Nvidia has reportedly shrugged off AMD's current lead in the DirectX 11 graphics market, insisting that it's only a temporary advantage that won't have a long-term effect. The momentary edge of beating Nvidia will be eclipsed by larger changes in the graphics processing market, which is moving toward parallel computing, said Nvidia's Michael Hara last week.

"We go through revolutionary changes every three of four years, and that's exactly where we're at today," Hara said. He continued, "The next big evolution in the API world has come with DirectX 11 (DX11), but we believe that's a part of the experience," adding that technologies like 3D stereo and physics are also important.

Ultimately, Hara said being out of sync with the API for a couple of months isn't as important as what Nvidia is striving to accomplish in the big picture, over the next four or five years.

Fermi is just around the corner, and AMD's Radeon HD 5970 will finally have the opportunity to pick on something its own size. In the meantime, what do you think about AMD's lead? Is it truly as "insignificant" as Nvidia claims?