Thoughts on Steam's gpu statistics for Sept. 2009

[GaiaHunter]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker




Of course not, the point remains that ATi did worse with the 4x00 parts then the 3x00 parts. That was the point I was getting at. The 4x00 parts, for whatever reason, did not do well for ATi by any stretch of the imagination.

Comparing the last quarter before the 4800 vs 2 quarters with them doesn't prove much - part of that might be simply on costs of phasing out the 38xx and previous series.

nV's last quarter financial reports, don't have the link atm, but they are right on nV's site(same as AMD's.. well, you know what I mean ).

Those numbers though (or at least the ones I find) aren't categorized in a way to get results of graphics division only, and even then, nvidia does a lot better in the mobile market - and the mobile market isn't the place for the 4800 and GTX200.

You left out the 9600GT and on a realistic basis the 8800GT which was widely available for a good chunk of that timeframe. When you factor those in, you see the market dominance.

Well the 8800GT is bunched with the 8800 and additionally both the 8800GT and even the 9800 series were being sold before the 4800 even came out, so it is quite hard to come with data that isn't prone to errors.

If we get the 9600GT, well we need to add the 4670 and the 4650 at least.

The Steam numbers are far to be a reliable source, but an interesting number is that the 3870 and the 3850 have 2.75% of the DX10 GPUs vs the 11.46% of the 4800 series.

I'm not sure exactly what are the causes of that negative quarter, but there is no question that the 4800 series sells much more units when compared to the 38xx.

Without better hard data we will just end discussing the sex of the angels.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
I think that part of the issue is that Steam games are not ultra ultra gfx intensive. (I could be wrong, havent been on steam in 6+ months).

But last time I looked, you don't need high level 4xxx or 2xx class cards to run most steam games.

Therefore, a survey of Crysis players or even World at War players might have different results.

That said, I just bought an ATI 5870 and I LOVE it.

They have a pretty comprehensive inventory of titles now, but to an extent the casual gamers and people playing CS on ancient rigs are going to be somewhat over-represented. Soccer moms playing Bejeweled aren't exactly the target market for Crysis.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Those numbers though (or at least the ones I find) aren't categorized in a way to get results of graphics division only

Yep, that is part of the problem of trying to compare them. We know that the chipset business declined rapidly during that timeframe however.

Comparing the last quarter before the 4800 vs 2 quarters with them doesn't prove much - part of that might be simply on costs of phasing out the 38xx and previous series.

The last quarter in that report was this year, and they managed a $1Million profit, or 3% of nV's operating profit for the quarter.

so it is quite hard to come with data that isn't prone to errors.

That is the main point of my comments. It is a joke to use the Steam numbers for any real analysis.

If we get the 9600GT, well we need to add the 4670 and the 4650 at least.

The 4670 was never a competitor to the 9600GT, it was one of the parts Anand had to protect from it(I know ATi wanted it to be in that segment, but it never was). The 4650 isn't remotely in the same league. The 9600GT was about 15% off the 8800GT, which does put it in the range of the 4770(well, closer to it then the 4670 for certain).

The Steam numbers are far to be a reliable source, but an interesting number is that the 3870 and the 3850 have 2.75% of the DX10 GPUs vs the 11.46% of the 4800 series.

The 3870 and 3850 were both garbage parts, the people who bought them were far more likely to upgrade quickly then someone who had a 8800 flavor.

Without better hard data we will just end discussing the sex of the angels.

There is better data, JPMorgan which shows nV outselling ATi 2:1.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
There is better data, JPMorgan which shows nV outselling ATi 2:1.

But what I would really like to see is amount of 4800 units sold vs amount of GTS250/GTX200 units sold.

EDIT: And I'm not saying (or implying) nvidia sells less than ati at that segment. My interest spawns on the fact that I like to buy my GPUs between the $150-250 range (and btw my CPUs in the $100-150 range) and so I like when the competitors are fairly equal and that makes prices drop.

 

[BenSkywalker]

But what I would really like to see is amount of 4800 units sold vs amount of GTS250/GTX200 units sold.

The GTS250 has been out for 8 months, the 4800 series has been out for 16 months. This is the problem when trying to get it sorted how you are looking for it in this timeframe. The G92 parts were so effective they overlapped a few different generations and sold tons of parts, the GTX never entered into the mass market segment where the 4800 series almost certainly got most of its' sales. I understand why you want to see what you want to see, but the reality of the situation is that it isn't likely to be broken down like that for public consumption.

The best way to know that they are competitive is by the pricing situation. If prices are ticking up(as we saw with the 8800GTs for a while and are seeing with the 5850s now) then there isn't proper competition. If the prices steadily trend down, as we have been seeing for most market segments for a while now, there is a healthy level of competition.

 

[StinkyPinky]

My trusty 8800gt card is two years old and still serves me well and does DX10. Great card. Perhaps the 8800 series cards were actually too good for the price/performance ratio.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
On another note, AMD has a quite strong 33.5% of the total CPU market - I thought Intel had a bigger lead over AMD, but AMD has appared to hold tough through the Athlon X2 / Phenom 1 era where they were well behind technologically.

Maybe it's all those gamers who upgrade only once every 5 years and are still on socket 939?

Originally posted by: aka1nas
people playing CS on ancient rigs are going to be somewhat over-represented.

LOL, I remember for the longest time the Radeon 9600 Pro was one of the top cards in the stats.