Overview

NVIDIA Strikes Back?

There’s a lot you may have heard about NVIDIA Editor’s Day. No doubt there are plenty of reports floating about the conference and what happened. You’ve certainly read reports of game developers showing up to support NVIDIA, and others simply taking the time to market their games. There has no doubt been coverage, honest and disingenuous, favorable and otherwise, of the statements made by NVIDIA’s engineers and reps, as well as their esteemed CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang.

Now, when it comes to finding out what it all means, there has been little discussion. Well, let’s disregard the comments from leading members of the peanut gallery who weren’t even at the event and are simply maintaining their image of a fair and balanced neutrality by kissing the other side’s ass this month. Picking and choosing quotes from a third party and shaping them to suit your own purposes hardly qualifies as professionalism.

The NVIDIA Team

David Kirk, Chief Scientist

However, I should make it clear – while I have as much interest or more in hardware than your typical hardcore gamer, I’m no Brandon or Chris. So rather than focusing on the technical aspects of what NVIDIA was saying and elaborating on that, I’ve approached the game developers themselves for comments and elaborations. Some have chosen to remain anonymous or stay off the record, but their answers to various questions have shaped the opinions that lie herein.

But first, a prelude

Firstly, and this has nothing to do with the conference, it’s time to clear the air of a little popular myth. NVIDIA isn’t 3dfx. NVIDIA’s development as a company doesn’t mirror that of 3dfx. To dispel notions of NVIDIA’s impending doom, the “3dfx curse” and other such nonsense, all one needs to do is look at the financial results for NVIDIA and ATI. Both experienced gains in the last quarter, and while NVIDIA is down relative to its peak, they still maintain a lead that they aren’t keen on relinquishing.

There are some interesting insights to be gleaned from the NVIDIA notables and their attitudes. To further contrast NVIDIA and 3dfx: while 3dfx representatives had an air of hopeful neediness around E3 2000 when they launched the Voodoo5, and were downright desperate a year later when demonstrating the 6000, NVIDIA employees are quite confident and calm.

However, there’s no denying that NVIDIA took the Editor’s Day event very seriously. To suggest that this is a careless response to ATI’s Shader Day and that they disregard their competitors would be a false conclusion. Derek Perez himself expressed surprise that NVIDIA’s CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, stuck around all day to watch and participate in the proceedings. Mr. Huang, despite his considerable skills in the matter, isn’t a marketing or PR man. As a CEO, he has important duties and his continued presence at the Editor’s Day gives us a hint of the event’s gravity.

The candid nature of the event and the admission that they have been on the defensive for a long time is further proof, and we’ll get to that shortly. Indeed, some may take a more critical view of this and state the opinion that the impressive array of NVIDIA notables was there to because of the seriousness of the matter.