What do you think about this idea?

[VIAN]

What if companies used last generation cards in their line up.

ex.

High End

Geforce FX 5900 Ultra
Geforce FX 5900

Mid End

Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Geforce 4 Ti 4400

Low End

Geforce 3 Ti 500
Geforce 3

With a selection like this, noone would get crappy performance. Plus, they could re-engineer the older cards so that they can make them cheaper and such. I think it's a better solution that what is out now.

ex.

High End

Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon 9800

Mid End

Radeon 9700 Pro
Radeon 9700

Low End

Radeon 8500
Radeon 8500 LE

 

[PhlashFoto]

uhh bad idea... as to why, think cost and profits..... if you still havent figured it out, oh well.

 

[dguy6789]

Its a good idea vian. But why would the 9700s be in mid end? They are almost as fast as 9800s. It would probably better suit to have 9600XT and 9600 pro or 9500 pro and 9600 xt imo. Good idea though.

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Its a good idea vian. But why would the 9700s be in mid end? They are almost as fast as 9800s. It would probably better suit to have 9600XT and 9600 pro or 9500 pro and 9600 xt imo. Good idea though.

I agree it's a good idea, but surely it's not cost-effective for companies.

 

[VIAN]

Its a good idea vian. But why would the 9700s be in mid end? They are almost as fast as 9800s. It would probably better suit to have 9600XT and 9600 pro or 9500 pro and 9600 xt imo. Good idea though.

9700 Pro is a previous generation of the 9800 Pro.

This way, they just have to make high end designs and not really worry about the lower end versions. I think it's cheaper on them.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: VIAN

Its a good idea vian. But why would the 9700s be in mid end? They are almost as fast as 9800s. It would probably better suit to have 9600XT and 9600 pro or 9500 pro and 9600 xt imo. Good idea though.

9700 Pro is a previous generation of the 9800 Pro.

This way, they just have to make high end designs and not really worry about the lower end versions. I think it's cheaper on them.

Cheaper to make an 8 pipeline R300 core than a much simpler RV350 core for the 4 pipeline 9600, which has a smaller process, and hence takes up less real estate, so there are more per wafer, also simpler PCB (128 bit memory bus versus 256-bit memory bus) hence another lower cost.

It's not cheaper to make the high end parts and no mid range parts, otherwise it's what they would do. Do you really think they pour money into R&D of mid and high end products for fun?

Also, you can still buy GF4's, GF3's, Radeon 8500's (now re-used as entry level products - R9100) etc.
And then there's the re-use of the GF2 IIRC, in the really cheap budget nVidia cards for business use.

They currently DO re use some of their old designs, but they also go for cost effectiveness.

 

[modedepe]

Good for consumers, but bad for the companies who make the cards, so it would never happen. If they did that, people wouldn't "upgrade" their ti4200 for a fx5200 and thus companies would lose money.