The video card business pendulum has had its swing into AMD territory, but bit by bit NVIDIA is making its comeback after an embarrassing early last generation. This time it’s not more frames per second, but favorable alliances which are gaining ground for the graphics giant: EA and 2K Games (creators of Bioshock) have both agreed to use NVIDIA’s PhysX technology to drive their physics engines in upcoming games.
Okay, so some big companies licensed some technology. What does that mean for you and me, who are thinking how to get the most gaming performance out of our $150 or whatever? Well, combined with recent performance increases and AMD insolvency, it means buy GeForce. Physics simulation is becoming so standard a feature in games that developers will be relying on hybrid technology like PhysX to make sure their games are running as smoothly as possible. AMD may leapfrog them later, as they did with the 4870, but that’s speculation at this point and what we can say with near certainty is that Bioshock 2 and the next Crysis are going to run best on a GeForce-based system.