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NVIDIA wants to make its products more 'consumer friendly' photo

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. 


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28 comments | showing # 1 to 28

SourGr8pes's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 19:11
SourGr8pes
Anything that is claimed to be consumer friendly, in most cases, usually is NOT.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 19:16
Mxyzptlk
Good, because I usually have to just get a friend much smarter than myself to pick out my computer hardware every time I upgrade.
-PL-'s Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 19:22
-PL-
Cool, it's about time ATI took the lead again.
razerangel's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 19:51
razerangel
Yea this should be a good idea if they work on the basis of Slow, Medium, Fast and MOTHERFUCKINGEXCESSIVE!
Wexx's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 19:51
Wexx
Yeah, Nvidia's naming scheme is weird. Any change for the better is welcome.
liquidninja's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 20:00
liquidninja
@SourGr8pes
Yes, that has also been my experience.
Mikescool's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 20:02
Mikescool
i propose nvidia just name their cards

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.
CRA's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 20:09
CRA
That'd be swell if all games had the same requirements and technology didn't move forward.

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.
Satsumomo's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 20:27
Satsumomo
Re-using box art?

<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?
Satsumomo's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 20:28
Satsumomo
BB Code ftw.
Niero's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 21:04
Niero
That's like saying a rotary engine manufacturer wants stay at home moms to pay more attention to their technology.

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.
adultswim810's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 21:58
adultswim810
nonononoNONONONONO! - shia labouef, multiple movies

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
Deckard's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 22:37
Deckard
Uh, Niero, how much easier could it be to swap out a video card these days?
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.
ajaxender's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 23:12
ajaxender
Its about time they were more clear on how good products are. Its actually fairly simple once you understand these concepts:

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.
Jetsetlemming's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/07/2008 23:15
Jetsetlemming
Yeah, replacing a video card is piss easy, same with any expansion slot based hardware, ala sound cards and ram. It gets more complicated when you get into shit like the processor, power supply, motherboards, or two a lesser extend hard drives if they're in closed hard drive cages like they are in some machines.

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.
Azereki's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 00:05
Azereki
Someone from AMD actually had a conversation with me at GDC about a similar initiative to make PC gaming more friendly to the mainstream. It would definitely be nice to see some sort of hardware and software standardization take place in the industry.

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.
Jetsetlemming's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 00:41
Jetsetlemming
AMD sadly doesn't stand a chance at their current market performance and income. They'd need to pull a full 180 and take their hardware in a whole new direction if they want to survive another hardware generation. The new Phenom line is atrociously bad (The entire L2 cache is disabled due to crashing! How the FUCK did that ever get out the factory doors!?), and the HD2k and 3k series are doing horrible in the market, and Nvidia's driver deals with most PC game makers and hardware deals with Havok and Physx put AMD/ATI in a horrible corner.

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.
mistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 01:25
mistic
Well, the nature of their product is to be un-user-friendly... you have to fucking open up your PC to exchange it, nowadays you even have to attach an extra powercable to the graphical card...

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...
Burnt Meatloaf's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 02:33
Burnt Meatloaf
I'd prefer that they make their DRIVERS user-friendly. Updating drivers for ATI cards is a nightmare, and nVidia isn't much better.

No, I'm not talking about the bugs and compatibility. I'm talking about just installing or updating them.
Narishma's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 05:15
Narishma
Guys saying higher numbers are better is not true. For example a GeForce 7900 is more powerfull than a 8500 or a 8400.
Tempus's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 05:27
Tempus
As I sell this crap all day long - I often have to spend a good 20mins explaining the differences between 80nm GPU's and 65nm GPU's. Not everyone can wrap their head around this and Nvidia would do well to only release a new 'series' when they actually have new arch, rather than recycling and shrinking the old then bigging it up as something new (96 and 9800 series)!

Still, looking forward to the looming gfx war this summer!
Tuxy's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 07:32
Tuxy
Wanna make it consumer friendly...

Sell it for half the price. PC gaming FTL.
Cube's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 07:34
Cube
Thank god now maybe people will stop asking me.

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.
Morrius's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 07:40
Morrius
@ Everyone especially Niero

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).
Satsumomo's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 08:41
Satsumomo
Morrius, but how about these factors:

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.
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 08:54
Holyetheline
@Mikescool

That's the best idea ever!
Jetsetlemming's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 13:48
Jetsetlemming
@Satsumomo:

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.
Matthew Blake's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/08/2008 14:51
Matthew Blake
Thank God. I'm not a major PC gamer, and I have yet to purchase a graphics card for the sheer madness that arises every time I try to look up information- there's just too many damn numbers!
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