nVidia and ATI: Listen up!
You’ve probably already read that nVidia is going to launch quad SLI at E3. Reading that, I just wonder what the fascination is with SLI. I can’t help but wonder if the guys over at nVidia ran into some kind of innovation barrier, that they can’t seem to make videocards faster anymore based on a single chip and have to resort to having people install 4 videocards in their computer in the future to get the performance they need. What’s next, 6 videocards running in SLI? Will we have space left in our case to put other stuff in, like say, a CPU, a hard disk or two and perhaps some memory?
I remember back in the days of 3Dfx, they seemed to have the same problem. At one point you had to have two 3Dfx videocards running in SLI, if you wanted to come even close to the performance of a single nVidia videocard. And I remember how I was amazed that nVidia seemed to be able to do what the guys over at 3Dfx were obviously struggling to do, but couldn’t, and were coming up with HACKS like SLI to be able to compete with nVidia.
And today, nVidia seems to be in the same position. And if they think they are impressing people with quad SLI, they should probably think again. Just think about it, 4 videocards in your system. First of all, you’ll need around $1500 to $2000 just for the videocards. Then, you’ll also need a monster of a cooling system to be able to turn on your computer and not have random hardware inside it melt and/or blow up because of the immense heat those cards are going to generate. Then, you need to think about the power consumption. The powersupply you’re likely to need could probably easily be used to light up a small country. And that is if you’re lucky. Chances are you may need to build your own nuclear powerplant to be able to not only reliably power the videocards and the monster of a cooling system they need, but also any other hardware in your case. Expect a call from Mohamed ElBaradei from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and expect to deal with US foreign policy, because people just might suspect you of trying to build a nuclear weapon. What, you didn’t think they would believe you when you tell them that you just want to power your quad SLI system so you could run Doom 3 at 500 FPS on 2560 x 1600, did you? Oh you did! Aaaw, you’re so cute and naive.
Think of all the headache. I honestly just don’t think quad SLI is worth all that. And remember that this is when you are actually able to obtain a quad SLI system and at least 4 quad SLI enabled videocards in the first place! If you consider that even Dell can’t get their hands on a GeForce 7900 GTX these days, then what makes you think you can? Yup, blame it all on the paper launches. I’m all for companies trying to outsmart and be faster and better than their competitors, but this is just stupid. Don’t you think that when you say that you’ve just launched a product, that it should, you know, actually be available in large enough quantities to the public? What’s the use of sending out press releases mentioning the launch of the latest videocard, and it not being available for the next 2 months? And even if it becomes available after 2 months, supplies barely last to provide Jen-Hsun Huang and some close relatives with some samples.
It’s so stupid you’d have expected ATI and nVidia to have stopped with this nonsense long ago. But let me tell you something ATI and nVidia, and listen carefully. If you want to really impress me, and I mean seriously impress me, release a videocard with a single GPU on it, that matches the performance of a quad SLI setup, consumes much less power than a GeForce 7900 GTX and runs stable on my system with a 350 watt powersupply, and does not need any kind of cooling system whatsoever. And also make sure most of the planet will be able to actually get one on the day it is launched.
That is what I would call REAL innovation. Comparable to when nVidia was beginning to beat 3Dfx. No hacks like SLI, no excessive heat because of overclocking, no need for external power, just raw power in a single, cool and low powered GPU. And you can’t tell me that you can’t do it. I’m willing to bet that you could get a GeForce 7900 GTX running at the speed of a 5950 Ultra, where it uses less power and produces less heat compared to the 5950 Ultra, while performing just as well.
What we need released today, is technology two years from now. We need a GeForce 9900 GTX which would be available 2 years from now, to be released today, clocked at speeds that make it run cooler and use less power, and perform just as well as the 7900 GTX. Instead of releasing a videocard every 4 months because you want to appear like you’re trashing the competition, you just might want to actually take the time to make a really innovative product instead. We won’t mind at all of it takes a year or two before you release your next videocard, as long as it’s good. Comprende?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 11:21 am by Karel Donk
and is filed under 
April 20th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Also, the videocard should bake yummy pies, and allow travel through hyperspace. If it has a nice ass I’ll pay exta.
April 24th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Hey Karel,
This piece on ati and nvidia is right up my street. LMAO great post. I used to be caught up in that rat race and yes, paper launches suck, noise levels suck, the power consumption sucks and most of all the very fact that these cards constantly push the games designers to re-design games and delay them for cards not even purchasable for end users until said game is old hat, whilst also meaning no real coding expertise for a given platform ever is nurtured or developed (unlike consoles) means to me a constant upgrade cycle and buggy games that only scratch at the potential of each level of hardware.
I should like to see a level playing field for at least a year + for each generation of pc technology, in order to both justify purchase and allow for proper bug tested hardware to be released as fully stable platforms that have full technical backup and software dedicated support. This would lead, like say the pSX to more matured games and software occuring over a longer period, prior to each hardware swap out. I know you are a windows fan, and I am a user, mostly because windows is complex enough and I dont have time to faff around with linux et al, but windows gets by, it is probably deliberately buggy to get people to upgrade constantly, yet works fine to a degree. It also has a monopoly money all its own and is firmly parked on mayfair with multiple hotels, stopping anyone elses attempts at real estate firmly. In the console world the Xbox was a failure that would have killed off any other console maker. Gates can absorb it and buck the trend of 5 year platform life with no pocket lightening effect. Its sole contribution was decent and organised online console games and I believe they succeeded where Sony planned and totally let their supporters down. I have not tested xbox 360 yet but hope it is more than flash gfx and samey online/offline games. The gfx are there for designers to get creative with but corporate profits / rapid hardware turnover and stick to the, ‘if it sells’ franchises mantra’s, have killed creativity and improving abilities with any given platform. PC’s and GFX cards are the death of and the crux of this ill. They also make obsolete many systems and create more landfill waste than is safe to take a WEEE on. I popped by for the Michael Rupert link btw. Look it up folks it may just open your eyes to the real world.
Take care fellow truth seeker.
April 24th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Forgive me for this Karel and I post this to yourself as moderator and please don?t blog it unless you agree, or find it of use.
I just thought of a great parody.
’911, Gates and the fascist connection’
Infiltrating every home is conspiracy, as American as apple pie. These are not wacky alien fantasies and everyone is involved as accessories after the fact, its orchestrator?s before the fact. Shortly after WWII a small group of co-conspirators pulled off one of modern days greatest conspiracies, a control tool upon our lives. Their power infiltrates the globe and affects every household to differing degrees. The puppet figurehead sits aloft, immune to accusations with ties to NAZI Germany, that an owned and controlled mainstream media rarely investigated or reports upon.
IBM having financed and profited from early cataloguing systems of the Holocausts victims set about a method of continued population control. Seeking out geeky and unusual, socially inept types, they set about manipulating individuals with briberies of positions of power and wealth in exchange for humiliating Fraternity practices, steeped in mysticism, bizarre sexual rites and the occult, to assure silence of their participators in their future lofty positions.
Conspiraring with later generations of this American wealth line, certain perpetrators, set about the adoption of a created product that would permeate all the publics? mindset worldwide. They have succeeded in keeping both its users and its critical ‘conspiracy theorists’ stuck firmly in cyberspace, lost in a quagmire of difficult to discern, dis-info filled websites, forums and technical literature, spawning an economic monolith of money making spin offs. All scratching their heads, as to the specifics of the problem before them, users and critics spend there time firmly in inaction, against the hidden enemy within, whilst chasing phantoms upon their monitors, not confronting those responsible directly. Prone to infiltration, dissemination of viral disruption and prone to collapses during the gathering of sensitive information and its archiving, the perfect product remains elusive and yet worshipped.
Both camps hang on every word of the players and are misdirected by each new advance or release of information that may hold a key to the gatekeeper?s intentions. Fear of the upheaval and change permeates both camps, with equal effect. The theorists remain hopeful of converting the users to the truth behind the products past and future intentions, whilst the users remain locked away in its distractions or pending improvements. Time is running out, until the release of a new more threatening product that will further perplex, endanger and strip the liberties further still, of both its users, its critics, and the world that it creates for and around them. Aware of its critics, the product makers fill space and cyberspace further still, an onslaught, a propaganda machine upon the users within the masses, who lap it up and beg for more from the masters they rally behind. Honed psychologically to perfection, its Agent Smith provocateurs fill our pages with comforting ads, of our promised, yet illusionary freedoms. With provocative slogans of “Where we may wish to go today”, Seated in relative discomfort in front of a screen or if discerning enough, a stressfully forced and maintained seat off of it and away from perception and the due process. Both camps remain lured like bees to the honey. The users, solely unaware of the monoliths next intended steps.
A once free communications tool, is to be itself, placed under the restrictions and controls of its creators and gatekeepers, this ever more apparent to the critics than its mainstream users. The helplessly “helpful” technical sites will remain for the users lost in the products flaws, willingly divulging more and more of their details to the benign benefactors, in the name of entertainments and distractions. Whilst the critics will be silently removed, to more secure, undisclosed locations, to be rarely seen upon the users perception, except in alarmist, dividing and segregating tales, further backed up by an easily alterable record of truth, upon the users easily manipulated screens. The suppression of subversion to the product.
So it is with in trepidation and a sense of adventure that critics embrace the latest advancements of WINDOWS into their lives, with its intended mirroring of the soul. Whilst the hooked and embracing users, seek the warmth of benign bug fixes and further expansions of where they can travel in inertia. The critics are clamouring to point out to the users that such WINDOWS on liberty, are easily exploited, readily exploited and will be exploited, if not now then soon. For the loss of liberty is always gradual, whether cyber, real, or imagined and when it is gone, it exists only in monopoly and the tyranny of evil men.
Who wants to be the old boot?
The creators!
It is a fascist boot and it fits them to a tee.
?Now watch this drive”
Regards
Reflecter
April 25th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Reflector,
thanks for the posts. I’m not sure what version of Windows you’re using, but it has come a long way. Windows XP is very good compared to previous versions. I have it installed on my home PC which is always on and do all kinds of heavy stuff on it, and I don’t reboot for up to 4 weeks (!!). The last few times I had to reboot were because of power outages. So it is very stable for me. And it will only get MUCH better with Windows Vista it seems.
As for XBox, Microsoft has some things going on that Sony never will be able to do. Microsoft understands the art of integration. And this benefits not only users but also developers. And I think since I am a developer, I value this a lot. For example, if you’ve written a PC game, it takes little effort if you’ve done your homework, to port it to the XBox. With little effort, developers can release for both PC and Xbox, and this is a huge benefit compared to Playstation. A Playstation game requires lots more effort to port to PC or XBox. So the PC and Xbox are a more interesting platform for developers to release their games on. But not only because of the larger audience, but the tools for both platforms (PC and Xbox) are now being consolidated. So you can use the same tools to develop for both, think of how much easier it is becoming. And Microsoft has the best development tools right now. Even services such as XBox Live, will be available on both platforms. PC gamers will for example be able to interact with Xbox gamers, and again, this just makes the audience much bigger. Then you have integration with Media Center and other Microsoft products, everything plays well with eachother. etc. etc.
These are really strong advantages for Xbox. Sony is going to have a very difficult time with PS3.
And as for the parody, I especially liked the last part
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:50 pm
NVIDA, I want you to walk on water, throttle your R+D so hard profits dive, create a product that is so ahead that none of the software developers are ready for it and so will spend 18 months catching up. I want your revenue streams to dry up and ultimately the insolvency of your excellent company. I want one, ultimate, be-all, end-all, never need another one graphics card. I want you to create cards that are 1000 faster than your current fastest offering, ina single chip that won’t stress a laptop battery. Most of all however, I want you to walk on water. NOW.
Real world people – REAL WORLD. Its out there, I promise you, just open your curtains and take a look.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Wow, thats a brilliant post, Karel. We need Graphic Cards with technology from the future. Thats brilliant man. I would like to make some amends to your request. We don’t need technology from 2 years from now released today, we need technology from four years from now released today. I mean, think about it! If we are all asking tooth fairies and time travel devices to help nVidia and ATI out, why not stop there? While they are over there in the future, I would like them to bring a Zero Emission combustion engine, a cold-fusion model for us to use, and the cures for AIDS and cancer.
You write really brilliant stuff man. If only nVidia and ATI would listen to your intelligent points about time travel. That would be sick.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
You don’t understand.
What they should do, is take the chip they are going to release next month, which requires a bigass cooler, and NOT release it, work on it for another 2 years until they can have it work just as fast, without requiring a cooler.
The chips they currently release as low end solutions, which don’t require massive cooling, were the high end chips of 2 years ago, and at that time, they required massive cooling.
Understand?