Will the madness never end? (this is a rhetorical question)

[Jugernot]

I've got a question for you guys! What is going on with Via these days? They seem to think they are Nvidia, releasing a new chipset 3 times a year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've released:

KT133
KT133a
KT133E
KT266
KT266a
KT333
KT400

This is just in thel last 2 years....

Anyway, I'm still running a Abit KT7-Raid KT133 based board because they keep release new boards around the time I decide to buy a new one. What is going on? It seems like the least few chipsets, are not adding much to the field as performance or features goes. The KT400 is slower than the KT333 in many cases so far...

Do you guys see VIA releasing a "Intel 440 BX" type chipset anytime soon? What I mean is a good chipset that lasts a while without revision after revision needed....

Anyway, This is just a rant...

 

[butch84]

Well, i think some of the new revisions were necessary . . . . for example the KT266 had abysmal memory performance, and the "a" revision made it very competetive. After that, I agree its kinda rediculus that via came out with the KT333 and 400 chipsets, cause unless you overclock the fsb, the athlon cant take advantage of more memory bandwidth. I dont think i would even buy a KT400 mobo, since it seems via released it just for marketing, being JDEC hasnt even finallized the specs for ddr400 yet, and its slower than ddr333 right now, but thats just me.

butch

 

[Oakenfold]

It's actually kinda simple IMO.
Nvidia entered the chipset market...
ALI is a joke, who else is gonna compete with via, SIS based chipsets for amd rig's are few and far between worth looking into.

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: butch84
Well, i think some of the new revisions were necessary . . . . for example the KT266 had abysmal memory performance, and the "a" revision made it very competetive. After that, I agree its kinda rediculus that via came out with the KT333 and 400 chipsets, cause unless you overclock the fsb, the athlon cant take advantage of more memory bandwidth. I dont think i would even buy a KT400 mobo, since it seems via released it just for marketing, being JDEC hasnt even finallized the specs for ddr400 yet, and its slower than ddr333 right now, but thats just me.

butch

Uhhh KT333 was the best choice they made! It rocks, support for 166FSB, makes Ocing a breeze... but yes the KT400 was stupid.

 

[alkemyst]

all I can say is my BX based PC is still kicking a$$! Full eyecandy in UT2003 (with a 8500 128MB of course) and no slow downs.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Perhaps there are several reasons for the constant release of new chipsets, one reason would be to keep producing chipsets that are higher performing or at least appear to be based on specs in an attempt to drive sales in a slumping market? another could be that they save on R&D by suckering us into beta testing their product for them and eliminating the need to do exhaustive hardware and software compatability testing of their own? :Q Yet another reason could be that if they didn't constantly release new chipsets (buggy or not) everyone would b*tch about how they don't keep up with the advances other companies are making? Perhaps none of the above reasons play a part and they just do it in a effort to appear to be making advances when in actuality they are not?