also, afaik, there cant be boards that support both AM3 and AM2/AM2+ CPUs

you can either have AM2/AM2+ socket board and use any AM2/AM2+/AM3 CPU with DDR2 memory

or

you can have a AM3 socket board and use only AM3 CPU with DDR3 memory

that board spec is a total failure

From newegg about 980a mobo:

Cons: Doesn't currently play nicely with large video cards. My bfg 280 is bottle necked by the extremely poorly managed and setup memory bus on this motherboard. I am suspecting that its partly a bios problem. But if your running a 940 deneb like I am. You have underclock your ram reguardless down to 800mhz. Which isn't currently explained well on the specs of the mobo.

The asus book and website and tech specs listed on the site state "*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM3/AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only. " which isn't actully the cause if you try to use it that way. If you try useing 1066 ddr2 like this, you the system will crash due to memory errors. This mostly happens during pci express dma access.

Also for my setup it seems to be currently unable to use hybrid sli. If I enable it the system will fail to boot after just about reaching the logon screen in windows.

Yet another downside to the having to run your ram at 800mhz is it underclocks the proces

nice nice :DDD

I keep hearing this on these threads? Who is the gpu market share leader in the PC discrete graphics segment? Who is the folding@home champion? Who just got a GTX275? I am not sure about this dead thing I keep hearing about.

Let's all backslap Nvidia for the wonderful 8800gt. There will never be a card so great again!

Too bad Nvidia actually believe that still, and continue to rebrand it ad-infinitum.

How about they actually spent their revenues on continuing to improve on what they had? You know what? If they'd done just that they wouldn't be in the world of shite they are in right now.

Innovation Rebranding. That's why Nvidia are dead and ATI are nailing the final nail in their coffin.

Maybe, nVidia might be deferring to the fact that their old parts don't need any improvements, just a new name instead.

Maybe, nVidia was way ahead if it's time with past parts and just need more time on the market to sell remaining stock.

Maybe, nVidia is teh bestest in all the land and is the new "standard oil" of our time period and doesn't give a crap about their clients or customers.

Maybe, nVidia is the devil.

Maybe, nVidia provides way too many reasons for Charlie to slam them. Oh wait, that is true.

Keep it up!! These amusing articles make my days happy :)

For the truth must always be known, let the bash continue on Nvidia or any other greedy company that deserves it.

raskolnikov

Scomak, I've had to support (family and friends, not work machines) an 8800GT, 3850, 8600GTS, x850XT, 2 x 8800GTS 320's (in vista), and a 4830. Of those I've only had problems with the 3850 and the x850xt that led to lockups etc in specific games usually. One was mostly fixed by driver updates, the other sold, so I don't know if that prob was fixed.

So everyone's experience is different. My most recent purchase is the 4830, so I honestly don't think I'm a fanboy for either side. Personally I've been happier with Nvidia video drivers.

Does any one else here actually have experience with using the different brands? I've currently got the following cards throughout various machines: x800pro, 2600pro, 8600gt, 2900xt and GTX 285. Just recently i replaced my 2900 for a 285 because the price performance over the 4890 was in favor of the GTX (in AUS anyway). On my 8600gt I've seen countless Blue screen errors always pointing the Nvidia driver related files. This didn't bother me because it's my spare pc anyway. Moving on my 2900xt has never ever blue screened, neither had my x800pro which i had for a good 3 - 4 years as my main gpu. Anyway after reading around reviews and pricing etc i finally upgraded from my 2900, crysis warhead is amazing on this new card.. BUT.. that brings me to the issues i've had. Over the last 2 weeks since owning this card, i have experienced atleast 5 crashes. 2 blue screens and 3 random app crash back to desktop... Now i'm not gonna lie here but I've hated Nvidia with a passion back when 3dfx were around, but decided to give em a chance as of late.. and thus far nothing has changed. Nvidia may have good raw performance but god damn they make shit house drivers, always have and from the looks of things, always will. Whenever i read some one claim how crap ATI drivers are i have a good old chuckle because I know that this person has no experience. What i'm getting at here is Charlie knows his shit and that's that so all you nay sayers.. Jog on!

there is something called competition, i was never ever been NVidia Fan byt i tell U that, if NVIDIA is going down there will be no more good GFX cards as ATI will be the Only CO and it wont give a damn shit 4 ur opinions whhen the time comes, unipolar POLICY babe ;)
aint i right?

LOL you guys are all fked

why do you fanboys always take it as personal insult? companies that pull this kinda sh..t need to get slapped andthey do get slapped here.
"why are only after apple and nvidia!?" cry is just as stupid as that afro-american (sorry about being all PC and stuff) civil rights group that acused chicago police of racial discrimination against blacks since 95% off arrested in south side chicago were blacks. guess what, 95% of population there are blacks so who do you think they going to arrest there? duh.

in our case it so happened that the biggest offenders at the moment are apple and nvidia. and they deserve all the bashing they can get.

and you being happy with green product has nothing to do with that.i did own awesome nforce2 mobo, i do own 8800GTS640 and i like it, i do own horrid i680 mobo, but i guess i can liv with it.
me having good experience with nvidia before does not mean they don't need to get the boot in their ass for this cheap renaming and stupid, misleading, non technical one bit specs

I haven't touched an Nvidia MB since the Nforce2 days so I cannot comment on the underlying quality of their current chipsets.

This treatment of customers by Nvidia is quite disgraceful though!

They have no right to garner "new-product" buzz with the same product.

If it's a good product, say so and sell it at a fair price.

This is a 780a - it should be so named.

It doesn't make me happy that nVidia is doing this at all, but I have mostly a good experience with nVidia. I have owned an ATi card and 2 ATi motherboards, both of them I have had lots of problems with. My X1900XT wouldn't play CoD2 no matter what I did, and my 690G broke after a 2 weeks. It was Asus so I never got another one even though I got an extended warrenty... I wasn't even able to overclock till I moved to my 590a SLi. and that board has served me well for the last 2 years running constant OC's on my X2 4200, 5000+ BE, and now my PIIX3 720. I was considering buying a new MOBO to upgrade to DDR3 until I read this article. I would buy a GTS250 just because the G92 is a good and cheap chip(I have 2 8800GT's). I hate nVidias business practices, but they do make a good product.

surely '754'/939 days.

Well, NVIDIA? Any comment? Any legal action against Charlie and the INQ for spreading such obvious lies? What's that? Speak up, I can't understand you when you mumble. Oh, I see, what Charlie is saying is NOT a lie.

All you NVIDIA fanbois out there, either post facts to prove how great NVIDIA's "products" are, or STFU! Nobody cares if you like the color green or that you fantasize about having sex with their imaginary female spokespixie.

Yes Charlie,either drop dead(die),or see a 'Shrink'.
Do you honestly think that NVidia are the ONLY company that screws & scams the consumer?
It is the currency of PROFIT & although some consumers are dumb enough to fall for it,just count me out.
In fact I have a 9800GTX + on a P5E3 Deluxe(an expensive mobo,with a crap mem ctrl'r,that decides it doesn't like OCZ),but I am happy as a sandboy with my GPU card.
You can can call any product NVidia makes,what you like,but what matters to us as consumers is,does it do what you want it to do,lo & behold, it DOES.

other than that Mrs.Lincoln, how was the play?

...report by Charlie so far.

With all this rebranding going on by Nvidia, you really have to wonder what they are doing elsewhere. Do they have any R&D in the works or have they just abandoned it in favour of a new marketing ploy? Rebadge and resell, rebadge and resell.

It's almost working now due to the inherent stupidity of most people, but even stupid people wake up and realise when they are being conned.

It's time to wake up you NV fanboys. Here, smell the coffee - your favourite company is tanking and the way it is going about it is a source of unending amusement for the rest of us.

It's unbelievable what i sometimes read here... like i said here several times before, you nVidia lovers DESERVE this nVidia of late and all it's garbage ! If any of you think Charlie is wrong... PROVE IT !

@lifelesspoet: it ain't Charlie's fault that Nvidia is doing all this. He's just doing his job as a reporter, and doing it quite well. If thieves repeatedly rob someone's house, do you think the policemen should get tired of and stop doing the same thing (chasing them) again and again?

I Love Charlie's articles. When I see an article heading with "NVIDIA" in it, I know i'm in for a great read, and often, a few laughs. I click the link with the expectation that the article is written by Charlie, and upon the loading of the page I see his name and I can't help but smile (even chuckle) prior to reading it. I know i'm in for a real treat!

Charlie, keep up the good work!

If you disagree with Charlies opinion or his writing style, go read something else. Why do you still waste time complaining here?? I, for one, enjoy these rants quite a bit. I got badly screwed with 8800gt THREE TIMES, yes, three. Warranty kept replacing them, they kept burning through. Now i keep a lot closer eye on nvidia. They have had some excellent products, but as of late, everything seems to be in free fall.

I have been a Inq reader for many years because it use to have relevant news to my interests. I don't understand the new direction. Charlie's crusade of nVidia and Nick's Apple bashing may generate a lot of ad clicks, but its one of the main reasons I started reading The Register.
I may still hang out for a couple weeks, but I am not amused. Somebody honestly needs to replace your fanbois with Journalists.
Harsh words? Yeah, but I don't read news so I can feel click baited.

Do, y'know, feel free to construct an actual counter argument rather than throwing around generic undermining insults. Perhaps you could start by listing advantages the 9xx series of chipsets has over the 7xx series. :)