- Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve - GBS
Nvidia renaming blitz continues
NVIDIA HAD SUCK, I mean such startling success conning users into thinking the GTS250 was something new that they are doing it to the chipsets. Yes, the Nvidia 780a just gained 200!
We told you about this moronic plan in early February, long before the GTS250 fiasco, and now they have hit the shelves. The keen eyed spotters at The Techreport noticed this board on Newegg.
A new web page must mean new silicon
Yup, Nvidia did it, they slimed out another renamed product, just like we said. Differences this time? Nothing as far as we can tell, they just flashed the BIOS, redid the chip markings, and added 200. Ironically, 200 is the series that the new, really, we mean it, honestly, please believe us, please please please, G92 renamings are using. What coincidence.
So, basically, the new 200 better 780a parts are out, and these don't even support DDR3. Talk about a day late and a dollar short, but never forget, they are 200 better, just ask Nvidia.
In the grand scheme of things, at least Nvidia is learning. With the smashing success of their scammy GTS250 launch, they are now cutting ALL of the press out. This is probably a good thing because after the stunningly impressive reception of the latest G92 renaming, they might not want to give the press a live spokesperson to question.
Why? Instead of asking tame questions about the greatness of marketing terms like cuda and physx, they might ask what cuda is now, and how many games actually use it for things other than eye candy (Running total of 1, but it has only been a year). Worse yet, they might ask questions about what the extra 200 on the 980a brings.
This one is easy, nothing (Official answer: It has cuda support AND physx.). No, really, it doesn't bring anything to the table, even the promised DDR3 support seems to be MIA. Ironically, the DDR2 -> DDR3 transition was supposed to be the reason for the 'new' name, but that looks to have fallen through. We hear, but can not confirm, that there are problems with DDR3 and this chipset, likely BIOS based.
That brings up the specs. If you go to the 780a page here, and then to the 980a page here, you really have to squint to tell the difference. It isn't until you read the spec sheet that you can see what really sets the two apart, CPU and memory support.
Look at these specs!
If you are smart enough to realize that all Phenom IIs have the memory controller on the CPU, you also realize that the chipset makes no difference in what memory is supported. Just forget about that now, facts often disagree with PR, so the facts should rightly lose. The new 980a brings DDR3 support, that alone makes it 200 better! The spec sheet says so. Then again, the spec sheet also says that it supports DDR, something that hasn't been true since the socket 763/939 days.
Yes, the miracle chipset supports memory that even the chips that plug into it don't, and the 980a does this without a connection to memory. Genius! Now you have a home for all those 64MB DDR/266 DIMMs collecting dust on your shelf, push them into the slot real hard and they should work.
It gets funnier though. If you have an Athlon CPU sitting around next to those 64MB DDR/266 DIMMs, you can plug them into a shiny new and 200 better 980a! Really, the spec sheet says so. You would think that with the introduction of the Athlon64 in September of 2003 all hope was lost for upgrading your K7 to a new PCIe mobo with DDR3 support. Think again, 980a to the rescue. Be careful though, this won't work with the newer A64s, they are not on the spec sheet.
We realize that these are probably typos, but the stealth launch of this rather pathetic renaming has been botched in about every possible way. Nvidia doesn't have anything new for chipsets, has nothing to talk about, but needs new looking products to grab headlines. Time to pull the wool over consumers eyes again, the GTS250 showed they really are that dumb.
Instead of taking the ethical route and canceling the impending stupidity like they did with the 240, Nvidia went ahead. The consumer gets nothing other than being conned, Nvidia doesn't tell the press because they might ask questions, and in the end nothing changes. Looks like honesty is still met with sacking in that corner of Santa Clara. µ
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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. :)
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.
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 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!
@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?
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 !
...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.
other than that Mrs.Lincoln, how was the play?
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.
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.
surely '754'/939 days.
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.
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.
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
LOL you guys are all fked
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?
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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