Nvidia Takes Pot Shots at the Console Industry

I’m a PC gamer. Cut me and I bleed… every time I open the case to upgrade or replace a component!

All kidding aside, I love my PC not because I think the graphics are better (even though they are), but because I was raised with a mouse in my hand instead of a controller. I play a lot of first person shooters and over the years I’ve found that using your thumbs to aim a gun is like using a fire extinguisher to paint a picture. Maybe it’s my cave man-ish opposable thumbs, but in my opinion a mouse will always be more accurate than analog sticks. Don’t think of me as an elitist PC snob though! I’m a big fan of playing Naughty Dog and Rockstar games on my PS3.

Given that… even I balked at some of the things Tony Tamasi, Nvidia’s Vice President of Content and Technology, said at E3 recently.

In case you missed it: Tamasi fired a few shots across console gaming’s bow when he said that the state of gaming graphics technology has been held back because of Microsoft and Sony’s current gen boxes. He bashed them further when he pointed out that Nvidia’s current graphics champ, the GTX Titan, is two and a half times more powerful than the PS4 will be at launch. 

While what he said is technically true, what he conveniently left out is that the Titan costs over $1,000. That’s like saying a Ferrari Spider ($250,000) is two and half times faster than a Chevy Corvette ($60,000), but you’re going to need to rob a bank or sell your soul to get those horses. 

One thousand dollars for a graphics card?!

That’s absurd. This price tag rules out all but the hardest core PC enthusiasts – the 1% if you will. I built my own gaming PC and there’s no way in hell I’d ever consider dropping that much on a graphics card. Not ever. A grand for one component is an unholy waste of money, especially when 99% of the gaming masses won’t see any noticeable advantage with it sitting in their rig.

I’m no “mathlete”, but you’re likely going to get way more bang for your buck picking up two next gen consoles – one of each! – over one of Nvidia’s Titan graphics card.  No wonder console gamers scoff at us. 

I almost get what he’s trying to say about current gen boxes holding back graphical advancements, but considering how well Naughty Dog’s “Last of Us” is reviewing at the moment, one has to wonder if that’s true. And did you see the Dark Sorcerer PS4 tech demo? Holy crap!

His comments feel incredibly disingenuous, especially considering that Tamasi works for Nvidia, and both Microsoft and Sony will be using heavily modified GPUs from AMD in their bright, shiny new consoles.

So, who is he really bashing… the consoles or AMD? Does he have a legit beef, or is he just stoking the fires of the never-ending “PC vs. Console War” to get some press? ‘Cause we all know… there’s no such thing as bad press anymore.