Prior to the show, there was so much speculation that NVIDIA would be the partner chosen by Microsoft for work on the graphics but the latest buzz at Comdex also points elsewhere. Our various sources stated that it's currently a two horse race between NVIDIA and ATi with at least one insider already calling the race to ATi. Other sources say Microsoft has not yet made the decision so we think it's still anyone's race. As we've already covered our thoughts on NVIDIA powering the X-Box last go round, here we'll focus in on why it might be ATi instead.

ATi's recent announcement of the Aurora (RAGE Fury MAXX) has shown their intent at taking a crack at the high-end 3D market. It won't stop there, as we learned that ATi is set to continue their assault on the high-end with the follow-up (call it 'Rage 6', the Rage Fury MAXX is either 'Rage 4' or 'Rage 5' depending on who is passing out the numbers).

A 'Rage 6 derivative' could be exactly what the doctor (or in this case Uncle Billy) ordered. We hear it'll have an on-board geometry co-processor with a full transformation and lighting engine capable of some 45 million textured triangles per second (60 million transform-only) and even support things like vertex blending as the GeForce 256 currently does (could be an important element for the next generation of 3D character-driven sports games). As with their Rage Fury MAXX, the Rage 6 chip is reported to have all the HDTV and hardware motion compensation features as well as their exceptional work on DVD support.

Also worthy of note regarding this new ATi chip is Amiga's intent on using a derivative of "Rage 6" as well for their own platform. According to www.amiga.org Gateway (who now owns Amiga) is working on a new platform based on open standards. This new platform will be powered by Amiga's 'Operating Enviroment' which will sit on 3rd party hardware ranging from palmtops to servers. The flagship will be the "Multimedia Convergance Computer" (MCC) which is set to include an on-board geometry co-processor from ATi.