Interesting Article about video cards.

[mayro]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18278

 

[gh0st]

he needs to stop whining and do a LITTLE research when he buys his card.

 

[dawdler]

The inquirer always have stupid articles, lol... That's just a bunch of letters about exactly nothing.

 

[blahblahblah]

I figure before the mid-year refresh, we will have atleast 14 variations of cards for ATI and Nvidia. You throw in the mid-year refresh and bam, it is going to increase substantially.

For the typically consumer, this is bad. A typically consumer doesn't know the difference between a FX 5200, FX 5500, FX 5600, and a FX 5700 (don't forget your Ultra variants as well). Those are all low-end Nvidia cards. I can barely tell you what they are. You throw in ATI's cards and you've made impossible for a casual person to pick the right card.

For a hardware guru, it can be better, because you can pick the card that has the features you want at the price you can afford. Though it is still very confusing.

I think the major review sites (ie toms hardware, anandtech, xbit labs and others) need to start doing a better job. Finding reviews on mid-range or low end hardware is impossible. Even finding a new review on high-end hardware 6 months into its life span is impossible.

Case in point, somebody created a thread here about the X800 se. I know what the X800 SE is, but I don't know anything about its exact specifications and performance numbers. I found some info about the X800 SE when it was first announced, however most of it was pure rumor. Yet, when the X800 SE is released, none of them have any info on it. Rather pointless if you ask me.

So, if you head hurts from trying to juggle this little bit of info, lets talk clock speeds. A single chip line can almost double in core clocks from the lowest to the highest parts of the line, and the memory speeds also take a wild swing in speed. Combine the two, and you get a massive flowchart that would make my accountant cringe.

Meh, as an accounting major, this isn't that bad. I've see worse, much worse. :|

PS - You people knock the inquirer too much. They give me heads up and whats going down in the computer industry. They are normally right.

 

[blackeye]

I figure before the mid-year refresh, we will have atleast 14 variations of cards for ATI and Nvidia. You throw in the mid-year refresh and bam, it is going to increase substantially.

For the typically consumer, this is bad. A typically consumer doesn't know the difference between a FX 5200, FX 5500, FX 5600, and a FX 5700 (don't forget your Ultra variants as well). Those are all low-end Nvidia cards. I can barely tell you what they are. You throw in ATI's cards and you've made impossible for a casual person to pick the right card.

For a hardware guru, it can be better, because you can pick the card that has the features you want at the price you can afford. Though it is still very confusing.

I think the major review sites (ie toms hardware, anandtech, xbit labs and others) need to start doing a better job. Finding reviews on mid-range or low end hardware is impossible. Even finding a new review on high-end hardware 6 months into its life span is impossible.

Case in point, somebody created a thread here about the X800 se. I know what the X800 SE is, but I don't know anything about its exact specifications and performance numbers. I found some info about the X800 SE when it was first announced, however most of it was pure rumor. Yet, when the X800 SE is released, none of them have any info on it. Rather pointless if you ask me.



Meh, as an accounting major, this isn't that bad. I've see worse, much worse. :|

PS - You people knock the inquirer too much. They give me heads up and whats going down in the computer industry. They are normally right.

Yep thats the way I see it. Usually the inquirer is right anyway. There not full of BS like most people think.

 

[GPRT]

I remember my friend swapped his Ti 4600 to a FX 5200 pci!! He said it was a higher number so he thought it was better. Luckily he was able to take it back.

 

[westie]

Yeah that guy should learn to live with it, everything has competition and for each new product there has to be a name and it has to out do the others.