market share. A Mercury Research report, released this week, found that in the 3rd quarter of 2002 Nvidia's market share rose to 58 per cent, from 56 per cent the previous quarter. ATI lost market share, shrinking from 36 per cent in the second quarter to 33 per cent in the third, despite selling the highest-performing graphics chip. The report looked at worldwide shipments of standalone graphics controllers.
These figures will certainly boost enthusiasm about the company, especially in expectation of the official NV30 launch. Many analysts however, claim that the latest report only tells half the truth since the effects of ATI's RADEON 9700 will not be felt, in the market for at least another quarter. Add to that the low availability of the NV30, at least until the end of the 1st quarter of 2003 and you have a more realistic picture. Another issue which everyone should be aware of, is that Flagship products, like RADEON 9700 and the NV30, account for a minute percentage of graphics cards sales, they are, instead, used as a confirmation of technological supremacy and an attraction to lure customers towards lower end products.
NV30 2x GF4
Recognizing the importance of having the top card available, nVidia continued the constant stream of information on the NV30. At a presentation in Seoul, South Korea, called Nvidia Mania Day, to promote the NV30, which will be officially launched at the Comdex trade show during the week of Nov. 18 in Las Vegas, David Kirk, Nvidia's chief scientist claimed : that NV30 will have more than two times the performance of GeForce4, with 51 billion floating point operations per second (51 gigaflops) in the pixel shader alone. The chip has 125 million transistors, which is three times the number on the Pentium 4. Nvidia, through its manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is using a 0.13-micron manufacturing process to reduce the physical size of the chip and achieve better efficiency. By comparison, the top-end Radeon chip has 110 million transistors, and the GeForce4 Ti 4600 has 63 million.
Nvidia defended the move to the 0.13-micron process, saying that while it may have slowed the introduction of the NV30, it will deliver long-term results.
Making the move now means that next year everything will be much easier. Everyone's got to do the same thing as we have, a representative said.
Much emphasis, when presenting the NV30, is placed on its cinematic rendering capabilities, but although impressive, such presentations, carefully avoid mentioning any facts or figures. nVidia will almost certainly not have their new baby fully available for sometime yet, giving ATI a wonderful chance to capitalize asnd begin gnawing at their market share.
