Hardware Does Nvidia have a future?

Just sold my trusty HD4870 for 100€, and bought a HD2600XT for 30€, just to wait for this new HD5870... some say that it'll come out on 10th of Sept... I sure hope so, can't play s*** with that card at 1920x1200...

BTW, great article, really, really good

 

Well this year I bought my first ATI card. I've become jaded when it comes to Nvidia's cards - too many restickered products.
I've had S3Virge ->MX440->FX5200->6800ge->HD4850. Better performance for the $ and that's the way most people think.

I do believe we need at least a two horse race though. Imagine what would have happened if AMD went under? We'd all be using single core pentiums still

After a few years of watching the market I'm going all AMD/ATI for my next build.

 

After the horrendous issues I have had with my 260s I refuse to use Nvidia now. I have a gtx295 but this will be hitting ebay as soon as I feel a need to let it go. (soon I hope)

 

Makes me sad to say this since I've always had good luck with Nvidia products, but easily the two predominant thoughts that come to mind anymore when I hear the word Nvidia is "can of whoop-ass" followed closely by "rebranding".

Weak, Nvidia. Weak.

 

I wish I could get a Tegra phone so bad...

Also another plus I have always found is that Nvidia has had unified drivers for virtually forever. While my old ATI cards have bitten the dust and have crapped out drivers my Geforce 3s are still ticking right along.

 

Concerning Tegra, where the @#$% is via? I thought this was their arena, or is this a behind the scenes joint-venture?

 

I would say that the three things that nVidia invested in that I see failing is CUDA, PhysX, and those lame ass 3d glasses. Other then that the companies been doing fairly well except for their cards being HTPC friendly in that department ATI takes the cake but I think DX11 from ATI might be the big turn around that we have been waiting for, ATI made some decent ground with the 4k series but I think the 5k series will be a big turning point. At least I hope so.

 

IMO the cause of NVIDIA's victory at that time was just about good timing.
8800GTX series jumped right after the releasing of some new big Game titles, including The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion, which immediately required a lot of DirecX 9 horse power.
DirectX 9 was an important milestone because of its post processing technic which requires at least a quite high horse power. People can easily see the differences between Directx 8 and DirectX 9, but not between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10, or even DirectX 11.
It 's horsepower, not just DirectX version that gamers always need.
Back on topic, from that old time, NVIDIA has won gamers hearts.
Talking about a giant's death, while it is still very strong, is just a new creative way of thinking.
Graphic on CPU is still at the horizon.
High horse power will never mix with mainstream.
And, what I must say right now is:
NVIDIA WILL BE THERE STRONG FOREVER!!!

 

I don't think NVidia need an x86 license. They have access to (licenses for) TransMeta's CPU tech, which used a VLIW CPU and on-the-fly recompilation to run x86 software. However TransMeta (Later bought out by Novafora) has since collapsed. It may be possible for nV to buy TransMeta's assets. Then they would have an interesting approach to the whole CPU issue - With TransMeta's "Code morphing" tech, it may be possible for them to take x86 code and convert it to run on CUDA or GPGPU. Then you'd have a modular CPU system. Want more processing power? Drop in more cards in SLI. 1-way, 2-way- 3-way or 4-way SLI, and potentially even more, giving vast speed improvements and scaling, as well as massive multi-threadedness. Then programs could be built as x86, and have "CUDA" modules to replace/supplement/augment the existing x86 codebase.

 

I bought an Nvidia 8800GTS with 640 ram upon their release a few years back. Over the time I've had this card, I've managed to overclock it with minimal problems. It plays all my games at 1920 x 1200, never locks up, never freezes, never crashes, never over heats. All in all it's been a great GPU.

I started buying Nvidia with the TNT2, then the Geforce 2, then the Geforce 4 Ti, which melted... then finally to the end of the AGP era, the Geforce 6600 GT. What an awesome card that was.

Unfortunately though, this article missed a big chunk of the Nvidia industry... I work in an industry where I see the majority of cards in use are Nvidia Quadro's. For every 20 quadro cards, I see an ATI FireGL card. For some reason, when ever anyone thinks Nvidia, they completely forget the CAD systems that usually employ an Nvidia Quadro, which at the end of the day is usually identical to the Geforce card, with exception to the firmware and the price mark up!!!

 

After reading the article, it does make me think of how hard it is to find out what nvidia card I'm buying when I'm buying. But their numbering scheme is easier to remember off the top of my head than ATI's.
But the article does give me some hope to the future of the computing world in general. Better phones, better OS' competition, better gadgets in general. I've been getting quite jaded lately of all the hype the gadget segments seem to market out, but don't innovate nor push for consumers needs. Catering to the "it should just work" without learning how to use it, just hurts more in the long run.

 

What a pathetic article. They don't compete where there's no profit. It's called business and lots of companies do it. This is just more sensationalist rubbish.

This is another bit-tech article without numbers or references to back itself up and for me is the last straw. I may check back over the years.

 

They're merely speculating. And if you don't realize that Nvidia has been well not too competitive this year, then there's something wrong. So far all they've made in the last 2 years is ION, the GT200 which proved to be too expensive, Tegra and more CUDA apps. Now I don't know about you, but if there are people still using the 8800GTX a card from 2 years ago, then you can figure out they Nvidia has stopped being aggressive and just took a back seat to all this.

And please tell me, how was buying out Ageia exactly a good move?

 

yeah that pretty much sums up nvidia since the g80

 

NVIDIA needs to deal with their reliability problems, stop rebadging cards, and stick with a proper naming scheme.

My first card was a 7600GT and it worked decently, but was rather weak, and drivers were an issue. My new HD4850 is flawless, and Catalyst drivers are magnificent.

 

Also Tim when are we going to get the article "Does AMD/ATI have a future?" I look forward with bated breath for that article. Of course you don't need to write one for Intel as they are unshakeable.

 

When I built my PC I was on a really tight budget, so I when with ATI even thought I've always been a Nvidia man

 

sir, might I interest you in a can of rebranded whoop-ass.

 

They're doing fine, they hadn't had their legs knocked out from under them. a little beaten bruised the deathwatch is on nvidia, another year like this investors are going start leaving port. Worst case for AMD, Intel pushes then out of the CPU business but they still Chipset and Graphics Card business, and Global Foundries. Now Nvidia, they have been all but pushed out of the chipset market. It's in tatters, and they're trying to salvage it with Tegra, Ion, and whatever pity deals Intel gives them till Larrabee fully matures.

 

I highly doubt Intel can push AMD out of the CPU business...