AMD will miss Physx in 2009

Nvidia is pushing it hard 

Once Nvidia finally starts pushing PhysX in 2009 and new games, such as Mirrror's Edge and a few other titles that might matter, appear on the market, ATI might have a big issue, as it does not support PhysX. 

At this point PhysX is purely a marketing thing, as there is not a single important game that supports it and Unreal Tournament 3, the only big title to support PhysX it is not exactly a cutting edge game these days either.

EA is making Mirror's Edge for quite some time and we were told that this new game that will really push PhysX will come in 2009, probably in January time, and this might give PhysX a big boost.

In the long run, ATI is in trouble as it doesn’t supports PhysX and this is simply the way where Nvidia will push the 3D gaming market. Games with PhysX do look better but they have still to appear. We expect more of these games in Q1 2009 and probably PhysX will matter big time by Xmas 2009.

As of Q1 2009, ATI will have to cope with the fact that PhysX enabled games will run many times faster on Nvidia hardware and ATI will have to find a remedy for it. The only remedy we can think of is signing up for CUDA and embracing competitors' PhysX that will likely run a bit slower on ATI Radeon cards.

AMD and XFX officially announce partnership

Nvidia exclusive no more

 

AMD has announced that XFX has become an AMD add-in-board partner. We already wrote about XFX's plans to join the ATI camp, XFX expects to offer ATI HD 4000 series products in early 2009.

Michael Chiu, Chairman and CEO, Pine Technologies Holdings, makers of XFX graphics cards praised AMD for redefining the graphics market with the HD 4000 series. He also added that AMD gaming performance alone wasn't what caught XFX's attention, but rather a multitude of multimedia technologies used in AMD graphics cards, including video transcoding, HD playback and audio capabilities.

This leaves EVGA as the only strong Nvidia-only, as BFG has lost its mojo quite some time ago. EVGA will definitely get some preferential treatment, as it is Nvidia's number one partner in the U.S. and Nvidia really feels betrayed, as XFX is the creative it created and then got betrayed.  

We still have no details on upcoming ATI XFX cards, but if Gainward's entry into the ATI world is anything to go by, the company will adapt in no time.

ATI sold 2+ million Radeon 4000s

Not a bad number

Many sources have pulled out the big number of two million Radeon 4000 series sold since the launch. This has to be one of the most successful, if not the most successful, performance card manufactured and marketed from ATI.

The number has to be divided between the more affordable 4850 and a bit more expensive and faster 4870, and it probably works in 4850's favor. 

This is a great victory for ATI and they’ve really messed up Nvidia's dominance in this market, making Nvidia rethink its lineup and strategy, dragging GTX 260 down to this market and getting its 9800 GTX+ to fight 4850 rather than 4870. GTX 260 these days with a new driver does looks more attractive, but we believe that the damage was already done and that it might be a tad too late for a miraculous recovery.