ATi and 3DFX was making graphics chipsets long before nVidia. But ATi was mostly making them for Professional work rather than for gaming. 3DFX made cards for gaming, but they were mostly add on cards and you require a seperate 2D card too. Then nVidia had some good cards, but I think the Riva TNT is the chipset which took nVidia into the limelight. At the time ATi used to make the chipsets as well as the cards (no third party manufactuers) while nVidia made the chipsets and offerered them to the card manufacturers. ATi was almost devastated and destroyed by nVidia, thats when they opened thier eyes and began changing thier policies to compete with nVidia. Till the introduction of the 9k series, nVidia was always ahead of ATi. Then slowly both of them came of the same footing. Now its like both make some good and bad cards, It took ATi a lot of time to make a card that can compete with 6800GT in price and performance. The 1900XT(X) may be the best card available now, but it doent mean that nVidia cards will always be bad. Its better to judge the individual chipsets than the companies themselves. who knows may be nVidia will make a better card next.
@bilal: The 7950 series have 1 GB RAM, but its like 512 x 2 and the contents themselves are mirrored.
@bilal: The 7950 series have 1 GB RAM, but its like 512 x 2 and the contents themselves are mirrored.