PCI Graphics Card: How Did Nvidia Fail With Their GeForce GTX 400 Series?

Every computer needs a graphics card. Some desktop computers have either an integrated graphics card, which simply means the CPU also handles the task of displaying the graphics, on your screen but most desktop computers have what is called a PCI graphics card. This is a stand alone GPU or "Graphics Processing Unit." The GPU renders graphic so you can view what is going on through your computer based on a GUI or "Graphics User Interface." Not only does a good graphics card allow you to use you computer for basic everyday tasks but a good GPU can also improve the graphics of video games. Even if you are not a gamer, you can appreciate and benefit from a fast GPU.

You may have heard of a tech company called Nvidia. Nvidia makes GPU's for the desktop computer. They have been making these GPU's for years. Their rival, ATI, have been competing with Nvidia for the same period. Nvidia and ATI have been setting and breaking the standards for GPU performance which other companies follow. With each coming year, a new line of Nvidia graphics card launches and ATI tries to best its competition. For years, the competition have been close but a few things in recent market trends could shift the balance.

With Nvidia current generation line up, the Fermi, failed in many regards. The Fermi, or G400, was originally design to be something entirely different from its current form that is seen in todays market. It was designed with the intention of becoming a larger step for GPGPU, general purpose computing on graphics processing units, which further implemented GPU's into more workload done by CPU's. With Nvidia's execution with CUDA , it would not be impossible for Nvidia to do. That was how it seemed on paper, however the final produce we see today a bit different from that.

With the switch to the 40nm process, nvidia had many problems. As their first time working on 40nm processing, and proved more difficult in getting the high enough yield. This lead to the need for many re-spins in order to improve yields, delaying the release of the G400 by months, releasing in April of '10. ATI released their card, the R5000 series based on the 40nm process, on September of '09, eight months ahead of Nvidia. This allowed ATI to steal some of Nvidia's market shares and allowed them to push sales of the R5000 units into the millions.

After the release of the G400s series, GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards, it became more evident on Nvidia design flaws. The 480 and 470 required not only higher power than the ATI R5000 series, but generated massive amounts of heat that many people avoid if they want their computer to last more than a few years. Another shortcoming of the G400 series was that even with its release, there were few available for customers to by leading to some of to purchasing an ATI R5000s card.

Though the GTX 480 and the 470 is more superior to their ATI counterparts, their availability, heat, and power requirement, made it less desirable to many buyers. More so, Nvidia most sell at a lose to gain back market shares they lost to ATI. This however is only one of the few problem faced by Nvidia and together add to their failure. Nvidia's Tegra would be considered a failure as it never matured into the market it was intended for such as small devices like smart phones, and PDA's.

With selling the G400 series at a lose just to maintain there presents in the market and few adapters of the Tegra, Nvidia is take some large hits. Factoring in the R&D cost for these products and manufacturing cost, its hard to see how Nvidia can turn any profit. It has been five months since Nvidia release the G400 series, GTX 480, 470, 465, and 460, its hard to see what they can do as ATI is preparing to release the next generation GPU's before the the end of this year. Soon Nvidia will be a generation behind and they have a lot of catching up to do if they want to keep their piece of the market share pie. Whatever the case maybe, hopefully Nvidia has learn from there mistakes this generation and pump of something better in the future.

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