Alan: Fundamentally, PC gamers benefit from the rivalry between GPU manufacturers. As ATI and NVIDIA joust for your dollar, they need to introduce faster GPUs at more aggressive prices, meaning that PC gamers will benefit. As expensive as a SLI 7800 GTX 512MB or a Crossfire X1800 XT is, it would be even more expensive if either company had a monopoly. It was Microsoft's money that helped NVIDIA take the lead in the GeForce 3 and 4 era. It was also NVIDIA's pre-occupation with Microsoft that led to the GeForce FX stumble, allowing ATI to catch up and take the lead with the Radeon 9700. The evenly matched rivalry between ATI and NVIDIA that exists today was a result of Microsoft's meddling.

Ben: This has to be the first time anyone has congratulated Microsoft for encouraging competition. I admit that some of the money Microsoft pours into the gaming industry eventually trickles down to hardware advances. But you could have made the opposite point on competition just as easily—that the Xbox stifled competition by using NVIDIA exclusively for years when they had the upper hand.

At any rate, the 3D graphics market has never seemed monopoly-prone. Years before anyone had heard of the Xbox (e.g. 1998), gamers could choose between 3Dfx, NVIDIA, ATI, and maybe Matrox and S3 for your graphics.