ATI calls PS3 GPU "unrefined"

ATI and Nvidia, quite understandably, have a pretty bitter rivalry, stemming from the competitive graphics card market in the realm of PCs. While IBM can laugh all the way to the bank, having a hand or two in the creation of all 3 next-gen console's CPUs, ATI and Nvidia are having to share the console market. ATI are providing GPUs for the Xbox 360 and Revolution, while Nvidia can claim the coveted PlayStation 3 as its own.

It probably comes as no surprise, then, that the European Developers Relations Manager for ATI, Richard Huddy, is taking some technical jabs at Sony's next-generation serving (again). Huddy recalls how, "as [he] understands it," Sony went to Nvidia very late in the development cycle and they delivered was a modified 7800GTX - which "is a pretty powerful piece of hardware," he notes, "but not very elegant...Xbox 360 technology is likely to outperform PlayStation 3 technology by a pretty healthy margin in the long run." Remember, though, this is coming from a competitor of the PS3's GPU maker, so he's just a tad biased - and since Nvidia is probably never going to be critical of its own product, don't expect them to side with ATI on this matter.

This is just one of many competing firms, others being the console makers and disc formats, using the console launches to take jabs at one another. Do you ever wonder if consoles launches are just excuses for companies to vent?