the confusing and terrible marketing of 64bit bus cards

[hans007]

so i have been looknig for a new vid card, and finally bought one. but i noticed this alarming trend .


especially with nvidia cards. they dont really change the name for their garbage 64bit memory bus cards so people can be easily getting not what they think they are.


there are 64bit card variants of the mx440, 5200 and 5600 / 5600xt. you can tell because they only have 4 memory chips instead of 8 chips. but the physical gpu being used is the same one.

why manufacturers do this is mind boggling since it kills performance by nearly half, and the GPU they use is the exact same so they are only saving because they have 4 chips instead of 8 ( i.e. you can buy a 5200 or 5600 with 128mb memory in both configurations saving the manufacturer maybe $2 but screwing over the consumer with bad performance).

i'd say its particularly bad with nvidia since they dont have a different name for the cards, they are all 5200 or whatever name they are though some manufacturers call them 5200 lite or whatever. even the dell 5200s bundled with their machines are the 64bit one.

at least ati labels their 64bit as SE, 9200se and 9600se are 64bit. bah someone needs to fix this.

 

[Schadenfroh]

the tax of the noobs

 

[QueBert]

here here. Nvidia is especially guilty of pushing NEW stuff that's OLD.

I bet the Gforce10, they'll have some crappy 64 bit version that runs about on par with a Gforce2 GTS. What is it with Nvidia and coming out with a new card every year that is no faster then a GF2GTS was? At least have a new card that can run like a GF3. I went from a GF2GTS to a GF4MX maybe I should go to a 5200 next hahah.

 

[Lonyo]

It's cheaper to build a card with a 64-bit memory bus, because the actual PCB is less complex as well, so you save money on that too, and that allows cheaper price cards for the entry level.

 

[Zephyr106]

From a gaming standpoint the 64 bit cards are hideous, especially since they often aren't much cheaper than their full bit counterparts. But for non-gamers decent 2D performance (image quality) and the ability to render CNN.com's 3D models of stealth fighters (or are those software rendered?) are all they need.

Zephyr

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: QueBert
here here. Nvidia is especially guilty of pushing NEW stuff that's OLD.

I bet the Gforce10, they'll have some crappy 64 bit version that runs about on par with a Gforce2 GTS. What is it with Nvidia and coming out with a new card every year that is no faster then a GF2GTS was? At least have a new card that can run like a GF3. I went from a GF2GTS to a GF4MX maybe I should go to a 5200 next hahah.

i dont think its just nvidia.


the ati radeon 9200se, is a radeon 9000 which is a slight upgrade over a 7500, with 64bit bus. its basically terrible also. and as for the person who said that with 64bit bus the pcbs are simpler..

yes thats true on the low profile reference models. but most of the 64bit models being sold are using the same pcb as the 128bit ones. which is a real shame.