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NVidia Vs. Intel: Fight To Come?
Mostly Monkey was the first to write to us regarding
a new article on Tom's Hardware. The article is about the launch by Nvidia of "...nForce, its integrated graphics, audio, Northbridge, and Southbridge chipset, also referred to as Crush." The implication is that Nvidia is setting itself up to move past the graphics/audio market and get into competing with Intel in the full on chip market. What with AMD's recent success, that doesn't sound so unlikely.
I see people making this mistake time and time again. Everyone seems to think that a graphics driver is just like any other driver. They think that the code for the driver is mostly useless for any card other than the one it is written for. With graphics drivers, that is not the case.
In order for your driver to be OpenGL certified, is has to implement *all* of OpenGL. That includes T&L, NURBS, and much much more. NVidia has an *excellent* software implementation of T&L, and I'm sure the people who made the Kyro and Kyro II (neither of which have hardware T&L) would *love* to get ahold of it. You expect NVidia to just give that to you for free? Um, I don't think so.
Motherboards are a different issue, and I don't really think NVidia would do something dumb like keep their motherboard specs closed. I suppose we'll find out, but their record with graphics cards says nothing about it.
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Now, NVidia is just jumping right on in to the motherboard and sound processing markets. And from the looks of it, their very first product already blows the competition out of the water. How long has this competition been here? We're talking about *Intel* and *Creative*, for crying out loud! You don't just beat these guys overnight! What have they been doing all this time? Why is NVidia able to take them out so easily? Why can't ATI or Matrox touch the GeForce 3? Why is NVidia not afraid to spend Microsoft's money to develop Linux and Mac drivers? What is going on here? At this rate, NVidia will rule the world in five to ten years!
Obviously, NVidia's technology is being provided by aliens. There just is no other explanation. We have to stop this conspiracy before it's too late!
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This is the one angle of this story that I feel has not been sufficiently explored. This new chipset is a potential godsend for IT managers and workers. Why? When you troubleshoot a PC, one of the first things you have to look at are Video Drivers, Sound Drivers, NIC Driver, IDE Driver, Chipset Driver, etc. NVidia is going to make sysadmin's lives much easier if this product is 1/3 as good as it looks. Much easier to properly maintain PCs this way. This gives AMD a much bigger wedge to use to pry into the corporate market. Saving a few dollars per unit when buying PCs is nice, but anything that drops TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) gets major attention.
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What, so now I have to sign an NDA to get chip programming manuals, if I can get them at all?
No thanks... nVidia is one of the least-open companies out there, repeatedly denying requests for programming information. They finally did produce Linux drivers for their cards, but they are binary-only. How would you like binary-only kernel support for your CPU?
Or maybe they would support Linux. It's a fairly lucrative market in the server area, at least. But based on their past attitude I wouldn't count on it.
-John
nVIDIA is trying to be the next MS? Isn't everyone trying to be the next MS? You speak as if all companies aren't trying to take control of their respective markets.
Uninnovate - Only the finest in engineering.
That's awesome. Now I get to have outdated and nonexisting drivers for my motherboard from nvidia instead of just this goofy video card!
(If you don't see the sarcasm in that statement I pitty you)