AMD and Nvidia have for years been locked in a struggle for dominance in the graphics card market, but this week that competition spilled over into something a lot nastier.
Instead of competing over specs and release dates, AMD's Robert Hallock has told Forbes that Nvidia's Gameworks program - which lets developers implement a range of "exclusive" graphical features in games - is "a clear and present threat to gamers".
"Gameworks represents a clear and present threat to gamers by deliberately crippling performance on AMD products (40% of the market) to widen the margin in favor of NVIDIA products," Hallock told Forbes. That's quite the allegation.
He also claims that signing up to Gameworks "often precludes the developer from accepting AMD suggestions that would improve performance directly in the game code—the most desirable form of optimization."
Nvidia of course deny this, with Director of Engineering, Developer Technology Cem Cebenoyan also telling Forbes "I've heard that before from AMD and it's a little mysterious to me. We don't and we never have restricted anyone from getting access as part of our agreements. Not with Watch Dogs and not with any other titles."
I expect these gentlemen to settle this tomorrow morning. Pistols at dawn, ten paces, no overclocking allowed.
Why 'Watch Dogs' Is Bad News For AMD Users — And Potentially The Entire PC Gaming Ecosystem [Forbes]