The INQ: less you forget
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Nvidia counters dodgy benchmark claim
LAST WEEK WE WROTE a rather scathing article about Nvidia using dodgy benchmarks to prove its GeForce GTX 280M had made Alienware's M17X "the fastest notebook on the planet." But NV spinner, Brian Burke, has decided to fight back, countering our claims and protesting the Goblin's innocence.
The INQ had knocked Nvidia for comparing two systems with inherently different components, but Burke protested "the best available components were selected for both systems," and said that no claims were made that it was an apples to apples comparison. "The CPU we tested is the fastest one available in the W90," Burke told the INQ, adding he had clearly listed the components for each system.
"It was notebook benchmarks as stated, not GPU benchmarks," he added.
Burke also claimed that, if anything, Nvidia's system itself was at a disadvantage, with the Alienware M17x sporting just 4GB of memory whilst the W90 has 6GB.
"The benchmark results provided by NVIDIA accurately reflect the consumers experience," continued Burke before launching into a spirited attack on AMD's graphics division.
"I say shame on ATI for disabling their second GPU and calling it ‘Crossfire'," ranted Burke, adding that this wasn't accurate anyway because the second GPU works.
"I say shame on ATI for not having a way for their customers to get their driver," he went on, adding "again, this drives home the point that Nvidia providing notebook drivers direct to consumers is a huge advantage for us."
This may well be true, but what Burke doesn't point out is that these drivers Nvidia provides are just Betas, and only OEMs themselves are allowed to ship the latest and greatest drivers with their products.
AMD had purportedly sent its updated drivers to Asus, but for whatever reason, the Taiwanese OEM shipped it with a driver almost a year old. But Burke was taking no excuses. "I say shame on ATI for not having the driver ready for Asus," he railed, before drawing his attack to a close with "I say shame on ATI for throwing their customer under the bus." Harsh words indeed.
Burke's bottom line is that punters who bought the W90 are indeed stuck with ATI's bad driver, which we admit is rather a large snafu.
But we aren't sure how long Burke's crowing that the Nvidia toting Alienware M17x is "the fastest notebook on the planet" will last, because a little birdie has tolds us that Alienware is coming out with a similar ATI version of its notebook that supposedly will blow Nvidia's benchmarks, dodgy or not, right out of the water.
Watch this space and we'll bring you the specs as we get 'em. µ
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If they keep silent, I think AMD will never updates their notebook GPU drivers. I think this is an example for healthy competition.
iNvidia is the italian word for "envy". Could that be a sign?
If anything OEM's are the ones messing everything up. I have on multiple occasions not been able to update my drivers because the OEM manufacturer would not update their drivers(the drivers are now over 1 year old, its dell if anyone cares). This happened to be on a Nvidia system. So Nvidia is not in the clear either. I suggest ATI/Nvidia come together and force manufacturers to update their drivers or they will be restricted from using future graphic cards.
It would not be so funny to see Brian back-peddling and looking for 'any old argument in a storm', if he were not getting beaten senseless by a girl :~)
Come on Brian, stop being such a Burke and admit, no serious gamer would ever choose a laptop - let alone one with iNvidious graphics
People... you do know that you can go to the component manufacturers website and download the latest drivers such as those for the graphics driver as they are exactly the same thing as what the OEM would release to you.
the drivers ARE being updated its just that OEM's are lazy in putting them on their website as it means supporting the component past release and testing the drivers on their end with the product and a load of other quality testing and they only ever tend to post known WORKING drivers for people who dont know of going to the component manufacturers website
"People... you do know that you can go to the component manufacturers website and download the latest drivers such as those for the graphics driver as they are exactly the same thing as what the OEM would release to you."
Nope. And, obviously, you have never tried this. I tried to download the latest and greatest nVidia Quadro driver for my notebook (Fujitsu-Siemens Celsius H270) from nVidia's own Web site, only to be told that I needed to contact my OEM for a driver.
Never had a 'funny' driver from NVidia
& their cards(I have, 9800GTX+),rocks at UT3 & Crysis.
I can't say the same for ATI cards I have had in the past,far from it,which is why I went NVidia.
I always go for Beta drivers as well,absolutely no problems whatsoever.
As for the above post concerning notebook drivers,I have just searched(manually)NVidia's download page & they are available,so if you just check your actual card installed & search manually,you will find it available,if not do a Google, Cnet & other sites have them for download,just scan them with AV before installing.
What a load of bollocks. I have to question whether you really are that fanatical about Nvidia, feel the need to justify the purchase of what is at the present moment an inferior card, or if your being paid by NVIDIA.
Ive owned both NVIDIA and ATI cards in the past and they have all served me well - drivers from both sides have worked generally OK but NONE of them have ever been perfect.
Obviously you failed to read the comments above you, or you would already know that installing drivers from the manufacturer don't work.
Like the commenter above, I was unable to install the drivers being told to go to my OEM website which the drivers were over a year old. This is for an 8400m gs so its not an older card, but from their "latest" offering.
PS. please put spaces between your commas.
Thanks
Bah! What a load of fail here from everyone involved. You can use the latest and greatest driver from either ATI or Nvidia for any laptop if you use the Mobility Modder tool from driverheaven.net.
Yes I realize you are testing the normal customer experience... but why bother... us readers will just complain that you didn't test the "best possible driver scenario" anyway.
obviously you have no understanding of driver comatability cycles.
while yes the latest and greatest may not work but the fact still is you can still find the most up to date driver for your hardware and there is a point where they have optimised the graphics processor to the point where they no longer release updates for said card and in the end the compatability for said card is dropped from the latest drivers development cycle
lol, 4GB - 6GB, Toms has a nice article on the 'benefits' of all that RAM. Currently 3-4GB seems to be the optimum for most consumer scenarios, with larger amounts of RAM potentially slowing a system down (by a tiny amount). OK so things will change, but we are talking now.
As far as drivers...it was the OEMs that didn't (some still don't) want ATI/nVidia supplying drivers, so blame them. It seems that A/n are starting to get their act together, but nVidia seems to be leading in that department at the moment.
Cards at the mo? Well I have always disliked ATIs and nVidia went through a rough patch when they changed the control panel, but that has settled now. I much prefer nVs method of creating a game profile, ATIs is pants.
Other than that they both produce awesome cards at the mo, so it comes down to the control panel preference just like when you choose one supermarket over another of equal distance and prices because you 'prefer' it.
At least this publicity may push the OEMs to let the card mfrs do mobile drivers the same as desktop ones :D
I meant that I didn't like ATIs control panel, not the cards...duh...
sorry brian - while i know and respect a number of the staff at nvidia - you and your firm often act "ethically modest."
this is just another one of those times.
the takeaway for you and mike hara should be the chipping of your brand equity and integrity each and every time you pull a stunt like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Burke
Would you trust this man?
i have a radeon 3200 in a touchscreen HP lappy, couldnt use the drivers direct from ati because the *&^# with the touch drivers. Since i got windows 7 running on it with its built in touch drivers the ones direct from ati have been flawless, as they have been in the 2 other ati lappys i have here. Good performance too, and has never caught fire, created a supernova, castrated me or any of the other cons of getting the 'other brand'
What a joke.
Allowing OEM to have control over Laptop drivers is not only painful, it's pure stupidity. You pay 1.5K$ for a laptop with 1 year old driver?? That's profoundly insulting.
ATI and Nvidia are both fabless anyway, so where is the logic in that? Take OEM Asus for example. AFAIK, Asus build both ATI and Nvidia parts in both desktop and laptop format. Why the driver distinction then? What is the technical fundamental wall that make it impossible to standardize drivers across both PC and laptop? Especially when the latest drivers can be moded to work on any laptop by some genius kids working from their basement?
We should sue them to the bone for their total lack of lucidity and absolute lack of respect for us, the customers. Lets all boycott one of them for 3 months. Asus would be good... If you touch their bottom line, I can assure you they will move their lazy asses at the speed of light.
Ramon