Is Nvidia headed for a downfall?

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Clarentavious, Aug 2, 2002.

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  1. Clarentavious Person Registered Senior Member

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    The question: Has there ever been a company that has tried to take over the entire computer industry, that hasn't collapsed?

    Things were going quite well for them, until they started releasing their own motherboard chipsets, the nForce series.

    As for the nForce 1 and 2 chipsets themselves, they are decent (certainly not the best mainboards out there, but decent). They use Hyper Transport. This is 800MB per second between the SouthBridge and NorthBridge (I'm guessing the board contain 64-bit PCI slots). Standard for almost all current single processor boards is V-Link (266MB per second, 32-bit PCI - this type of protocol isn't good for things like SCSI harddrives)

    On the downside, Nvidia uses its own graphics adapters to integrate into the chipsets (the GeForce 2 and 4, for nForce 1 and 2 respectively); this isn't good for gamers.

    I'm guessing these boards were designed for servers and workstations (where graphics aren't quite the priority; data bandwidth is).

    Now they've started signing deals to merge with other companies to develop notebooks (mobile laptop PCs).

    So we go from being the best in graphics, then begin making motherboard chipsets and notebooks. Do I see a trend here? Next are they going to start making sound cards or NICs? Maybe burners? Then that will set their position in place to take a downfall, because everyone is going to know they are trying to take over; which is exactly what microsoft attempted to do in the software market (and where is MS now? they are going to lose their suit against Lindows because no judge in any court is going to respect a company who has used predatory marketing tactics for at least 5 years - that almost places them in the category of loan sharking, probably much in the minds of judges. Even if the copyright patents are blatantly clear, they are going to get turned down; there has been too much publicity of their marketing tactics).

    So, is Nvidia going to do what they should do, which is stick to the graphics card area, or are they going to push themselves under? I wonder......... :bugeye:

    http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=mobile

    http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article.asp?datePublish=2002/07/17&pages=04&seq=19
     
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  3. A4Ever Knows where his towel is Registered Senior Member

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  5. Clarentavious Person Registered Senior Member

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    Yeah, that's the only card (aside from SiS' Xabre; that has been anounced anyway) running on the 8x AGP interface. I think Nvidia has plans to anounce or release a new card in November........... if they are not bankrupt by then

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    We will have to see what happens. On the good side for ATI, they often offer cheaper cards than Nvidia (though these cards generally cannot push quite the framerates of Nvidia's high end cards). They also have quite a place in the OEM market (where as Nvidia has a ton of vendors and often not sells reference boards).

    ATI has been in the video capture business for ages on end now (only with Nividia's most recent line have top vendors offered RCA and S-video input). I think that was the major thing that kept them in until now (because Nvidia didn't even release a card with TV-out capabilities until the GF 3 line)

    They also have been up to date on new technologies (their cards have a more recent version of pixel shading than Nivida's). They have their special technique they use for Anisotropic filtering (though this is controversial as to whether it is "true" X, such as 16x)

    They just haven't had quite as much publicity (though they are well known now), especially 5 years ago (back then 3DFX was battling it out with Nvidia). And the really obsessive gamers who just have to have superior image quality and the highest frame, would go with Nvidia (and these are people who have the money for it).

    The only bad side until about a year ago, was ATI has almost always made shoddy drivers, aside from their hardware.

    We will have to see what happens. But one thing as I mentioned as the start of this thread, I am not seeing good signs from Nvidia's choices.
     
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  7. A4Ever Knows where his towel is Registered Senior Member

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    The Geforce 2 MX already had a tv out I think.

    Yes, I think that is their main problem. Nvidia always has ultra tweeked drivers. (can you say that about drivers?

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    But I have to say that when I installed Detonator drivers for my Geforce 2 GTS, UT stopped working in Direct x mode, and open gl is to dark. So I had to restore the original drivers.

    What exactly does OEM stand for and what does it mean? I think it are the versions of products that ship with a new computer.
     
  8. Clarentavious Person Registered Senior Member

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    Oh gosh, I can't even remember at the moment. OEM basically means completely stripped down bare bones. You get a vid card in the mail, in a UPS box wrapped in plastic. You don't get an instruction manual, you don't get a fancy retail box with beautiful colors all over it, you don't get demo discs, and you get the oldest set of drivers made.

    Basically a stock board with reference drivers. It was probably one of the first boards made that has been sitting on a shelf. You don't get all of the additional goodies.

    The good part about it is, it is cheaper. The bad part is, the board is likely of less quality than a high vendored board (you'll need to update the drivers, and maybe clean dust off it up, and what not). I think with OEM processors, Comp USA does not offer a warranty.

    The GeForce 2 MX supported dual display (I think 2 out puts or spanning one screen across 2 monitors), but maybe you are right, they may have TV-out as well.
     
  9. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    The acronym OEM stands for:

    (O)riginal (E)quipment (M)anufaturer

    In other words, OEM is a "cheaper" version of a product designed without support or warrenty for the use of people who build computers.
     
  10. A4Ever Knows where his towel is Registered Senior Member

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    Thanks Xevious.
     
  11. Danforthharris Registered Member

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    I have a first Gen Geforce 256 DDR board that has s-vidio and composit out... an asus 6800 deluxe. I watch movies from my comp on my tv all the time.
     
  12. Clarentavious Person Registered Senior Member

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    Hmmmm. Then that is a result of Asus vendoring then, because Nvidia didn't stick a decoder chip on their GF 256 DDR boards. If you got a deluxe version, they maybe that's why. But it wasn't a result of Nvidia.
     
  13. Clarentavious Person Registered Senior Member

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    BTW, Coex signal is different from RCa and S-video (and RCA and S-video are different signals as well).
     
  14. A4Ever Knows where his towel is Registered Senior Member

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    I remember that on the Dell.com site it said that the Geforce 2 MX had a TV OUT. I don't think they sell deluxe versions.

    I am pretty sure, cause I couldn't understand why the Geforce 2 GTS did not have a TV OUT.

    I have to watch movies on my monitor now

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  15. switchfoo Registered Member

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    Well, it’s kinda beside the issue, but I lament the fall of 3dfx. They made wonderful cards man. I liked their vision of graphics for the computer much more than nVidia’s. They really improved on the technology. While nVidia was just cranking out more numbers, stats, etc, 3dfx made things look prettier with full screen AA and all that. After they went down, I’m tired of seeing all these games “featuring Quake 3 engine” and all the D3D graphics. I want all those late Glide games back that looked so good. It’s only with the latest Gforce4 card that nVidia are starting to have the full screen AA and I don’t think most people even use it. They’re just used to high rez jagged edges. Oh well (sigh)

    And about this conversation about nVidia TV out, the TNT2 Ultra had it… reasonable since that’s when it was first becoming popular. (TNT2 was before Gforce2)
     
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