Disclaimer: I am not a fanboy of either AMD, Nvidia, or Intel. I have and currently do own parts from all 3 as they all make decent products, and sometimes not so decent as well ;).
While I do think that this mentality is going away, I can't help but notice some people (Including oblivious console gaming websites) say the most rediculous things I have ever heard like "Hey as long as you have a GTX card you are fine" or "I thought Nvidia and Intel were the same thing ?!"
Then you have the fanboys that feed the oblivious casuals their BS like "Nvidia cards are just stronger and use less energy." So before I here your thoughts I want to state that it is a FACT that AMD and Nvidia tend to trade blows and one up each other back and forth. History of competition:
2007: The 8800 GTX is quite a bit stronger than the HD 3870
2008: The GTX 280 is about 10-15% stronger than the HD 4870 while costing twice as much
2009: The HD 5870 launches and decimates GTX 285 for around half a year.
2010: The GTX 480 launches and costs 25% more than the 5870 while being 10-20% stronger. It also uses near double the energy and genrates noise at 70dB.
2010-2011: Nvidia quickly launches the GTX 580 shortly after the 480 and maintains a performance lead for a little over a year. Although it should be mentioned that the HD 6970 had more memory, used a lot less energy, and cost quite a bit less.
2012: The HD 7970 launches and dominates the 580 for a few months until Nvidia can launch the GTX 680. The 680 costs a little less at first and performs a little better (10%) while offering lower power consumption. However Nvidia was never able to manufacture them reliably in time and within a couple months AMD gets the 7970's performance solidly above the 680's while offering more Video ram for the same price. It should also be mentioned that AMD works to fix frame varience problems for about half a year for crossfire set ups.
*For all the fanboys that want to dispute the 7970 winning in power, here is a review of the GTX 770 that perfectly illustrates how true this is:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-770-gk104-review,3519-9.html
2013: Nvidia finally beats the HD 7970 with... A $1000 card that is only in practice about 40% stronger than a stock 7970 (GTX Titan). Eventually the GTX 780 comes out but still at an insane $650 price point. AMD then launches the R9 290 series later in the year and overtakes the $1000 titan for less than half the price. Then of course Nvidia releases the GTX 780 Ti at an insane price of $700. It is about 7% stronger than 290X while offering less VRAM.
2014: R9 295X2 spanks the Titan Z at half the price. Nvidia Maxwell to launch late this year.
Doesn't seem like anyone is dominating here to me...
