Nvidia in 2019 may have gotten some pretty stiff competition from its top rival.
However, that doesnt mean that the graphics card (GPU) manufacturer has been taken down from its lofty perch.
Yes, its suffered a few revenue hits that started in 2018 as well as a couple of setbacks particularly due to release delays and uncovered security vulnerabilities.
Plus, lets face it, AMD has made a rather valiant attempt at usurping the throne with its impressive yet more affordable cards.However, Nvidias popular GPUs are still king of the hill (were looking at you, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti) when it comes to gaming, design and content creation, allowingit to keep the crown.
In fact, thanks to its RTX products, Nvidia has reasserted its dominance in the graphics card market.
With its RTXSuper line getting released in Summer 2019, were certain it will stay that way when 2020 rolls around.
The highly anticipated RTX 2080 Ti Super hasnt even made an appearance yet if it indeed exists.And 2020 definitely also looks very promising for the manufacturer, with its 7nm Ampere architecture rumored to make an appearance by June 2020 to start.
But before we look to its future, lets take a look first at what Nvidia has accomplished in 2019, alongside what it could have done better.(Image credit: Future)Breathtaking gaming at a budget priceNvidia ended 2018 with a bang: not only did it release both the GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 graphics cards, which delivered decent 4K gaming as well as ray tracing to the masses albeit only if they were willing to pay the steep price.
But, the company also unleashed its beasts the RTX 2080 Ti, which remains unbeatable in mainstream gaming, and the appropriately named Titan RTX.It wasnt done.
As soon as January 2019 rolled around, the GeForce RTX 2060 hit the streets to the delight of RTX graphics cards fans who may not have had enough cash to spare to shell out for the higher-end cards.
Indeed, RTX 2060 was the graphics card of your mid-range dreams, armed with ray tracing and enough power for 4K at 30fps gaming.Now, all that was left was to cover the entry level market.
Nvidia had a few aces up its sleeves for that, too.
February 2019 witnessed the release of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti in the budget sector, proving itself more than capable yet generally more affordable than the RTX 2060.
The GTX 1660 and GTX 1650 both followed in the spring of 2019, with ray tracing in GTX 1660 and 1660 Ti coming shortly after.
Those rounded up the lineups nicely so that Nvidia had a capable graphics card for you, whatever your need or your budget was.(Image credit: Future)AMD giving it a run for its moneyThere was much anticipation behind AMDs Navi cards before they were even released, especially because leaks were showing how they rivaled Nvidias existing RTX cards while dialing down the price for budget-minded gamers.
For a hot minute there, the future did look grim for Nvidia after all, the Radeon RX 5700 is a juicier option than the RTX 2060 in term of value, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT holds its own against the RTX 2070 at a much better price.Luckily for Nvidia, AMD hasnt brought ray tracing onto its new cards, and it seems to be focusing its efforts at least, for now in the mid-range and budget markets.
And, so far, none has come close to the performance that the RTX 2080 Ti is offering.(Image credit: Future)Juicing up its best-selling graphics cardsStill, with AMD starting to rack up sales with its affordable alternatives, Nvidia had to do something.
However, instead of releasing a whole new lineup, Nvidia simply gave its RTX (and GTX) cards a boost in specs and added the word Super to their names.It was a bit of a gamble, but one that largely paid off.
The RTX 2070 Super is up to 24% faster than the RTX 2070, with an average performance increase of 16%, for the same price; and the RTX 2060 Super offers roughly the same over its predecessor.
The RTX 2080 Super, on the other hand, doesnt really offer a huge bump in specs than the RTX 2080.
However, its also $100 cheaper and it gets you closer to the RTX 2080 Ti in terms of performance, which is something.While these cards may be a lot more expensive than their AMD rivals for not much performance difference, theyve also got the advantage of ray tracing.
So for folks who are deciding whether to stay with Nvidia or switch to AMD, the option to stay is more compelling than ever even if AMD still beats Nvidia over price.(Image credit: vjkombajn/Pixabay)The death of cryptocurrencyAlongside AMD, Nvidia definitely rode the crypto wave at its height, benefiting in the surge of graphics card sales for mining.
Unfortunately that wave finally crashed, resulting in a massive blow to Nvidias sales.After announcing its earnings for the second quarter of the 2019 financial year, it was revealed that Nvidias revenue fell by 17%, which is huge.
On the upside, the manufacturer actually beat analyst expectations, racking up with $2.58 billion instead of $2.54 billion.With gaming as popular as ever, and Nvidias gaming products accounting for over 50% of its total revenue, its not like its struggling with the loss of cryptocurrency sales.
As its chief financial officer Colette Kress said, Essentially our business is normalized.(Image credit: Nvidia)Nvidia shield becomes the streaming video player to beatNvidia Shield TV has been the top Android streaming box since it came out in 2015, but its been due for a refresh since 2017.
Luckily, it was revealed in August 2019 not one, but two models were on their way.
Roughly about two months later, the Nvidia Shield TV and Nvidia Shield TV Pro hit the streets, receiving glowing reviews.In 2019, Nvidias streaming players are still the ones to beat, offering things like premium 4K/HDR streaming, AI image upscaling and GeForce Now service, all wrapped in fresh new looks.(Image credit: Nvidia)Predicting Nvidia in 2020Though 2019 may not have been a particularly stellar year for Nvidia, its gotten a few wins with its GeForce 16 series and Super RTX lineup.
Unlike AMD, its got all sectors of the market covered, and has essentially introduced ray tracing to the world of mainstream gaming.
Thats without mentioning the fact that laptop sales continue to rise, which Nvidia will only benefit from.
Theres also the success of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite consoles, which utilize Nvidia graphics, and of course, the Nvidia Shield TV streamers.So you might say that Nvidia is more than chugging along, even if it didnt have any Internet-breaking releases in 2019.The question now is, will 2020 be a better year for the graphics card giant? Its highly likely that 2020 could be its year.
The long rumored Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Super is expected to rear its head in early 2020, and its supposed to be a beast with 4,608 CUDA cores and 16Gbps memory speed.Thats not all; the next generation Ampere cards might also arrive in 2020.
And, these are expected to utilize 7nm process and double down on ray tracing not to mention, cut the price so theyre cheaper than ever.
In addition, PhysX 5.0, Nvidias Finite Element Model (FEM) solution for improved physics effects, is also coming in 2020.And though AMDs explosive FEMFX may have already stolen Nvidias PhysX thunder, with both the RTX 2080 Ti Super and Ampere cards up its sleeves, Nvidia is likely to leave AMD in the dust, especially since AMD has yet to implement ray tracing.
But, we guess well have to wait and see how it all plays out.QUJ6cVphY4eeivjPaD22rh.jpg?#