Some call it the battle of the titans, but it might be best referred to as the launch before the big show. We have once again left the snow covered mid west to head out to sunny San Jose California to bring you all of the happening from the 2003 Game Developers Conference (GDC). While we have not typically covered this event in the past, with so many new and interesting things happening on the software development front, we think it is important to find out more about what Game Developers are doing to bring the next evolution in gaming to the PC platform.

While here at THG we typically focus on gaming for the PC in addition to our normal hardware reviews, GDC deals with gaming development of all types including the consoles and the mobile (cell phone) market as well. In this report, we look at what happened when ATI and Nvidia made their product launch announcements.

Of course by now, you have most likely read the excellent articles from own Lars Weinand on the cards launched by ATI and Nvidia , so we are not going to focus on them in depth in this article, but rather we are going to look at the launches from a strictly marketing point of view and report on the messages that each company wants to communicate with these products.

Before we headed over to the ATI launch party, we caught a glimpse of the booths still under construction on the show floor at GDC. We will deliver the mandatory booth crawl on Saturday, with all of the floor highlights from GDC.

As Lars explained in the article "NVIDIA decided it was still too early for benchmarks, and that these were to follow later.", however we were able to snap a few pictures of the Nvidia's benchmarks for NV31 and NV34. Of course these numbers should only be taken with a grain of salt however, but none the less it does give you an indication (no matter how biased you might believe it might be) of the performance of NV31 and NV34.

While Cebit looms just a mere week away, building momentum for Cebit is important. While many of you might question the wisdom of launching these products at GDC rather than Cebit, it is obvious that the benefits to both ATI and Nvidia are obvious. Having the majority of the gamer developers in one place where you can get them pumped up about the new technology is important. We have often talked about the need for new games to be brought into the market to make use of all of this graphics horse power. It is clear that communication with the development community has to be a top priority of the graphics card manufacturers. Without software to make use of the advanced and complex technologies that these cards have to offer, delivering the reality of cinema style effects and game play is still a dream.

Right now, DirectX 9 is just starting to get a solid foot hold since it's release from Microsoft, and although the games featuring this technology are coming, they are still down the road, which makes the decision of purchasing a new video card a little more difficult. Depending on your needs and just how prepared you want to be for these future DirectX 9 titles will dictate on which care you choose. We can't at this point just make a blanket statement saying that you should only purchase DirectX 9 cards going forward, but certinally they do offer the advantage of being able to support these future titles.

ATI and Nvidia choose different strategies for these product launches. ATI opted for a theme oriented launch with more fun, glitz, and glamour. Nvidia on the other hand opted for an all business oriented approach, which in this case served them well since they wanted people to pay special attention to the message rather than the presentation. Which one we liked better is pretty much asking if we like Pepsi or Coke. Both were are good soft drinks and serve their purpose well. This was the same with both of the launches, they were both very polished, well done and communicated the messages that both companies were trying to get across very well. The glitz and glamour of the ATI party was more fun, and after all at the end of the day fun is what it is all about.