Every graphics board review seems to be about a board with an Nvidia chip on it. Every time you see something about 3D, it's Nvidia. It's time to look somewhere else in the graphics business. There must be life outside of Nvidia, right? Right now, the only other graphics chip company that I can see having any impact is ATI.

However, it doesn't look like ATI is going to have a direct answer to Nvidia's GeForce 3 this year. It doesn't look like ATI is going to be able to compete against Crush either. While Nvidia can make anywhere from $45 to $55 for every Xbox (which translates into anywhere between $11 to $20 in profit to Nvidia depending on the source), ATI can, at best, hope for $5-7 in royalties for each GameCube. It is almost certain that the company is also going to suffer a dramatic change in its business culture as it reorgnaizes itself, and transitions away from being the board and chip combo everyone has come to know in the last decade. So, does ATI have a chance against Nvidia?

It's very important that ATI be successful and a strong player in the graphics industry because, it is about the only company within striking distance of Nvidia, and no matter how much you may admire Nvidia's brilliant rise to the top, you wouldn't want there to be only one company supplying all your graphics products. Not you as consumers, not you as systems integrators, and not you as an OEM.

However, ATI has failed in the last two years to stem the onslaught of Nvidia on the market. Or, should I say, Nvidia has done such a good job that ATI has been thoroughly outclassed? It's probably a bit of both.

Looking Up; Looking Down

On the one hand, ATI can look up and see that it has opportunities to improve as a company:

Improve on execution - get products out at time, and improve drivers. Get aggressive on marketing - so far, ATI has not had the ability to counter the aggression of Nvidia Define a clear strategy that addresses the markets of today - ATI has been asleep at the wheel this last two years. With a new CEO, and a reorganized company structure, ATI management should be energized for change

On the other hand, ATI should hang its head:

While Nvidia gobbled up practically every graphics developer in Silicon Valley, ATI contended itself with the likes of Chromatics and Tseng even though the company could have got any of Nvidia's pickings from Xbox to 3dfx As a result, ATI has been playing catch up on technology ATI's set-top box strategy was a long term play that took the company's eye of the ball

It's easy to say what went wrong after the fact so, perhaps we should dwell on the opportunities that ATI has available to it going forward.