The days where we have to spend an excessive amount of time researching video cards are numbered, if NVIDIA has anything to do about it.
NVIDIA's VP of Content Business Development, Roy Taylor, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the company's "current range of products is over complicated and too confusing for many customers." He then added that NVIDIA "needed to make its products more consumer friendly."
I agree wholeheartedly. While you and I may not personally be fooled by NVIDIA's sinister naming scheme, there's some ill-informed consumer out there right now purchasing a half-assed graphics card that they think will run the latest and greatest in PC gaming.
Then again, I guess those people deserve to end up with a bad card if they're willing to buy something that expensive without reading up on it beforehand.
05/07/2008 19:11
05/07/2008 19:16
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05/07/2008 19:51
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05/07/2008 20:00
Yes, that has also been my experience.
05/07/2008 20:02
200dollarcard
400dollarcard
600dollarcard
where 200dollarcard lets u play games on low setting and 600dollarcard lets u play game on high setting.
so esay even a 3 year old will know exactly what to get.
05/07/2008 20:09
Sarcasm aside, I do agree with your sentiment though. They don't do to good of a job explaining just how good a graphics card is in layman's terms.
05/07/2008 20:27
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v123/supermaitro/Mercadolibre/?action=view¤t=nuevo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v123/supermaitro/Mercadolibre/nuevo.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Wasn't this part of the purpose of DX10? To make game requirements easier to understand?
05/07/2008 20:28
05/07/2008 21:04
The PC industry needs to implement an easier way to swap out components. Plain and simple. If they can't get that right, this initiative is a pointless waste of money.
05/07/2008 21:58
i want pc gaming to stay alive but i spent months researching graphics cards and if they do this ill feel less smart!!
btw, unrelated kinda: i love my 8800gts
05/07/2008 22:37
1. Open Case
2. Take Out Old Card
3. Put in New Card
4. Turn PC On
As long as you get your expansion slot right, you're basically good to go.
05/07/2008 23:12
1) Bigger numbers are better!
2) You have to find ALL of the numbers!
That 2) can trip you up pretty badly; i learnt the hard way. Yes, 256mb is a good number (or was a couple years back) but if the other numbers are very low... In fact, the ram is probably the least important number.
05/07/2008 23:15
Understanding the current Nvidia product lineup is also piss-easy if you bother to read a single hardware article. There are a bajillion tech related sites out there, I personally prefer The Tech Report.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14686
It becomes more difficult to decide what you want when comparing different hardware manufacturers (XFX, BFG, Asus, Diamond, Biostar, etc. There are a ton of different makers), and at that point you probably will want to ask for someone more experienced's help.
05/08/2008 00:05
Average Joe Schmoe who buys his E-Machines from Best Buy should easily be able to distinguish from a gaming machine and a non-gaming machine while at the store. Even if he won't be running most games at enthusiast specs, he should still be allowed reasonable performance with whatever he buys as long as he shells out the extra $100 or whatever for the "gaming" feature.
05/08/2008 00:41
The only way I see ATI surviving is if they go in a completely new direction, like trying to start that software rendering rebirth a few of the major studios like Valve see coming in the near future.
05/08/2008 01:25
even if it has an easier numbering/naming system ( i don't get it, what is so hard, higher number = better card = higher price ) 'regular' people still won't buy it...
05/08/2008 02:33
No, I'm not talking about the bugs and compatibility. I'm talking about just installing or updating them.
05/08/2008 05:15
05/08/2008 05:27
Still, looking forward to the looming gfx war this summer!
05/08/2008 07:32
Sell it for half the price. PC gaming FTL.
05/08/2008 07:34
and i don't have to hear stupid video card qustions any more that have to doo with the poorest of piss poor GPU's and there performance any why it sucks to people.
05/08/2008 07:40
Installing PCI/PCIE/AGP cards is literally as difficult as a childs puzzle. The hole is a certain shape. The graphics card has a certain shaped protrusion. The protrusion fits snugly into the hole. What a struggle. It gets even more complicated when you have to put the driver disc in the drive and click install. If you want to be REALLY pro, you can download the drivers from nvidia/ati and click those instead.
It's not like you're being asked to solder the chips to the motherboard or anything, I'll never understand the accusation that graphics cards are in any way difficult to install.
I'd love to hear suggestions for an easier way to swap out components though. (Such as paying someone to do it, which keeps me in business).
05/08/2008 08:41
Does my motherboard have such a slot? Is it PCI-E 2.0 compatible? Does my videocard need a special type of power-supply? Does my videocard fit in my case?
We tech-savvy people can easily answer these questions, but not your average X360 gamer.
05/08/2008 08:54
That's the best idea ever!
05/08/2008 13:48
All PCI-E motherboards are technically PCI-E 2.0 compatible, as the format is backwards compatible. Older PCI-E motherboards just won't be able to give the performance boost a proper PCI-E 2.0 mobo would with the same card. Both will run just fine, however.
05/08/2008 14:51