Slashdot Mirror
Alienware Discuss New Video Array Technology For Gamers
Gaming Nexus writes "Over at Gaming Nexus, we've posted an interview with Alienware about their new video array technology, which 'will provide gamers with an expected 50% increase in gaming performance by utilizing two video cards.' The interview covers the creation of the technology, the problems they had in developing it, as well some more details on how it works." The short version is that it utilizes multiple cards to render one screen, similar to SLI, but with many more features added in as well. What Alienware has developed is a software layer that sits between the video drivers and the application, routing things to where they need to be.
What the hell is up with this Brian Joyce guy?!?
Of course any "hardcore gamer" knows about the history of their "patents pending technology" as their Director of Marketing calls it. Too bad he doesn't.
In the article, this guy says: "SLI stood for Scan Line interface where each card drew every other line of the frame and my understanding was that the major challenge was to keep the image in sync. If one line's longer than another, then tearing, artifacts, and keeping the two cards in sync was a real issue. The benefits of doing it half and half is we can take advantage of the load balancing and the synchronization challenge can be overcome."
Alright... I'm sure the technology they've developed over there is some hot fscking shit. I'm sure they have a top R&D team that knows what they're doing && this custom motherboard + pre-driver thing is a good idea. Once developed fully, it could let you keep adding as many video cards as your case can hold, even potentially from different manufacturers, to improve total rendering capacity. That is great. Alienware has some very talented people to solve all the associated problems with accomplishing this. I respect their achievement.
That said, what the hell do they have a Director of Marketing for who doesn't know what he's talking about? He gets the SLI acronym wrong. How the fsck could one scan line be longer than the other resulting in tearing or cards getting out-of-sync? Come on! I know he's not a technical guy but then he should just stick to his hype buzzwords && patents && shit like that because he totally ruins Alienware's credibility when he shows no understanding of the most prominent attempt at this type of endeavor in the past. At least he said "my understanding" in there but he should've said "I don't know or understand the history so I'll just talk about what I do know."
Although I hold Alienware in high regard for making really fast gaming computers (that are arguably worth the premium price if you can't be bothered to build your own), I lose substantial respect for them when they allow their cool new technology to be represented by a marketing turd who couldn't be bothered to understand the history of what his company has done or what he's talking about. Buy a clue if you care to succeed. I want to like Alienware... I really do. TTFN.
-Pip