Sapphire considers Nvidia?

[CKXP]

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9746

KD: Single-source suppliers; it is bad for any business to be dependant [sic] on a single supplier. Take our business, our primary business is producing and selling discrete graphics boards based on ATI GPUs. If the market trends aren't in ATI's favour and NVIDIA is ahead then this, obviously, can hurt us. Also, if ATI can't deliver in volume this hurts us, too. The best thing which we can do is make sure we aren't dependant on a single supplier or SKU.

the rest of the interview can be found at http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4393

 

[golem]

Maybe now there will be Nvidia OEM cards too

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: golem
Maybe now there will be Nvidia OEM cards too

I doubt nvidia would do this. I bet it would piss off the AIB makers.

 

[Yreka]

I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

 

[Topweasel]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: golem
Maybe now there will be Nvidia OEM cards too

I doubt nvidia would do this. I bet it would piss off the AIB makers.

BFG already sells some of the super high availability cards (like the 7800GTX) under a different name as an OEM card. As for Nvidia shipping to Saphire anything to piss off ATI Nvidia will do and taking another of their exclusive clients will make it even more interesting. It will also be nice to see how such a successful board builder will approach the cut throat no-holds barred Nvidia OC market.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: Yreka
I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

 

[Sonikku]

Now if only ATI cards could be made by EVGA...

 

[Ika]

eVGA? Sapphire? pff! how about we wish ASUS drops its prices and keeps its quality

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Yreka
I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

Agreed. Sapphire making nvidia parts? Who cares...the only good thing about sapphire is that they're cheap. The only thing I don't like about ATI is they don't have any awesome partners like evga selling their boards, frankly none of ati's partners impress me. EVGA however is almost a tide turner on their own...great warrentees, great prices and good customer service.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: guoziming
eVGA? Sapphire? pff! how about we wish ASUS drops its prices and keeps its quality

i agree, they are very overpriced in video cards

 

[josh6079]

I can't say I know anything about Sapphire's company, only that I like their XTX card I got (overclocks good). EVGA is awesome though.

 

[akugami]

Sapphire is utilitarian. It's not that they're a bad company, just that nothing about them makes them stand out as a good company. At worst you can say that there is no inherent bad qualities to Sapphire. If they decide to produce nVidia cards, basically "ho hum, who cares" type deal. EVGA making ATI cards...now that would be big, and welcome, news.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: Yreka
I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

FTW!

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: Yreka
I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

FTW!

we should petition them =P

 

[nitromullet]

I thought that Sapphire made a lot the "built-by-ATI" Radeons and possibly cards for other partners. I could understand Sapphire's position though, since ATI is really not very good at marketing their cards, nor IMO do they really try to feel out what their customers want. The X1900's are a prime example of this: the X1900XTX generally meets or exceeds the 7900GTX in performance, offers more features than the 7900GTX, and is usually cheaper... Yet, the 7900GTX is the card that is sold out and on back order everywhere... Why? Because ATI sucks at marketing and doesn't listen to it's customers... After the X1800XT came out last fall, the biggest complaint about the card was the excessively loud cooling solution, so what does ATI do with the X1900's...? Use the same stupid, loud cooler... Stupid, stupid, stupid... It is as if they didn't actually want to sell the gpu that they spent so much time and money developing. I'm sure that Sapphire sees this, and they see how well NVIDIA has reponded to the market demand for high performance and cooler and quieter cards.

 

[rbV5]

I thought that Sapphire made a lot the "built-by-ATI" Radeons and possibly cards for other partners.

PC Partner is the contract manufacturer of all of Sapphires cards and motherboards, BBA, and some other partner retail and OEM bards. Sapphire used to be a subsidiary of PC partner holding Co, but is now supposed to be independant.

I know PC Partner, Sapphire and ATI have a very close relationship, and its possible PC Partner already has a relationship Nvidia if they are using ULI SB for any of the contract boards they are making. AFAIK, all of Sapphire and PC Partner branded motherboards use ATI's SB however, so perhaps not.

 

[Wreckage]

If 7900's are really outselling 1900's by 4 to 1 (like the Tech Report says), I'm sure Sapphire will want a piece of that action.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: Yreka
I wish EVGA would consider ATI instead.

Agreed. Sapphire making nvidia parts? Who cares...the only good thing about sapphire is that they're cheap. The only thing I don't like about ATI is they don't have any awesome partners like evga selling their boards, frankly none of ati's partners impress me. EVGA however is almost a tide turner on their own...great warrentees, great prices and good customer service.

From what I have seen, ATI only has their partners produce the low end boards under their own brands while selling the good stuff as BBA. Haven't been ATI shopping in a while so this may have changed more recently.

 

[v8envy]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Why? Because ATI sucks at marketing and doesn't listen to it's customers... After the X1800XT came out last fall, the biggest complaint about the card was the excessively loud cooling solution, so what does ATI do with the X1900's...? Use the same stupid, loud cooler... Stupid, stupid, stupid... It is as if they didn't actually want to sell the gpu that they spent so much time and money developing. I'm sure that Sapphire sees this, and they see how well NVIDIA has reponded to the market demand for high performance and cooler and quieter cards.

Well, there's that, and there's ATI's drivers. While the windows drivers are okay (so long as you use the omega drivers version),, there are no X10k drivers for linux, and the existing fglrx driver for the old cards is absolutely asstastic. Judging by personal experience and posts at rage3d, about 1 in 10 can get that crap to work at all, and when it does install & load it's buggy and unstable.

While the linux market is probably insignificant, having accelerated X is a factor for anyone dual booting. For example, I'd * LOVE * an X1800XT or X1900XT, but I can't get one simply because I do linux contract work on the fastest machine in the house -- which happens to be my gaming rig. So I'm waiting on decent 7900GTs to get back in stock.

Back during the 9700/9800 days it looked like ATI hired some contractors who knew what they were doing. Drivers were solid, fast, and good. They've been slowly degenerating since then -- I sure hope ATI hasn't gone back to the Interns & Indians approach to driver dev.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: v8envy

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Why? Because ATI sucks at marketing and doesn't listen to it's customers... After the X1800XT came out last fall, the biggest complaint about the card was the excessively loud cooling solution, so what does ATI do with the X1900's...? Use the same stupid, loud cooler... Stupid, stupid, stupid... It is as if they didn't actually want to sell the gpu that they spent so much time and money developing. I'm sure that Sapphire sees this, and they see how well NVIDIA has reponded to the market demand for high performance and cooler and quieter cards.

Well, there's that, and there's ATI's drivers. While the windows drivers are okay (so long as you use the omega drivers version),, there are no X10k drivers for linux, and the existing fglrx driver for the old cards is absolutely asstastic. Judging by personal experience and posts at rage3d, about 1 in 10 can get that crap to work at all, and when it does install & load it's buggy and unstable.

While the linux market is probably insignificant, having accelerated X is a factor for anyone dual booting. For example, I'd * LOVE * an X1800XT or X1900XT, but I can't get one simply because I do linux contract work on the fastest machine in the house -- which happens to be my gaming rig. So I'm waiting on decent 7900GTs to get back in stock.

Back during the 9700/9800 days it looked like ATI hired some contractors who knew what they were doing. Drivers were solid, fast, and good. They've been slowly degenerating since then -- I sure hope ATI hasn't gone back to the Interns & Indians approach to driver dev.

I havent had a single problem with ATI drivers on either my 9600 or X1900XT. No one really cares about Lunix, so that's why ATI doesnt waste their time on developing drivers for it.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Extelleron
No one really cares about Lunix, so that's why ATI doesnt waste their time on developing drivers for it.

That would have to be the most ignorant post I have seen in a long time.

Millions of computers run Linux. ATI's problems with Linux drivers extend to OpenGL and Mac OSX.

If Linux is too technical for you or you are afraid of it, fine. But don't lump the rest of the world under your rock.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: Extelleron
No one really cares about Lunix, so that's why ATI doesnt waste their time on developing drivers for it.

That would have to be the most ignorant post I have seen in a long time.

Millions of computers run Linux. ATI's problems with Linux drivers extend to OpenGL and Mac OSX.

If Linux is too technical for you or you are afraid of it, fine. But don't lump the rest of the world under your rock.

Extelleron just had his red shaders on, that's all. Cut him some slack.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: Extelleron
No one really cares about Lunix, so that's why ATI doesnt waste their time on developing drivers for it.

That would have to be the most ignorant post I have seen in a long time.

Millions of computers run Linux. ATI's problems with Linux drivers extend to OpenGL and Mac OSX.

If Linux is too technical for you or you are afraid of it, fine. But don't lump the rest of the world under your rock.

Yes, but how much money is to be made there?

After ATi signing a big lucrative contract with Microsoft for the Xbox360, and helping to shape the graphics core for the next Windows, it wouldn't make much sense for ATi to be devoting resources to improving their Linux support.

How much money is there to be made by developing for Linux? ATi is a business, and businesses have to go where the money is. Your millions of users of Linux are not hardcore gamers who drop $500 every 6 months for the latest and greatest video cards, nor are they the kind of people who routinely buy new video cards. When you then factor in how few games offer native Linux support, it makes even less sense for a business model.

It doesn't take but some basic drivers to get a low end video card to function fine in Linux, and thats what the majority of Linux users need, so there's little reason for ATi to try to fix something that won't help them as a business very much.

So just because you might happen to game on Linux, don't lump the rest of the Linux world under your rock.

 

[DeathReborn]

Originally posted by: Extelleron

Originally posted by: v8envy

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Why? Because ATI sucks at marketing and doesn't listen to it's customers... After the X1800XT came out last fall, the biggest complaint about the card was the excessively loud cooling solution, so what does ATI do with the X1900's...? Use the same stupid, loud cooler... Stupid, stupid, stupid... It is as if they didn't actually want to sell the gpu that they spent so much time and money developing. I'm sure that Sapphire sees this, and they see how well NVIDIA has reponded to the market demand for high performance and cooler and quieter cards.

Well, there's that, and there's ATI's drivers. While the windows drivers are okay (so long as you use the omega drivers version),, there are no X10k drivers for linux, and the existing fglrx driver for the old cards is absolutely asstastic. Judging by personal experience and posts at rage3d, about 1 in 10 can get that crap to work at all, and when it does install & load it's buggy and unstable.

While the linux market is probably insignificant, having accelerated X is a factor for anyone dual booting. For example, I'd * LOVE * an X1800XT or X1900XT, but I can't get one simply because I do linux contract work on the fastest machine in the house -- which happens to be my gaming rig. So I'm waiting on decent 7900GTs to get back in stock.

Back during the 9700/9800 days it looked like ATI hired some contractors who knew what they were doing. Drivers were solid, fast, and good. They've been slowly degenerating since then -- I sure hope ATI hasn't gone back to the Interns & Indians approach to driver dev.

I havent had a single problem with ATI drivers on either my 9600 or X1900XT. No one really cares about Lunix, so that's why ATI doesnt waste their time on developing drivers for it.

You mean YOU don't use Linux (Lunix as you call it...). Millions of people do use Linux in it's various forms and nVidia have catered to that market with it's drivers. If ATI want to miss out on Linux then it's their loss and nVidia's gain.

 

[darkswordsman17]

As for the original topic. It wouldn't be a bad thing for Sapphire to get friendly with nVidia.

For one, it'd be nice to have some more super overclocking boards to choose from. DFI and them could have a go at outdoing each other, and so in the end, we'll be the winners. Yeah, they kinda compete now, but its not really on even ground. DFI is mostly nVidia, and Sapphire is ATi all the way. Their Crossfire boards aren't even really directly comparable as DFI has yet to release their new one with the updated southbridge (will they at all now that nVidia bought ULi?). Put them on even grounds and then we'll have a nice competition going. Plus how cool would a silver and green motherboard be?

As for video cards, well the more the merrier. At the least maybe it will help the other companies do more to differentiate themselves (if XFX spent more time making cards like the black and green 7800GT they'd get more sales I think).