Nvidia to compete fully with Intel

[#43 fan]

From Dailytech-
http://www.dailytech.com/NVIDIA+CEO+...ticle11448.htm

Quote:

Any notion that Intel and NVIDIA have common ground in the graphics industry can now be easily dismissed

NVIDIA's already candid CEO Jen-Hsun Huang had more than a few things to say during the company's financial analyst meeting today. An hour into the call Huang began to ad lib; clearly something was on his mind.

"We're going to open a can of whoop ass," he told analysts, whom quickly broke out into laughter.

For the past two weeks Intel and NVIDIA have been playing a game of cloak and dagger with technology press, complete with secret slide shows and secret slide show rebuttals. At the heart of this covert battle is the integrated graphics market, and some of the claims attached to it.

Intel senior vice president Pat Gelsinger fired the first volley at the Intel Developer Forum last week in Shanghai. "First, graphics that we have all come to know and love today, I have news for you. It's coming to an end. Our multi-decade old 3D graphics rendering architecture that's base on a rasterization approach is no longer scalable and suitable for the demands of the future," he said.

Gelsinger's bold statement was an introduction to Intel's upcoming Larrabee graphics architecture, but it was enough to put NVIDIA on full alert. Larrabee is Intel's first attempt at a discrete graphics processor in nearly a decade, with first samples expected to ship and stay competitive with NVIDIA and AMD graphic processors.

Intel slide decks presented to media argue that spending money on CPUs and more CPU cores makes more sense than spending money on GPUs. Intel presentations go on to detail that its integrated graphics will still satisfy consumers for years, adding that its upcoming Nehalem architecture will come in variants that integrate GMA 4500 (G45) graphics directly onto the CPU package.

NVIDIA's slide shows almost completely ignore Intel's Larrabee, and focus on IGP claims. One of Intel's slide decks states GMA 3100 (G33) is more than enough to watch high definition videos. NVIDIA counters by citing my previous publication, AnandTech. "While the video capabilities of the [GMA 3100] will suffice for running Vista Aero, just about any office application, and a wide variety of non-3D based games, it is not up to the task of running the latest games, decoding 1080P HD content, or even providing decent video capabilities for a media station," AnandTech's Gary Key writes.

Huang argues that not only are Intel's integrated offerings "a joke," but that even if Intel manages increase graphics performance by ten times by 2010, that's barely up to par with current NVIDIA offerings. He claims what passes for average graphics outside of the tech enthusiast crowd should be consider abysmal in the visual computing world.

Throughout the bulk of the conference call, Huang continued to lament Intel for poor graphics performance. He hints at another Intel slide deck that claims Intel GMA 3100 is Windows Vista Premium compatible -- a claim which was debunked by Microsoft employees in a recent lawsuit.

Intel fired back minutes later, sending emails to analysts detailing NVIDIA's poor track record when it comes to Vista crashes due to incomplete drivers. Almost on queue, Huang responded once again.

"NVIDIA has to support several new titles every week," he said, alleging that Intel's graphics just have to support the basic office packages. "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago," he said.

The statement clearly struck a nerve with Huang, who paused for a second before adding "How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?"

Go Nvidia.

[KarmaKiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by #43 fan

Go Nvidia.

Quote:

"How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?"

[him61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by #43 fan

Go Nvidia.

go intel

Interesting though.

[#43 fan]

More evidence-
http://www.dailytech.com/NVIDIA+Prom...ticle11452.htm

Quote:

NVIDA looks to VIA for help with a new low-cost processing platform

When it comes to new opportunities for growth in the PC industry, the common trend appears to be going downward instead of up. We first saw this with ASUS' Eee PC notebook which starts at $299 for a 2G model and goes on up to $499 for an 8G model.

Other manufacturers like ECS, Everex, HP, and Dell are also looking to move a bit down-market with low-cost notebooks aimed at price-conscious consumers and the education market. While much of the action is taking place in the mobile sector, there is also some activity now taking place with desktops as well.

ASUS is once again leading the charge with its Digital Home System EP20 and Essentio CS5110 desktops. Both desktop machines are built around an Intel processing platform.

NVIDIA, which recently had a few choice words for Intel and its integrated graphics which it deemed "a joke", contends that it can better Intel at the low-end for desktop computers. NVIDIA plans on countering Intel with cheap, but powerful chipsets, graphics solutions, and processors with the help of VIA.

During NVIDIA's financial analyst meeting today, the company revealed plans for what it calls "The World's Most Affordable Vista Premium PC". The platform use a VIA Isaiah processor coupled with an integrated NVIDIA chipset. NVIDIA reckons that the Isaiah + NVIDIA IGP combination is good for a total of 36 GFLOPS in comparison to a mere 6.4 GFLOPS for a comparable Celeron-based system with an Intel 945 IGP/ICH4 chipset.

NVIDIA also claims that its platform will be Windows Vista Premium capable, support Blu-ray HD and DX10, and cost less than $45.

Most would have written off VIA when thinking solely of its current C7-M processors. However, the upcoming Isaiah processor architecture promises performance that is comparable to or exceeds figures put up by Intel's current Celeron processors. Early CrystalMark benchmarks for a 1.0GHz Isaiah show it to be 280% faster in ALU performance and 190% faster in FPU performance than a comparable C7-M. The performance figures also show Isaiah to be comparable in performance to Celeron-M and Pentium-M processors of similar clock speeds.

The real test, however, will be to see how Isaiah stacks up to Intel's new Diamondville-based Atom processors which are destined for low-cost desktops and notebooks which are typically powered by Celeron processors. We don't yet have performance figures for any of Intel's Atom processors at the moment, but let's hope that for NVIDIA and VIA's sake that the new platform will be able to back up NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's "We're Going to Open a Can of Whoop Ass" comment.

[nemowolf]

Wow ... finally the smaller form factors are going to be more of an option!

[ShyguyXPC]

I would love to see a lower end Notebook packed with just that (if not, then a small desktop system, like possibly a Mini-ITX system?), a Via CPU & nVidia graphics, been wondering why we haven't seen one yet, their always packed with a low end graphics chip from Via or whoever, thats as bad performing if not worse than any of intels onboard crap.

[#43 fan]

Cube cases, anyone?
I'd like a small form factor case, too, especially as a client and an internet PC.

[ShyguyXPC]

exactly, would love to see a small system be it a notebook the size of Asus's Eee PC (but with built in pointing device), or Everex's Cloudbook, but with WinXP or Vista running on it. or even a small Car PC type system, something I can have with me on my days at work, when I'm gone all day, put in some time gaming (light gaming as in older games that Intels chips can't even run, due to lack of FULL DirectX 7,8 & 9 features or OpenGL problems, etc), on my lunch breaks, or whatever

or on those days I'm just too tired to get out of bed, pop in a DVD or get a USB TV Tuner & have it sitting on the head board shelf & watch some TV or Movies, or listen to music or surf the web, OR play some older "slower" action games, like RTS games or RPG's, or whatever...

as it is, current Via setups just aren't up to many of those tasks, & anything AMD or Intel offers is just too damned expensive, at least in the MicroATX/Mini ITX arena. the one thing about the Asus Eee PC that I always hated was the use of a Celeron M & not a Pentium M, would love to see something more in the performance category of the Pentium M, but I guess thats asking too much...

[#43 fan]

Via's new CPU's, which are not released yet, but will soon, will be better than anything Intel has to offer with it's Atom CPU.
Also, M$ has pledged to keep selling Win XP in order to compete better with Linux, for ultra mobile PC's, whose hardware can not keep pace with Vista's requirements.
Also, Intel's Atom CPU uses a chipset whose graphics are from a third party, most likely Via's, at least IMO.
I find it funny that Vista's hardware requirement's are now rendering it useless with the new fad of low power and small size CPU's and computers, while Linux is perfect for the task.

[RobRich]

For its investors' sake, I hope nVidia doesn't keep laughing if/when Larabee launches.