Introduction
The past year was innovative for the consumable high-tech hardware market. Two giants of the graphics card industry, NVIDIA and AMD, which have been competing with each other for more than 15 years, have presented their new graphics processing unit (GPU) series to the public. While it is too early to judge the winner regarding quality and sales, NVIDIA is already better at presenting its product rhetorically than AMD.
Audience
NVIDIA and AMD are market rivals with a shared consumer base. They are gamers and creators of various age groups whose central gaming platform is the personal computer (GeForce RTX 4090, 2022). The only difference is that AMD GPU buyers have slightly less purchasing power. The prices of AMD products are, on average, less than those of NVIDIA. It applies to their latest high-end products, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
Persuasive Elements
Ethos
- To reinforce its ethos, NVIDIA often uses popular video game titles like F1 22, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Cyberpunk 2077.
- To appeal to ethos, AMD mentions Forza Horizon 5 and Dying Light 2: Stay Human.
- NVIDIA’s presentation has a more effective ethos.
- The tone of the texts in NVIDIA and AMD is professional. They use technical terms to convey the message about high-end products.
Logos
- NVIDIA uses phrases like “2x” and “4x” to demonstrate the performance of their new product (GeForce RTX 4090, 2022, paras. 2-4).
- AMD uses mainly percentage values and double digits to appeal to logos.
- NVIDIA’s method of appealing to logos is more understandable and conspicuous.
Pathos
- NVIDIA uses words like “ultimate,” “ultra-high,” and “unprecedented” (GeForce RTX 4090, 2022, para. 1).
- AMD uses words like “next-generation,” “high-performance,” energy-efficient,” and “highly successful” (AMD unveils, 2022, para. 1).
- Both use thematically identical verbal constructions.
- The verbal constructs applied by NVIDIA are more simple and more captivating.
Pathos in Visuals
- NVIDIA extensively uses its signature black and green color scheme, videos, and simple tables in the presentation.
- Color is connected with the site’s purpose, which is to present innovative products and provide information for consumers. Bright green lines emphasize the company’s dynamic character.
- The AMD presentation does not have visuals, and its table is more complex.
- The AMD web page does not invoke emotions.
- Text and graphics complement each other. AMD and NVIDIA show the characteristics of the products they sell visually to make this information evident to the audience. AMD uses tables and bullet points to support the ideas expressed in the textual presentation. NVIDIA uses images of the products the company sells to illustrate the claims from the text.
- Sentences in NVIDIA presentations are shorter to facilitate the perception of the information. AMD uses long sentences to provide the clients with more detailed information concerning the product.
- Both companies include hyperlinks in the texts of their presentations to provide customers with access to the extended information.
Conclusion
NVIDIA and AMD used persuasive techniques to present new products. Basic rhetorical parameters such as ethos, logos, and pathos were analyzed, compared, and contrasted. The visuals of the web pages were also examined through the lens of emotion. NVIDIA outperforms AMD in all four of these rhetorical aspects. The lack of visuals and a vibrant color scheme can be considered AMD’s main weaknesses in persuasion and attraction.
References
AMD unveils the world’s most advanced gaming graphics cards, built on groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture with chipset design. (2022). AMD. Web.
GeForce RTX 4090: Beyond fast. (2022). NVIDIA. Web.